Hardey Speight Kicks Off the ICC Cricket World Cup with a Cricket-Inspired New Spot

Let the games begin --  the ICC Cricket World Cup, that is, and Hardey Speight’s made just the right spot to kick off the season.

Hosted by England and Wales and watched by millions of viewers worldwide, the ICC Cricket World Cup stands as one of the most viewed and anticipated events of 2019. Engaging and exciting, the Games serve as the perfect backdrop for OPPO’s latest mobile phone ad.

Encouraging fans to “be a shot maker in everything they do,” the spot features youths worldwide uniting and seizing the moment to play cricket. The fast-paced spot serves to align OPPO’s forward-thinking brand with cricket, a global phenomenon that is only growing in popularity and potential.

There is no one better than Speight to unite the two and capture the excitement and essence of the game. Speight always strives to strike a balance between the human story and cinematic vision, which is clear in this spot. He plays with a myriad of different shot lengths and angles, as well as rapid cutting, whilst still managing to focus and centre in on the theme of the ad: the burn and passion of youths and cricket players, alike.

Speight’s signature immersive, visceral, and poetic tone and style is evident throughout the spot. He simultaneously guides us through a narrative of empowered youths, seeking adventure, whilst also capturing the thrill of cricket, guaranteed to inspire and excite sport-lovers everywhere.

With Speight’s spot, it’s safe to say: the games have commenced.

Morgan Hutchins Joins The Visionaries

The extraordinarily talented director, Morgan Hutchins has joined The Visionaries!

Throughout his career, Hutchins has gone on to work for many of London’s top advertising production companies including the Mob film company and RSA films, working for an eclectic mix of clients.

From comedy to drama to “real life,” Hutchins is adaptable in style. Equally at home on a sound stage with actors as well as shooting hand-held on the streets, coaching performances out of non-actors, Hutchins captures the most surreal aspects of reality. From milking each and every wacky moment, to focusing on the actor’s power and gaze, Hutchins is able to encapsulate the emotion and essence of each spot, effectively telling its story.

We’re not the only ones aware of Hutchins visual talents. Hutchins has accumulated quite a number of accolades, including the coveted D&AD pencil for his work for DDB London & Guardian Newspapers, as well as a few arrows at the BTAA for Kit Kat through JWT.

Furthermore, Hutchins has done his fair share of charity adverts, which he finds very rewarding. He’s worked with Oxfam, Guide dogs for the Bling and Sport relief, as well as received accolades for his work from David Reviews (Sportsaid receiving 5 stars).

Hutchins has also worked for quite a few big names. He’s created spots for Cadbury, Paddy Power, Budweiser, UBS, Capital One, and Domino’s to name a few!

With an eye for capturing the most out of each moment, and the ability to work in any genre, Hutchins is a force to be reckoned with -- and we can’t wait to see his future work.

Get Pumped with Dan Gianini’s Latest Work for Sweaty Betty

Photographer and filmmaker, Dan Gianini has created a series of different spots for Sweaty Betty’s 2019 campaign.

Marking Sweaty Betty’s 20th anniversary, the campaign seeks to subvert societal conventions and highlights the power and strength in femininity. With its core spokespeople of three female fitness influencers, the campaign launched in January and ran for three months, celebrating female empowerment the whole way through.

Gianini’s work for the campaign includes a variety of different 20-second ads starring the three influencers, who consist of a yogi, a boxer, and a dancer. The three women, who differ in age and background, embark on what seems like an unrehearsed hangout session, sharing tidbits about their life and what empowers them. It is fun, it is light, it is inspiring.

With experience in fashion filmmaking and photography, Gianini knows just how to capture the perfect blend of femininity and power in a way that is raw and real.

His work highlights exactly what their brand stands for: it “inspires women to find empowerment through fitness.” Through a series of close-ups and fast cuts, Gianini highlights each woman’s individuality in a way that is light and playful. Capturing each woman in her element,  Gianini creates an ad that is real and powerful, inviting other women to own their power.

Empowering, inspiring, and feminine, Gianini perfectly captures what it means to be, a Sweaty Betty.

Will Innes Smith Joins The Visionaries!

The fresh prince of filmmaking has joined our talented roster — please welcome Will Innes Smith to The Visionaries!

From photography to live-action, CGI to animation, Smith has created works in a range of creative mediums. Across a series of different subjects, such as youth culture, sports, food, and fashion, Smith lends his eye for detail and stylish visual approach to all that he does, creating a unique style to all his work that is undeniably his own.

A passionate multifaceted lifestyle filmmaker, Smith describes his style as focusing on the aesthetic and emotive. Smith straddles the line well, producing works that are bold yet poised; there’s a certain rawness to his work, preventing it from becoming too controlled but rather real and unique. Through experimental camera angles and compositions, Smith creates works that are bold and bright yet still capture a certain sense of emotion, character, and story that adds a feeling of sentimentality and connection to it. It is personable, innovative, and original — it is Will Innes Smith.

As a creative, Smith combines captivating images with exciting ideas, resulting in films that resonate with a modern audience. He’s written and conceived a number of viral successes, including the well renowned launch film for Sony Playstation, “4 the Players since 1995.” Furthermore, his work has been recognized by the Royal Television Society and he’s made spots for Celebrity Big Brother and Delta Airlines.

On top of directing, Smith is also a partner in the London-based creative production company, gotgotneed, leading and representing a whole new generation of talented and award-winning directors.

Will Innes Smith is a force to be reckoned with, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for him.

Check out his reel here:

Love, Death & Jon Yeo’s Latest Work

An action-packed, catastrophic, and robot-filled future is coming — and Jon Yeo’s gonna introduce you to it.

Yeo, along with Axis Animation, has created an episode of the futuristic Netflix Original show, Love, Death & Robots. The episode, titled “Helping Hand,” is filled with hyper-realistic animations of space and humanity, thanks to the dynamic and imaginative team over at Axis Studios.

Presented as an animated anthology series, Love, Death & Robots presents a cynical technology-dependent future similar to that of Black Mirror, but with the vivid graphics of your favourite cartoons and the NSFW themes of the R-rated films your parents never let you watch.

The show is produced by Oscar-nominated director David Fincher and Deadpool director Tim Miller, which explains the show’s mature way of handling violence and sex. However, those two also add the signature dark undertone running through each episode, even as they range from nihilistic to optimistic, humorous to dreary. Like an animated, explicit, adult, and more sci-fi version of Black Mirror, the show discusses topics from alien invasions, to post-apocalyptic underground worlds, and even futuristic tech and modifications, such as a yoghurt take-over.

Yeo’s episode veers on the more realistic, and slightly optimistic. Taking place in the depths of space, just above Earth, “Helping Hand” is best-described by Wired as “a zero-G rendition of 127 Hours.” The episode centers around an astronaut named Alex, who becomes stranded in space and must decide whether she’ll make a serious sacrifice before her oxygen runs out.

To describe the episode as visually pleasing and exhilarating would be an understatement. Yeo shifts from full shots, close-ups, and point-of-view shots, allowing viewers to not just undergo Alex’s struggle with her, but also understand the true vastness and isolation of space. Coupled with Axis’ stunning CGI animation of space, “Helping Hand” highlights Yeo’s brilliance at capturing the tension and deep emotions.

Love, Death & Robots joins the list of Yeo’s collaborations with Axis, and the even-longer list of Yeo’s own work with visual effects and animation. Yeo’s background in graphic design is apparent in his work, allowing him to develop a confident visual edge and distinctive signature style. It’s that very specific style that’s resulted in Yeo working with big names such as BBC, ITV, MTV, and Disney. He’s also created commercials for Heinz, Microsoft, The Guardian, and Marvel to name a few.

With Love, Death & Robots, Yeo’s aesthetic is at the forefront. Imaginative, futuristic, and groundbreaking, “Helping Hand” evokes the same awe and wonder that films such as Gravity brought, except in animation.

To put it simply, Yeo shows us that him, and his talent, are out-of-this-world.

Check out the trailer for Love, Death & Robots below, and head over to Netflix to watch “Helping Hand”!

RUTH SEWELL DIRECTS CAMPAIGN FOR AVON & COPPAFEEL!

Our roster includes an innovative range of talent and Ruth Sewell is no exception to that list! She’s teamed up with JWT to direct a series of videos for Avon & CoppaFeel!

CoppaFeel! is a hands-on charity dedicated to raising awareness of breast cancer. They wanted to translate the ‘hands-on’ part in a proactive approach into the videos by putting emphasis on active and physical participation, as they say - “It’s all about rolling up your sleeves and doing stuff that makes a difference.”

The Visionaries director, Ruth Sewell, has directed the whole campaign for Avon & Coppafeel! In her first major campaign and working for JWT, she drove the art direction with an imaginative display of props and came up with lots of the clever ideas that make the campaign so vibrant.

“This series was a pleasure to work on from start to finish. Brilliant creative genius Jo Taylor and I took the brief and really ran with it, so it became a slightly more ambitious project than we’d first intended, and we ended up shooting 163 shots in two days. There were hundreds of props, many of them handmade - so it was a real labour of love to pull it all together in prep. The design team at JWT pulled out all the stops, Jo raided her mum’s attic and we collected an ever-growing stash of Amazon boxes in the office.” - Ruth Sewell, Director.

“This was a brilliant project for a really important cause. Avon and CoppaFeel! asked us to create a suite of content films for their website, social channels and events. Each film had its own objective, but ultimately they were all about getting more hands-on boobs, and more breast cancers caught early.” - Jo Taylor, Creative Director at JWT.

A director like Ruth brings out the best in whatever she gets her hands on, whether big or small. We are confident in knowing she will amaze us all again with her next piece of work in the near future!

Hollywood starlet Jeremy Haccoun joins our roster of talent!

Jeremy Haccoun is signed to CAA in L.A for feature films, he is now back to share his incredible artistry with us here in adland.

Jeremy’s recent work includes his cinematic commercial campaign for chinese phone company OPPO, which stars one of Hollywood’s A-list actors, Leonardo DiCaprio. As well as “the world’s most interactive film” he made for Subaru, which won a Spike Award.

Jeremy is truly one of a kind and has been devoted to developing his craft from a young age. He began at the age of 11 making short films from a VHS camcorder he borrowed from his father’s shop. So there no surprise that he directed his first TV spot at 21 years old and earned himself his first million-dollar budget at the age of 24.

His two short films Alchemy, an adventure epic and The Battery won numerous awards in his native France, before getting a national release in french theatres during his youth.

“Honors the very best of Steven Spielberg” - Indiewire

Jeremy’s recent short film Beyond is inspired by the early Spielberg films. It’s an epic adventure short about a boy turning into a hero to rescue his parents from a burning wreck. The short was screened at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and received praise from industry press.

Jeremy has attained a lot of experience over the years in large-scale shoots which include A-list talent, incredible performances and FX heavy post-productions which is apparent in his work.

A director like Jeremy brings exciting opportunities to The Visionaries clients in both commercials and longer form branded content.

If you want to work with Jeremy or any one of our amazing directors get in touch.

BAFTA AWARD-WINNING CLAIRE NOROWZIAN JOINS THE VISIONARIES

Multi-talented BAFTA award-winning director Claire Norowzian joins our roster of incredible talent at The Visionaries! She is known for often incorporating quirky imagery, exuberant characters and captivating narratives in her work.

She started her career in broadcasting at MTV, before moving onto Nickelodeon where she won two BAFTA awards for Best Short Form. She won in 2007 for ‘Nickelodeon’s Big Green Thing’ and in 2010 for her TV series, ‘Nick Jr’s Bedtime Stories,’ 

Claire’s work goes beyond narratives for children. She has worked at Red Bee, BBC Creative and picked up 16 Promax’s and a Gold Kinsale Shark along the way.

Claire has a very stylistic and experimental sense of directing, which progressively changes through her films. Her innovative approach consists of a visual style that is undoubtedly creative and captivating,  which has proven to work well with children, octogenarian’s and everyone in between.

Claire is from a family of film directors, so it was almost inevitable she would acquire her list of talents. Even though she has proven her ability to do almost everything, we are still very intrigued to see what she can surprise us with next!

FEMI LADI RETURNS TO THE VISIONARIES

We welcome back dynamic director Femi Ladi to our remarkable roster of progressive talent! Femi is known for pushing the envelope and enticing his audience, by exhibiting day-to-day life experiences in an abstract manner within his work.

The thought provoking director is one to keep your eye on, with his passion for creating compelling content through film and his unblemished style.

Femi started as a runner for production company Th1ng, where he met Corin West, the Directors’ Rep of Th1ng who is now the MD of The Visionaries. Corin began to represent Femi in the early days of The Visionaries and the early stages of Femi’s directing career. Fast forward 2 year later and Femi has become more established in adland after working for Havas, Saatchi & Saatchi and Stink Studios.

Femi’s work is inspired by the intersection of his community, the stories that emerge within the multicultural happenings around him and experiences within the mysticism of London, and its multidimensional offerings.

Watching his films, it’s clear he intends creating a warmth and affinity for his subjects, with hidden meanings and light humour.

Femi continuously challenges archetypes, letting characters evolve naturally before an audience, with enduring impact.

We are ecstatic to have him on board with us at The Visionaries and are eagerly waiting to see what he pulls out the bag next!

JON YEO JOINS THE VISIONARIES FOR REPRESENTATION

The Visionaries has brought on board innovative and masterful director Jon Yeo, he is known for incorporating a combination of VFX, animation and thrilling live action in his work.

With a background in graphic design, he distinguished his own visual style of filmmaking as he seamlessly transitions actors from CGI characters. He leaves no stone unturned as he has dabbled in just about everything! Such as, commercials, video game cinematics, idents, promos, experiential films and just about any other type of creative filmmaking that needs making.

He has collaborated with some of the best creative and VFX teams across the globe. Some of which include; Axis Animation, Man vs Machine, The Mill, Mainframe, MPC Creative, Analog, Post Panic and Parasol Island. 

Continuously breaking barriers, Jon strives to explore innovative ways to create moving images, this experiential film for Universal Studios involves Jon using motion capture technology to obtain realistic character performances.

He has made films for: ITV, Sky, Netflix, Marvel, Universal, BBC, Microsoft, Harrods, Dyson, Bungie and Disney to name a few.

In addition to commercial work, Jon designed, shot, cut, wrote and directed a short film called Leviathan Ages. The film toured internationally in festivals including; The British Animation Awards, Kortfilmfestival, Raindance,  LIAF and OneDotZero. 

The Making of Leviathan Ages

Jon isn’t your normal director. He pushes the boundaries of what can be done through commercials and is constantly surprising us with his skills.

We are delighted to have him on board here at The Visionaries and can’t wait to see what he can do next!

Nicholas Reynolds directs two new spots for KFC

What does your Grandma’s sweater, a magician and KFC have in common? The answer is Nicholas Reynolds. 

He is back directing two new quirky and vibrant spots for the Australian KFC market.

In the commercial, you see the protagonist in different scenarios comparing the KFC chicken to Grandmas TLC and a magician’s secret. 

Fun, tasty and a little bit weird, Nicholas Reynolds continues to show us more depth to his comedic filmmaking.

Take a look at more of his work by clicking here.

Toby Meakins joins The Visionaries

The Master of Suspense, 2018 Cannes Lion Winner Toby Meakins has joined our evergrowing roster of unique directors.

With his unique flair, Toby merges together the world of commercials and horror which keeps us on the edge of our seats everytime we watch his work.  

His latest short ‘Floor 9.5’ starring Georgina Campbell was produced by Fox Studios for BBDO/MARS and brings to life his insane talent as a horror director. It was subsequently awarded a 2018 Cannes Lion and a Best of the Best at the Brand Film Festival, as well as being cited as the most innovative and effective campaign of recent years by AdWeek

Meakin’s distinctive style has landed him jobs with brands such as British Airways, Rolls Royce, HSBC and Mars, where he has worked with a number of talented celebrities including Derren Brown, Rachel Riley, and of course, BAFTA award-winning Georgina Campbell.

Outside of his commercial work, Toby is currently writing a feature, ‘Breathe’, which is in development with John Schoenfelder at Addictive Pictures and is attached to the feature ‘7 Keys’ by Addictive/Stigma films. Alongside this, he is in the process of developing ‘Ghoster’ a fantasy/Horror 360 universe based on the Graphic Novel and CURS>R a high concept horror franchise with Anton Corp.

With his unique vision and growing popularity, we could not be more thrilled for him to join us at The Visionaries.

Tim James Brown directs spots for The Range and Bazuka

One of our freelance directors, Tim James Brown has kept busy during this festive season coming off back to back shoots for The Range and Bazuka.

Tim’s comedic flare shines through in The Range’s Christmas ad and his 30 second Bigfoot spot for Bazuka, both highlighting his light-hearted and witty style.

Brown has also worked on a variety of other commercials around the world for brands such as HP, Kellogs and Samsung.

We look forward to seeing what is in store for Browns in the near future.

Gundeep directs the Wembley Cup fof EE

Fresh off of his hugely successful street football competition ‘The Last Stand’ Gundeep Anand is back directing another Football related series, The Wembley Cup.

The EE Wembley Cup 2018 is a seven-part football series building up to one massive live final at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 25th November. EE has teamed up with Next Level to rip up the football rulebook. They’re hosting a tournament with four of YouTube’s most talked about teams going head-to-head for the coveted title.

This new YouTube series for EE further cements Gundeep’s immense passion for football and British culture. However, this isn't your average tournament. EE have flipped the rules, having only 30-minute matches and a ejection rule, meaning a player is removed at random every minute of extra time.

The teams that are competing are F2 FC, Rebel FC, XO FC and Hashtag Utd

Gundeep never fails to produce raw and realistic content that everyone can identify with. Always making his work one of a kind, he has wowed us once again with the Wembley Cup. and we can’t wait for the episodes to follow!

Make sure to take a look at the trailer and first few episodes on their channel by clicking here.

ANDY PEARSON JOINS THE VISIONARIES

A visionary pioneer in his domain, Andy Pearson's ability to entice viewer sensibilities by capturing the delicate and natural performances of babies and children is applauded by viewers and critics alike. Having collaborated with clients such as  Dove, Huggies, Pampers and Danone, both in London and internationally, Andy's work and skills have established him as a leading director in this genre.

A father of two children, Andy's love of capturing joyful childhood moments has catapulted his success in directing babies and children of all ages. Andy's ability to weave and capture magic moments on film that showcase a raw, delicate, observational quality to human nature has lead to him winning two EFFIE awards and five Promax BDA awards. 

In addition to his contributions in commercial work, Andy's short film "Souvenirs" recently won him Best Film at the London Independent film festival, a Silver Rabbit at Sao Paulo and was officially selected for many prestigious festivals worldwide.