Behind the Scenes of the New Macmillan Campaign

Today Macmillan Cancer Support released a new four-spot campaign called Life With Cancer, directed by Outsider's Jim Gilchrist. The spots, created through VCCP London, are a hard-hitting but realistic window into the lives of those who are fighting the disease and of those people's friends and family. 

Here we talk to VCCP deputy executive creative director Matt Lever about the challenges of creating a campaign that can cut through the cliche, and to director Gilchrist about the process of casting such emotionally realistic spots as well as tacking a project slightly outside of his perceived comfort zone.

What was the brief that Macmillan came to you with:

ML: Get more people to think that Macmillan is a brand for people like me, because people tend to think Macmillan is for when you are at rock bottom.

What did you think when you first saw the scripts for the campaign?

JG: I read Dad first; it took my breath away. I have a four-year-old daughter so it immediately resonated with me on a personal level, I welled up at the thought of her having to deal with me being ill. I read the rest of the scripts and was gripped. Clearly, they’re great ideas and well written. Then I got the fear (a good thing) and thought I can’t fuck these up and I’m not going to let anyone else do that either.

How hard is it to come up with concepts for Macmillan (or, by extension, any charity) that can both engage and educate an audience?

ML: From a creative point of view, working on charity accounts is an attractive proposition. The combination of emotional subject matter coupled with marketeers who are more often than not (and certainly in Macmillan’s case) good people, is a recipe for creating interesting work.

The challenge is finding something new to say, particularly for a cancer charity, but also walking the tightrope of providing the audience with a stirring and compelling piece of communication without straying into cliche or shock for shock’s sake.

When Colin McKean, the creative on the project, brought me the scripts, I just felt that they were what the brand should be doing. To celebrate helping people to live their lives, despite their diagnoses, felt empowering and fresh.

Did you immediately know how you wanted to approach the scripts?

JG: I had a fair idea, I tend to visualise things quickly and trust my instincts. Though with a subject matter as sensitive as this I did have some internal wrangling on the exact approach. I ended up having some really nice, collaborative conversations with the creatives where we sort of jostled and pushed each other to find the best result.

I didn’t want them to feel like commercials, so I decided to approach them like films, and my decisions in terms of the crew I collaborated with was based on that premise. Daniel Landin’s lighting and composition was simply a joy, and Alice Normington’s art direction was light and real and just felt right.

In terms of the cinematography, I knew I wanted longer shots to then contrast that with a faster pace during the more visceral ‘struggle section’. I think powerful imagery can be made more potent by not dwelling on it.

I felt we needed more shots for the struggle scenes than originally scripted to get the rhythm and pace required, both Matt [Lever] and Colin [McKean] were really trusting and gave me the freedom to shoot what I felt I needed and then it was down to the edit to elicit the right feeling.

Why was Jim the right choice for this project?

ML: Jim’s a very talented director. We’d worked together on a number of successful projects previously (Dept of Health Anti-Smoking and Met Police) so I knew that he’d instinctively get what we were trying to do and have the sensitivity to play the films with the right amount of truth and restraint. Jim’s best known for his comedy, but if you look at these films, it’s evident that he is a brilliant performance director, regardless of the genre. We’re so pleased that he (and everyone else at Outsider - who put a lot of blood, sweat, tears and resources into helping us make all four films without compromising on anything) was onboard.

How important was the casting process in this campaign and can you tell us a little bit about that?

JG: Casting is everything.

I was really afraid of not having an equal level of performance across the four films. It simply wasn’t an option to have a dud one in the pack. And to add to the challenge all four films required a totally different casting approach.

I have a good intuition with actors, I can tell very quickly if they are going to work for me. I tend to like smaller more naturalistic performances so finding cast that can nail that reality was hard.

As I said, I didn’t want to approach these like commercials, so I resolved to only see film and TV actors. We started with Mates and Sisters, casting in Manchester and Nottingham. Casting the net outside the usual sphere threw up some disappointing results at first. It felt like poor improvisation, so I binned the lot.

Mates was hard until I saw Tom Dawze [above right] and Roger Suubi [above left]. I wanted at least one of the scripts to represent people who aren’t usually depicted in cancer ads… it’s not just middle class people that get it after all. I was particular fussy about how they interacted. I wanted reality. The dialect the lads use when playing FIFA is weird, so I recorded myself gaming with my mate Pottsy and listened back to what was said and it was actually pretty funny. This exercise informed the dialogue in that section and I allowed myself to use the funny bone a little. Probably best summed up by the irony of the last line of dialogue “Ooooh you’re lucky Lee, you’re lucky.”

I moved on to the Dad script. We saw lots of options but there wasn’t a connection between any potential dad or daughter. I was downhearted by this… something was missing. So I changed it up a little and only called dads with daughters of the right age. When I finally saw Scott and Eliza I was so happy. Their genuine connection was immediately evident. Her naturally response when dad looks at her and kisses her forehead is hard for a four-year-old to fake.

We found our sisters in London after opening the brief back up to some commercial actors. I was spoiled for choice and in the end, and I went for the couple that made me feel something in the casting room. When they held a look it made the hairs on my neck go; the connection was palpable.

Lovers was knocking about for a bit, we did a quite a few sessions. To be honest it was difficult finding couples who had a connection whilst at the same time didn’t gross you out. Hard work and patience prevailed and I got my cast.

You have a pedigree in performance-based spots, but generally they’re comedic; how was it tackling something with a more serious tone?

JG: It’s common for agencies to pigeonhole directors - not in a bad way, it just makes them easier to categorise. I see directing as such a multi-faceted skill set that you should be able to handle actors to any given situation, funny or heartfelt.

The guys gave me this opportunity and it was really nice to stretch a different muscle, comedy is hard work, funny is never an accident but most of my comedic work comes from human observations, traits and truths, so in that sense the approach was similar. I ‘train hard to fight easy’ by which I mean I play the action over and again in my mind so on set I can be clear and steadfast in my direction. I was thrilled with the result, I’d probably say these films are the best work I’ve achieved. The performances are really credible and will hopefully put me on the map for some more varied work in the future.

With the different pacing in each spot, how important was the editor’s input into these films?

JG: I work with an editor called Ben Campbell at Cut+Run, he cuts all my work, he’s bloody brilliant. I love working with him. He is so skilled in the craft of editing that I really only need the lightest of touches to get him firing on all cylinders in the right direction. The pace of the main section of each film is very different from the struggle section, I wanted a more languid start where you don’t really know what the film is for, it draws you in and then in perfect timing hits you with the line.

I knew it was going to be a happy first viewing when he sent me a message saying “`this is why I love editing”. Ben’s meshing of sound and picture taking you on a jagged journey really works and allowed Parv Thind [sound designer] at Wave the space to do his thing, and elevate the craft to another level. It really was a team effort and I’m very proud of the result.

What was the most challenging part of working on this campaign?

ML: Making sure that the brand, who do so many incredible things for so many people, got the idea and the work that they deserve.