New Directors: Ed Morris

A couple of years ago Ed Morris decided he needed a change. A surprising decision considering his impressive career as a creative at some of London’s best agencies including BBH, TBWA, DDB, and Lowe, where he made ECD, and credits on some incredible work, such as Sony PlayStation Double Life.

“I’m happiest and at my best doing creative things but at my level in advertising the job is at least 70 per cent managerial,” says the Londoner. “Becoming a director was about changing that, making my day and my life a more creative one.”

Having worked with most of the commercial directing greats during his 13 agency years – Budgen, Glazer, Kaye, Ledwidge, Kleinman, Zacharias etc – Morris couldn’t have attended a better ‘film school’ and has recently proved that with his first few ads for clients such as adidas and the Department For Transport, for whom he shot the viral hit Pub Loo Shocker, which quickly amassed more than 10 million YouTube views.

Each time Morris adds a film to his fledgling reel it shows another dimension to his talents and his latest commercial #dontretaliate, for anti cyberbullying charity Cybersmile Foundation, is his best yet. The ad follows a schoolgirl who is being victimised via social media and as the abuse intensifies, a noose lowers from the sky and fastens around her neck. Eventually the bullies’ hate becomes too much and the rope tightens, lifting her from the ground. It’s an inventive way of tackling a tough subject without being overly graphic or skirting the issue.

When Rattling Stick president Johnnie Frankel suggested Morris should make a film for the charity, the director came up with the idea of the noose and developed the story from there. “I knew that was a strong graphic and would be interesting filmically,” he explains. “It worked as a visual metaphor on screen; it looked good, powerful, poetic and filmic.”

While the noose takes on a life of its own, becoming more of a Grim Reaper-like character than an inanimate object, it’s the actress, Sophie Sugrue, who rightly steals the show. She even sang the cover version of Birdy’s People Help The People that soundtracks the film. “I didn’t think we’d find someone good enough,” remembers Morris, who had decided not to make the ad if he couldn’t find a worthy actress. “We were extremely lucky, Sophie was the first girl who walked through the door. We couldn’t believe it when she sang. As she finished, [producer] Chris Harrison stood up in admiration and his chair fell back. I liked the sound and look of that chair falling back and worked it into the film.”

Not all decisions on the project were as easy. “Lady Gaga gave us approval on a track but we didn’t go with it, despite what a hashtag with her name on it would have done for publicity. It was a tough call but it made the film too sentimental, a bit cringy,” says Morris. “I wanted it to be powerful without looking like we were too obviously tugging on the heartstrings. There’s way too much over-sentimental charity work out there.”

Despite his previous successes, Morris is adamant that agency life is behind him. “I loved working in advertising; its pace and people are all fantastic but I’ll never work in an agency again, I am somewhere else now, I’ve rewired the system.”

Signed to Rattling Stick, the director has many projects in the pipeline, including a documentary about Tony Kaye, a Greenpeace spot and a short film, and has no concerns over his abilities. “I’m never worried I might not be any good, I’m more worried I’ll just be good,” he says. “Generally I’m more interested in originality than the notion of good. I think there are far too many people who are really good at making adverts look just like adverts. They’re not helping brands differentiate, they’re just making camouflage. Look at my reel, I don’t make adverts look like adverts.”