‘Shorter is better’ is a term used so often in advertising parlance that it’s practically rule number one in the textbook.

Not so when our team was asked to work with Borrn - an emerging company bringing beautifully designed baby products to the market. They wanted a series of films showing the growing relationship between parents and their newborn child, encapsulating their ethos that “the moment a child is born, a parent is born too.” 

Everything I’d come to understand about directing one film with one message went out the window. Borrn was asking for content that would sit in the background of a product launch with minimal coverage of the products themselves - not a brief you come across everyday.

In development, the creative pairing of Thom Wood and Danny Baldwin didn’t want to rely on the unoriginal ‘cute babies sell products’ maxim. Instead parents would be the focus - seeing their experiences with a baby for the first time, an insight that led them to the theme that would tie all the films together - ‘Parent Firsts’.

Cliches that centered on a baby’s first words or first steps were ignored in place of small landmarks that parents know all too well - the first lie-in you weren’t expecting or the first time you have to leave your baby to go out.

This focus on the parents meant I had to look for a convincing pair to play Mum and Dad. The down to earth chemistry between Amy Alexander and James de’Val shone through from their first audition together, a perfect blend of Amy’s playful but assertive mother and James’ shy and thoughtful father.

I was keen to introduce their two characters in the first episode as separate people focused on the arrival of a baby, almost to the point of complete distraction. Then when they finally share the same frame in an intimate (and dramatic) moment, the impact feels stronger. I wanted all the focus to be on Amy’s character for this final shot, going through the whole range of emotions for both parents. It felt scary not shooting the reverse reaction of James de’Val but also liberating - finding a way to get both performances in just a single close up.

We had DOP Tim Fok to thank for reacting to the scene, keeping it ‘spontaneous’ and creating shortcuts to reduce our shot list. Tim recalls the process of filming longer single takes:

“Our approach was to prepare for multi-shot coverage, but start with the most critical angles and let the action play out. Then really question whether we needed the extra shots. Shooting in this way meant our shot to screen ratio was always pretty high, and enabled us to keep on track with the schedule.”

Another byproduct of being bolder with our shot choices was an added sense of realism, not feeling the need to cover every line in the edit.

Our impromptu work ethic continued when working with the babies, embracing what they were doing and adjusting our story accordingly. The ‘First Day Back’ scene was completely transformed by the baby crying on cue when Mum left for work. We hadn’t planned on it happening but it worked so well we couldn’t leave it out of the edit. Similarly Dad awkwardly picking up the baby and soothing him to be quiet again was another piece of magic that made the scene work.

Amy Alexander enjoyed performing without a plan:

“The improvised moments with the babies just made it all the more real as you have to work around them! Babies can feel tension so if you’re all tense trying to get that ‘perfect’ shot they feel it, and they will react, and that’s realistic, you’ve got to work with it.”

It served as a great reminder that as a director, you can picture the film as much as you like in your head but it always pays to be open to what happens on the day - even if you have to wait for it to emerge.

Thanks for reading!
-GS

Watch the episodes here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.