Neil Harris on Playground Politics

It's a tense time for British politics as the London mayoral race hots up and June's EU referendum continues to divide opinion as to whether the country should cut ties with the continent.

But for Smuggler director Neil Harris, the period has proved to be a window of opportunity after taking on a script from Creature of London for The Green Party's latest party political broadcast.

The amusing film sees five-year-old versions of the UK's big political characters appear in a playground as they discuss and debate over what's best for the country. Below, Harris (pictured at age five, above) talks about working with the mighty miniatures as well as revealing his own opinion on what 'Brexit' means for the production industry.

Why did the Green party’s campaign appeal?

When the idea can be explained in one sentence and that sentence instantly captures your imagination, you know you’re onto a winner. And when I met the guys at Creature and their intention was evidently to make this as funny as possible you get even more of a buzz.

They say you should never work with children or animals – was that a worry before arriving on set?

My biggest fear was having one or two of them drop out during the child Licensing period and then not having a backup for the role. That would have royally screwed things up as each character was so specific. Actually working with them on set was brilliant because it was so frenetic - we only had 45 minutes per scene, two cameras running continuously and a stopwatch on each kid of just three hours for the day. It helped focus the mind.

What was it like directing kids to perform not only an adult script, but a political and well-spoken one?

They obviously didn’t have a clue what they were talking about so it was a case of feeding them a line and then having them repeat it to one of their cohorts. To make it vaguely understandable, we’d brief them about an ‘imaginary friend’ called Jeremy who everyone was mean to - something they readily got into. Sad, but true.

It’s obviously a topical campaign with the election at the start of May. Did you ever think you’d be directing a party political broadcast and did you have to push aside your personal loyalties during the process?

I’d never seen a script for a PPB and didn’t even know that Agencies handled them. So it was quite a surprise to not only receive one but also one with such a strong creative idea at its core. And I don’t have any personal loyalties; I work in advertising.

Political campaigns have taken more of a creative approach in recent years, why do you think that is?

It’s a perennial problem, isn’t it? That no one generally watches them on TV - most people barely make it past the channel announcer before switching over. Turning at least some of it into entertainment is actually a very novel idea - the messages on YouTube attested to that fact and even if people didn’t like the final Green Party message then they still watched the whole thing - a feat in itself.

How effective do you think the humour and concept can be for a party? Can they actually win votes with creative messages or are they simply taken as entertainment by the viewing public?

It’s very tricky to judge. The recent UKIP Brexit song (with ‘humorous’ lyrics sung to the tunes of Three Lions) is actually so bad it’s hugely entertaining. But for all the wrong reasons. However I’m sure the people who vote for them will see it as satire of the highest order.

What was your favourite part of directing this campaign?

To be honest, all of it. We could be spontaneous with what we shot and ad-lib lines where we found it appropriate, so long as we stuck to the core message of each scene. Normally you try and bend the actor’s performance to the script, in this case we allowed the script to be somewhat dictated by their ability or even what words they couldn’t pronounce. Actually, my favourite scenes were Liz and Tim talking to camera, sitting on a chair. They came up with so much random stuff that everyone was crying with laughter. Shame we had to edit it down.

And what character is your personal favourite and why?

Definitely Liz, Played by Ava Masters. She was so earnest in her appearance but could switch in an instant to play this evil alter-ego. Really impressive in one so young, and also quite scary.

Finally, do you think the creative industry would be better off in or out of the European Union coming at the question from a director and production company’s point of view rather than a personal one?

I think it would be shit for us all. We all currently benefit from working abroad and also bringing in talented directors from other countries. Imagine if you had to get a Visa to work in the EU or production companies were subject to trade embargoes… The UK is a great melting pot of talent whether it be agency creatives, directors or actors. Anything that restricts access to that talent is a retrograde step in my view.