Face to Face with... Michael Baldwin

Michael Baldwin began his career as an editor for music videos and commercials in Soho but it was in 2004 that we stumbled across his XFM test spot, Aural Pleasure, with which he made his directing debut. After featuring at the time as a shots New Director he has since built up an impressive body of work including music videos for the likes of Travis, Royksopp, Natalie Imbruglia and Gabriella Cilmi, as well as spots for Argos, ITV Player and Emmerdale, in his role as a creative at ITV Creative. Recently Baldwin signed to new production start-up, PRIDE+JOY, and here we catch up with the man to hear about taking his girlfriend’s advice, blagging beautiful models and being buddies with Ben Stiller.

You’ve just signed for production start-up, PRIDE+JOY, so what does it feel like to be part of something so new?

It feels great. There’s a lot of excitement with the team and a lot of experience from everyone involved, too. I just had one of those good feelings when I met up with them, like when you view a house you want to buy – the minute you walk in, it just feels comfortable, like ‘home’. It’s early days so far but it feels like we’re all ready to hit the ground running.

You’re a creative at ITV Creative. What does that entail and how does it compare to your separate commercials work?

I love ITV. Having been freelance forever (apart from my first job as a runner, then tape op job at Rushes), the opportunity to work at ITV was just too good to pass. The creative team there are brilliant and it’s a real family of people bursting with ideas. As well as directing their on-air promos, my job involves coming up with new ideas and new ways of promoting their content and brand. It’s exciting as they are embracing the ‘digital revolution’ to such an extent; they are expanding the creative department and doing all their on-air and off-air promotions in-house. It’s a very busy floor! My commercials work is always a huge passion and I feel that being at ITV has hugely increased my craft and ability to work with big clients. I mean, if you can please Simon Cowell, you must be doing something right!

You started off as an editor – what’s the transition like from editing to directing and did you always want to direct?

No, I never wanted to get into directing at all, I was more than happy sitting in a dark room for days at a time, staring into a monitor. Editing was always my first real passion.

However, despite cutting some fantastic work, I started to want to cut something purely for myself, with no one else making changes or decisions! But to do that I needed some rushes. So I managed to blag a studio, crew, camera and film stock (as well as a rather stunning model) to work for free on a freezing cold Saturday to shoot my first piece – a spec for XFM. I was happy just to have something to edit for myself but my girlfriend suggested I send it into shots and see what happened. There’s never anything to lose and if you don’t ask, you don’t get!

Amazingly, shots picked up on the spot and featured me in its New Director section, which was really incredible off the back of only one job. And from then on, I started to get scripts for commercials and music videos.

So what’s your favourite music video you’ve done?

Hands down the video I did for Travis’ Closer. Such a magical, surreal and enjoyable shoot. There was a lot of love in the room that night. The fact we had Ben Stiller turn up for free to do a cameo role was just incredible. It was also my first big-budget video and first shoot abroad, so two cherries popped in one go. And to think that when I first pitched it, it was set in a wet and dingy area in Glasgow. I love being collaborative (another great advantage of working at ITV) and Travis were just about the best guys to work with. I even suggested to Ben Stiller that I should be in a buddy buddy movie with him. But he’s still not called.

How does making music videos compare to commercials?

Ha ha – apart from the obvious difference in budget? Music videos have always been the reason for getting into this business so I’ll always have time for them. But the money has dropped out of them so it’s hard to be able to do as many as I’d like.

But they are more creative in some ways than commercials as they are always (generally) your own ideas, so quite cathartic in trying things out. They also have such quick turn arounds that they are like speed dating followed by a one night stand, whereas commercials are more like courting and finally having the wedding ceremony after a lot of planning. Ultimately it’s about being on set and having the chance to get what’s in your head onto film (or hard drive!). It’s all about team work as the crews I’ve worked with have always been brilliant, even on the worst shoots.

Does your role at ITV Creative mean you have to watch a lot of TV?

I wish. I’m generally too busy to sit and watch TV anywhere. I’m still trying to catch up on films that I want to watch. I do see a lot of CBeebies and Nick Jr though because of my daughters.

At ITV I’ll watch the shows that I have been allocated a project for (if they’ve been made) then make the trails for them. For all the shoot-based promos, it’s always about a concept that relates to the show that will be the basis for the shoot. For example, I shot an Emmerdale promo for a massive upcoming storyline that saw the Emmerdale viewing figures overtake Corrie for that week.

And I’ve just finished a promo for Keith Lemon’s new show, Lemonaid (above), which is bonkers. The show is a kind of update on Jim’ll Fix It, but a bit wonky, in a very silly Keith Lemon way. It’s a lot of fun, as was making the promo.