Spotlight on Women Directors: Kathi Prosser
As part of a regular series with Free The Bid Australia, Campaign Brief shines the spotlight on top female commercials directors in Australia and New Zealand…
Kathi Prosser is a director at Sweetshop.
Three best spots:
1. Avon ‘Dreams‘ via Leagas Delaney
2. MEDG
3. Sick Kids Foundation ‘You Got It‘ via JWT
The daughter of a Welsh steel worker and a Manchester stay at home mum, nobody could have seen Kathi becoming a director. She developed her aptitude for art and technology, when, fresh out of high school, she traveled the globe as a model, spending more time watching the director than striking a pose. She cut her teeth as an art director, following that up as a visual FX and brand designer garnering her a BDA gold and a Grammy nomination for Moby’s ‘Play’ long-form video. Her first commercial shoot was a 10-day AT&T campaign.
Kathi’s work is personal, organic and technically savvy, which makes it powerfully compelling. She has not only terrific range as a director, but also an uncanny eye for where media trends are going. Her most recent contribution to Venus was shot on multiple platforms for social media. This year Kathi returned to her roots in VFX, directing a stunning piece for MEDG and new technology. Intelligent, nimble, creative and aware, she is one of the new breed of directors who feast on culture and technology.
Says Prosser: “I love smart, adventurous film-making – and I love a puzzle. With Avon, my brief was simply to create a dream, but that the dream could not include clouds, water or anything floral. So began the adventure of figuring out what a dream might look like – trying to give the film a touch, sound and scent simply to win the work – like boarding a short film!
“My MEDG (Ministry of Economic Development and Growth) film was even more open, giving me simply a script and a list of cutting-edge technologies to visually depict. I had to delve into the “what” of technologies, like surgical robotics, electron microscopy, quantum machine learning, AI, HUD and dynamic focal adhesion, before I could figure out the “how?” How do I depict these advanced technologies if I don’t understand what they are? But I loved every minute of it, and I am proud of the outcome. Each visual is either the actual facility or an accurate (to the scientists) visual depiction of the process.
“I had to dig deep to film ‘We Got It” for the SickKids Foundation. I wanted to respect and understand how these kids and their families cope. I spent a couple of weeks at the hospital getting to know each of them – what their limits were, what they were willing to share on an emotional level. When it came to the shoot, I did not shed a tear. I had no right and I had a job to do. The emotional strength of both child and parent was something I will never forget.”
Since launching a year ago, Free The Bid has 200 Australian Women Directors on its searchable database. Free The Bid now has over 20 major agencies that use the database to find the right director for each of their projects and have committed to putting one female director in the mix for every job.