I started making films when I was 14. I’d shoot anything: sports days, music videos, concerts, short films, you name it. They were all awful but, regardless, there was nothing more invigorating than spontaneously putting something together and showing it to my friends, the class, the school, anyone. They watched, some laughed, I was hooked.
After leaving AFDA in 2010 it was hard not to be inspired by the words of my directing lecturer, Mr. Yates: “F**k them, go make your movie.” But after my first two years in advertising, it was even harder not to feel disillusioned. With so many creative restrictions, it seemed that filmmaking had lost its sense of spontaneity and fun – the ability to say: “That’s cool, but this could be even cooler.”
Fortunately, this changed over the past few years, where I was lucky enough to work with some of the country’s top creative minds at King James – the likes of Alistair King, Matt Ross, Mike Wilson and Cameron Watson. They have been brave enough to break away from the age-old traditions of advertising, and have placed trust not only in the people they work with, but also in the power of creative spontaneity. This faith in the authentic, the unscripted, has allowed them to connect people with brands in fresh, innovative ways.
From my rather brief undertaking in this sphere, in particular branded documentaries, one thing I’ve rediscovered is the magic that comes from thinking on your toes – shooting something because it feels right, and having the freedom to do so. I was granted an unusual degree of freedom to pursue this ever-elusive thing we call branded content, not only from the creatives at King James, but also from the production house backing – Arcade Content (a division of Egg Films). We like to think this freedom paid off, both in the numbers and in the awards.
Often without a script, but with a firm idea of what the essence of the idea is, you have to be fully aware of what’s going on, listen to every word that is being said, and actively follow the story where it leads, every step of the way. This notion of leaving much of the story up to chance, right from the get go, is naturally a rather risky endeavour. But if undertaken with that clear, collective grasp on the central idea, it gives birth to a sense of realism and sincerity that traditional advertising will never be able to recreate.
Gradually building a story, piece by piece, as it unravels, is both exciting and terrifying – not too dissimilar to the excitement and terror of making a film. You’re very awake, very focused, and constantly calculating how everything will fit together in the end. It takes a lot of courage for both agencies and clients to give creatives and directors this much freedom. There are no storyboards, no massive PPMs covering every intricacy of every element, there’s just an endless conversation throughout the production that ensures we stay true to the core idea and create something that people will engage with. That’s it.
That being said, I find there’s still a misconception about what exactly branded content is. Many people see it as making cheap ads, but cheap ads are exactly that: traditional ads that are shot on lower budgets, yet are somehow still expected to look like multimillion rand commercials.
Branded content is something rather different; it requires a different mind-set. Its sole purpose is to create something, anything, that people will choose to watch and then consciously or subconsciously associate with a brand. I know this will be grating for some people to hear, but achieving this often involves giving freedom to filmmakers to do what they’ve been trained to do – tell stories.
Although this may have started in many ways, with people such as Sanlam and King James, I hope that bold clients and agencies will keep learning to trust filmmakers, to give them more chances to grab hold of the wheel and guide not only the look and tone of a film but, most importantly, its story. Stories are what people have connected with for tens of thousands of years, and often stories, especially documentaries, can take on their own, better direction. We have to learn to be flexible and brave enough to follow that.
By Rob Smith, director of the multi-award-winning Sanlam ‘One Rand Man’ and ‘One Rand Family’ campaigns for King James…
