On My Radar: Carl Grinter

Director and executive producer Carl Grinter keeps himself busy working with Three Wise Monkeys and launching his animation platform Encycle Studios. 

His background in animation and VR&AR has contributed to his unique perspective on the industry - which he shares with shots in this week's creative radar.

What’s the best ad campaign you’ve seen recently?

I was very impressed with the ALS Association in Washington and its Ice Bucket Challenge campaign - which won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix for social good - as well as Leo Burnett Beirut's ad Sakker El Dekkene ad (below) which confronts corruption in public administration.

What website(s) do you use most regularly and why?

Protein for insight; Contagious for perspective; YouTube for surprise inspiration; Frederator for animation; Encycle Studios - which is the website I am currently building with my partners; and academic websites depending on my latest research.

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought and why?

For myself, I recently bought an iPhone 6 (which has amazing processing power and graphics but is a crap telephone) and I bought a pair of Bose QC 25 headphones as a present for someone else.

Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?

I prefer Facebook. Social relations and friendship cannot be transmitted in 140 characters even if hyperlinks are attached (on Twitter) and although visuals make up 70 percent of communication, the combination of words and pictures wins hands down.

What’s your favourite app on your phone and why?

The Google apps package is amazingly powerful. I like anything that helps you communicate and collaborate - and facilitate what you mean. There are different apps to suit different tasks and groups in life like email, skype, hangout, slack, basecamp, messenger and whatsapp. But there’s still a social protocol with channels and communication - abova all, respect and grace are important.

What’s your favourite TV show and why?

I don’t get a great deal of time to watch the box. When my wife and daughters are out of the house on the weekend, I like to regress to my youth and watch football.

What film do you think everyone should see?

Life is Beautiful with Roberto Benigni (below) is one to watch because of its strength of emotion. Inception is great for cognitive dexterity and 2001: A Space Odyssey is another favourite for its sheer ability to deal with answering the most complex of questions in a mainstream format.

Where were you when inspiration last struck?

Battersea Park. I ‘m often there walking my dog, thinking about absence versus presence and reflecting on the randomness of information. I use these frameworks to think about experiences in life and assess the reality we live in, my job and anything else that comes to mind.

What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed in the industry since you started working in it?

There have been many.

The move from material film-making to virtual film-making through computers and data; the ubiquity of animation as a medium from 2D and stop-frame to photorealistic CGI and immersive media; and the change from a closed distribution system for media to a completely open one.

But I believe these changes provide more chance to change the world, especially with the increased information available online - and present more opportunities to communciate.

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

The inability to separate morality from commerciality and the inability to see the power of advertising to affect greater social change. It’s coming though!

What or who has most influenced your career and why?

Embracing complexity and unpredictability through the constraint and freedoms enabled by the people I’ve been lucky enough to really know and care about.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know…

I’m studying for a PhD (in Film and Immersive Media) in my spare time.