Emma Daines Named Jury President for Production and Post-Production and Music Video

This year, Emma Daines is taking over the reins as the 2024 jury president for Production & Post-Production and Music Video. No stranger to producing award winning work, Emma is the founder, CEO and executive producer who started Fin Design + Effects Sydney. Emma and her 10-member jury, from top Production as well as Post-Production houses, and agencies in the world, will see every piece of work submitted, as all judging will be done onsite, with no offsite pre-judging, for absolute fairness and transparency.

The world of advertising awards was built around celebrating the idea, not the execution. But, today the way in which ads are made is so advanced, and the ideas so reliant upon creating the impossible, it takes many individual skills and expertise to make each campaign a reality.

Barbara Levy, president of LIA said, “If production and post-production companies want to bring home, in the words of Ogilvy Germany’s Stephan Vogel, ‘one of the most spectacular and most prestigious statues you can ever have on your shelf,’ it’s up to them to enter the work they created into the Production and Post-Production categories.”

It has been 25 years since Guinness “Surfer” made its debut on television. Counted among UK’s best commercials by Channel 4, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and ITV, the TVC combines elements from Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’, Walter Crane’s painting ‘Neptune’s Horses’, and a dance track ‘Phat Planet’ by Leftfield.

“And the drummer hit the beat with all his heart.”

The filming itself, not to be too dramatic, was a matter of risking life and limb. The cameramen were hanging off speedboats and boards. The scenes were shot with big cameras and big waves. But It’s not just the giant swirling waves. It’s all the details – white horses, the weathered surfer with a missing tooth and the muffled drum beat that synced with the blood pounding in your head as you watched in anticipation. Every element – the script, the visuals, the absence of colour, the raw appeal, the music, the pace, the casting, the direction – all fit together. Like a perfectly coloured-matched Rubik’s cube.

Top creative people have called this ad a masterclass in originality, craft and entertainment. The product truth was executed in a way that was groundbreaking.

But it wouldn’t have happened if the agency, production and post-production and music people didn’t “take the drop”, as they say in surfing. Taking the drop happens in everyday life. Just as a surfer needs to make a decision on when to drop into a wave – too late and the wave will be too steep; too early and the surfer will stand and miss the wave – to know when to seize an opportunity before it is missed.

It is no exaggeration that since the production and airing of that commercial, the agency and production house have been helped by the success of this piece of work. They have risen to the top of their game. Guinness ‘Surfer’ won more awards that any other in 1999.

Entry system closes on 30th August, 2024.