Why Fred Rowson Loves Big, Stupid Concepts
Recently we saw Fred Rowson’s genius unfold in his Yorkshire Tea ad and today we take a deeper look into his life and career.
Fred has recently established himself as the next big thing, as his work takes an offbeat look at the world through enthralling filmmaking with an innate gift for narrative. He started his career in music videos for the likes of Wet Leg, Little Mix and Years & Years, the last of which he established a long working relationship after filming them before their big break.
The jump from music video to commercial Fred compares to fighting through the Wild West on your way to civilisation - and he loves both. To him, a good music video is a good idea, not necessarily an intricate story. On the flip side, he knows that a good piece of branded content is an exercise in showing what life is like through that particular prism (case and point - Brits packing Yorkshire Tea on holiday).
In this conversation with LBB’s Zoe Antonov, Fred goes over his biggest ever project to date, the balance between “too vague” and “too specific”, and what we can do to go back to the peak of music videos.
LBB> Fred, tell me about your childhood and early adulthood and the presence of art and creativity through them. Did you always know this is your path or did it come as a surprise?
Fred> On some level I’ve always wanted to do this. As a kid, I would watch and re-watch films and TV obsessively - Fred Astaire musicals, Looney Tunes and ‘70s Doctor Who. There’s probably a bit of all that in my work to be honest. But anyway, I didn’t go to film school, I taught myself by watching. That’s still how I do it, and I still like variety. I watch everything, from a bit of Tarkovsky to people rolling glass jars full of sand down stairs on TikTok. It’s all stuff I can steal from. I’m never happier than when I’ve got a Quicktime file of a film I love and I can go through a sequence frame by frame.
LBB> What were the first professional steps you made towards pursuing filmmaking as your career and how did that go?
Fred> While I was at university, I made some short films in my spare time, but had a bit of a confidence crisis when one of them didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped, so I stepped back from that and worked as a producer and fixer, helping my friends get their projects made. At the same time, I produced events for film festivals like Soho Shorts (RIP) and LSFF, so I started to get a good sense of who was who in the London scene. After a year or two of looking at it all from the outside, I felt ready to step back in.
LBB> And what was your first professional project? Tell me more about it - the lessons, the best bits, the biggest challenges.
Fred> To be honest, my early videos were not that professional, but they sneakily became professional. One day I woke up and thought, ‘hang on, have I become a professional?’. Which is to say that, suddenly, I could afford to not do side-jobs and just be a director. But there were a lot of projects before I got to that point. Hard to pick just one. Basically, the best bit was – easily – putting together a crew that I still work with today. A lot of very, very talented producers, production managers, DoPs, production designers and more come from that period of time. The best thing I learned was to always try making something personal – not something that you think is just going to please the commissioner or the label or whoever.
LBB> Was it mainly music videos that you were concentrating on at the start of your career and why? What made you love the format?
Fred> I was a big fan of Spike Jonze and Jackass as a teenager. That whole world of lo-fi meets hi-fi and big, stupid concepts. The Fatboy Slim videos are still favourites. Even when I was making short films, I was desperate to make music videos. The quick turnaround is addictive, and having the song as a jumping off point acts like rocket fuel to jet you towards something potentially amazing. To be honest, I feel like music videos as we knew them may have had their heyday, which is sort of sad, but if we take major labels out of the equation, then hopefully we’ll start to see more videos made with fewer rules and more creative freedom, and… possibly less money. But who needs money? I’ll never say no to a music video, and I hope I’m still making them when I’m 90 and on my 25th feature film…
LBB> You worked with Years & Years for quite a few projects - tell me about the start of that connection! How important is establishing a good working relationship and personal connection with your director as a musician or artist?
Fred> Filmmaking is always, always better when you have a talented collaborator to bounce off of. With Years & Years, I shot some live performance videos for them, just before they got really big. Lead singer Olly Alexander and I share a lot of similar references, and we both take quite a considered approach to making things, which is a rare quality to find in an artist. Also rare is an artist who is totally in charge of their vision and has the confidence to see it through. Not to mention one who can also act. Olly is all three of those things, so it was a privilege to work with him.
LBB> What is your favourite music video you've done and why? What were the best parts of the production process?
Fred> This is a toss-up between ‘Lose Your Love’ for Joe Goddard and ‘Too Late Now’ for Wet Leg. They’re both artists on Domino records (coincidence?) and on both projects, once we’d had our idea signed off, the label left us to it until we delivered an edit. I was lucky to have incredible crews on both projects. It felt like we were kids who were allowed to play unsupervised and I was really happy with the results. Highlights include working with choreographer Holly Blakey, who stages performances at the Southbank Centre with Mica Levi… But for this we were staging scenes of people running into a wall. For Wet Leg, we were guerrilla shooting in Croydon, working with a legend of a cinematographer, Rik Burnell, who’s big in the documentary world, and getting messy with the locals, the police, and whoever wandered into our frame. We picked up some incredible footage while doing it (watch the video and see if you can tell who’s in the cast and who’s not…)
LBB> And what has been your most challenging project overall - one where everything went wrong, but you pushed through and ended up with a result you were proud of?
Fred> I try to go into everything I do sickeningly prepared, so when stuff goes wrong it is usually an act of God… Wet Leg was stressful, just because we had no time, but nothing actually went wrong. I’d have to say it was probably my video for Little Mix, just because we made it in the middle of covid, so we had about a dozen scares, leading all the way up to me quarantining the day before the shoot (I was negative in the end). All of this combined with the circus that comes from shooting with mega-stars, and the fact that we really did have to push, as there was a lot to get through in one day. We shouldn’t have ended up with such a nice video, but I was very happy with how it came out – the great crew really got me through that one.
LBB> What was the jump like between music videos and commercial directing - what are some big differences between working with brands and working with artists? What kind of learning curves did you go through when you started directing shorter format content?
Fred> Going from music videos to commercials was frankly very pleasant. A bit like fighting your way across the Wild West to arrive in civilisation. Later, you realise that civilisation has its own dramas… but that’s another story. On a commercial, you have way more time to think things through and discuss them with the creatives, which was a welcome change after working in the chaos of promos. After I got a foothold in commercials, I tried to bring that process – of PPMs, boarding, and so on – back with me to music videos. As for shorter content – I’m always trying to be a more efficient storyteller. The real job is working out how to say something in one shot, not two.
LBB> Tell me about your favourite brand collaboration and the project that came out of that - what were the challenges and the most interesting bits of the production process?
Fred> This has to be my big project with giffgaff, in 2019. This was direct to client, and after getting to know them through the process of pitching on – and nearly winning – one of their famous Halloween films, they basically gave me a blank sheet of paper to come up with their campaign for that year. So I wrote and directed a 60-second spot called ‘#choosegiffgaff’. At the time – not unlike today – there were a lot of calls for an election in the UK. Being an adventurous brand with a strong voice, giffgaff liked that I wanted to cheekily nod to that conversation. Much in the same way that their current ‘Ode to Bad’ campaign is speaking to how a lot of people feel right now, I worked with the amazing Abi Pearl at giffgaff (one of my all-time favourite collaborators) to make something that tapped into the national mood in a way that most brands would usually avoid. I was really happy with the result.
LBB> If you had to describe your directing style in three words, what are they and why?
Fred> ‘Planned’, ‘unplanned’ and, erm, ‘open’. Planned, because I’m a somewhat obsessive storyboarder, mood-film-maker, scamp-creator… I basically think that if I can show everyone exactly how things are supposed to turn out, before we shoot, then we’ll all have an easier time. ‘Unplanned’, because being over-prepared means that it’s much easier to follow your nose on set, and try new things when something isn’t working how you thought it would. And then ‘open’ isn’t a great word, but for all my years of treatment writing, I couldn’t think of a better one. Basically, I like to be open to ideas during the process. I hate being tribal or shut off, and I want my HoDs to feel like they can contribute in a way that’s surprising, and make work that they’re really proud of. I hate being too prescriptive.
LBB> Where do you find your inspiration and how does it impact your creative process? Is your creative process different when creating a music video vs when creating an ad?
Fred> It sounds silly, but I drink a lot of coffee, I sit in the sun, and I wait until I think of an idea that either makes me laugh, or makes me feel really nervous, like there’s a good chance it could be terrible. Those are usually the best ideas. The only real difference between a music video and an ad – apart from the obvious – is that ads are often a bit more prescriptive about what they want. Which is no bad thing. There’s often a sweet spot. Too vague is overwhelming. Too specific is suffocating. If I get stuck, I usually go to the cinema…
LBB> What makes a good music video in your opinion? And what makes a good piece of brand content?
Fred> A good music video is an idea, not a story. A good piece of brand content is truly specific to what life is actually like. Often way more specific than a brand is comfortable being. But those are the ones we remember.
LBB> Tell me about your newest project to date and what challenges and lessons came with it - what was the brief and how did you tackle it?
Fred> My latest is a spot for Yorkshire Tea. It’s a music video about the perils of ordering tea on the continent and a typically British solution to that problem (again – very specific). This was one of those spots that came to me already in such a good state that my main concern was to not fuck it up. Lucky Generals had a great, great song with funny, smart lyrics and a very good mood film. I ended up changing a lot about the mood film, apart from a few shots, but I really want to stick to its spirit, which was playful, cutty, and witty. Like a good music video, it never got in the way of the song. Frankly it was a joy. I’ve been lucky to work with brands - like giffgaff and McDonald’s - which are genuinely beloved, and Yorkshire Tea is probably at the top of that list for lots of people. That always adds pressure. But I think pressure leads to better work. So here we are.
LBB> Favourite pastime?
Fred> …really trying not to type ‘going to the cinema’… but…
