Our first ever director guest: Scott Otto Anderson (Photoplay) breaks down the Rugby World Cup 2027 campaign for World Rugby — a Mad Max: Furiosa-style epic where a dust storm reveals itself to be hordes of rugby fans in nation-themed vehicles.The twist? It was heading for a huge VFX / virtual-production build until Scott pivoted to something far more tangible: 1:10 scale miniatures.

Driveable remote-control cars, finished by traditional model makers, shot at the actual Furiosa location. He explains the gravity-scale physics that make toy cars read as real, scoring each nation's vehicle with its own audio cue, a lizard named Miss Lizzy, and the 25 solo pickup days the client never sees.

Then a rare director-to-director conversation — the "20-minute expert," the editor's-mind advantage, and why you should keep post separate from production.

Plus Hot Takes: coffee-order justice, the word "senior," call-sheet snobbery, and whether colourists deserve a trip to set.

00:20 Intro

05:36 The Breakdown: Rugby World Cup 2027

08:21 The pivot that won the pitch: miniatures

16:25 The gravity-scale physics of toy cars

29:30 Ms Lizzy

39:28 On being a director

46:55Hot Takes

🎙️ New episodes weekly.#thedirectorandthedop #commercialfilm #vfx #miniatures

It's the ad every Australian has seen a hundred times and every Australian director secretly wants to make: the Qantas in-flight safety video.EP Catherine Terracini (Elastic) breaks down what it actually takes — 136 deliverable versions across aircraft types and languages, chasing grounded A380s around the world, shooting in real cabins with the air-con off, and a resident falcon in the hangar. Oh, and the catering company's kitchen that burnt down at 9:30pm the night before the first shoot day.Then a great conversation on what an executive producer actually does — and why the most valuable word a producer has is "no" — before both hosts explain how an electrician-punk-singer and a broadcast editor ended up behind the camera.Plus maybe our most energetic What We Watch yet: a stunning South African stout ad, Will Ferrell's surprisingly cinematic golf comedy, and the Extraction oner.00:25 Intro04:30 The Breakdown: the Qantas safety video09:00 136 versions and the language matrix23:30 The kitchen burnt down29:48 What an EP actually does35:21 How we got here (origin stories)44:35 What We Watch🎙️ New episodes weekly.Qantas Safety 2026 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjkvOYzFjYAfrican Time - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9hTHc4_sqQExtraction BTS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwn0J2OVDG4The Hawk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSRJ6PXHx88#thedirectorandthedop #commercialfilm #advertising #qantas

Liam breaks down Human Fking Wrecking Ball — the most personal thing he's ever made, and it started as a lens test.Asked to shoot a test video for Sigma's new autofocus cine lens, Liam refused to make the usual soulless lens-chart reel. Instead he drove to Wollongong, spent two days shooting UFC prospect Colby Thickness on a single lens, and — when the footage refused to become the slow mini-doc he'd planned — turned it into a 59-second punk promo, screaming the vocal track himself into a mic in the bush with his young son on headphones.It's a story about the rush of pure creativity, why three colliding deadlines are the only reason the thing exists, and what it actually takes to make something that's 100% you.Then, Life of a Freelancer: when to make passion projects, why Ethan doesn't, why short production windows beat long ones — and the genuinely hardest part of leading your own project (it's feeding people).00:24 Intro05:26 The Breakdown: Human Fking Wrecking Ball06:26 The lens test that became a promo12:33 From mini-doc to punk video17:22 Screaming it into a mic in the bush28:33 The grade34:40 Life of a Freelancer: passion projects🎙️ New episodes weekly.#thedirectorandthedop #passionproject #cinematography #filmmaking

Matt Taylor — founder of Milkmoney, now an agency EP in branded entertainment — breaks down Rivals, a TV series funded and driven by Rexona that pitted Australia's top athletes across codes against each other on Hamilton Island.

Matt takes us inside brand-created entertainment: how you balance the "value exchange" so it's neither eight half-hour TVCs nor an ROI-free show, why flying athletes to an island beat any stadium, and how you shoot eight episodes in a four-day window with 155 people and six camera units.

Then the personal stuff: running an independent production company ("it's like riding a lion"), selling Milkmoney, and becoming a grip assistant at 50 during his non-compete. Plus Matt turns the tables with a great question — where's the opportunity in all this industry chaos? — and Gear Chat on the Cadrage / Sun Seeker update.

00:20 The loud shirt

05:32 The Breakdown: Rivals

12:03 The value exchange

26:32 The athletes and the 4-day window

32:42 Why Australian TV is all FX6

38:12 Running a company: "riding a lion"

39:50 Selling up and becoming a grip at 50

46:58 Gear Chat

🎙️ New episodes weekly.#thedirectorandthedop #brandedentertainment #advertising #commercialfilm

ECD Katrina Alvarez-Jarratt (Le Truc, part of Publicis) joins us to break down the strangest, most complicated shoot of her career: Heinz "The Pickle." The idea — put a man in a giant pickle costume and send him into La Tomatina, Spain's tomato-throwing festival. The budget — tiny. The plan — barely held together.Kat takes us through a bribed balcony, a GoPro stolen within five minutes, her accidentally filming her own tomato-covered face, and a three-hour turnaround to get it onto breakfast TV.

It's a masterclass in earned media, adaptability, and why the idea is the only boss.

Then: how Kat picks directors, why real-people work is back as a pushback against AI, and why AI previs is killing creativity on set.

Plus Hot Takes — the word "industry," paid treatments, and the spiciest take we've ever read out.

00:20 Intro

05:54 The Breakdown: Heinz "The Pickle"

15:10 Everything that went wrong

23:50 How earned media actually works

31:10 How an ECD picks directors

46:20 AI previs vs creativity

50:10 Hot Takes

🎙️ New episodes weekly.#thedirectorandthedop #advertising #commercialfilm #creativedirector

1st AC and focus puller Louis Lau joins us to break down a two-minute single-take beach safety PSA for Surf Life Saving Australia — Angus Sampson delivering an unbroken monologue while a dozen actors, a Polaris buggy and a Westpac helicopter choreograph around him. The brief called for Australian summer sun. They got rain, and shot it anyway.Louis explains what a focus puller actually does (it's not what you think), why the week of prep is harder than the shoot day, and how to win an argument with a producer over a $200 line item.Then the real conversation: after thirteen years, Louis is stepping away from camera assisting to become a DP. The golden handcuffs. The humble pie. And why, as he puts it, nobody cares that you were a great focus puller.Plus What We Watch — Air New Zealand, VW's Forever Golf, and an unresolved argument about Spider-Noir.00:00 Cold open00:27 Intro05:29 The Breakdown: the 2-minute one-take13:15 Steadicam vs gimbal14:40 What a focus puller actually does24:08 Arguing with production over $20033:25 Leaving a 13-year career behind52:30 What We Watch🎙️ New episodes weekly.#thedirectorandthedop #commercialfilm #cinematography #focuspuller

Tokyo. London. Mexico City. New York. All of it shot in Sydney, in two days.

Ethan breaks down Lenovo "Play-by-Play" — a global FIFA World Cup campaign for Shutterstock Studios — and Liam asks the questions he'd have asked if he'd been on it. Why Sydney beat LA and Melbourne. What got cut when grip ran out of room. The one shot worth protecting. Why the client asked for it to feel like a documentary. And why Liam thinks the grade needed more colour.

Then we launch a brand new segment: HOT TAKES. You sent them in, we have to take a side. Bidding against an agency's in-house team. Stills vs motion. Residuals for the creative team. And whether a bland pho is even pho.

00:00 Cold open

00:21 Intro

06:12 The Breakdown: Lenovo "Play-by-Play"

09:40 Why shoot a global campaign in Sydney?

12:32 The grip compromise

18:35 Liam doesn't love the grade

28:25 The $100k question

36:48 🌶️ HOT TAKES — new segment

Send us your hot takes on Instagram — the spiciest ones make the show.

🎙️ New episodes weekly.

#thedirectorandthedop #commercialfilm #advertising #filmproduction

Freelance producer Henry Richardson joins Ethan and Liam to break down U Bank — a maximalist, three-spot campaign directed by Jesse James McElroy built almost entirely on practical effects: a horse walking through a beach set inside an "office," a man bursting out of a flooded kitchen sink, toast flying on a roof. Henry explains why the shoot pivoted from location to a full studio build, what a "support horse" actually is, and the sink malfunction that flooded a set mid-take. Then, Life of a Freelancer: invoicing timing, Net 90 payment terms, and the worst you've ever waited to get paid.00:00 Cold open00:18 Intro02:55 Meet Henry Richardson04:33 Breaking down U Bank11:45 The horse problem12:36 The sink blowout18:32 Should producers be client facing? 26:00 The $100k question36:49 Life of a Freelancer: invoicing & Net 90🎙️ Follow The Director and the DOP for new episodes every week.#thedirectorandthedop #commercialfilm #advertising #filmproduction

James Griffiths is GM of Creative at Bring, Universal Music's in-house creative agency. In this episode he breaks down Coke Studio — a campaign spanning Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines, built around two original songs designed to connect, nine custom-built sets, and a final surprise collaboration between five artists.

We get into how a campaign this complex gets briefed, why the director was left deliberately room to interpret rather than execute a locked vision, and the moment with five minutes left on day one when the entire shoot nearly came down to a guy with an electric saw cutting open a fridge.

James also on what people don't see in a project like this — the eight or nine months of work before a single frame rolls, and the tension between music culture moving at rocket pace and a brand the size of Coca-Cola that simply can't move that fast.

Plus, it's episode 10. We made it.

In Gear Chat: the Sony Rialto 65 — 65mm cinema in a backpack.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Cold open

00:20 Intro — episode 10, we made it

05:41 Meet James Griffiths, GM Creative at Bring / Universal Music

06:48 Coke Studio — the project overview

08:10 Two songs designed to connect across two markets

11:22 36 million views and a fandom that knew the lyrics before launch

14:10 Nine sets, two days, two countries

16:34 Choosing an Australian production partner for a global campaign

18:36 Briefing a music video vs a 30-second ad

22:48 Has anyone bitten off more than they can chew?

24:59 Do the product shot first

35:06 Can you make a career on music videos

42:06 an extar $100k?

48:34 Liam's K-pop pitch

51:43 Gear Chat — Sony Rialto 65

56:00 Wrap-up

Erin McBean is Executive Producer at Infinity Squared. In this episode she breaks down Mountain Dew's "Do the Dew" campaign — a green screen shoot built almost entirely on AI-generated backgrounds, until the client's legal team said no three days before they rolled.

We get into how the production pivoted, why a smaller budget sometimes gives social content exactly what it needs, and what happens when you push back on an agency's creative approach before a single frame is shot.

Erin also on the pitch process — competitive pitches on shrinking budgets, jobs that get cancelled after three production companies have put in weeks of work, and why that needs to change.

Plus where production is actually heading in 2026. Erin's been at Infinity Squared for five years and has watched the industry shift faster than it ever has. 

In What We're Watching: a punk band trashes a Denny's and it becomes the best brand ad of the year. And an AI campaign that convinced the entire internet — including Ethan — that Nike had just made the greatest sports ad of all time.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Cold open

00:22 Intro — episode 9, running out of outfits

03:05 Meet Erin McBean, EP at Infinity Squared

04:10 Mountain Dew "Do the Dew" — why this project

05:00 Car park budget, not Sydney Park

07:38 AI backgrounds — building the whole concept

09:18 Client says no to AI — three days out

13:00 The casting — Caleb gets painted green

14:15"Bite off more than you can chew and chew like crazy"

23:21 The pitch process is broken

25:06 The rejection/dating parallel

27:05 Where is production going in 2026?

31:08 What do you wish people knew about the EP role?

38:17 What We're Watching — Denny's punk band ad

40:54 The AI Nike campaign that fooled everyone

45:31 Wrap-up

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