What’s the impact of the pandemic on you, your company, your approach to doing business in the future? What practices emerged that you will continue even as restrictions are loosening?
Over recent years, The Mill has been globally integrating our technology and talent to work seamlessly together across all of our studios in London, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Berlin and Bangalore. The pandemic spurred us on to accelerate and strengthen our interconnectivity, which allowed us to be agile and highly effective throughout the transition to remote working, and maintain our incredibly high creative standards throughout 2021, as evidenced by continuing client satisfaction and numerous industry awards.
Breaking down location based barriers and sharing creative and technological solutions across our studios has enabled our clients access to the depth and breadth of our global network of talent. I think this global approach will be core to our ongoing success and growth.
How has the call for equity, racial and social justice affected, honed or influenced your sense of responsibility as a company in terms of the content you create and/or your commitment to opening up opportunities for filmmaking talent from underrepresented backgrounds?
The success of any creative company relies on its talent and culture, and the events of the past year have spurred a renewed emphasis on the inclusiveness, creativity and community that we pride ourselves on at The Mill.
As an Equal-Opportunities Employer we have built and are daily living up to inclusive company values, which are vital to our talent, clients and collective success. We will always respect, embrace and encourage the uniqueness of individuals and their talents because we fundamentally believe our creativity needs diversity.
We’re actively working on updating company policies and cultural impact through our DE&I committee to ensure that diversity, representation and inclusion run through everything we do, from our hiring practices to the work we produce.
While gazing into the crystal ball is a tricky proposition, we nonetheless ask you for any forecast you have relative to content creation and/or the creative and/or business climate for the second half of 2021 and beyond.
From a business perspective, the evolving audience trends towards content across digital platforms will see the global advertising landscape continue to shape and adapt to accommodate this. This is not new, but the pace of change is quickening. Many companies are rapidly augmenting traditional advertising models to incorporate new creative services, in an effort to support brands being as close to the makers of their content than ever. As companies continue to adapt, I think we’ll see this holistic approach to creativity more than ever, with brands increasingly seeking creative production partners and working directly with artists.
From a branded content perspective, the growing power of The Metaverse is an incredibly interesting opportunity for brands to create a new wave of content and build consumer relationships in new ways. I think we’ll start to see more and more brands command this space, harnessing the power of gaming and real-time technology to give their audiences live, virtual experiences.
What are your goals, creatively speaking and/or from a business standpoint, for your company, division, studio or network in 2021?
We’re actively looking at building out our capabilities and legacy across VFX, Creative Production and Experience marketing to serve the world’s most ambitious and innovative brands as well as exploring new territories and markets.
The pandemic has accelerated the use of new production technologies such as virtual production, and we’re in a great position to continue driving these innovations forward.
What trends, developments or issues would you point to thus far in 2021 as being most significant, perhaps carrying implications for the rest of the year and beyond?
There is definitely an appetite for people to come back together and foster a sense of community. I think we’ll see this mirrored in the return of live industry events, which may feature hybridized virtual integration. Brands will also be looking to build on this sense of community and explore event based initiatives that draw people together as pandemic restrictions lift.
