I direct for style.
I mine the weird for humour. Twenty years as a 1st AD means we still make the day.
Shot on my own, fast, with very few lights. I hung a painting of a boat the script never mentions, so the coffee shop owner's intentions read long before the dialogue gets there. A whole layer of story, without altering a line of it. Coin transfer animated in After Effects, graded in Resolve, and I pushed the A7SII's 8-bit depth about as far as it goes.
Films
Where the credit reads Director and DP, I shot it too.
Woman, Rose, Pomeranian
Director and DPDark comedy14:45
Béla
DirectorCharacter comedy8:51
Worldwide Short Film Festival, who later hired me to direct their ad campaign.
Fuddlebe
Writer, producer, directorDark comedy
Honourable mention, Toronto After Dark and Slamdance
Method Psychiatrist
Director and DPImprov comedy4:04
Improvisers building the scene from a rough outline.
18 Waits — Spring
Director and DPStop-motion and live action3:38
The real joy of this one was the animation.
I Defend
Director and DPRecovery ChildMusic video
Higher Laws
Director and DPA Calmer CollisionMusic video
Also directed, further back: Kellogg's and Kraft Dinner through Publicis, Jon's Condos through Zig, a documentary for the Women's Art Association of Canada, corporate work for Perreault & Associates, a spec spot for Yves Veggie Cuisine, and a short called Need. Agency-owned, and old enough to predate anyone posting this sort of thing online.
Short form
An ad campaign I directed for the Worldwide Short Film Festival, three spots in all, plus one for the Toronto Improv Festival. Same brief each time, a different joke each time.
Present
Director and DPWorldwide Short Film Festival1:00
Sneeze
Director and DPWorldwide Short Film Festival0:15
Band-Aid
Director and DPWorldwide Short Film Festival0:16
GYM
Director and DPToronto Improv Festival0:49
In development
Work I'm developing through CINaptic Films, my own company, where the projects I originate live.
- Crossing The Line
- Replication
- The Gerstein Tapes
- The Great Mesmerizers
Cinematography
Work I shot for other directors.
The directors arrived with rough blocking and no plan for camera. My job was to watch it once, reblock it for the lens, and light it. No prep, just go. Some of the most fun I have had on a set, and the clearest proof I can carry a whole look by myself.
Portrait of the Artist
DPShortdir. Jack Wicktor
First Impressions
DPIndie featuredir. Jack Wicktor
| Turn and Burn | Web series | DP |
| Basquiat CollectorsThe Directors Film Company, Toronto | Documentary, opening sequence, unreleased | DP |
Production
Twenty years on commercial sets, mostly Toronto, mostly starting before sunrise. Lately on Unreal virtual production floors in Winnipeg. The biggest day I have run was a million-dollar shoot day for Telus, which is why the schedule I hand you is the schedule we shoot.
1st Assistant Director, virtual production
Intro to Virtual Production, Manitoba Indigenous Lab — National Screen Institute at StudioLab xR, 2026. The Bunker — Indigenous Futures Film Academy for Fish Flight Entertainment, New Media Manitoba, 2026.
1st Assistant Director, commercials
Hundreds of spots out of Toronto since 2010. Among them Tesla, Ikea, Pepsi, Telus, BlackBerry, RBC, TD Bank, Spin Master and HSBC.
1st Assistant Director, music videos
Hundreds more, including Shawn Mendes, Ed Sheeran, Kiesza, City and Colour, Serena Ryder, Fefe Dobson, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Hoodie Allen.
1st Assistant Director, athletes and sport
Milk 2 Go Sport, two films: one with NHL centre Jason Spezza, one with Olympic freestyle skiers the Dufour-Lapointe sisters. Athlete scheduling is its own discipline. You get the window you get, and the day is built backwards from it.
Line producer and project manager
Council of Ministers of Education, Canada — Explore Program, where I was creative producer, line producer, director and DP. A run of spots for the Gladstone including Shops at Don Mills, Sauza Sin Tequila, King Blue Toronto, Bisha, Treetops and the Oxford campaigns, line producing and 1st ADing throughout. AliveCor. Ellie Condos. Foxbar Condos.
Budget audit
Reviewed and approved production budgets, contracts and final financials for music video grants at MuchFACT, a Bell Media division. Reading other people's budgets professionally is a large part of why my schedules hold.
About
I direct for style and mine the weird for humour. Somewhere in the last few years I also fell in love with light, so now I shoot when a job calls for that instead.
Alongside all of it, twenty years of commercial sets in Toronto as a 1st AD and line producer, work I still take. Tesla, Ikea, Pepsi, more music videos than I can count, and a great many alarms set for four in the morning. It taught me exactly what a shot costs, which turns out to be most useful for knowing which ones are worth arguing over.
I'm about halfway through a psychology degree at the University of Winnipeg, weighted toward neuroscience. It turns up in the work more than I expected. Method Psychiatrist is improvisers building a scene from a rough outline, which is mostly just watching how people behave once you take the script away.
I trained in the Hollywood Camera Work blocking and staging system, which is the same language most animation and game studios use to plan their coverage. Lately that has taken me onto Unreal virtual production floors here in Manitoba, as 1st AD on a National Screen Institute lab and a training feature. I'm building work out of Manitoba now.
Contact
If something here made you laugh, let's talk. Coffee, beer, or a phone call, whichever is easiest.
johnhbreed@gmail.com