Executive Creative Director at Publicis Machine, Gareth McPherson, has come a long way since roaming the cutthroat halls of Rondebosch Boys’ High. Lucky for us Gareth rose above this adversity and is now a badass creative leader and we’re honoured to have him judge this month’s iDidTht Craft Awards.

BEST OF REEL: Toyota ‘Rami’
0307 Films | Paul Ward
(Direction Craft)

I grew up in Durban, and every opportunity I had I would make my way down to ‘The Wheel’ shopping mall on the Durban Beachfront. It was an iconic building at the time, and it housed the biggest Cinema theatres in South Africa at one stage. I would escape the humid heat and catch a flick, always with a large popcorn and coke in hand. I loved going to the movies, for the commercials that played before and for the storytelling that played out of each film. Visual spectacles’ that captured the imagination and transported you to another place for an hour or two… how wonderful. There is such beauty in well-crafted storytelling, and this month it was great to sit back and watch the February iDidTht Craft Entries… albeit not from ‘The Wheel’ cinema but from my laptop… I did however make some popcorn… hope you do too. Enjoy.

Congratulations to all the ‘Special Mentions’, and overall ‘Best of Reel’.

BEST OF REEL: Toyota ‘Rami’ by Paul Ward from 0307 – Direction Craft
A beautifully crafted piece of content by Paul Ward and team 0307. In this piece, it is clear that each shot has been considered with careful subject framing and selection of art direction cues. It’s a powerful narrative which has been handled very sensitively, from the metaphoric red colouring of grade when Rami is in the pool, to the wide open ‘greyness’ to which he finds himself alone. The pace of the piece is just as important, with a clear ramp-up arc in the middle which follows a determined voice-over, then to the resolve which leaves you reflective and inspired by Rami’s journey. The direction, edit, grade and all ingredients makes it this months ‘Best of Reel’. Nicely done Paul.

SPECIAL MENTION: Kwesta ‘Spirit’ by Tebza from Bomb Commercials – Direction Craft
Post watching, I did a bit of investigation around this piece and soon leant that it was shot in less than a day. Pretty impressive for what was achieved in the time. Tebza and the team have done a great job of bringing an anthemic message of ‘progression’ through in this music video. The choice of subjects and ‘hero-ing’ them in frame makes the piece impactful and the considered edit with consistency cut shots between scenes carries the viewer through each vignette. Well done! Great video and a great track too.

SPECIAL MENTION: Nando’s ‘We Can Fix Our S#*t’ by Jono Hall from Darling Films – Direction Craft
Chicken aside… the Nando’s team are back and doing what they love to do best – Take a tongue-and-cheek point of view at our country. I really liked the level of pace and edit in this piece. Due to the comedic nature, it needed to settle on certain moments and also amplify certain scenes, which Jono and team Darling did very well. Nicely done!

SPECIAL MENTION: VW ‘‘Red Flashy Thingy’ by Greg Gray from ROMANCE – Direction Craft
VW are back with a good old SA production. Trading off the Polo’s well-entrenched ‘Confidence’ platform, Greg and team ROMANCE deliver a great comedic piece. From the casting, to set design, scene selection to strong voice-over, this commercial has been considered from every angle and very well put together. Congrats!