Spec Ads: The Curious, Unpaid Love Affair of Filmmaking

It’s about 40℃, the air smells like a 90’s disco from the haze machine and the fan in the corner circulates hot stuffy air around the room, without cooling anything. Squashed into a small bedroom in a bungalow in the deepest suburbia of Norwich, I look around and see a small team red faced, sweaty, but happily bustling around contorting themselves to squeeze past each other without brushing sweaty arms. A crucifix hangs above a double bed decked in a frilly bedspread and Cliff Richard and Princess Diana look down on us as their faces adorn plates fixed to the walls and bedside table. The Lords Prayer is evident all around us and the Bible has pride of place next to the bed. The natural sunlight has been blocked out and studio lights fill the room with a warm streetlamp glow.

No, this is not the crime scene of a murder. This is in fact, a spec ad.

Under the watchful eyes of Princess Diana, the Lords Prayer, and Cliff.

What a bizarre concept the spec ad is. To create something for a brand, without asking the brand, without payment from the brand and with no promises or even communication from the brand. You just decide one day that you are going to make something with that company or product in mind, completely for free. For fun. For shits and giggles.

See, I recently explained this process to our builder, as he began to question the super weird parcels that began turning up daily. From hideous nighties to vintage crucifixes and 80’s alarm clocks. It’s fair to say he had questions about our work. He just could not get his head around why we would make something at our own expense which had no intention of making any money. Yet to us, having only ever worked in the film and video industry, spec ads, short films and passion projects are not just the norm, they’re a necessity. In an over-saturated production market, how else do you stand out? Make the things you want to make? Keep the creative juices flowing? Experiment freely? Well, you make spec work! His response was; “Sounds like a lot of bloody hard work for nowt if you ask me” - thankfully, I was not asking him.

Over the past 18 months, SubMotion, have produced a flurry of projects that have a similar style, genre and/or emotional stance, and whilst we would never complain, our portfolio suddenly wasn’t looking as diverse as we may like. Now, don’t get me wrong, we LOVE making a powerful, emotive charity or brand film, and we are really good at them (if I do say so myself). The storytelling opportunities when you work directly with human driven stories, good or bad, are a privilege and a joy to tell - but they often come with deep levels of emotional input and hard-hitting narratives. Whilst this makes for great and engaging successful films, it can also be quite a rollercoaster of emotion for those involved. There have been several occasions where tears have been shed on set during interviews in the past year or so - and might I add not from me as this would be completely unremarkable as I cry at literally everything - but from the crew and clients observing behind the camera.

Just recently Rich emerged from the edit suite red eyed and announced - “I’m not sure if I can actually emotionally handle another edit like this!” To be fair, we were just finishing a quick film for our friends charity Finnbars Force; all about their son Finnbar who passed away age 5 from a brain tumour and their amazing charity work since then. This story is hard to tell for anyone, but when you love and care for the parents, and are awe struck by their own emotional strength and what they are doing to help others - it hits hard.

It was shortly after this moment that we decided we needed some light relief and to push on with a spec ad we had been discussing since 2023 (!). Rich had already written a script and the amazing DP Tom Coe had put in some great work on the tone and feel for the shoot, we just needed to reincarnate the WhatsApp group, put a date on filming and work back from there. This ad could not be further from what we have made in the past few years. It’s funny, cheeky, packed with silly humour and harks back to old-school narrative driven advertising. I am a little nervous about it - but an excited nervous! Much of the inspiration came from Pot Noodle ads….need I say more!

So, the worst part of any spec work or passion projects is the next part. Reaching out to your trusted freelancers (who usually rely on you to come through with paid work) to see if anyone fancies joining a project which is:

a) unpaid,

b) may never see the light of day

c) has no client attached for distribution and

d) may actually be issued with a cease and desist.

What an inviting proposal!

But this is where things get weird, because people actually say yes. In fact, people often come on board with more energy and excitement than if you were paying them for a briefed project. Why is this? Well, I have a few theories; either they are a true creative and therefore genuinely love an opportunity for creative freedom - or - they just want an excuse for free food, a day away from the kids and banter with fellow lovely crew. (Or is that just me?)

A huge part of enticing crew and cast onboard is the strength of the script, and the reason behind the project. If you have a solid script, that will genuinely elevate and showcase the talents of everyone involved, and has the potential to offer some great portfolio and sharing content, it’s the best, most authentic marketing any creative will get. Apart from waffling on to you every now and then in this blog, marketing at SubMotion is minimal - how we still exist is beyond me, but hopefully it has something to do with our work! Our way of marketing, having fun and getting creative, is spec work. And what better way to show the world we are serious about our work, our great ideas and our love for what we do  - so much so, we’ll do it for free in our spare time.

It also allows us to try new things, work without constraint and experiment with new genres and concepts. If they don’t work, I don’t have to have a really difficult conversation with a client, and, if it’s rubbish, we can ensure it never sees the light of day! When I think back to the crews faces in that sweaty room, everyone was genuinely happy to be there. We worked with new people, had young people along for work experience and generally had a real laugh. No-one cared that it was a Saturday, and no-one suggested they’d rather be at the beach. It’s in these moments that you realise you are all bound by a genuine love of filmmaking. It’s not about money, ego or awards - or even good body odour - it’s about creating something you can only do as a collective.

Director Richard Prendergast, and DP Tom Coe viewing the camera monitor whilst filming.

Actors Nick and Jules on set in their bedroom scene.

Hair and make-up artist Suzie Love on set.

Jules checking her appearance after having hai and make-up done. Producer Rachel watches on.

Gaffer Misha Panov and DP Tom Coe watching the camera monitor on set.

Actors Leah and Sami giggling on set during their scene.

DP, Tom Coe and Director Richard Prendergast setting up the garage scene.

Suzie Love applying make-up to actor Sami in the garden.

Actor Jules laughing whilst on set.

We have now nearly finished the spec ad which had us filming under the watchful eyes of Cliff, and I think - and hope - the minimal blood, buckets of sweat and thankfully no tears, are worth it. When you laugh out loud during filming and editing, it’s a good sign!

What we do next is very new to us. We’ll probably reach out to the brand we had in mind, hope they like it, maybe endorse it, hopefully don’t issue and cease and desist - and go from there! I really look forward to sharing it with you all and in the meantime, we’ve already planned the next one. Who wants a weekend anyway, pfft.

Right, I’m off to make the builder his 432257389th cup of tea. It is INSANE the amount of tea builders drink. Maybe there’s a Yorkshire Tea spec ad idea in that….

Huge thank to the team on this project:

Crew:

Writer / Director - Richard Prendergast

DP - Tom Coe

Gaffer - Misha Panov

Focus Puller - Jake Loft

HMUA - Suzie Love

Unit Stills - Chris Roberts

Production Assistant - Oscar Sykes

Producer - Rachel Prendergast

Cast:

Nick Murray-Brown

Jules Shevlin

Sami Bayakly

Leah Feetham

And Des and Karen Coe for the property!!