How BBH made the daddy of all charity films

Prostate Cancer UK's new campaign is a two-minute film celebrating the brilliant eccentricities - as well as the beautiful benefits - of dads.

Released just ahead of Father's Day in the UK [which was yesterday, June 19], He's the One rewrites Robbie Williams' hit, She's the One, with clever and humorous lyrics that take a wry look at some of the unusual habits dads have, as well as extolling the virtues of how those same dads can be a bedrock for their kids.

Below, BBH's Nick Gill and Victoria Keenan, Creative Director and Head of Production respectively, and Somesuch director Dan Emmerson, talk us through the genesis of the campaign and how they managed to balance humour and emotion for a perfect blend. 

Above: The Prostate Cancer UK film, He's the One.

Where did the idea for this campaign first spring from?

NG: The creative team behind this idea were the brilliant Luke Till and Lawrence Bushell. Two things struck me about their script. 

1) That no one had ever really explored in detail the character of the great British Dad, with all his foibles and eccentricities - it felt like an untapped well of insightful comedy. 

[It's] very funny to hear this familiar character described in the lines of a song we would normally associate with much loftier themes.

2) That it would be very funny to hear this familiar character described in the lines of a song we would normally associate with much loftier themes, like world peace and good will to humankind.

Why did you decide to not focus on the disease itself but on what the disease could rob people of?

NG: Prostate cancer is a deadly disease, and one in eight men will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime. But, guided by our great client, Prostate Cancer UK's Director of Communications Alison Day, we've never focussed on this negative. This is because there is a real belief that a cure will be found for the disease one day and we want to fill consumers with hope rather than despair.

Above: Nick Gill, Victoria Keenan and Dan Emmerson.

Can you tell us a bit about the soundtrack/lyrics; did it come before the visuals and what conversations did you have around it?

VK: The soundtrack and lyrics are the heart of the idea; it all began with Luke and Lawrence re-writing the lyrics to famous songs like John Lennon's Imagine, with lyrics about nose hair and sex scenes. We spent almost a month approaching music publishers in the hope we would find the perfect track. 

We had almost given up when we secured She’s The One - a song written by Karl Wallinger but made famous by Robbie Williams. Creatively, we felt this was the perfect track because of the tone, the structure worked well to change the lyrics, and because of the ability to turn "she's the one" to "he's the one". 

It all began with Luke and Lawrence re-writing the lyrics to famous songs, like John Lennon's Imagine, with lyrics about nose hair and sex scenes.

We next went straight into music tests to work out timings and start to talk about the brief for the re-record. We tried a lot of different things with the vocal and music arrangement with our music producer David Kosten, and this continued throughout the production process. We ended up with a beautiful and simple piano and vocal arrangement (with our vocalist Robyn Sherwell). 

This arrangement worked best for the film because we wanted the lyrics and writing to speak for itself. The picture definitely came second, but that doesn't mean there was any less thought put into it. We knew we needed to find a director that would be able to bring the lyrics to life visually that felt real and relatable. We wanted to see those eccentric dad moments we all love (and hate) represented honestly.

Above: The film celebrates dadisms such as alphabetising vinyl and sorting through wires.

Why was Somesuch's Dan Emmerson the right director for the job?

NG: We went with Dan because he got the tone and humour and showed such empathy towards the subject matter. We needed someone who would roll his sleeves up and just make this thing work beautifully. We loved what he shot in that big house in North London. Some of the scenes, particularly those involving fathers and their children, have a beautiful, filmic poetry to them.

VK: We first looked at Dan’s reel, seeing spots like The Face Where Were You? where he uses a lot of UGC but edits with a fresh perspective, and Collusion For The Coming Age, where he conjures the portrait of a generation with approachability and interest. 

[Dan Emmerson] was able to connect with the talent on the shoot day, some of which had personal experiences with Prostate Cancer, bringing out the raw moments we were looking for. 

Everything he shot for the Prostate Cancer CUK film had the honest intimacy that we wanted for this film. He was able to connect with the talent on the shoot day, some of which had personal experiences with Prostate Cancer, bringing out the raw moments we were looking for. He also absolutely smashed 18 scenes in one shoot day. We moved very quickly between shots and there was a great synergy between Luke, Lawrence, Nick and Dan. He’s an incredibly talented and relatable director. 

Above: Emmerson's film for The Face.

What did BBH come to you with and did you immediately know how you'd approach the project?

DE: BBH initially came to us with a stripped-back demo of the track with the first version of the lyrics they’d written. After a bit of back and forth, we only ended up tweaking a few lines from the original demo before locking in the lyrics and shooting for them. 

There was some absolute gold to sift through and we probably could have made an alternative cut with all the extras we didn’t end up using.

Nick, Luke and Lawrence absolutely nailed the track which made the rest of the process pretty easy as it became an exercise of reacting scenes to the song's words either literally or more laterally. 

Where did you find the pre-existing footage and how big a task was it to sort through?

DE: I wanted to achieve scale by finding archival footage from all over the UK, so we brought in a research/casting team (Jinjo) who did a great job in sourcing and archiving anything that was sent in from the public. They put out various call outs on their socials and we had a great response. 

There was some absolute gold to sift through and we probably could have made an alternative cut with all the extras we didn’t end up using. We started by blocking out an animatic with story boards and bits of UGC as they came in. This was really useful to see the edit come together before shooting our scenes. It meant that I could judge the timings of each scene pretty accurately and also that we’d have to tweak the tempo of the demo in order to get the pace we wanted for the edit. 

Above: Emmerson's film for Asos, For the Coming Age.

Did you consider using UGC footage all the way through at any point?

DE: Weaving archive and UGC into the film was always a consideration from the beginning because, for me, it brings an intimacy and authenticity to the whole film. There’re moments we’d never have been able to capture ourselves, even if we tried. 

There’re moments we’d never have been able to capture ourselves, even if we tried. 

My favourite clip is the very last one of the dad waving at his daughter while running down the train platform. As soon as I saw it I knew it would be the perfect parting image for us, striking the perfect balance of humour and emotion. 

It's a hard thing to mix comedy with such an emotional message; was there a worry you'd drift too far one way?

DE: We definitely had to be careful about not letting the overall tone of the piece stray too far into comedy or become too soppy. For me, it was about shooting our scenes in the most observed and natural way possible, with a range of performances from the cast from super-subtle to more pronounced. Once we got to the edit we then had options for each scene and made sure that the overall balance felt right. 

NG: This film had to be an affectionate portrayal of dads, and all the funny and eccentric things we'd miss about them. We went to great pains to avoid piss-taking or gags that portrayed dads in a negative light. 

The long length version of the film kind of breaks down into three sections. First, we show familiar dad-isms that we've touched on before in Prostate Cancer UK Father's Day campaigns, like dad jokes and dad dancing. Then we get more pointed and specific in our insights, referencing things like hoarding leads and alphabetising vinyl (people have really responded to these observations, recognising their own dads in the film). 

Finally, we abandon comedy for a poignant sequence of images that describe how dads are 'someone to lean on', and 'stronger than strong'. It's only because of what's gone before that this final sequence has such emotional impact. People don't expect to be left teary-eyed at the end of such a funny film.