The ad, Beaten, for charity, CRY, was made on a £10k grant. Remember this story before you whinge about the small budget your next campaign has been given.

BBH’s TVC for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) isn’t left of centre. It’s true to life. A fit young man collapses on the football field, suffers a cardiac arrest and dies. Yes, of course, the ad is given much of its power by the fact that real life is more shocking then fiction, but listen closely to the sound.

Much of the ad’s oomph was created by the teamwork between Steve Lane from Grand Central Recording Studios and BBH’s assistant producer, David Lynch.

Each has his own story about that. This is Lynch’s: 

“I knew about CRY through a friend who was helped by them in the past. I wrote a script and showed it to my then producer, Ruben Mercadal. He said I should run with it. As I’m an assistant TV producer and not a creative, I sought help from two of BBH’s best creative directors, Nick Kidney and Kevin Stark. To my surprise they were of the same opinion as Ruben and said if I ever get the chance to make it, they would love to mentor me through it.

“On the 11th November 2013 I saw an email titled ‘Black Sheep Charity Grants – REMINDER’. I hadn’t seen the initial ‘Black Sheep Charity Grants’ email so I read through this as fast as I could. It explained that BBH employees could apply for a charitable grant for a charity of their choice and that the winning applications would be awarded between £5K – £15K. In the application, you needed to submit where the money would go and how you would personally contribute to the charity in 2014. I said I would use the money as a production budget, and that I would contribute my blood, sweat and tears to the charity in 2014 to make them a film. Winners were announced at the BBH Christmas Company Meeting last year and I was awarded £10K. I couldn’t speak for about 5 minutes after.

“Some people asked whether I was going to direct the advert myself, but I felt being the creative and producer was enough and that I needed to put this film in the hands of a professional. I had worked with Park Pictures that year and its executive producer, Stephen Brierley, liked the script and suggested the incredibly talented AG Rojas as a director. I couldn’t believe someone of his calibre would be interested, but the script really appealed to him. He has a rare ability to create a sports film that conveys a very real, raw and emotive narrative.

“AG Roja recruited Mattias Rudh as our director of photography and Eddie McClements as our sports choreographer. The trio really was a force to be reckoned with on our one day shoot at the London Scottish Rugby Grounds.

“My £10K production budget only covered our shoot, so I needed to ask for some free help with the back end of the job. I owe a massive thank you to the following people. Steve Lane was our sound engineer from Grand Central Recording Studios and he produced the back bone of the film, the sound was so important and he created a mix that exceeded expectation. Dominic Leung at Trim Editing had worked with AG before and is a huge supporter of CRY UK. He did a fantastic job in the edit suite. Brad Wood at The Mill was over the post production and he laboured for hours cleaning up shots and inputting crowd where needed. Finally, a massive thank you to the legend that is Pete Raeburn and Soundtree Music for composing a beautiful track that heightened our sound design perfectly.”

And this is Lane’s:

“When David approached me to work on the project with him, I was really excited by the concept and could feel it was going to be a very powerful piece of work.  As David says, sound is the ‘backbone’ of this film and I wanted to make sure I got the mix just right.

“When working on a piece that raises real life issues – in this case sudden cardiac death in the young – it’s important to be as true to life as possible, but in a way that is powerful.

“The sound challenge for me was creating a heartbeat that was both loud and realistic – something that’s not that easy.  There are a number of big climaxes to the spot and it was important for the sound to work with the visuals to create tension at each of them.

“I wanted to give the audience the feeling of being right in the middle of the action, so when they reach the ending it feels both realistic and shocking.

“I’m very proud to have been involved in bringing this very important issue to the wider audience.  Advertising isn’t usually about saving lives, this message is.”

Creative Credits:

BBH creative: David Lynch

BBH creative directors: Nick Kidney & Kevin Stark

BBH producer: David Lynch

BBH co-producer: Jeremy Gleeson

Production company: Park Pictures

Director: AG Rojas

Executive producer: Stephen Brierley

Producer: Sophie Hubble

DoP:  Mattias Rudh

Post production: Brad Wood @ The Mill

Editor/editing house: Dominic Leung @ Trim Editing

Sound: Steve Lane @ Grand Central Recording Studios

Music composer: Pete Raeburn @ Soundtree Music