'Go Left When Everyone Goes Right' - A Creative Panel at Pitch & Sync

Thursday the 18th of May - Pitch & Sync HQ, Shoreditch: a sunny, temperate pre-summer evening with a select panel of some of London’s best creatives imparting industry insider wisdom to an audience of budding makers from both within and out of the world of creative agencies. 

Led by our own founder/director Alex Lavery, exec. producer Hannah Bellil (Prettybird, Stink Rising, Art Partner) & music video commissioner John Moule, and joined by special guests Joseph Delaney (Sort Studio/Aro Archive), independent director Margot Bowman, and Somesuch music video rep André Reid-McKinley. 

L-R: Alex Lavery; Hannah Bellil; John Moule.

Dodging the format of a stiff, academic-style panel, the free-flowing conversation touched on everything from the foundations of a strong creative career, seeking out like-minded creatives for the most synergistic relationships, right through to conveying a sense of authenticity around the subjects of a documentary. 

Between the early topic of isolation in the life of a director and John countering this with using isolation more as opportunity and time for reflection - you take what you learn from other people and process it for yourself in private - the group dished out wisdom and tips, not only for the audience, but each other as well. 

A particular shining nugget of conversation that reared its head through the evening was that, to put it bluntly, “everyone needs a basic friend” - Joe being quick to add these were, indeed, not his own words, rather those of said ‘basic’ friend! 

André took this a step further, noting that when directing his first rap video he used his “basic” friends as something of a litmus test for cliches, ratifying the decision to avoid ‘girls, money & cars’ and urging the importance of [“going left when everyone goes right”]. 

L-R: Margot Bowman; Joseph Delaney; André Reid-McKinley.

And perhaps there is truth in cliche - one of the strongest motifs being that it is paramount to simply seek out people you click with, Joseph pointing out that it is also not necessarily a question of who makes ‘good’ or ‘bad’ art in your mind.

On connecting with Because Music artist, Charlotte Dos Santos, Margot mentioned that simply thanks to their almost immediate camaraderie she won an album cycle’s worth of music videos without any need to pitch. 

The final, resounding note, however, was that for maintaining validity & authenticity in everything a creative does, the most important factor is being open to collaboration and constructive criticism, with André citing a specific instance in which he was given some creative input by a dancer on-shoot: they had turned up, they were being paid and committing physically to the project; their point surely mattered too. 

Especially in the world of documentary making Margot urged the importance of “participants being [...] the most important audience,” touching on her short film ‘Coming Home’ about the Freedom Dabka dance group, it was paramount that the film translated to external audiences - even going so far as to test screen it to friends’ children - but, more importantly, to Palestinian-Americans: the participants; the community the documentary is representing. A motif that can & should be applied across the board.

It was somewhere around this point that Andre quite rightly and diplomatically segued into the Q&A section - he was right; the discussion could have just as easily lasted all night.

We’d urge everyone to keep their eyes peeled for future Pitch & Sync events down the way - sign up to our mailing list & keep tabs on our socials. 

Don’t miss the next one.