I’m on Cloud 9.
5 months ago I came across a tweet from Partizan that caught my eye - the announcement of a new Awards scheme (http://www.adcanawards.com/) with the key purpose of giving emerging film talent a platform to shine within the highly competitive advertising industry, with the added bonus of doing something wonderful for small charities desperately in need of creative media to communicate their story.
Inspiration for our ad struck while I was sunning myself on a desert island off the coast of Colombia (note to self: sun, sand & surf are definitley conducive to the creative process!!) and upon my return from holiday I set about securing crew and sourcing talent.
In brainstorming the idea I had two overriding aims:
1) As it was a no-budget production the creative HAD to be sympathetic to that. Locations and talent had to be kept to a minimum. Simplicity was key, but in order to be in with a chance the story therefore HAD to be strong.
2) As a Producer I wanted to push myself in terms of embarking on a challenging production (and hopefully that would be recognised come the final submission), so kids (and all the associated legalities), animals, animation and the Great British outdoors definitely ticked that box!!
As ever production had it’s ups and downs: ups being our wonderful 6 year old lead and his very flexible and amenable mum, downs being the squally Bank Holiday weekend weather, but despite all this we actually managed to wrap 10 minutes early, and everyone seemed delighted with what was in the can.
As a shortlisted entrant I had the privilege of spending a day meeting Producers and Directors from the Awards’ main sponsors: Rattling Stick, Partizan and Nexus. WHAT a fantastic and inspiring day! Everyone was SO intersting, kind, patient, informative, fun and deeply motivational.
What really stuck out to me was that everyone has their own story. Their own journey. And that this wonderful industry we have the privilege of earning a living from is extremely open minded and not only welcomes, but flourishes on diversity in whatever form it may come.
As the evening Awards event arrived it was electric entering Framestore and being ushered past their real life Oscar they’d recently won for their VFX work on Gravity!
It was strange, and of course exhilirating to see our ad on the big screen and to witness other people’s reactions to it! The speech that Juno Hollyhock (the Executive Director of the charity our film represented) gave about what an important tool we had given her brought a tear to many eyes in the room. And to win not only our category but also the Grand Prix prize for the evening: genuinely a dream come true.
So I’m extremely excited to see what the coming weeks will hold. I have received so much invaluable advice and had the opportunity to meet some of the real luminaries of the industry I aspire to - so a massive thank you to Dan and Brydon who organised the whole event and I hope our paths cross again very soon.
You can view the film here: