Patrick Daughters, The Directors Bureau LA
Just the facts: Age - 31; Hometown - Berkley, California; Education - NYU Film School; Employ - joined The Directors Bureau in 2006 from RSA and Blink for the UK in July 2007.

Previous experience: After helming seminal music video "Maps" for Yeah Yeah Yeahs at just 26 years old, Daughters went on to work with top musicians including Beck, The Shins, Liars and most notably Feist, whose "1234" video last year was picked up by Apple for an iPod spot, effectively launching his spot-directing career.

Best work: A bleak, raw video for Liars, "Plaster Casts of Everything" and a second knock-out video for Feist "I Feel It All" this year have secured Daughter's position as one of the most varied, inventive and exciting directors working in the market today. This summer on the back of "1234" Daughters was picked up by Blink in the UK, but it was his Microsoft Zune spot "The Ballad of Tina Pink", a lavish rollercoaster ride into a Zune user's mind and just his fourth commercial, that got the attention of agency producers worldwide .

The transition to ads: Having come from relatively untrammeled creativity in music videos, Daughters is remarkably even-keeled about relinquishing at least some creative control in commercial work. "I'm realizing that there's a certain arc to the whole creative [process]. I did a script with Energy BBDO in January and it started as a very wide open thing. Then I came up with a few ideas and they were very collaborative and embraced them. But then the concerns of the client began to supersede the creative decisions. I understand why that happens, but gradually the director's creative control has to take a back seat to that stuff."

From darkness into light: While his early work tended towards the dark, he's moved on to more varied terrain. "I realized pretty early on that being able to affect an emotional response in people, whether it's one that's pathos or happiness, was what I'd like to be doing." He's sanguine about the challenges posed by working in TV commercials. "Viewers have presumably just watched three or four other spots which have put their minds into a lull. Most directors want to affect that emotional response in somebody, but in 30 seconds it's nigh on impossible. I still think that's the goal."

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