On My Radar: Lex Carthur

What’s the most creative advertising idea you’ve seen recently?

It’s got to be the British Airways plane window out of home campaign by Uncommon. It’s not necessarily the visuals alone that I think are the most creative, but the idea of using the least amount of branding possible to communicate the identity. Being unobtrusive to allow maximum room for imagination. It reminds me of 90s and 00s TVCs that you could get to the end of and only once the end slate comes up with the product and brand, make sense of what they were trying to say. Granted, you could do that because viewers had to sit through its full runtime, unlike social advertising. It's a fine line, but it might be a case of mutually-assured destruction with attention spans; the more we bring the key moment to the beginning three seconds, the less we leave to be understood by consuming the whole piece.

What website(s) do you use most regularly?

I practically grew up on YouTube. I don’t think I’d have any education if I didn’t outsource it. But, generality aside, I love niche spaces, and a forum to match. It’s not the exclusivity, it's just a way to hone in on one interesting aspect of a hobby, and I do hobby jump. So, I’m just going to have to say subreddits. 

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

I bought a modern Denon Audio Visual Receiver, to replace my parents' 30-year-old Denon hi-fi that I had jerry-rigged to run my TV speakers from. Somewhere between the five conversion cables and my losing of the remote, it and I had given up. I’ve a large collection of DVDs I’m replacing slowly with 4k BluRays, and it’s become a real pleasure to invite people over and feel like films are something to be shared again, instead of something blasted through because its ‘free’ on streaming.  

What product could you not live without?

You know what, I could be very profound here and pick something poetic but, to be honest. It has to be deodorant. As a matter of fact, if it’s not deodorant I think you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror. You can get away with a lot of things in life, you can get away with a lot less if you smell bad. 

What’s the best film you’ve seen over the last year?

I’m a five star Letterboxd criminal. Everything gets five stars. If I’m choosing from what’s come out in the past year: A Complete Unknown had me rewinding to listen to the songs again and inspired me to listen only to Dylan, for six days straight, last I was in the US. If I’m choosing from things not released in the past year: High and Low. Apart from Seven Samurai, It was my first venture into anything Kurosawa. The editing, the flow and the overall message felt like it could be made yesterday. The train sequence in particular has some of the most complicated, yet simple to digest action I’ve seen to date. As a lover of document-investigation films, the first scene in the police station, with every pairing giving updates on the case, is such a simple yet exciting part of the story. Masterful all-round. 

What film do you think everyone should have seen?

Not trying to sound pretentious, but it’s somewhat impossible not to with the subject. Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights is the rom-com, to be simplistic. You can’t pin it down into a genre really, it has societal commentary, loss, grief, humour. It’s probably the last time I cried at a movie’s ending. Something it usually takes roughly thirty eight Marvel Avengers to accomplish. 

What’s your preferred social media platform?

It is possible to say none? Social media is a means to an end, it brought me the career I have now. It’s proliferation gave myself and many others who would not have had opportunities in this space, a chance to create something of their own and share it. Instagram is likely where I’ve gotten 80% of my total work. However, I don’t see it as healthy, and it’s a difficult subject. It’s very convenient for me to wish it away now I’ve used it to gain my start, but the level of addiction and the impact of dopamine-injecting algorithms on our brains is something I’m sure we’ll see the consequences of as the years go on. 

What’s your favourite TV show?

Scrubs. No contest. It definitely has emotional significance to me. My brother and I would watch the DVDs on repeat and fall asleep to the title screen when we had sleepovers. Lazlo Bane’s Superman can likely be found in my DNA strands. Realistically, the issues the series tackles, their use of music, the imagination sequences, comedic timing, all are a bigger part of my psyche than I think I’m really aware. I recently gave in and opened up Ted Lasso, something I would usually avoid as being a bit simplistic, and upon liking the first episode, binged a few more, thinking it felt familiar. I was pleasantly un-surprised to find the Doozer production credit at the end. Should’a guessed. 

What’s your favourite podcast?

I don’t actually do podcasts. I find it exceedingly hard to find a ‘good one’, and if I’m not watching something, or working on something which requires me to watch something, I think its usually time to try listening to my own thoughts for once! 

What have you been most inspired by recently?

Cinema. Always cinema. Music too, but usually closing my eyes and imagining sequences set to it. It’s getting increasingly hard to block out the noise and hone in on real inspiration from the web, I’m finding. My screen time is probably to blame, but turning to physical media has been a revelation in finding a place without ‘distraction’. 

If you could only listen to one music artist from now on, who would it be?

Nina Simone could get you through every day and every problem. There isn’t a why, only a why not? 

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

Vertical video. 9x16. We have adopted a format under the one premise that it physically lights more pixels than another, fitting an arbitrary shape made to be the biggest thing that can fit in a pocket. It’s not about more immersion, more emotion, better comprehension. It’s a step backwards in my opinion, and will be gone as soon as the device changes shape. 

Who or what has most influenced your career?

I worked in journalism for ten years. I was a picture editor. I didn’t know it at the time but that was drastically shaping my storytelling as a director. Sounds ironic, you’re telling stories every day. Visually crafting narrative. Somehow, I didn’t draw the line when I began making films. Glad I did eventually, I lean on it quite heavily now. 

What scares you the most?

Failure. That and the thought that I might forget a family members' birthday, but mostly failure.

What makes you happiest?

I suppose when I feel accomplishment. This can be from an athletic pursuit, artistic pursuit, as part of a process, a day… just the knowledge that I’ve done what I can.