Source Creative Interviews - Jake Dypka

To be chosen as one of the artists in Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Directors Showcase is quite an accolade. However, to then be singled out to make the following year’s opening film is pretty much the heftiest pat on the back from the industry a filmmaker could ask for. Yet with his shorts ‘Embarrassed’ and ‘Pink Or Blue’, Independent / Indy8’s Jake Dypka proved himself not only a charmer of creative bigwigs, but also an accidental creator of a viral sensation.

Developed for the UK’s Channel 4 series ‘Random Acts’, ‘Embarrassed’ saw Dypka team up with poet Hollie McNish to visualise her impassioned statement on the trials of breastfeeding in public. After airing on the channel, the film took on a life of its own on Facebook, regularly reposted by people suffering the same indignity and recognising their voice in Hollie’s. In 2016 it was featured as one of that year’s Saatchi & Saatchi New Director Showcase picks, which in turn led to…

2017’s S&S team contacting Jake directly and commissioning a second collab with McNish, this time based around the concept of gender identities and with an entirely original performance piece. The twist – eyeglass technology would allow the viewer to see the ‘Pink’ or 'Blue’ imagery over the same soundtrack.

We thought both executions were outstanding, so grabbed hold of Jake between jobs and sat him down to chat about his relationship with Hollie, his connection to the pieces and how technological gimmicks can make for interesting storytelling choices.