Pip Smart: Smart Talk

Pip Smart, Revolver’s Executive Producer and Partner, has every right to feel proud. 

In Cannes, she’ll be presiding over the Film Craft Lions jury, returning to the French Riviera where the Sydney-based production company was awarded the Palme d’Or last year. “To win the Palme d’Or is not easy,” she says with truthful understatement. “I’m super-proud to be representing a small independent production company that employs just 14 people and is based in a country on the other side of the world. I’m proud to be leading the jury with that independent mindset.” 

Clever agencies can take a brand that’s been around for a long time and elevate it through craft in a way that really works for their business.

What will she bring to her jury presidency? “My ability to manage groups of people, making sure everyone has a voice and helping to move the conversation on in a productive, honest and genuine way. When you’ve absorbed yourself in the work and you start talking, the good entries naturally rise to the top.”

Above: Smart references KFC, through its work with agency Mother, as a brand that has reinvented itself through craft. 

She’s conscious that the Film Craft Lions don’t simply award the craft itself, but recognise great craft in service of a great idea. She cites Mother’s recent work with KFC as an example of a brand that has reinvented itself through investing in craft. “Clever agencies can take a brand that’s been around for a long time and elevate it through craft in a way that really works for their business. That’s not only deeply satisfying but also inspiring for other clients and other agencies. Fresh voices, points of view and originality will always stand out.”

As a producer or a director or a creative person, it’s hard to do good work until you find your voice. You also need to learn from great people. 

Recent work from the German DIY chain Hornbach through Heimat TBWA\ Berlin, she explains, is a case in point. Some of its recent films were directed by Revolver co-founder Steve Rogers, whose jovial tribute to life in cramped quarters, The Square Meter, took the 2024 Film Craft Lions Grand Prix. More recently, Hornbach’s No Project Without Drama was a multiple winner at the shots EMEA awards. “It’s not just one piece of Hornbach’s work; it’s the sensibility of all of it,” she explains. “There’s something about the humour of it that feels so European, and that appeals to me. They are great ideas that are beautifully crafted, and they’re fun and joyful.” 

Above: Smart champions Hornbach’s No Project Without Drama for its humour and craft.

From archaeology to advertising 

Smart never intended to be a producer. Having majored in archaeology, she took a journalism masters and was all set to make archaeology documentaries. Aged 23, she cut her teeth working with Michele Bennett at the now defunct Cherub Pictures. Cherub was having a moment thanks to the success of its prison flick Chopper. Archaeology took a back seat as Smart learned how to produce TV commercials, music videos and short films. Having met Revolver’s founders, Steve Rogers and Michael Ritchie, during an agency stint, she joined the company more than 16 years ago.  

I’m interested and slightly unnerved by what’s going to come in...

Early on in her career, she explained to her parents what TV commercials were: she had grown up in a house where the TV was permanently tuned to ABC Australia, the country’s ad-free public service broadcaster. “I didn’t even know creative advertising production was a job,” she admits. “Advertising wasn’t something I knew anything about or understood. Then I realised I could do it, and there were some great people doing it.” 

What did she learn from them? “There are two key parts to being successful. One is that you have to have your own voice and know who you are and do the work. The other is surrounding yourself with the very best people you can so you can learn from them. As a producer or a director or a creative person, it’s hard to do good work until you find your voice. You also need to learn from great people. Finding that balance is the challenge.” 

Above: Steve Rogers' spot The Square Meter for Hornback won the 2024 Film Craft Lions Grand Prix.

One project which saw Smart working shoulder-to-shoulder with some pretty highly regarded creative folk is Play It Safe. This four-minute, all-singing, all-dancing celebration marking 50 years of the Sydney Opera House in 2023 saw Smart collaborate with two fellow Australians: the director Kim Gehrig, and actor, comedian and songwriter Tim Minchin, who she describes as “an icon”. “That combination of Tim, Kim and the building… we all knew it was something we had to be involved with. It’s notoriously difficult to get Tim to do advertising and Kim is such a genius that I knew it would be a slam dunk from her.” 

It’s not that everything needs to be stop-motion to resonate, but there’s something about feeling the humanity in work that is actually going to be more powerful and important.

What was the shoot like? “The Sydney Opera House is the second most scheduled building in the world. We also had to fit in around the schedules of The Sydney Symphony Orchestra, The Australian Ballet, Bangarra Dance Theatre, and others. It was really hard but it was a wonderful place to be, in between all those incredible creative minds.” 

She adds: “Everyone wanted it to be great. Kim was staying with her parents some of the time, so we’d get the train in, have our coffee and go off to work in the Sydney Opera House.” Play It Safe won the Film Lions Grand Prix in 2024. 

Above: Smart collaborated with Kim Gehrig and Tim Minchin on Play It Safe for the The Sydney Opera House, which won the Film Lions Grand Prix in 2024.

In a world that’s becoming increasingly automated, there’s something inherently human about Play It Safe’s celebration of quintessentially human creativity. This year marks the first time that the Film Craft Lions will introduce an AI category. What does she make of that? “I’m interested and slightly unnerved by what’s going to come in,” she says. “Having judged the Film Craft Lions last year and seeing Telstra’s Better on a Better Network through Bear Meets Eagle On Fire win the Grand Prix, I saw people respond to the care and the craft and the handmade nature of that. It’s not that everything needs to be stop-motion to resonate, but there’s something about feeling the humanity in work that is actually going to be more powerful and important. Great work that feels like it’s made by a human – an imperfect, funny, clever human – is going to be at a premium.”

Quotas are necessary; industries have to commit to giving seats at the table.