When Paul Middleditch started directing spots and music videos in 1990, he was one of the only young directors working in New Zealand advertising. He's since moved to Sydney, has directed innumerable ads (including the über-epic, 2006 Cannes Grand Prix contender "Big Ad" for Carlton Draught) and is prepping his third feature next year in New Zealand. Recently, the 40-year-old completed a 10-minute short film for MTV Australia in which rapper Snoop Dogg attempts to convince the country's notoriously fickle immigration officials to grant him citizenship. Boards caught up with Middleditch, repped in the region by Plaza Films, to talk about humor, moving to Oz and working with Snoop.

What's your advice to a young director starting out in New Zealand?
The key thing is to work as much as possible with storytelling as a director. Try and create your own ideas, rather than look at someone like Frank Budgen and how he makes an ad. You may learn technical aspects, but they may not be your own instincts.

Do Kiwi directors have to move to Sydney to succeed?
When I came to Australia in the early '90s, Tony Williams was the only successful New Zealand-born director who worked in New Zealand. He was one of the few directors they would get on the phone, talk to and bring home... suddenly, this concept of, 'We can't work with somebody who's in Australia, it's too hard' disappeared. There are still a small number of directors who work in both markets. I think the key is having the right mentality, particularly in humor.

Is there much of a difference in the humor between the two countries?
There are subtle differences. There's a famous ad called "Bugger" that won a Gold in Cannes. It was about a farmer that had a powerful four-wheel drive Toyota and every time he tried to move something he fucking destroyed it. Then he'd just look over his shoulder and go, 'Oh, bugger.' It was such an understated, colloquial New Zealand attitude toward disaster. In Australia, you would've found a different attitude. The Australian would've been, "Oh? Oh, bugger." It's slightly different - it's more of a thoughtful reaction.

Is Snoop Dogg easy to work with?
He was wonderful. It was very much about if he gets along with you or not and we got along well. There was a mixture of ad-libbing and scripted lines... I surrounded him with an ensemble of really good local comic actors who don't have an obvious artifice so they can appear very natural. It was a very ad-libbed situation so we weren't sure how Snoop would react to some things. He took direction quite brilliantly.

Plaza Films, Sydney> www.plazafilms.com.au