Films and Scripts

I’ve written scripts for campaigns, including animation and film, for both B2C and B2B audiences. I’ve helped:

banking customers recognise and understand scams
gamers feel part of their favourite franchises
football fans avoid ticket touts
young investors appreciate the value of experience
media buyers spot new opportunities

and other audiences engage with clear, purposeful brand messages across entertainment, finance, sport, tech, healthcare and education.

My approach to scripts

Like all writing, it’s all about the audience. I focus on delivering the message in a way that people are open to – whether that means being funny and irreverent or more formal and direct. Understanding who I’m writing for, what they care about, and why the message matters is what makes a script work.

You can see more of the films I’ve worked on by visiting my Vimeo page here.

Barclays – helping customers spot a scam in entertaining ways

The challenge: There’s so much information about identifying and avoiding scams that we’ve all become blind to it. The challenge here was to deliver that same information in a fresh way, one that customers would actually enjoy engaging with. Educate and entertain – and not necessarily in that order.

The thinking: If customers enjoyed watching the films, I believed they would be more likely to share them, helping the messages reach far and wide. Each film paid homage to a different style of film making, so the audience would find each film visually interesting, as well as educational and entertaining.

The outcome: From the Peep Show look of The Courier Scam to the CCTV stylings of The Distraction Fraud and the menacing monologue of The CEO Impersonation Fraud, the films were:

seen by almost 2 million people in the first three months
covered by news sites, including The Independent
nominated for The Drum’s DADI Award in the Financial Services category.

This anti-fraud film challenged the viewer to play detective and spot the crime in progress. This ensured viewers stayed engaged, and by learning how the crime was committed, protected themselves from it. A reveal at the end helps those people who didn't catch all the finer details of this scam.

The battle against scams and fraud continues. The script I wrote here turns the camera on the fraudster, and highlights that they're organised, determined and professional - exactly what you'll need to be to avoid becoming a victim.

The Premier League – changing ticket-buying behaviour

The challenge: The Premier League was looking to tackle ticket touts (try saying that quickly three times!), and encourage fans to buy tickets from official resellers.

The thinking: We realised fans were so desperate to see their team play, they would happily overlook the risk of buying tickets from strangers. The risk/reward balance was skewed because of the promised reward. We needed to open their eyes to how much risk they were actually taking.

The outcome: I came up with the parallel that touts were trying to trick their fans out of their money. This led to the creation of a series of films in which TV magician Ben Hanlin (in the guise of a Premier League official) performed close-up, match-themed magic on unsuspecting fans – a way to demonstrate how easy it is to trick somebody when they’re unprepared.

These were supported by films made with Liverpool players at the team’s training ground. The aim was to use the players’ celebrity status to help our message penetrate further.

CAPCOM, Resident Evil – giving players a reason to care

The challenge: Populate the alternative-reality campaign I created with video content that would trigger an online treasure hunt.

The thinking: This campaign needed to feel genuinely part of the bizarre world of Resident Evil and must tap into its long history of characters and lore.

The outcome: An online Umbrella insider had hidden sensitive material about the evil corporation. Each week the insider released a video clue leading to a hidden piece of this information detailing leading figures, events and locations from the franchise.

Using real sites and specially-created ones, while avoiding red herrings and detection, fans had to try and track down this hidden info. Communities sprang up, working with and against each other to solve the mysteries – and dominant personalities from this community also found themselves part of the campaign’s final stages…

One of a series of video clues I wrote as part of a huge multi-channel online treasure hunt to promote the CAPCOM game Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.

A video clue from deep into the campaign for this game. Would the community be able to find the answer hidden somewhere online?

CAPCOM, Dead Rising 2 – bringing a game’s central mechanic to life

The challenge: Come up with compelling video content to illustrate the unique side of Dead Rising 2.

The thinking: As part of a multi-pronged campaign, I created a group of survivors who lived on their ‘wits’, taping everyday objects together to create mega-weapons to help them survive against the zombie hordes. Rather than just focus on the taping mechanic of the game, I wanted to create characters who would fit with the humour of the game itself, something also unique to this franchise.

The outcome: I wrote and helped cast a series of short comedy films that took Friends and Wayne’s World as inspiration and showed the kind of manic existence a zombie apocalypse might trigger.

The Bacocopter - part of a series of films I wrote to promote Dead Rising 2. The series focused on four friends trapped in a basement in the middle of a zombie outbreak. Going stir crazy, the four came up with a range of homemade zombie-killing weapons, and tested them. Why? Because creating weapons with tools and tape is the focus of the game itself. Much mayhem ensued.

Animations – explaining, educating and inspiring

The challenge: Use animation to pass on (sometimes complex) messages to audiences. Keep those audiences engaged from beginning to end.

The thinking: With animation, everything’s possible. So for each of these short films I wanted to ensure that the messages were accompanied by a sense of wonder, a sense of humour or just the unexpected to keep the audience watching.

The outcome: I’ve worked on the concept, script and storyboards for many animations in multiple sectors, including:

an internal film for Barclays based on Tron visuals and explaining a CMS development
an online speed-reading test designed to bring SSD speeds to life
a set of animations exploring bizarre money myths for Old Mutual Wealth
a series of films for the English Cricket Board aimed to help fans manage their drinking during matches at The Ashes series.

A film I wrote for Barclays to help excite its teams about an upgrade to their content management systems. The concept was that all these diverse content streams would converge to become something that was much simpler to organise and manage. And that gave me the excuse to use the Tron lightcycles as an inspiration!

One of a series of digital ads which presented SSD speed as something applicable to the real world. Read along if you can.

One of three light-hearted animations created to appeal to a new and younger Facebook audience. The idea was that if you weren't seeking financial advice, you may as well be catching bubbles on your spoon, finding spiders or smiling at bats.

A voiceover for an animation that warned cricket fans of the dangers of over indulging. Jonathan Agnew provided the clout the film needed to show that it was coming from the cricket establishment, not the fun police. The film played at grounds during The Ashes, and was seen on Sky Sports' coverage.

Sky Media – a proof of concept case study

The challenge: Come up with an engaging and exciting narrative to frame a story about a revolutionary new approach to media sales.

The thinking: The stats were the key point of this case study, so we devised a simple story that stretched from initial TV ad through to eventual home delivery. The dynamism would come from the way we told that story.

The outcome: I wrote a script that combined stats and facts, delivered with a combination of voiceover, graphics and Argos products.