Many of their projects are completed by themselves from start to finish but even when they collaborate with other creatives or agencies, the Dolph stamp of cool is always visible. Here are a few of iDidTht’s favourites.

Dan: Our personal favourite is probably the BK music video.
Jesse: We funded that project ourselves, it cost about R20 000. Dan came up with this beautiful treatment of shooting it in black and white with very contrasting images and adding the white animation over the video, which ultimately becomes the canvas.
iDidTht: The tension that the visuals create makes it feel like you’re telling two stories. You get so much more, we love it!
Dan: So if anyone reading this wants to pay us to do that, that would be nice.

Now that more and more of these content creation boutiques are opening their doors to service brands directly, agencies could easily feel threatened or unsure of how to utilise them. But Dolph thinks that this is simply a knee-jerk reaction and instead of seeing content creators as competition, which can only limit creativity, the real opportunity here is to rather collaborate. Ultimately Dolph offers a varied range of services to agencies.

Jesse: Because I come from an advertising background where I was a copywriter I understand the commercial space, so when we work with agencies, we are not there to rip their ideas to shreds.
Dan: Yes, agencies generally already have scripts that they’ve researched extensively and worked with the client on and we then join the process as either directors, editors, animators or whatever. The first thing we like to do is try to get insight into where all their ideas originated from, so we have a better understanding of how to treat them.

Jesse and Dan have a firm grasp of what kind of content works online and even what the cool kids, dare we say, millennials love (gasp) and therefore know how brands should be positioning themselves to resonate with their audience. Their work, in short, is damn cool and although most of us run for the nearest exit when brands casually request to go viral, these two would probably jump at the challenge.

Jesse: When we do get to create content for brands it’s very exciting because we have an opportunity to explore and show off the kind of work that is possible online, whether it’s a simple gif, a promo or a video ad. We are also able to take different elements and combine them. We love this kind of work because it usually gives us a bit more freedom and because we’re a one-stop shop it’s all usually possible within budget. It’s also a bonus if we get to create the entire project ourselves from start to finish.
iDidTht: All possible within budget? Come on guys!
Dan: Haha, when creating content you don’t need more money, you need a better strategy.
Jesse: If you can’t come up with solutions for R10, you can’t do it for R100.
iDidTht: Although more is always nicer…
Jesse: Yeah, we like to eat.

1. The client has 1 billion Rands budget.
2. The client is smart enough to let us do what we want creatively.
3. Reasonable deadline + reasonable people = reasonable Dolph.
4. Jolly Jammers at the crafts table.
5. Anything juice related (we love the idea of juice).
6. Micro-budget, impossible deadline, half an hour pre-prod and conference calls with clients based in North Korea, but they’re all Kanye West fans.

We assume the last one is a joke, but with these guys, you just never know…

iDidTht: Who would play the two of you in the movie entitled Dolph?
Dan: Viggo Mortensen would play Jesse.
Jesse: Dan would be played by that guy who had a drug overdose. He was in Stand by Me. What’s his name?
iDidTht: Let’s Google…River Phoenix?
Jesse & Dan: Yes!
iDidTht: No guys, it has to be John Cusack! He looks exactly like Dan!

Produced by the iDidTht Content Studio
Credits: Anne Hirsch (Writer) / Julie Maunder

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