Director's Works
Tradeify, The Champion Mindset - Israel Adesanya Louis Norton Selzer
Louis is a writer-director born and raised in NW10, known for crafting bold, cinematic worlds laced with dark humour and the absurd.
His short films have won multiple awards and screened at BAFTA- and Oscar-qualifying festivals worldwide. A BFI Network awardee, BAFTA Connect member, 1.4 Awards nominee and Shiny Listed director, he’s fast emerging as a distinctive new voice in British film and commercials.
From day one, we set out to make an unconventional piece of sports content - cinematic, buzzy and kinetic, but driven by narrative. We wanted a darker tone without taking ourselves too seriously. Something cool, but fun. Above all, we wanted a set-piece that felt genuinely fresh.
The Champion Mindset series highlights the qualities shared by elite traders and athletes. Israel Adesanya - The Stylebender - made adaptability the obvious focus. The creative challenge became how to express that adaptability visually, in a way that served both the concept and our creative ambitions.
That solution was “the ring pull”: a moment where Izzy flips the ring upside down to overcome an onslaught of shadow creatures. It was bold, risky, and immediately central to the film. The client embraced it - and then we had to figure out how to pull it off!
What followed were months of relentless problem-solving: cortisol-fuelled mornings, nights and weekends, collaborating with a global network of freelance VFX artists and blending 3D, 2D and AI techniques to stretch a limited post budget as far as possible. It was demanding, at times overwhelming - but we knew there was something special at its core. Capturing such a powerful performance from Izzy meant leaving no stone unturned.
You wouldn’t approach every project this way. But for this one, it was absolutely worth it.
