Pro Hello: Joseph Morel

Joseph Morel is an award-winning writer and director based in Soho, London. Born and raised in Gravesend, he studied film production and screenwriting at the University of Chichester before launching a successful directing career. His work spans collaborations with major international brands, including Netflix, Lenovo, Sony and HSBC.

Dedicated to human storytelling, Joseph highlights the experiences of real people, capturing their triumphs and struggles with a singular goal: to reduce net suffering in the world, whatever it takes.

Today, Joseph shares his journey so far.

What do you do, and where are you based?

I'm a film director and based at 57 Greek Street in Soho, just above Trisha's Jazz Club.

What recent campaigns might we know you from, and what was your input on these campaigns?

The big one recently is the Film and TV Charity ad. Myself and my co-writer Mark Wollon came up with the idea from scratch, then I had the pleasure of directing it.

Tell us about your journey so far.

I have always loved to entertain and create worlds. Whether it was magic shows, writing short stories or designing entire worlds in 'Minecraft'. I loved creating experiences for people and imagining their reactions. Film was the natural extension of this for me, so I went to study it at uni.

It was only later on -- after a much darker phase of my life -- that I began to take the purpose of film much more seriously. It became very difficult for me to create work on whim or entertainment for entertainment's sake. I started to make films with deeper meanings that could potentially make a difference in the world.

What projects / campaigns that you’ve been involved in have been the most personally satisfying to work on, and why?

Genuinely the Film and TV Charity ad. It seems like the accumulation of the last five years. All the connections I've made, the crew I've been loyal to, and the skills I've learned. I couldn't have made this film one year ago, let alone five.

What’s been your proudest achievement?

Pulling myself back from a very deep depression many years ago. I was very close to the edge and it took me a while to come back from it.

What do people (clients, agencies etc) come to you for specifically?

I’d hope it’s because I care about truth. About morality. About what the film means, not just how it looks. There’s no point making something if it doesn’t try, even a little, to reduce the suffering in the world. I get that there’s space for comedy, escapism, product shots. But when you strip it all back, why are we even here? Why do we bother getting up in the morning? I think there has to be some deeper purpose beyond chasing money or likes. If we’re going to throw everything into a film, it should go as deep as possible.

What are your strongest opinions relating to your specific field?

That you can’t direct without purpose. I honestly don’t get it. Why spend months, sometimes years, making something just for the sake of it? You’ve got one of the most powerful tools on earth in your hands, you can make people feel, change the way they see things, shift something inside them. Why waste that? We live in a brutal world. There’s loneliness, pain and death everywhere. So what do we do in the face of that? Pretend it’s not there? Trivialise it? No. We fight to make the most meaningful, truthful thing we can.

Yes, money’s part of the game. But once you're past survival mode, what then? More money to make more money to make more money. At a certain point you've got to look at the absurdity of it and realise there must be a deeper point to it all.

What sort of projects really get you excited at the moment?

Anything with people. Human behaviour, emotion, struggle. I don’t care about static objects or slick product shots. I want to get under the skin of something real and truthful.

Who are your creative heroes, and why?

John Cassavetters, I absolutely love. You watch the films he directed and you genuinely can't watch another film the same afterwards. The acting is more real than real life. Also how he got into directing, fighting for years just to get a chance, handcuffing himself to radiators at studios until they hired him as an extra.

I think with how competitive the market is today -- with shrinking jobs -- making good work isn't enough. You have to be relentless in your promotion. He embodies the genuinely free yet disciplined and determined artist that you have to be in this world.

Outside of the day job, what fuels your creativity?

Cooking. I love making things from scratch. It's like living a fantasy, at the start of every week you can literally pick any dish from anywhere in the world and then make it during the week. Who wouldn't want to do that? It's the most exciting thing.