Dom Bridges

For most people recognition is a welcome addition to success. Whether you're a tinker, tailor, candlestick maker - or even a director - getting positive recognition for what you do is usually desirable. And though Dom Bridges would rather hide his light under a bushel, with the success he's had over the last few years, especially with short films, that light has become too bright to contain.

Directing is something that he always had an affinity with even if he didn't realise he could actually do it as a job. "Making films just seemed to be something I knew intuitively," says the 35-year-old. "Family members had film cameras and I also spent a lot of time in the cinema as a kid so the making of a film and the knowledge of having a beginning, a middle and an end was something I just understood. But coming from Devon, thinking that you could go to film school or be a director at all just wasn't something I took onboard."

After art college Bridges went on to work at design studio English & Pockett for a couple of years before starting his own company with a friend. When that came to an end he decided to go it alone as a director. Initially signed to Bikini Films in London, Bridges wasn't given the opportunity to work on commercials. "Maybe it was because I'm pretty quiet and PPMs can be difficult because I'm not always great at having to explain things to clients," explains Bridges when asked why his commercials career didn't take off immediately.

"I shot music videos but ended up just directing them for my friends. It was a bit of a confidence knocker but all the while I was still making little films. I find it very hard to say I'm a director unless I'm actually making something. None of my friends are in this business so if I see them on a Friday night and they say, 'alright Dom, what you directing this week?' then you've got to have something on the boil, even if it's just filming one of them drunk and setting it to music."
Eventually Bridges realised he couldn't carry on in this manner - "I was really enjoying it, but I was flat broke" - and decided to find a new home. After a few meetings Mustard seemed like the right fit and he has been signed there since [TBC].

It was his short film, Bitch, which brought Bridges to shots', and others' attention. Made in 2007, it was an antidote to some rather bleak commercials he had been working on. "I was doing heroin awareness in Scotland, the Welsh smoking ban commercials and a drink-drive thing," laughs Bridges. "Everything was social realism and a bit dark. I like having a laugh and I hadn't made one of my own films for a while and I had some time to myself so I decided to do Bitch with Mustard's help."

Based around a joke about a scheming old lady, Bitch is a three-minute short set in a supermarket that's brilliantly played and hugely entertaining but even after finishing that, Bridges had no intention of showing it off. "I didn't want to enter it into competitions or anything. I mean, why the fuck would you do that? I just wanted to make what I considered to be a perfect short film, something that was short and sharp, and the perfect vehicle is a joke, I think. When I eventually showed it to my mates they said, 'what did you bother making a film about that for? Everyone knows that joke'. So I was a bit down about it but Tanya Hempenstall at Mustard suggested putting it into Short and Sweet and from there it went into Rushes Soho Shorts and it took off; to the extent that it got me into the William Morris Agency and a meeting with Robert Newman in Hollywood."

Bridges looks up like he still can't believe it. "Insane." Soon after Bitch came a brilliant spoof on Guinness' Tipping Point for Pot Noodle which picked up a Midsummer award (though true to form, Bridges "hid in the loo" when it was time to go up on stage) and there have been other short films that have made a splash, including the wonderfully odd The Magic of Neil Diamond.

Now, as well as working on a new short film called Baby with AMV's Adam Chiappe and Matt Saunby, Bridges is looking to move into the features arena and is both reading and writing scripts. But he is still focused on commercials and making a mark there. "You know, Robert Newman considered me to be a commercials director but my reel's not really got that many commercials on it. I've yet to make a noted commercial of the standard of my heroes but hopefully that will come."