Three Things I Learned at Cannes Lions 2017

2017 was the first outing on the Croisette for Cannes rookie Rodrigo Gameiro, production manager at Coca-Cola Brasil [a role he has since left], who attended the Festival as part of the APA and AdGreen’s event addressing sustainability in filmmaking.

Here are his three big takeaways from the festival:

1. Where Are All The Black People?

You don't need an especially keen sense of observation to notice there are very few people of colour at Cannes. It’s still, sadly, very rare to be sitting side-by-side in the Palais with someone who is black. The only black people you see frequently are immigrants selling hats on the Croisette.

This is an important discussion that Cannes Lions has the ability to lead. Why are there not more people of colour working in advertising? More ethnic diversity means more experiences and more varied stories to tell. In other words, more diversity means more creativity. Change matters for creativity!

2. If Sustainability Can Save The World, It Can Save Your Production Company As Well

Several Lions were given to brands talking about their social initiatives, and Cannes Lions tells us that creativity matters for change. At the same time, it is difficult to find a great film about topics related to sustainability. Working as a client, every time that I’ve needed to shoot action pieces, there are action directors; for comedy scripts, there are comedy directors. I don’t know one single director that made his/her career with sustainability stories. There is a real gap here!

From now on, brands will build their equity with their purpose, with their contribution for a better world. Purpose is deeply connected with sustainability. That means, in the near future, brands will need to shoot stories with the kind of directors who don’t yet exist.

3. New Directors Are Next Level

I think we’re only now seeing the result of 5D cameras. The generation that learned to make movies with affordable cameras changed the baseline of the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase and the CFP-E/shots Young Director Award. The selection of work from those two events doesn’t feel like it comes from ‘young’ or ‘new’ directors at all. To learn while practicing has shaped the work of these directors, making for very mature, visually amazing and most of all, very inventive films. This is great news for video viewers.

How are these three things helping me to do business? It’s simple. I need to find production companies with a diverse approach to creativity, which value sustainability as a storytelling tool and have no fear of working with new directors to crack new digital languages. Easy? Definitely not - but I have no doubt that this is the future of the film business.

Rodrigo Gameiro spent six years as Production Manager at Coca-Cola Brasil. Since Cannes he has left the company and is now directing comedy sketches at Porta dos Fundos.