Academy's Conkerco Shoot A 'Glance'

Academy's Conkerco Shoot A 'Glance'

It's often said that your life flashes before your eyes in moments of doom, but what of the moments of hopeful projection that come from catching the eye of a potential soul mate in the street. It's this theme of hypothetical romance that fuels the beautiful new short 'Glance' from Academy Films' directing duo Conkerco.




The pair, more famous for their commercial work including 'Glasses For Life' for Vision Express, 'Make The Most Of Summer' for McDonalds and 'Flipbook' for Motorola, decided to flex their creative muscles with a short-short (clocking in at under 3 minutes) that matches their familiar aesthetic stylings with a perceptive narrative familiar to all.

We chatted to the Conkers (Ben White and Chris Rule) about the film, the importance of creative freedom and telling a tale in a tiny timeframe.
 

The film seems to be a poetic study of the fleeting shared moment people occasionally have when passing in the street. When did you think that the concept could make a short? What was the scripting process?

The film was a response to a brief we set ourselves. We wanted to create a piece of film that was not only beautiful and cinematic, but also had characters believable emotional depth. This is a challenge in any film but we wanted to see if we could achieve it in two and a half minutes. So we needed a very simple linear arc for our structure and two strangers passing in the street is about as simple as it gets.

You're busy people - how did you fit in the shoot? Where were your locations?

It's important to us to be able to create work that is free from the restraints of the advertising world and a free expression of our own creative sensibilities. So we wrote it into our diary with indelible ink. The locations were:
Dagenham, Rainham marshes, Berners, Queen Alexandras House

Does your advertising pedigree help you with projects like this? Did you call in a few favours?

We are very lucky to be under the wing of Academy Films, who actively encourage the production of non-profit creative. And yes we were running on a lot of favours from a lot of amazing individuals to whom we are very thankful!

How important do you feel it is for filmmakers like yourselves to take time to make more personal films like this short? Does it help to showcase your range?

Our short films keep our creative work fresh. Each time we make a short film it pushes us allowing us to try out new visual ideas and express our own creative voice. We have always had personal projects that we dip into between commercials. They are great fun to work on and keep us creatively focused.
 

What is your intention when making a short like this? Festivals? Online presence? Do you have the attention spans of *cough* influential advertising people in mind?

Although we enjoy the increasingly challenging field of advertising we are always working within the confines a brands agenda. This film shows who we are as filmmakers …without the pack shot.

What's up next for you guys?

Other than various commercial projects, we have a very exciting idea based on dynamic motion that we hope to see realized in the next year.

Posted on 1st August 2013