David Reviews + The APA present CraftWorks

31 October 2017

The Broadcast Training Programme is being delivered in partnership with NTS Radio, Worldwide FM and Somethin’ Else.

On Wednesday 11th October a panel of creatives gathered in the LSE Student Union to talk through some of the adverts, films and other creative content they have recently produced.

The first group up to speak were the BT Sports Craft Panel team consisting of: Christopher Wood (BT Sports), Caio Giannella (AMV), Diego de Oliveira (AMV), Paul Weston (Colonel Blimp), Dan Dronks (Cinematographer) and Alex Lovejoy (MPC). (Insert David's joke about absence of women here). The panel discussed their newest BT Sports advert. Upon being given the brief they knew the advert would have to depict the variety of sports shown across the channel with a strong focus on football which brings in the channels highest viewing figures. They decided to construct a story based on young football star Dele Alli making his way through various sporting events. They explained how they initially had their doubts working with a footballer as they tend not to be the best actors but it turned out he was great. The panel explained how the short amount of time to finish the brief meant a lot had to be added in post, however the overall finish was still very impressive.

Next up to speak were French duo, Nico & Michel, one much more talkative than the other, both directors and strong believers in the ability to learn anything and everything on the internet - including the English language and how to make Manga Anime, which is exactly what they did to first get noticed online. The pair created a short Anime based around rugby and inspired by the Michael Jordan Nike's in 1992. The film blew up online which then gave them a platform to create more content. They then went on to show their latest film for Renault's #followyourpassion campaign; a short film conveying the story of a female ex-racecar driver, now well into her 60/70s, getting a chance to drive a Formula 1 car. The pair's strong storytelling ability comes across very well in this film.

Following on from this came a group involved in what will surely come to be known as a pivotal moment of British television. Consisting of Stacey Bird, Jack Croft and Shananne Lane (4 Creative) Mikey Please and Bart Yates (Blink Ink), the group talked us through the technicalities and pressures of making the new Great British Bake Off advert for the show's transition onto Channel 4 from the beloved BBC. From the beginning, a bold move was taken to create a stop motion film using food which is arguably one of the hardest materials to work with for stop-motion under harsh studio lights. Another bold move taken by the team was to use a piece of Sir Paul McCartney's music, 'We All Stand Together', which was only approved for use on the advert a week before it was due to air and everything had already been shot. The team said they wanted to use this particular piece of music in the light of the current political climate and mood in the country and the need for us all the feel a bit more united and together as a nation.

The next speaker, Ian Derry, began by explaining how his original background was firmly in photography and it was this travelling around and photographing people that led him to find the subject of his new film 'Johanna' - a beautifully shot film which explores the meditative state of ice diving. He had previously shot one of Johanna's friends in Finland who told him about the ice diving and insisted he needed to come and document her. On his first visit, Ian joined her under the ice and knew from then on that he had to capture this in a film even though he had no previous experience at all. They shot the film over a few days and had a portable sauna on set for the divers to warm up again between shots.

Last to speak, and I imagine the most anticipated of the evening, was the reunion of the team who created the Carling Dambusters advert; Roger Woodburn, Robin Wight, Jon Greenhalgh and Mike Garrath. The team spoke through the much more analogue methods used to create the advert all those years ago with the lack of any digital post editing. Tricks such as using salt on a table to create a wave splash and shooting through a two-way mirror exposed the lateral thinking and creativity undertook. It was very interesting to hear about their creative process and the battles they had with pitching the concept to people, but overall how much fun they seemed to have working together - which was a nice note to end the evening on.