On My Radar: Sam Pilling

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

I’m a big fan of Powerade’s latest spot Breaking Ankles. I think it’s a great example of a really good idea perfectly executed, and it’s just the kind of humour I love; wry and understated. The timing is impeccable, right down to the short moment of pause just before the shop-owner says, “careful now!”. I really like the fact that tonally it’s a bit different, both for the brand and for Daniel Wolfe.

The trend in sports-related commercials is to be overly epic and very serious and I think it’s interesting that both this and Nike’s Nothing Beats a Londoner have gone for a slightly lighter tone. From a visual stand-point the commercial looks great, including the flashback footage which feels really authentic. I also love the visual motif at the beginning with each shot slowly pushing in from wide to close.

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

Booooooom, Fubiz, Soundcloud, Tumblr, Vimeo, YouTube, Pitchfork, Wetransfer, pigeons and planes, Flickr, Dazed Digital, Yimmys Yayo, The Guardian, BBC Sport…

My general interweb time is spent perusing a combination of film trailers, art, photography, design, music, music videos and football. With a little bit of news and politics thrown in when I can stomach it.

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought and why?

I fiiiiiiiiinally bought a digital camera. I’m still married to my 35mm Pentax but I needed something to take decent location scout pics with (the iPhone doesn’t really cut it when it comes to client presentations).  At the advice of a friend I went for the Fuji x100F and I have to say I’m pretty in to it – the internal ND is a great little feature. 

What’s your favoured social media platform?

Must. Keep. Scrolling. Down.

What’s your favourite app on your phone?

I pretty much couldn’t function without Citymapper, but who am I trying to kid, it’s probably Instagram. I think I’ve got a bit of a problem. Somebody recently told me the average person scrolls the length of a football field on Instagram every day. I feel like I might be closer to two…

What’s your favourite TV show and why?

It feels controversial to say now, but the first season of House of Cards is spectacular. Everything from the characters, the acting, the cinematography, the production design, breaking the fourth wall… it’s just so damn good!

Season one of True Detective is another one. It’s the sort of thing I wish I’d made. Anything with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey in it has to be good, but I loved the mystery and intrigue, and the way the story unraveled through their interviews. The cinematography was pretty special too.

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

Embrace of the Serpent. Because it was poetic, magical, unexpected and moving.

Or Sexy Beast, which is quite frankly the best British movie ever made. With one of the most outrageous bad guys ever (Ben Kingsley as Don Logan) and one of the funniest introductions to a character too...

Where were you when inspiration last struck?

I can’t remember a specific time, but I love a bit of people-watching to get the creative juices flowing, so I’ll often take a bus ride through the city so I can ogle at passersby on the streets below.

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

It’s a slow-moving beast, but it’s good to see that the gender bias is slowly starting to shift. 

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

Apart from the gender bias, it would be good to see clients taking a few more risks. Brilliantly talented directors are often discounted from the bid-pool if they haven’t got a very specific thing on their reel. That being said, I feel like I’ve been very lucky with the agency teams and clients that I have worked with. They have always been very trusting and collaborative, and prepared to take a risk or two. But I’ve seen it go the other way a lot. 

What or who has most influenced your career and why?

I think one of the most influential things was being an on-set runner when I was in my last year of uni. It was my friend Tim’s idea, but we managed to get running work on some Colonel Blimp music video shoots. Watching a real production first hand was an invaluable experience. And helping out with all the different departments gave me a real insight into how a production actually runs.

It was a such eye opener in terms of the huge amount of people, energy and skill required in making one video happen. This experience helped inform my opinion that every person (or piece) of the production puzzle has to work together towards a common goal, and as such that every department of the production (big or small) is as important as the other.

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

I’m named after the writer Samuel Beckett