Cris Mudge on Why Good Ideas Bridge the North-South Divide

Last month, northern indie production company Chief announced the opening of its new London office and the promotion of director Cris Mudge as the office’s new executive producer. Chief has its origins in Manchester and has thrived in the Media City since 2002, when the company was founded.

Cris has worked within the UK advertising industry for over 20 years, and directed through Chief for over 10. With his move to the London office and his new role as executive producer (EP), his aim will be to represent the company’s wide range of directors in the South of England. Within Chief and as part of his previous role in the company, Cris brought his own creative vision to the scripts that he was working on. However, as an EP, he will now be looking to find, create and oversee projects with other Chief directors, while also helping them with their own creative path.

About the expansion towards the capital, Colin Offland, CEO and EP, said in the initial press release: “We’re excited about the new London office as it gives us even more access to agencies in the capital that want the advantages of working with a nations and regions based production company. We can continue bringing them our talent, vision and services that they’d only find in the north. I started my career in London so I’m looking forward to us being closer to existing and new London agencies.”

Cris’ experience has been mainly behind the camera, so now he says he is looking forward to ‘putting down the viewfinder’ and being able to approach projects from a fresh perspective as an EP. “It will be great to work with Chief’s other directors as well, and to help them bring their creative vision to screen in the most successful way possible,” he says. 

His interest in the creative industry and perhaps the first inkling that he would one day join it, can be traced back to his studies. During his university years he studied graphic design and specialised in typography and printmaking, but later on he says he “got seduced by the allure of the moving image.” Soon enough, he became a runner at a TV and film production company, after which he got asked to join Tony Kaye Films. His role there was pretty limited, as he was at first meant to only answer the phone at the office. “I actually ended up not leaving for seven years,” he says. “After working with Tony, I was hooked.”

After this initial spark, Cris’ career took many turns, each of them for the better. He moved on to directing at Outsider, The Mustard Film Company, Thomas Thomas Films, You Are Here Productions and more, while freelancing on the side. His collision with Chief came due to his proximity to Chief’s CEO, Colin, with whom Cris worked in the earlier days of his career in Miami. “We were dropping naked men and bathtubs out of the sky. It was a great film and was on my reel for well over a decade,” reminisces Cris. “Prior to that I had been a freelance producer for a number of years, working on projects both here and abroad before I started directing myself.”

When he first encountered them, Chief were in a small office in the northern quarter of Manchester, with only a handful of staff. “Over 20 years later, they’ve grown to become a large and self-sufficient production company at the heart of Media City,” reflects Cris. “They have their own studio, their own post production department, and have produced a huge range of films from features, to promos, to content.” Cris adds that he will forever be impressed by Chief’s endless energy and that this is one of the pillars of its culture that will never change, regardless of the location. 

Looking back on his career, one of the projects he’s most proud of is the work he did for bet365, with which he worked several times over the years. Remembering why the campaigns were so important to him, Cris says, “They grew to become very technical and beautifully crafted pieces of work, involving huge CGI builds and some of the world’s most famous actors.” 

He continues, “Working with actors of the calibre of Ray Winstone and Samuel L. Jackson was an absolute pleasure, plus I got to learn all about CGI from some of the very best VFX artists in the business.”

Shifting his look towards Chief’s southern expansion, Cris comments that the company has been getting an increasing amount of work from outside of Manchester, “with a lot of that coming from London itself.” He continues, “We wanted to be able to look after this work more closely and efficiently, as well as establish a stronger presence in the capital city. Many of the agencies we work with now are part of larger networks and have offices across the UK. An office in London seemed to be the natural progression for us.”

Cris himself has lived in London all his life, but his work spans agencies and creatives from all over the country. “I’ve worked with great Welsh creatives in Scotland, great Scottish creatives in England, and great creatives from the north that live and work in the south.” Although the cultural divide of north and south in the country is still prominent - not only in popular culture and public discourse, but also translating to divisions in various industries, - Cris doesn’t believe that this should be a barrier to good work.

“A good idea in London is still a good idea in Manchester,” he says. “It’s just how and where it’s told that is different.” And although the way in which ideas might be communicated in London has its very specific hue, Cris hopes to be making films that actually celebrate the diversity of people across the country, not deepen the rifts between them. Even in comedy, which is widely known to differ greatly between southerners and northerners, Cris knows that “from Peter Kay to Johnny Vegas to Sean Bean, humour and regionality should always be celebrated in advertising.” That, to him, is a way to highlight the positive aspects of our differences. “The world would be a very dull place if we were all the same,” he adds.

In terms of challenges in this new branch of Chief, and the scariest ones that lie ahead, Cris reminds himself that the mantra of the company has always been that they love nothing more than rising to a good challenge. “I guess that my main aim is to keep doing exactly the same and to continue to produce films that exceed everyone’s expectations.”