On My Radar: Ben Liam Jones

What’s the best ad campaign you’ve seen recently?

It was a while ago but like everyone else I was blown away by Spike Jonze’s spot for Kenzo (My Mutant Brain). More recently the Médecins du Monde spot by Emily Kai Bock [below] was beautifully done. I wish I made that.

What website(s) do you use most regularly and why?

I’ve become a Pinterest addict creating boards for every project I work on... and ideas for the kitchen renovation. I’ve got so many lighting, composition and general cinematography references that I’ll never have an original idea again.

What’s your favoured social media platform?

Twitter, so I can keep up with all the Arsenal transfers that don’t happen.  

What’s your favourite app on your phone?

I blame Uber for me gaining weight. And Cadrage is a great mobile director’s viewfinder that I couldn’t imagine working without.

What’s your favourite TV show and why?

I just finished watching The Night Of, which was incredible. I like ambiguous storytelling and ideas that let an audience interpret and come to their own conclusions. But of all time? The Office. I must use a quote from The Office at least once a day.

What film do you think everyone should have seen and why?

Up. That married life montage is a storytelling master class. Evoking such emotion without a spoken word is a reminder that cinema is a visual medium.  

Where were you when inspiration last struck?

Playing FIFA online. It occurred to me that I should be doing more with my life.

What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed in the industry since you started working in it?

The birth of agency in-house production. I actually think it gives young directors more opportunities and for a certain type of work it makes total sense to me. But when it goes beyond content or into the higher budget stuff it really stands out as being sub-standard.     

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

Treatments are out of control! Sometimes they can hit 40-50 pages and they cost more money to produce than most people realise. It was refreshing to recently hear a creative team ask for a five-page treatment, basically because they couldn’t be bothered to read much more. Asking around I actually think it’s the client who enjoys these monster booklets.  

What or who has most influenced your career and why?

My mum. She was a mature student studying multimedia. I dropped out of school in the last year and learnt to make films using the equipment at her university. From there I got the bug and went to college and uni to study film.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know.

I’m now represented by StrangeLove and I’m very good at self-marketing.