Wale Song.

Barnaby Blackburn OG 2006 is a multi-award winning writer/director. For the last seven years he has worked as a copywriter and Creative Director in the advertising industry. At the age of 26 he was awarded a BAFTA for his 2014 Winter Olympics promo for the BBC before moving to Los Angeles to be Creative Director for brands including NBA 2K, Call Of Duty and Google. In 2017 he shot his first short film and directorial debut, Wale. Since its completion, Wale has been shown at film festivals all over the world, shortlisted for the Academy Awards and nominated for a BAFTA. He recently completed his second short film ‘Dad Was’ and is currently developing his first feature film project.

You always wanted to be a film-maker, but took a detour via Politics at Leeds University and an award-winning a dvertising career. What triggered that moment of honesty with yourself that this is really what you wanted to do?

My ambitions to be a filmmaker were always there, though probably a bit latent. I’d started filming stuff with a camcorder when I was about 13; mainly friends skateboarding. But being a professional filmmaker never felt like something achievable or that I knew much about. When I started working in advertising, writing TV ads, being on set and overseeing the entire production of these commercials, suddenly that world seemed much closer. In many ways I used advertising as my film school, trying to get as many TV ads made as possible so that I could be on set and learning about the technical aspects of film-making.

You’ve been working with your creative partner, Gustavo Kopit, for 10 years. That kind of collaboration is common in the advertising industry and a great skill for film directing –what is the key thing that makes that partnership work?

Gus and I met on a post-grad advertising course in Watford. He’d come all the way from Brazil to do the course, so it was clear to me that he had the drive needed for the ad industry which can be quite harsh and unforgiving at times. He’s also an incredible craftsman and visual thinker. In creative teams, usually one of you is a more visual person and the other one is the wordsmith. I’m the latter in our partnership. Our skills complement each other well and over the ten years of working together we’ve found our rhythm of getting to good ideas quickly.

You learnt your film-making craft writing and directing commercials. What’s it been like moving into a world without briefs and tight deadlines?

I don’t think it’s changed much. It’s just that I impose my own briefs and deadlines now. I have a constant feeling of guilt if I’m not using my free time to get work done. Unfortunately, that feeling wasn’t something I’d developed when I was at school!

Your commercials and debut film, Wale, have an incredibly strong sense of place – where does that come from, why is it important?

That’s hard to answer. Obviously I take that as a compliment but I’m not sure I can pinpoint the reason why. It may be to do with having moved around a few times as a child. I originally grew up in Leeds and then moved to Guildford when I was 12. I always felt fortunate to have had half of my childhood in the north and half of it in the south. I think it gives you a greater perspective on the country and an understanding of how environment contributes to the nuances of peoples’ personalities and perhaps, as you say, a strong sense of place.

How did you meet your Dark Glass Films partner, Ed Speelers (perhaps best known as the actor who played Jimmy Kent in Downton Abbey?)

Ed and I met through mutual friends when I was at university in Leeds. He wasn’t at the uni but he came up every now and again for the weekend and we had a similar appetite for films and particular music events. It became clear pretty quickly that we shared similar tastes and had the same ambition to make films of a certain kind. So we set up our production company Dark Glass Films and got to work making our first film, ‘Wale’.

How useful are your English accents in LA?!

Not as useful as you might imagine. There’s so many British people in the city that I don’t think people think of our accents as that unusual. In fact, most people assume I’m Australian, much to my chagrin.

What are you most proud of to date?

I wrote a TV promo for the BBC’s coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics which included a poem I’d written as the voice over; a challenge to the athletes posed by the voice of nature. After the campaign launched, I arrived at my desk one day to find a big envelope waiting for me that had been sent from a teacher at a primary school in Salford. The envelope contained 30 different poems that the pupils had written themselves, in a similar vein to the poem I’d written for the promo. The fact that my work had inspired these kids to go off and write their own poetry gave me a greater feeling of pride than when the campaign won a BAFTA a few months later.

When will ‘Dad Was’ be released and what other projects are you working on?

Dad Was is my new short film which we shot in Glasgow earlier this year. We’ve just finished the post-production on it and will be showing it at film festivals over the coming year. Aside from that, I’ve just finished the script for my first feature film, which I’m tremendously excited about. So I’ll be trying to get that off the ground post-haste.

What advice would you pass on to the next generation of OGs?

Right now, you might not know what you want to be. That’s fine. It wasn’t until I’d left RGS that I really discovered what I wanted to do with my life. The important thing is to try things out. As many as you can. There’s so much on offer at the School and, if I’m honest, I probably didn’t take full advantage of it when I was there. Perhaps if I had, I’d have realised my ambitions to become a filmmaker earlier. At the time, I was preoccupied with playing sport and meeting girls. Sometimes when you’re a teenager, it’s hard to see beyond those things. But the more you experiment, the more you give things a go, your calling in life will become clearer. So, try something you’ve never tried. Risk it. Join the photography club. Take on the chess master. Cycle to Brighton. Make a film over a weekend. Start your own society. Try debating. Try anything. You have nothing to lose and everything, everything, everything to gain.

Barnaby Blackburn OG 2006 is a multi-award winning writer/director. For the last seven years he has worked as a copywriter and Creative Director in the advertising industry. At the age of 26 he was awarded a BAFTA for his 2014 Winter Olympics promo for the BBC before moving to Los Angeles to be Creative Director for brands including NBA 2K, Call Of Duty and Google. In 2017 he shot his first short film and directorial debut, Wale. Since its completion, Wale has been shown at film festivals all over the world, shortlisted for the Academy Awards and nominated for a BAFTA. He recently completed his second short film ‘Dad Was’ and is currently developing his first feature film project.