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The Work That Made Me in association withLBB
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The Work That Made Me: Barney Howells

22/05/2023
Production Agency
Alexandria, Australia
390
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Creative director at Hogarth Australia on the music video that has stuck with him and the work he's most proud of

Barney is a creative & production expert with 20 years of international experience. His career started in the UK as a director at Ridley Scott Associates and Partizan Entertainment.

Barney was co-founder of a successful Australian production company before he joined Sportsbet as Head of Creative Content Production.

At Sportsbet Barney developed an in-house team to grow and evolve a high performing creative function, built to execute in all disciplines at every point of the marketing funnel.

In 2020 he began working with in-housing consultancy firm Lution to bring creative roles closer to business objectives. Barney joined Hogarth in early 2021 in the creative leadership role to build and develop a high-performance strategic creative team.


The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Happy Monday’s “Wrote For Luck”.

The reason this has such a lasting impact is because six year old me is in this video. Shot in Manchester’s iconic Hacienda, this ended up being a scene in the seminal Madchester movie '24 hr party people'. Being a (little) part of the fabric of my hometown’s music culture is a point of pride. 


The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…

Two pieces here: Bjork “All is full of love” and Madonna “Music”.

Both of these videos were in post-production at my first ever industry job, as a runner at Glassworks London. 

I got two very different views of the industry through these pieces. The hugely conceptual artistry and craft that was being poured into the Bjork piece, led by the inimitable Chris Cunningham was contrasted by the painstaking frame by frame detail that was being applied to Jonas Akerlund’s Madonna video (her very peroxide hair had taken on bleed from a green screen and each strand was being meticulously rebuilt.)

From both of these experiences I learnt one thing. Best job in the room is the director. 




The creative work (film/album/game/ad/album/book/poem etc) that I keep revisiting…

Every script, treatment or idea that I have ever written has been done to Ry Cooder’s  soundtrack from the Wim Wenders film “Paris, Texas.” 

It’s entered into lucky undies terrain


My first professional project…

My first gig was to shoot a pickup shot for a massive AEG campaign. It was updating the featured product in a big brand ad to feature a dishwasher. A cat walks in front of it. That was it. 8hrs later and the cat managed the gargantuan task of walking the right way at the right time. A perfect intro to a career in advertising


The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…

I can’t find one, and shaming an individual piece feels like punching down, but when a trope or technique gets done to death, I find it infuriating. I’m looking at you flat-lay stop motion animation.


The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that still makes me jealous…

Roots Manuva “Witness the Fitness”.

Matt Kirkby’s brilliantly simple and hilarious music video made me seethe with jealousy when I first saw it, that has subsided a little bit in the intervening years. 


The creative project that changed my career…

Xbox “Slip”.

A creative brief from a “new kid on the block” digital shop (AKQA) working with one of the founders, James Hilton. This was my first work with Partizan and got me a flow of boards from around the globe, all heavily featuring parkour. 


The work that I’m proudest of…

Sportsbet – The Least You Can Do.

Most proud of how this work was made, building an in-house team and executing fun briefs was a career highlight. 


I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…

DJ Fresh “Nervous”. 

One of my early music video attempts and the one that made me rethink the whole thing. Like advertising, but without the pay.



The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…

A recent content series for Australia Post, entitled 'Journeys' has been an especially fulfilling project.

Representing modern Australia through the prism of one of our most misunderstood brands has been a rewarding journey in itself. 

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