Ollie Allgrove Talk

In today’s lesson we were visited by an executive producer for the media entertainment company ‘The Mill’. We met Ollie Allgrove, who works at ‘The Mill’, which is the world’s biggest visual effects company. 

Oliver Allgrove

The company has made numerous CGI effects for films, music videos and advertisement and has even won an Oscar for special effects in the film 'Gladiator'. 

They have offices in Los Angeles, New York and London and employ over 1000 people across the world. 

The companies mission statement is ‘We are artists, technologists and makers for all media, working at the frontiers of visual narrative’.

Ollie Allgrove came to speak to us about the media industry, his company and as-well some helpful advice our A level media projects and future endeavours. 

Allgrove began his career by working as a runner on shoots and constructing sets for his university theatre department. He then took a break to study and understand the industry, before he delved into the entertainment industry.

After working in the industry, Allgrove became an executive producer at ‘The Mill’. He has worked on various projects, one that he particularly discussed was an advertisement for the SSE.

It was a huge undertaking by the company to create a realistic orangutan for the advert. 

This is when he said that his company tries to make the impossible possible and that anything with the right attitude and budget is possible. The advert became a huge success and the company has developed their CGI animals even further due to the proliferation of hardware. 

He then when to discuss the music video industry. He said that around 10 years ago music videos were on the decline, their was little demand and interest in music videos. However, when Youtube was created it opened a different platforms for companies to showcase their products, it was now easier and cheaper to distribute media products. This in turn has had some negative effects, because now Youtube has become a battleground for artists and companies to promote their work as their are huge number of audiences and it is only one channel. Additionally, he said that record companies are afraid that view count doesn’t show the audiences that watch the video whole and that it is mostly people just watching the first few seconds.

Allgrove stated that a music video is a promo for the artist, especially for newer artists/band it is their first impression to the audiences. It is an expression of the artists and that must be communicated to the audience. He also gave us some advice on creating a music video. He said that the treatment is like a love letter to the artist/band, you are speaking as an artist to another artist. When making the treatment you need to think of a hook and of being innovative in your ideas. 

Allgrove mentioned that communication is key to the success of an idea and that the treatment needs to be clear and explain what you are going to do and how you are going to do it. He said that you need to express what the director wants and sell it; that is the basis for the relationship between the producer and a director, to communicate their ideas effectively.

Similarly, to the Polydor talk we had, he said that the visuals are extremely important in a treatment and always use visual references to support what you are saying; most importantly the idea has to be realistic and fit with the time and budget you have. Allgrove also said that the simpler the better and if you cannot hook the artist/band onto the treatment into the first few pages than it’s not a good idea.

He then told us of music videos he worked in. A few years back he worked alongside a successful director, Dan Lowe. They worked on a music video for an upcoming band. In one shot the director wanted a POV shot of the lead singer jumping off the roof, holding an umbrella and landing safely to the ground. To have done that shot with a real person (stunt), it would have costed them an estimated £145K. So the director and crew designed a rig, held by weather balloons and had a dummy dressed as the lead singer strapped to the camera. To pull of this stunt it ended up costing them around £145. Allgrove mentioned that this is an example of pushing an idea however finding a realistic solution to do it.

More recently, he worked on the music video ‘Wide Open’ by the Chemical Brothers. The idea was simple and it was off a woman dancing in an industrial space, however as she dances she slowly turns into a 3D printed model of herself. 

It was a simple idea but to construct a 3D model of the dancer dancing it needed 7000 framed of visual effects and costed them around £10,000. They had to develop software and 3D scan her entire body, it was a big step in visual effects design. 

Final Video:

In conclusion, the discussion was an extremely helpful experience in giving us an insight into the media industry. The advice given was very constructive and beneficial for our own work now and also for the future. Furthermore, both the Polydor and Ollie Allgrove talk gave similar advice, especially when talking about constructing our treatment; this emphasised the basic guidelines and tips to a successful music video.