Adam Young’s Commitment to Storytelling, Healthy Working Conditions, and Manchester
Adam Young, founder and director at Paper Sky Films, a UK-based full-service production company, started shooting films when he was seven years old. At the time, nobody took his hobby seriously, especially in the working-class world where he grew up. So, understandably, Adam had no idea that video production existed as a career aspect, up until his university days when a tutor of his recognised Adam’s passion for storytelling and steered him into the ‘right direction’.
“Moving along the timeline of my life and career, my first ‘professional job’ was a full-time role where I served six years as an all-round producer for a nationwide charity production company, making two short films a month,” says Adam. To him, that was his ‘real’ film school as well as the place where he started learning the basics of the business side of the industry.
However, as the years went on, he explains he began to outgrow his role. “I increasingly felt frustrated and incredibly restricted,” the director shares. So, one thing led to another and after a bit of soul searching, he decided to fast-track a lifelong ambition of his - starting his own production company. “Since I was outside of London and the creative opportunities that I hungered for were far and few in between, I thought it was the best road to travel down. To take my career into my own hands and finally do things my way.” And that’s how it’s been ever since.
Adam infused all parts of the company with his own ambition and valuable lessons he had picked up thus far. Whilst coming up with the name, he remembered an unfinished script for a film he wrote previously - Paper Sky. Although he admits the film isn’t his favourite work, he loved the name, so it fit perfectly.
Naturally, for the first five years the path of Paper Sky was quite rocky, as with many new companies. “You’re flying high one moment and fighting for survival the next - whether it’s a worldwide pandemic, keeping the books balanced as every challenge is thrown under your feet, trying to prove your mettle to the gatekeepers, bouncing back from bloodied setbacks, finding new ways to step up your game after finishing the last project.”
He continues, “In the grand scheme of things, the production company is still a baby. But a resilient one at that.”
The challenges that a ‘baby company’ faces don’t always come down to money, but very often they do, says Adam. “One of the harder realities of trying to start your own company is that you need ‘capital to gain capital’ and when you incept a business out of nothing, it can be brutal.” He says that he made ends meet by being a gun-for-hire with other production companies, which was not only an opportunity to pay the bills, but also to learn and observe how others are going about what they do best. Another challenge he mentions is the never-ending cycle of ‘speculate to accumulate,’ developing your own opportunities, to then open yourself up for bigger opportunities.
“Beyond that,” he says, “you just hammer those pitches and treatments in hopes that one person sees something in you to entrust a production to you and then deliver to your best ability.” With the years, Adam believes he has gotten immensely better at trusting the process and rejection has been one of the things that helped him to do so. “It is a segue towards another juncture that somehow works out for the best - it’s a lot of cause and effect - you kind of lean into the happenstance and let the creative gods guide you where they may.”
Something that Adam doesn’t necessarily deem a hurdle, but definitely sees as one of the stepping stones of entering the industry on your own, is understanding the culture and changing it in accordance with your own beliefs. He knows there is still a long way to go, but remains optimistic that people are not accepting toxic working conditions anymore, as well as bullying, sexism, racism, misogyny, classism and general bigotry. “Once upon a time, that was ‘just how things are in this industry’ and you had to learn to grit your teeth, accept it and deal with it. But now folks are standing up for themselves and doing so in larger numbers.”
He continues, “I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes caused by stress thanks to a toxic boss. I’m sure many can relate when I say that my stomach would tie itself up in knots whenever I saw his name pop up in my inbox or my phone screen.” And although Adam originally saw himself as somebody who is quite resilient in stressful situations, he soon realised that you can’t run away from toxic work culture unless you curb it. “Despite our best efforts, the stress and anxiety gets stashed away somewhere internally and eventually it physically manifests itself in your body. It really woke me up to the power of bad culture and how it affects your mental and physical wellbeing - it was one of the bigger motivators to start my own company.”
Adam’s start in a working-class small town outside of Manchester gave him a lot to think about when it comes to how the industry can get better. “We need to widen that corridor of creative opportunities for those who can’t afford to take the financial risks of entering this industry, let alone not being able to live in London where many of the high-end productions originate,” he says.
“And we shouldn’t be creating those opportunities for the sake of box-ticking, positive PR, back-patting, tokenism, satiating a saviour complex, or whatever you want to call it. People have to mean it. Because there is a wealth of talent out there that won’t come anywhere close to touching distance of this world, which would greatly benefit from them being a part of it.”
So, after years of ups and downs, self-reflection and finding out the worst parts about the underbelly of the industry, Adam knows that the one thing he should be most proud of when it comes to Paper Sky is the principles the company stands on, particularly around culture, creativity, and the fulfilment of employees. “I want folks to feel valued and heard, yet pushed to be their best selves where they’re not dreading or resenting the job, but see healthy and exciting challenges where they share in the excitement and joy of what we’re developing together,” he explains.
“I do what I do because I love storytelling and creativity, despite the intensity, pressure and hardships. I’m strangely addicted to the buzz of a project coming to life step-by-step and how the trial and error process is all part of its creation. I want everyone else that I work with to feel the same way, and to be proud of their role in that project. I want them to be eager to come back for the next one,” Adam adds.
And when it comes to their choice of location - Manchester - Adam explains that there are a lot of upsides to ditching the capital for a more affordable place. Among other things, the tightly knit community of creatives, locations, resources, rental companies and studios is a great benefit to him and Paper Sky. “We’ve also got Liverpool on one side, Leeds and the rest of Yorkshire on the other, then the Lake District further north, the Midlands south, both of which being less than two hours drive. There is an immeasurable list of options and possibilities when putting a production together up in Manchester.”
He continues, “For a long time, we Northerners had quite a chip on our shoulder (it’s still there, just not as prominent) when it came to how London-centric everything was and that finding a job or project meant having to be there. There’s still more that can be done, but I’m so glad to see folks expanding their horizons a lot more and realising the potential that the rest of the country has to offer.” The founder also adds that especially after the pandemic, it is refreshing to see creatives being able to move out of the ‘eye-watering and agonisingly expensive’ London to a more livable city and work just as efficiently from there. “Thank goodness,” he adds jokingly.
“I’m proud of Manchester,” he continues, “It’s my home city and I love the community. The artistic and cultural spirit here is something that is indescribable and yet you feel it when you walk Manchester’s streets and meet its people.”
The work that Paper Sky produces is also something that reflects that incredible creative diversity of its home city. “I will name three of my favourite projects here, because in their own ways they demonstrate how Paper Sky Films can switch so swiftly between different formats, styles, moods and approaches.” The first one is the ‘Life is an Adventure’ animated short film series for Richard Branson/Virgin that the company produced, directed and animated. The 12 short films depict a moment in Richard Branson’s life or career, where he had to take a crazy risk or venture. “Some paid off, but most didn’t quite get where he was hoping to go. All of which were to demonstrate to its young target audience that failure is often what happens when we take big chances, but taking them is what is most important,” Adam explains.
Another one he gives an honourable mention is the ‘Breathe’ music video for Grace Davies. “This one was less about the video and more about how miraculous it was that we pulled it off with the schedule and budget that we had. We won the pitch on Friday and they wanted to shoot the following Wednesday with hopes of delivery for the Monday after, so everything - from the studio, the crew, the kit, the lot - was all sourced within a 24-hour period.” And while the production was ‘plagued’ by setbacks and problems, with the team having less than five hours to shoot, the project came together beautifully.
The last project Adam speaks about is the short documentary ‘Something to Say’. “We often reach out to individuals or organisations who are trying to raise awareness for issues that we feel need to be discussed,” he says. “In this instance, we reached out to Jeremy Indika, who is a survivor of sexual abuse as a child, who uses his story to open up a conversation about abuse towards minors and enabling healthy dialogue that works towards prevention. Wherever we find ourselves as a production company, that is one aspect that we will always endeavour to uphold: Stories with important messages that change the world for the better or help others with their own lives.”
So there we have it - a director-led production company with incredible scope that cares about the stories it tells. But how, you might wonder, does a ‘director-led’ production company differ from a regular production company. “For me, as arty-farty as it all sounds,” starts Adam, “It’s the excitement a director feels from the initial idea itself and maintaining that buzz through every stage of the creative process; riding high on the ‘vision’ and the ‘possibility’ of each project that comes our way.” And although Adam admits to being less ‘business-minded’ than many other production company founders, that doesn’t bother him too much, as he sees himself as a creative first, and a ‘business owner’ second. “The latter was a necessity to spur on the former,” he adds.
“Personally speaking, my goal from day one was to develop a creative identity around every single project that Paper Sky Films produces, to the extent that each production carries a sort of creative fingerprint, which makes everything click together seamlessly on the company’s body of work in terms of quality, principles and storytelling.”
And although the company is committed to weaving their creative DNA through all projects that they pick up, they are reluctant to put themselves in a box. This is why they have been recently developing concepts and scripts for scripted TV drama, despite these endeavours often having an unpredictable trait to them.
“Paper Sky Films is proud of the fact that we reduce to being put in a box; from the beginning, we were advised to ‘stick to one thing’. But we’re too excited and driven by all ideas in all formats and anyone like me would lose their minds if you were forced to stay in one lane,” says Adam. “We love to tell a story through a music video or unpack an issue with a documentary. We relish the chance to make brilliant advertising or luxuriate a tale through scripted drama. It’s all storytelling and in our opinion, each segue to one area teaches and influences the next project in another zone altogether. That’s why Paper Sky Films’ slogan is: Passionate About Possibility.”
