Escaping the intense energy of London for the faded coastal charms of Margate on the Kentish coast, RSA director Tom Dream got more than fresh air, a slower pace of life and the beach on his doorstep – he became part of a newly-emerging creative hub and saw his film career take off. Brimming with retro-modern vibes, quirky characters and nostalgic moments, his fashion films, music videos and docu-shorts stylishly blur the boundaries between fact and fiction – leaving the viewer with the curious sensation of inhabiting an imaginary reality. After all, this is Dream’s world – we’re just living in it

With a body of commercial work that spans Mercedes to McDonald’s and music projects including album artwork and teasers for electronic duo Overmono, Somesuch creative Rollo Jackson has evidently figured out a way to be everything, everywhere, all at once. Visually his work oscillates between high polish and raw lofi, straddling the divide with poise and confidence to blur the lines between usually distinct aesthetics. It’s precisely this that makes his output so compelling – an intriguing dance of image making between the elevated and the visceral. 1.4 spoke with Rollo to dig deeper into his distinctive creative landscape

Keeping the good ones rolling...

More, much more, marvellous music and madness to come

Director and visual artist Jordan Clarke creates fantastical worlds that can only be described as a depiction of the sublime and the hellish all in one. Infused with equal parts fascination and scepticism, his work unpacks the complex intersection of questions around technology, social media and what makes us human. And somehow, he manages to do this with a style and creative perspective that makes heavy concepts utterly compelling to watch. His latest video for des hume onetwostep ft (juicelover) is no different, and may be his third Vimeo Staff pick by the time you’re reading this. 1.4 spent some time on email with Jordan unpacking what makes him tick. Spoiler alert – he may be a genius.

What better way to start the week than an escape to Private Island, the brainchild of Directimator Chris Boyle and his self-described business sibling Helen Power. Anyone with a phone and access to social media will have found it impossible to dodge the creepy AI beer and pizza party Frankenstein monster ‘commercial’ Boyle released into the wild last week. A bleak and terrifying exercise in mindfuckery (or to put it in fancy words, cognitive dissonance), the spot has crested the wave of news headlines and stoked the ongoing wildfire of anxiety around creative job security, human obsolescence and commercialised happiness on tap. 1.4 spent time with a human presenting as Chris Boyle on a videocall (although it may well have been an AI deepfake) to discuss Lovecraft, neuropsychology and breaking creative models.

Teutonic efficiency meets boundless creative vision in director Hanna Maria Heidrich – whose cinematic aesthetic and stylised visuals elevate 30-second spots into beautifully conceived films in miniature. In Heidrich’s world, a humdrum car trip makes a handbrake turn right into the pages of a fairytale; scarecrows shake off their shackles and go searching for the perfect home. Recently, she’s been exploring the circularity of life and the tantalising prospect of reincarnation in SOULS, her award-winning mini-series for Sky Atlantic, transporting viewers on a journey between past, present and future to discombobulating effect. She tells 1.4 why she loves the choreography in car commercials, the craft of directing actors, and why she’s founded her own organisation to shake up the pitch process.

Out of the way, here comes our final selection from the Porsche Awards. This category is Long Advertising Content. Says it all really but we guarantee that there is some brilliant new talent here that you’ve never set eyes on before.

Our second selection from the Porsche Awards is the Driven by Dreams category with films that get us dreaming of a better world whether that’s social progress or environmental awareness and sustainability.

1.4 visited Film Akademie Baden Wurttemburg in Ludwigsburg for the Porsche Awards of New Directing talent. The competition is open to film school students, schools of art and design, apprentices, graduates and other budding directors throughout the world who have been on the market for less than two years. More category showcases to come.

Newly signed Biscuit director Rosie Bird Smith garnered widespread acclaim for her quirky parodical short about the consequences of believing everything you hear, including earning herself a Silver medal at this year’s 1.4 Awards. We caught up with Rosie about the joys and challenges of working with animals, her route from agency creative to director, and finding the comedy in awkwardness.

Sara Werner, director of the web series Killer Workout, discusses why comedy, horror and a good wallop of BDSM were the best approaches for raising awareness of America’s current economic state. Nicolas Montanari reports

Ads that put the heart back into branding

For those who missed the fest on the beach in Pattaya this year, here is a light selection of films that tickled our fancy

When you come face-to-face with humanity’s most harrowing and intimate emotion, to whom do you turn to share the burden? Director Werner Vivier specialises in exploring the intricacies of human emotion and interaction, and his newest project is no different. Limited to a single day, a single house, and the phenomenal talents of Juliet Stevenson and Anthony Welsh, Vivier offers us a beautifully executed short film based on a peculiar premise. 1.4 talks to Vivier about the joy of people-watching, the fine line between comedy and tragedy, and learning from the cast that you are directing.

Despite sex being fundamental to life, it takes a certain kind of director to tackle the subject matter with the perfect balance of tenderness, directness and originality. In I Am That I Am, Audrey Mascina has done just that - creating a physical portrait of intimacy as an escape from societal constraints, without a hint of gratuitousness or voyeurism. Infused with sensitivity and grace, Mascina’s work is also characterized by a deep physicality, born of her background as a contemporary dancer – movement that feels organic, rather than because trends demand it. She tells Selena Schleh about the synergies between dance and sex, and why intimacy is a subject she’s keen to explore on a bigger canvas

In just a couple of weeks, Raman Djafari’s pedal to the metal promo for Ashnikko’s track Worms has racked up north of 1.3m views and inspired an outpouring of love in the comments section. The most liked fan note comes from The Kittens Room (with a crazy 4.6k upvotes!) and sums it up in a nutshell – “She has a better budget and creative direction than some A list artists.” We won’t ruin the illusion by talking money, save to say Djafari’s video was birthed from within the illustrious walls of the BlinkInk studio, where presumably they’ve managed to master some sort of Rumpelstiltskin-style machinery that makes the impossible seem effortless. Or it might just be pure passion…   Stephen Whelan caught up with Djafari to get a glimpse behind the wizard’s curtain of this awesome promo

As a child, C Prinz was compelled to physicalize her ‘incredible surges of energy’ through dance; today, as a choreographer and director, she channels that power into vivid, impactful stories told through the movement of bodies in space. Preoccupied with building worlds where ‘strange’ is the baseline, her work surprises and challenges with unexpected angles, unusual perspectives, and visual juxtapositions: where the difference between ugly and beautiful, softness and rage, is often only a frame. From female violence to gender identity, no topic is off-limits to her lens – defying her non-confrontational nature to feel the fear and do it anyway

Clever Creativity + Magnificent Production = Added Value Messages

AB/CD/CD’s new promo for Mae Muller’s Team GB Eurovision entry is, quite frankly, the greatest thing to happen to Franco-British relations since Concorde. A masterclass in pop polish, the elegantly framed diss track, I Wrote a Song, delivers all the choreo and camp you’d expect from a Eurovision entry, filtered through the distinctly Parisian lens of the inimitable directing duo. The promo is replete with whip pans, perspective tricks, five (count them), FIVE, different looks and the nails, sweet lord THREE SETS OF NAILS (these things matter to us gays, they’re our version of Premier League Tables). The non-stop energy of the video and its unique play on seeing things from different points of view matches the sass of the track perfectly. Stephen Whelan shot a bunch of fangirl questions over to AB/CD/CD who indulged us with some Eurovision chat and a peek behind the scenes of the project.

Crown & Owls film for slowthai captures the inner dialogue of the artist struggling with his addictions in an unflinchingly visceral way. From the opening shot of the artist clinging to his child, it’s a gripping and warped visual trip that’s perfectly fused with his lyrics.

Zornitsa Dimitrova’s stomach-turning short impressed juries across the world, winning not only a Gold Award here at 1.4 but also collecting the Special Jury Prize at YDA in 2021. Now, on its public release, Zornitsa tells us about building a false sense of security, the challenges of shooting with just natural light, and cutting her hair to play Romeo.

Creative director Thierry Albert aka director Albert Albert shoots a cautionary tale for living life through social media for Thom Draft’s track Tense. Shot entirely on smartphone the video follows L and her fiery superpower after a miserable live-streamed bullying incident. Best watched on smartphone of course!

Since opening her LA-based production company Eleanor, Sophie Gold has built her roster into an eclectic mix of filmmakers working with top brands and agencies. Now Sophie has extended Eleanor’s reach across the Atlantic to open a branch in her original hometown, London. 1.4 shares a pot of tea with Josie Juneau who will run the Soho company and Sophie who talks to us about the ethos that drives her success and why the film Moulin Rouge changed her life in a blink

A week out from International Women’s Day, RAYE has just dropped an absolutely seismic video for her track Ice Cream Man that addresses her own experience of SA.

Katie and Martha are MrMr. Originally music video producers, the pair founded ‘Stink Rising’ at Stink Films back in the pre-covid world, and left Stink in 2020 to create their own production company, MrMr Films. Since then, alongside producing large scale commercials and music videos - they’ve also been developing narrative work and their own directorial voices. We are proud to premiere ‘Eat It’ - a comedy short with heartbreak and cherry pie at its core. In a full circle moment, the pair are now signing to Stink Films globally as commercial directors. 1.4 chatted to Martha and Katie about ‘Eat It’, Stink, and that time they robbed a gas station in Nashville.

A foley artist, a goat carcass, and copious amounts of fake blood - what better inspiration for a music video? Belgian director Aline Magrez explores filmmaking’s fundamental and symbiotic relationship between the visual and the aural in her new music video for MacGray, “Backbone”. 1.4 catches up with her about the new piece and we discuss sensitive cinema, queer existence in the natural world, and her favourite colour of blood.

It's all about love... in all its glorious manifestations from beginning to end

See some of the Superbowl highlights before Sunday's kick off