For Tina Petridis, it’s still simply “about the work.” Five years after launching her Toronto-based spot shop, Industry Films, the CEO and Executive Producer has seen her company win countless awards, acquire and retain first-rate talent and obtain ranking as one of the top ten commercial production companies in the world. Yet the philosophy remains the same. “It’s about being passionate,” she says. “If I woke up tomorrow and thought, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’…I would have to stop, because I wouldn’t do a good job.”

Positioned in the market with a strong roster of directors and a high level of production, Petridis and her team turned this approach into a winning formula from the get-go, producing top-caliber commercial work that could compete on the world stage. Only four years out of the gate, Industry Films brought home Cannes Gold for a Bud Light spot out of Palmer Jarvis Downtown DDB, a career breakthrough that solidified the company’s position as a major world player. “We started with nothing and built slowly,” she notes, ”but I couldn’t have imagined that in five years we’d be where we are with the kind of talent (that we have). The proof is in the pudding.”

That pudding includes a talent list boasting the likes of Spike Jonze, Hype Williams, and Jake Scott, superstar foreign directors with exclusive Industry representation in Canada. By establishing themselves as a high-end production company and executing on these lofty ambitions, Industry was able to attract top talent, which Petridis admits is the meat of her business.

But it’s the homegrown directors that she’s most proud of. Petridis is passionate about continuing to develop Canadian talent, emphasizing the effort of domestic agencies and production shops to present a distinct identity at international competitions. Largely perceived as just another cog on the American wheel, Canadian creatives face a challenge in distinguishing our brand as unique and culturally different. But according to Tina, herein lies the advantage. “I think we have excellent creative coming out of Canada because there is that sensitivity to be competitive with the Americans,” she says. “But I think that that’s good…it sort of fires up the bellies of everyone in advertising.”

As example, one only needs to look at Industry’s stellar list of domestic talent. Amongst such names as Paul Middleditch and Aubrey Singer is Russian-born Canadian-raised Vadim Perelman, a Ryerson film-school dropout who recently directed the Oscar-nominated feature House of Sand and Fog, with Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly. Petridis, who takes particular care in cultivating the careers of her directors, feels a certain honour that Perelman honed his craft under the Industry banner. “There’s a huge sense of pride I have (in Vadim directing his first feature),” she says. “He was totally tenacious and completely passionate. He used what he learned in commercial filmmaking to present himself as a director.”

With numerous commercial directors making a successful leap to features in recent years, prodcos have become fertile training grounds for young guns and fresh talent. As Tina explains, working within the budget and time constrains of commercial production forces filmmakers to marry creative abilities with business acumen, a skill crucial to working in features later on. The most important however, is the capacity to flush out the “big” idea, a concept often missed by newcomers who can paint gorgeous pictures but lack the ability to speak clearly through them. “I always tell (new directors), go for the idea first” she says. “If you don’t have an idea, and you execute something beautifully, it doesn’t matter because what you are looking at means nothing.”

With this type of approach and an insistence on executing great creative for her clients, Petridis has managed to guide Industry through the murky climate of the recent economic downturn. At a time when agency dollars continue to shrink and more production houses are fighting for fewer jobs, Industry has been able to thrive by adapting to the constantly evolving times. “I think you need to reinvent yourself…you can’t get comfortable,” she says. “Advertisers…are going to be a lot more conscious of how they are spending their money, what’s working for them, what’s not working for them. And that’s why, as agencies and production companies, we need to be responsible to them, to that change of thinking, and be able to facilitate for them what they are prepared to put out.”

This type of forward-thinking approach has served more then just her business in recent years. Petridis is a firm believer in social responsibility and donates much of her time and creative services to helping those with neither the resources nor the microphone to promote their cause. Issues Industry Films has supported in the past include Coalition for Music in Schools, Mother's Against Drunk Driving and The Children's Wish Foundation.

“I am fortunate enough to be in position where I can do something beyond just simply sending a cheque” she says. “I can do something that will sort of hit the masses, and help some kind of a cause.” One recent example close to her heart was a campaign intended to raise awareness for the same sex marriage issue. Industry combined their efforts with the creative talent of award-winning agency Zig to launch a series of three, 30-second television spots which would provide a forum for this pressing and often ignored matter.
“I feel as a Canadian, that we are tolerant people who expect us all to be equal when we come here,” she says. “So that was a really, really big and important deal for me personally because I thought it was such an important cause.” “We are very privileged in having the resources that we do, the contacts that we do, and to just sit back and to not have that social responsibility, for me, I could not live with myself.”

With this type of leadership at their helm, and a firm commitment to the work being produced, their Top 10 status is safe for many years to come. Petridis, who is not one to rest on her laurels, is constantly looking to evolve and develop the Industry Films brand and is confident that being “all about the work” will continue to pay dividends in the future. Her passion, quite simply, speaks for itself.

By Yaron Blanc; Associate Producer, Rogers Communications and Jackie Staub, Brand Strategist, Why Not?