Visionaries Director Jessie Ayles highlights gender disparity for LinkedIn’s International Women’s Day film

To mark International Women’s Day 2021, new Visionaries Director Jessie Ayles was commissioned by VCCP & LinkedIn to highlight how COVID is heightening gender disparity.

“Gender inequality is still very much present in different forms around the world, and pandemics like Covid, or anything that adds pressure to an already volatile situation - like the climate crisis - will only exacerbate an already un-equal footing for many women across the world” says Jessie. 

“I had the pleasure of working with so many amazing women across the world to bring this international film to life,” she continues. “Everyone on board really believed in the film and it was a real pleasure from start to finish. We told the stories of women who had faced these challenges head on - and how important it was for them to lean on a support system when needed to get through.”

Director Luc Rëso Janin kicks off the TikTok #PepsiChallenge

Visionaries Director Luc Rëso Janin has teamed up with PepsiGlobal for their latest social campaign with COPA90. Kicking off the two-phase campaign is the #PepsiChallenge on TikTok; Luc has directed a series of fun, skill-filled spots which encourage users to duet with their favourite footballing superstars including Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba, Shanice Van De Sanden and Jadon Sancho.

“Spontaneous, authentic fun is what I wanted to come out of these films. These words were key to making this campaign stand out and be memorable, and key to its success and sharability. The spots look and feel like genuine moments of fun, full of the players’ personalities, captured by the players themselves. And Pepsi is at the centre of it all,” says Luc. “As raw as these may look, it’s all about the attention to detail that will make the films feel authentic.”

 Phase two of the campaign will be rolling out later this year, so keep an eye out!

CREDITS

Agency: COPA90

Chief Business Officer: Simon Joyce

Client Partner: Luke Hyland

Brand Strategy Director: Paolo Nieddu

Creative Directors: Aaron Lobb & Andy Demianyk

Production Co: COPA90

Director: Luc Janin

Producer: Jeremy Cox

DOPs: Marcus Autelli (Messi) and Dan Holland (VDS, Sancho & Pogba)

Audio Post: Sounds & Sons

Martin Bennett’s Mustang Mach-E spot is a feel-good hit for Ford

Visionaries director Martin Bennett has directed a confident, vibrant and feel-good film for Ford Mustang which encapsulates the attitude and character of the brand new, fully electric Mustang Mach-E. This is Ford’s most high profile and first fully electric vehicle from the Mustang stable. 

Soundtracked by Louis II’s Ready To Go and shot on location in the Netherlands, the fast paced spot highlights all of Martin’s best qualities as a director: cinematic, stylish and automotive to the max.

 Utilising his background as an advertising photographer, Martin brings with him a wealth of experience as well as an eye for detail for every directing brief. Specialising in automotive commercials and launch films, his graphic imagery and compelling storytelling are cinematic in nature and his ability is equally matched by his passion and dedication to create beautiful imagery.

Credits

Agency - GTB

Production Company - Makerhouse

Director - Martin Bennett

Directors’ Agent - The Visionaries

DOP - Konstantin Freyer

Service Production - Hetzner Productions

Editor - Pete Lurie 

Colour Grade - Lajos Pataki

Online & Retouch - Makerhouse

Gorgeous Talent:

Crystal n Simon @crystal_n_simon

Michael Beiliege @michaelbeilicke

Local Production

@hetzner.produktion (Germany)

@hotel_rebel (Netherlands)

@janruinard_productions (Netherlands)

1st AC - @pacokumar

Gaffer - Mirko Frike
Camera Car - Filmotechnic - @frs_bv
Precision Driver - Ronnie Paul @doubleaction805
Drone - @kiwi_aerial_shots
Gecko Cam Film Equipment (@gecko_cam_filmequipment)

Visionaries Director Ross Bolidai Directs Sam Smith Live Stream Interview for Amazon Music on Twitch

Award-winning Visionaries director Ross Bolidai recently directed Sam Smith Live In Conversation with Julie Adenuga, an exclusive live stream interview for Amazon Music at the Union Chapel. Broadcast live on Twitch, the chat was streamed by hundreds of thousands of viewers and gives insight into Sam’s life in lockdown, their dream of opening up a gay bar in their hometown and their obsession with Tuna Melts.

We spoke to Ross about shooting the spot: “Directing this piece with Amazon Music and Sam Smith was a real highlight of lockdown. I wanted to bring documentary sensibilities to the interview, leaving space for intimacy and vulnerability, while also recreating some of the grandiosity from Sam’s music videos and stage performances.”

 Ross goes on to say: “Julie Adenuga felt like the perfect counterpart and had great on-screen chemistry with Sam, delivering a blend of energy and empathy that resulted in a really candid performance.”

 Stylistically, Ross used references from Sam’s past music videos and live shows. Working with Director of Photography Hamish Anderson and his team, Ross took a hybrid approach to a live situation by using Steadicam, large format cameras and big soft lighting - essentially treating it as a music video aided by “meticulous cues” to elevate the interview into something cinematic and stylistic.

 The interview is now available to watch back in full on YouTube.

See more of Ross’ work here. 

Credits

Client: Amazon Music

Production & Post: Earthling

Director: Ross Bolidai

Producer: Matt Diegan

DOP: Hamish Anderson

Steadicam: Tommy McMahon

Camera Operator: Matt Lewis

Camera Assistant: Arabella Cristerna

Gaffer: Owain Morgan

Spark: Harrison Newman

Broadcast Engineer: Tom Stoodley

Broadcast Engineer: Claire Wilkie

Sound Recordist: Henry Gwynne

Production Manager: Cheri Darbon

Production Assistant: Ethan McDowell

Edit: Tim Beeston

Sound Mix: Dave Williams

You Could Be Part of the Crew - Femi Ladi directs new LSA film

The Visionaries director Femi Ladi teamed up with the London Screen Academy and Working Title for a brand new film showcasing the London Screen Academy’s courses for prospective students. The film showcases the different roles on offer at the academy while championing the schools ethos of supporting diversity and providing support for all students.

“I was excited to be part of this project for the LSA and Working Title for the second time. The ethos of the school is something I really believe in as it's tackling a real problem of representation and diversity in our industry by providing a solution at a grassroots level. It was a fun collaborative spot, everyone featured in the film are LSA students and they all got to shadow each department in making the film. One of the students wrote the short film that we used as the base of the spot and everything was shot on location on the school campus. These students are the filmmakers of the future and we wanted to show prospective students that this could be them, whilst highlighting the different roles within filmmaking. Special thanks to David Jonsson and Aoife Hinds, two incredible talents who gave their time to support the school.” - Director, Femi Ladi 

Client: LSA & Working Title Films

Co-Chairman: Eric Fellner

Co-Chairman: Tim Bevan

Production Executive: Angie Monkeke 

Production Company: Stink 

Exec Producer: Hannah Bellil

Executive Producer: Vicki Banwell

Director: Femi Ladi

Directors Agent: The Visionaries

Producer: Shea Coleman 

DOP: Joe Douglas

Production Designer: Oliver Hogan 

Edit: Pete Fullarton

Grade: Goldcrest

Sound Design: Sound24 

Luc Reso Janin directs ‘More Like Mo’ for new OPPO TVC

Director Luc Reso Janin teamed up with VCCP who enlisted football superstar Mo Salah as the face of OPPO’s flashy new commercial promoting the Reno4 5g Pro smartphone. The new TVC is a fast paced, visual neon delight with the slogan “More like Mo”, showcasing the brand’s speed and connection to the modern day, digital world. 

Luc Reso Janin had this to say about working on the campaign - “My goal for this project was to layer a striking visual approach with moments of authentic immediacy with Mo Salah. We wanted the performance to feel genuine and real, but within a world of screens and lights that isn’t real at all. I wanted the film to be a vibrant festival of colours, creating striking contrasts and juxtapositions that give the film a slick contemporary feel.”

Credits:

Client: OPPO

Agency VCCP

Creative Director Veryan Prigg, Kieran Knight

Executive Producer Greta Wynn Davies

Production Company VCCP Kin 

Producer  Swifty Hanrahan

Director Luc Reso Janin

Dop Dan Holland

Production Designer - Max Meronti

Editor - Jack Singer @ Stitch

AFX Designer (screen content design) - Stuart Fortune

Post UNIT Studios

Executive Producer Darryl Bolton

Producer Semley Wilkinson

2D Leire Sanz

3D Richard Nelson

Design Ella Marie

Colour Nick Dalby

"His work is totally psychedelic" - Multimedia filmmaker HANZOHANZO joins The Visionaries

We are delighted to announce that multiple award-winning director HANZOHANZO is joining The Visionaries for freelance representation.

HANZOHANZO is a designer, filmmaker and creative director that has been blessed by the spirit of multi-innovation. With a tailored approach towards manga-inspired animation, commercial films and hyperreal motion content, the young auteur has a diverse taste in visual storytelling and is heavily inspired by manga serials such as Ghost in the Shell and Akira.

HANZOHANZO, the pseudo name for Hans-Christoph Schultheiss began his career at the age of 16, when he began working on classic cel animation projects. He then utilised his alias as a way to bring out his alter ego. As an auteur, this has enabled him to alternate between his three positions, giving him the ability to switch roles and be wholly committed to one project at a time.

Though HANZOHANZO often takes a more sincere approach to filmmaking, he isn’t one for total sincerity and can often be much more lucid in his approach.

With so much more to offer, and having worked as a commercial director for international brands such as Puma, Oppo, Lamborghini and Mercedes-Benz, the arrival of the young filmmaker looks to be an exciting prospect.

Managing Director, Corin West - Founder of The Visionaries - welcomes the arrival of HANZOHANZO to The Visionaries network:

“Hans is truly a unique talent. His work is totally psychedelic, I love it! I can’t wait to see what he can bring to the advertising landscape here in the UK”.

Puma - Unlock New Levels (Supercut)

Oppo X - League of Legends

EnBW S2 - Rocking on E (En dub)

If you’d like to see more of HANZOHANZO’s work click here.

Patrick Killingbeck puts the Arlo Pro3 Floodlight Camera through the paces

Patrick Killingbeck teamed up with Europe’s number 1 security camera brand in a slick new commercial for the launch of the new Pro 3 Floodlight Camera across EMEA.  In the true spirit of putting the Pro 3 Floodlight Camera through its paces, the creative vision required a car racetrack, a professional racing driver and nightfall. The location of the shoot therefore took place at the iconic Goodwood racecourse and features one of Britain's leading young drivers, Jamie Chadwick. 

Client - Arlo 

Agency/Prod company - Bravespark 

Creative - Rob Remington Drake & Dan Jerrard 

Director: Patrick Killingbeck 

Producer: Annalise Valentino

HOP: Mike Facey

Production Assistant: Alex Flowers & Adam Merridan

DOP: Carl Burke

‘A Sausage CaRoll’ - The Visionaries director Michael Baldwin teams up with Ladbaby for Walkers Christmas ad

Walkers dropped their Christmas advert for 2020, directed by Michael Baldwin through Craft Films. The advert features internet sensation and the man behind 2019’s Christmas number 1 ‘ I Love Sausage Rolls’ - Mark Ian Hoyle , commonly known as LadBaby. Other famous faces include Walkers regular Gary Lineker, Aled Jones and East 17. 

The festive silliness is full of sausage roll puns and pop culture references which is brilliantly put together by Michael, making for one of the most enjoyable Christmas spots of the year.

 ‘This was one of those jobs where everyone was singing from the same song sheet (literally) and it was just as much fun to make as it is to watch. Luckily the covid filming restrictions didn't compromise the creative. Oh, and it's for a brilliant cause too so hopefully there'll be a lot of munching this festive season. Merry Crispmas!’ - Director Michael Baldwin.

CREDITS

Agency- Elvis Communications

Creative Directors- Rob Griffiths, James Hudson

Producer- Lottie White

Production Company- Craft Films

Director- Mike Baldwin

Directors Agent - The Visionaries

Exec Producer- Phil Myers

Production Manager- Agne Motieciute

1st AD- Sam Dawking & Steve Wingrove

DP- Federico Alfonso

Focus- Ian Coffey

2ns AC- Ben Howlett

Gaffer- Niko Kalimerakis

Sound- Jonny Horne

Video playback- Nat Valente

Art Director- Jess Elcock

Wardrobe- Jenny Svantesson

MUA- Simone Beyleveld

Casting: Hannah Simons Casting

Editor- Kit Jennings

Online Editor- Thomas Faulkner

Grade- Jonny Tully @ Tag  

Audio Mix- Tag & Vaudeville Post

VFX: Cherry Cherry

Award-winning director Emily McDonald joins The Visionaries

Emily McDonald is an award-winning director based in London, UK.

With a focus on uncovering honest and unique stories within society, Emily’s work challenges our cultural ideas. She has carved her path as a director by learning to partner with brands to tell these stories, without compromising the energy or spirit of documentary filmmaking.

Emily takes a proudly ethical approach to her work and believes that “this will always lead to telling the most compelling story.” Receiving recognition for both her documentary and commercial work, Emily has won numerous awards including a Gold Young Director’s Award at Cannes.

Corin West, Co-Founder of The Visionaries says; ‘Emily’s work has a distinct and pure identity that effortlessly glides through multiple genres from sports documentary to fashion. Her work often celebrates and tells the stories of LGBT+ and marginalised voices in an authentic way that makes the viewer lean in and listen. It’s an extraordinary skill that is so rare in modern filmmaking that often overlooks the narrative as a trade off for electric visuals. Emily has so much to offer brands and the creative industries, I’m looking forward to seeing how the next stages of her career unfold.’

You can view more of her work here.

‘Rise Entrepreneur’ - The Visionaries Director Phil Hawkins directs new ad for Tide

The Visionaries director Phil Hawkins has teamed up with Sidekick Studios to direct the latest TV advertising campaign for UK-based business current account provider, Tide.

 Encouraging budding entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams of starting a business, the ad sets the stage for “a new breed of business owner to disrupt the status quo and challenge old ideas.

 The 20-30 second ads will air during peak hours across ITV Breakfast, Sky Sports network, Sky News, Channel 4 and Channel 5 throughout October.

 George Schmidt, VP of marketing at Tide says: “We hope this campaign will help spark inspiration in others and that they will take time to discover not only their entrepreneurial spirit with Tide, but also the products and services of the featured members: London Refinery, Lili’s Chocolates, The Strap Tailor, Gaslight Distillery and Camie & Lily’s."

CREDITS

Agency - Sidekick Studios

Creative - Rupert Mason

Production Company - 

Director - Phil Hawkins

Directors Agent - The Visionaries

Production Company - The Fable Fox Group

Producer - Lisa Cawthorne

DOP - David Meadows

Post Production - The Mill

Tom Brown directs "Reimagine the world like a gamer" for Unicef with UNIT9

The Visionaries Director Tom Brown has directed a poignant ad for VaynerMedia London’s collaboration with Unicef. Together, they have created a campaign which aims to change the UK public’s perception of migrants, turning refugees into heroes. 

Told through the eyes of three refugee children, Nora, Sama and Pouya, the one-minute campaign film follows their experience as they ‘unlock’ skills in the style of a video game and work towards their dream futures - becoming a doctor, an author and a pilot, respectively. The ad calls on the audience to help them reach their goals with the headline: ‘Your New Mission: Unlock Their Potential’.

Here’s what Tom had to say about working on the campaign: “I'd always wanted to work with UNICEF so I was super excited to bring this project to life. The main hurdle was the shoot - we were still deep in lockdown, so the whole process was entirely remote. It was my first time directing across continents but thanks to the amazing team on the ground and Vayner's beautiful work with the design of the graphics, I think the final spot ended up looking great.”

CLIENT

CLIENT: UNICEF

TITLE/PROJECT: Reimagine - Gaming

AGENCY

AGENCY: VaynerMedia London

AGENCY CONTACT: Miles Byrd, Senior Account Manager

CLIENT NAME: Codi Trigger

CLIENT JOB TITLE: Global Campaign Manager

COPYWRITER: Esin Huseyin

ART DIRECTOR: Davide Mauroni

ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Dan Fryer and Gate Lambert

PRODUCER: Andrea Ogunbadejo

PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION COMPANY: UNIT9

DIRECTOR: Tom Brown

DIRECTORS AGENT: The Visionaries

Tom Brown teams up with Adidas & Manchester United in offbeat film series

Adidas announced the release of Manchester United’s third shirt with two online films from director Tom Brown in collaboration with UNIT9 and The Marketing Store. 

The films celebrate the uniqueness of the third kit, with its internationally divisive hacked striped design. The films aims to reinforce this idea by demonstrating that when you think differently, you get different results. 

"To bring this larger than life kit to the screen was a huge project especially whilst adapting to new COVID shooting rules. The first time I saw that mash up of zig zagging lightning bolts and stripes, I knew it would require something slightly surreal, with a unique on-screen language to launch it into the world.” - Tom Brown

Tom Continues:

“Early on, we decided to lean into the adidas design ethos of taking heritage concepts, cutting them up and reassembling them with a new flavour. We made the line 'hacked and modernised' our mantra and the 'remix' style was echoed through everything from the whip pan dialogue to the camera movement and VFX.”

Tom continues:

“Getting to orchestrate so many different artists and personalities in one place was pretty amazing and felt like our underlying concept writ large. Just like the creators of the kit —we took lots of incredible talents and threw them together in an off kilter way and created something big, fun and totally unpredictable. I can't wait for people to see it.” 

Check out more of Tom’s work here

CREDITS:

THE MARKETING STORE

SENIOR ACCOUNT DIRECTOR: Mike Wolverton

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Steve Guilfoyle

BUSINESS DIRECTOR: Chris Bennett

UNIT9

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Andrew Davies

PRODUCER: Harry Starkey-Midha

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Eolande Diaz

ADIDAS

DIRECTOR SPORTS MARKETING: Tom Braithwaite

SENIOR COMMS MANAGER: Ramy Camel-Toueg

CREATIVE SHOOT PRODUCER: Alex Plummer

How do you get hybrid performance? ‘Throw out the rule book’

New wave approach in Hybrid landscape 

 ‘Rules are there to be broken….’, this couldn’t be more true at a time when so many channels and brands are competing for space in a multi-platform world. So how does one get noticed? By breaking the rules that’s how. 

Take for example Channel 4’s meta travel show, Travel man with Richard Ayoade. The show was one of the first shows to break the fourth wall and to be self-referential.  Richard narrates “ we have booked some of the most available and affordable names in light entertainment’…. Mini-breaks are a swirling nebula of nonsense!”. What could be more weird than sending a man who doesn’t like to travel to present a travel show. But it works and is now on its 10th Series. 

Comedy TV and commercials Director, Leo McCrea who set the shows Style and Tone is an expert at getting the  best and most natural performance out of the talent which is not always an easy task when shooting 6 scenes a day. 

He says: ‘ Despite having a script and clear direction of what we want to achieve in each scene, it is about  creating the space for the comedians and guests to improvise around a script so that we achieve natural and authentic performances’.

The much acclaimed ’Mortimer and Whitehouse Gone Fishing’ was likewise the polar opposite of everything on TV in the factual entertainment space. The audience gets to enjoy the strangely soothing ramblings of comedy legends and real-life friends, Bob Mortimer & Paul Whitehouse, while going on various fishing trips together. What makes the show so unique is that the fishing takes a backseat and the dialogue which ranges from the existential to the mundane become the real heart and soul of the programme.  It’s like watching two friends bicker in the corner of the pub. 

Bob - “I were born in Yorkshire and I shall die here.”

Paul - “No, you won’t, You’ll die in Tunbridge Wells with your hedge fund friend.”

Leo McCrea and the team wanted the show to be a relaxing and calming watch, they achieved this by doing the following “Imagine filming a dialogue scene where you are directing for the least amount of cuts to be made, it was the antithesis of fast cut TV, this was slow burn television. That’s not to say that we didn’t film cutaways, establishers and beauty shots, we filmed a lot but always under the proviso to have each shot on screen for the maximum amount of time” said Leo. Again this style of TV directing is about creating enough space so that the performers feel they have the space and time to improvise around the scripted themes. 

And more recently this approach is starting to infiltrate the Advertising landscape, where brands realise that their consumers want content they can engage in and be entertained by, content that feels ‘Real’.

Leo recently directed Spark 44’s branded content for Landrover Discovery amusingly titled ’The Knob’ with Jack and Michael Whitehall. He carefully planned to shoot the script to spec but also allowed time for the talent to improvise around the script despite racing against the tide coming in. The film was shot at La Corbiere Lighthouse in Jersey. Michael and Jack drive their Discovery out onto the causeway with a huge Air Stream trailing behind them because Michael wants to show Jack some history and admire the lighthouse up close.  When the tide siren goes off and the sea is about to engulf the causeway it is the Landrover’s tow assist that saves the day, cue dramatic music and real time drama as drones and multiple cameras capture the action. The film has been shortlisted for the British Arrows 2020 awards.

 The more brands and channels embrace different ways of making content, creating embedded narrative and natural performances to deliver messages the more engaging brands will be. 

So take the rule book and throw it out the window.

Check out more of Leo’s work here.

Justin Reardon arrives at The Visionaries for freelance representation in the UK

Hailing from Tranquility, New Jersey, fast-tracked to Chicago then catapulted to Budapest from Hollywood; Grand Prix winning director Justin Reardon has arrived at The Visionaries for independent freelance representation. Uniquely, this A-list director can now work with any production company in the UK.

Justin’s illustrious career has often raised eyebrows across the creative industries when, after winning a Grand Prix for the iconic ‘Wassup’ Budweiser campaign, he pivoted his career to follow his righteous path of becoming a director. 

In LA, then signed to Anonymous Content, Justin shot hundreds of commercials and quickly amassed a reputation for being one of the top comedy commercial directors in the world. Justin has amassed every creative award in the industry, both in the U.S. and Internationally with his work becoming instant hits with people far beyond the film and advertising industries. Throughout his work, Justin has refined his comedic storytelling, blending bold performances and well-defined characters with a sweeping visual style.

In 2014, Justin completed his first comedy feature film, Playing It Cool starring Chris Evans, Michelle Monaghan, Topher Grace and Luke Wilson. Justin is also presently casting for his new off-beat Indy film CONVENTION, starring Ben Kingsley, with Rushmore’s Paul Schiff producing.

Big ideas and razor-sharp decisions are something of a theme across Justin’s career which is why he left Hollywood a year later to start up his own production company in Budapest called The Royal Budapest Film Company. 

Justin and his wife Barbara have permanently moved to Budapest, Hungary where they live with their two children, Lola and Leonardo.

Justin comments: 

“Outside of the birth of my children, this is the happiest day of my life. Seriously though, as the industry finds its footing in our new normal, I think this partnership makes a lot of sense”.

Corin West, Lemonade and Visionaries founder says  

“Justin’s work had me giggling for hours (there’s that much work in there). He’s an incredible creative talent and the warmest human being you could hope to work with. We can shoot with him in the UK or in his new hometown Budapest, there are so many exciting ways we can approach a production with Justin.” 

Check out Justin’s carefully curated reel here.