Why Director Lex Carthur Is All About Story Over Style

Lex Carthur is an English director and photographer whose work is a visual expression of the energy in life’s motion.

To date, his work has resonated with the world of sports, so brands like Nike, On and Salomon have leveraged his unique style and world building. Lex has a keen awareness for personal interactions and experiences, which makes him a masterful storyteller. He’s keen to bring that talent into other arenas, which he recently did with a global campaign for PlayStation.

Lex sat down with LBB to discuss the value of a strong relationship with a creative director, why he prefers to build out projects using writing rather than relying on references and why it’s time for agencies and brands to look a bit deeper at directors’ abilities instead of putting them in boxes.

Name: Lex Carthur

Location: London

Repped by/in: Together Associates/Field Unit

LBB> What are some upcoming projects that you're excited about? Tell us a bit about them?

Lex> I’ve actually just wrapped the last project I had on my books. Which is a relief after a non-stop year. I have a couple of director’s cuts I’m desperate to get started on.

I see that connection with the work as a real pivotal part of getting better and learning. Going through the rushes myself with an editor hat on and asking what would I do with that, what can I do better? Where I edited everything myself in the past, that’s not always possible now and it’s a bit of a luxury to get to make director’s cuts but they also show how you see things to prospective clients. I am sitting on a huge global project with PlayStation last December and a really fun Nike retail one from this summer. I’ll be cutting them myself. I think I can attribute a lot of the development of my style to taking the time with things like that.

LBB> What excites you in the advertising industry right now, as a director? Any trends or changes that open new opportunities?

Lex> I think we’re coming back round to the idea of full story arcs in our work. There was a period of over-indulgence in simplicity I think. Lots of stuff didn’t make sense. I see it as the temporary nature of product commercials are starting to recover from over-abundance.

I think people, brands, are starting to realise that you are only your taste, your culture and your craft. It’s all about curation now. So I’d say for my role it's more about refinement and specificity. It’s getting more specialised. That's an opportunity if you have the specialisation needed but I think I’m seeing either a brief so firm in its idea it doesn’t need my creative input or a brief without an idea that needs to be made strictly in the eyes of the brand’s style.

LBB> What elements of a script sets one apart from the other and what sort of scripts get you excited to shoot them?

Lex> I do a lot in the world of sport, and I think there’s a general avoidance of taking risks. There’s a lot of attempts at a ‘we see you, runners’ script, for instance, but not a lot of space to have that come to reality for fear of the antagonist in the story, be it fatigue, the trail, the road, coming off as a failure of product. That creates really one dimensional stories. I have found those who dare to challenge that have the most interesting outcomes. We are all very used to a lot of these stories so I really enjoy getting a script with an edge. The opportunity to subvert.

LBB> How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot?

Lex> I, (as a lot of the people in this industry, I imagine…) have a really powerful imagination when it comes to visuals. I can press play and pause on things in my head. So I usually read the brief a number of times, like a screenplay, and then start to stare, dream, and imagine scenes. It can be instant that I have something, or a number of days to piece together a full piece.

Then it’s writing. Writing out what I see in my head and its context, so it can be consumed by someone else. I’m more of a script-first director. I am not a huge fan of the referencing process as there are not always accurate references for what I’m imagining, especially with my style and that creates expectation on the client side for what something will be.

I prefer a drawn storyboard and then, it’s revision! Revising all the language, all the text. I’ll write a lot in my treatments and usually be told to reduce the amount… But that writing to me is what puts you in the right space to consume the storyboard and the overall arc.

LBB> If the script is for a brand that you're not familiar with or don’t have a big affinity with or a market you're new to, how important is it for you to do research and understand that strategic and contextual side of the ad? If it’s important to you, how do you do it?

Lex> I’ll be honest, that doesn’t happen to me often. I don’t think it’s ever happened. I find there are a huge amount of hyper-specific hurdles to cross to win a job and I’m fairly sure those who haven’t seen me produce something easily relatable just do not consider me, yet.

It is a shame, and I think it’s a consequence of being ‘on-the-rise’ rather than ‘at-the-top’. The last job outside of my cannon would be something like the PlayStation job I referred to above, and to win that I found it was more about clearly communicating how what I had done before related to what they want to do, even though they told me a number of times I was missing what they needed. It goes back to the specificity that brands are looking for in their partners.

The smart money, sadly, is usually on someone who’s done something very similar a number of times before.

LBB> For you, what is the most important working relationship for a director to have with another person in making an ad? And why?

Lex> It’s the creative director, for me.

If I wasn’t often my own DoP, that would be an obvious pick. But, knowing the type of CD’s I’ve had the pleasure of working with and just how conducive that role can be to the ease of the work and the outcome, it has to be them.

The best CD’s I’ve worked with allow us to create the work almost in a small bubble. They carry so much creative weight in their company that when they are making something with the director, they know once that’s created they have the ability to get it through marketing and sign off. I’ve had it three or four times and it's wonderful.

LBB> What type of work are you most passionate about - is there a particular genre or subject matter or style you are most drawn to?

Lex> At the moment, I think there’s a docu-hole in a lot of marketing. In sport for instance, our athletes are getting to the point where every single day has to be perfect to win. No distractions, no interventions.

That doesn’t leave a lot of room for storytelling. You either get thirty minutes on a pre-made set in a day where they’re doing back-to-back shoots and your thirty minutes will become ten. Or you might get a couple hours but you’re not getting it frequently and that is going to be used for product.

Having spent a lot of time with the best in a number of sports, there are amazing stories that will never be seen. We’re so product-focused I think we’re missing that the story is the product. That notwithstanding, and not seeing a lane opening there anytime soon, I would love to be doing more narrative-based commercials.

LBB> What misconception about you or your work do you most often encounter and why is it wrong?

Lex> I have found it’s very easy to get locked in a style. You do a piece, someone uses it as a reference for the next piece so you do it again, repeat that for two to three years and you end up with one type of work.

I think the misconception would be that my style is all I can do, or all I want to do. When I pitch a different style to those who come to me, because I myself am hyper-specified, it often falls on deaf ears. I see my role in the story, not just the style.

LBB> What’s the craziest problem you’ve come across in the course of a production – and how did you solve it?

Lex> It was basically coming to terms with how powerless I could be even though everything was planned to a tee. I had a stunt camera team running a cam on a motorbike. We needed to capture a cycling training session. It was a specific manoeuvre and it was only happening six times and we were a fly on the wall. It was going down if we were there or if we weren’t. I won't run through each mistake but, it turns out no matter how much you prepare people for the speed of cyclists, the speed of the turnarounds… they can still over-promise what they can execute and it ended with us only getting one out of the five.

Classically, every five minute change took 15 minutes. By the sixth one I’d had enough and the producer was very experienced in driving in front of cyclists, so we jumped in the van and did it ourselves. That was the shot I needed and it took getting perhaps the most stressed I’ve been on a job to get it.

LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?

Lex> I enjoy the collaboration. But, I think it is difficult. My role is to make something the client likes, hopefully loves. At a certain point in the process, everyone around me is telling me ‘you just need to do what they ask’, ‘It’s not about your opinion, it’s about what they want’. So I do find it difficult to fend off things I deem ‘not good’.

When it comes down to brass tacks in post, it can be more like brass knuckle, and you just get beaten into some things. I think the balance scales depending on the weight of the director, and at the moment I’m still trying to find my lane.

LBB> What are your thoughts on opening up the production world to a more diverse pool of talent? Are you open to mentoring and apprenticeships on set?

Lex> I love teaching. I love the idea of mentoring and giving someone an opportunity, I try to give as much every time I’m asked. I see myself as a result of the openness to a diverse pool of talent. I am white, so I’m not talking diversity. But, I came late to the role, without knowing anyone, no feet in any doors, from a place where there are very few people able to dream. I think because I have 10 years in another industry, It’s made my jump easier.

I’m not green for professional environments, but I have felt in many ways that if you’re making good work, there have been few boundaries to having the opportunity to make that work over and over again.

LBB> Your work is now presented in so many different formats - to what extent do you keep each in mind while you're working (and, equally, to what degree is it possible to do so)?

Lex> I am not a 9:16 fan. It’s a trend. When we eventually get iPhones in flip form and the tablet size screen is a square, apps like Instagram will be forced to adapt and thus our view of luxury will be changed again, just like it was when we adopted 9:16 as the hero social format. I do it as a necessity. The landscape formats are still the way to consume motion and I find the most successful social brands are prepared to share their ‘films’ that way.

The idea of taking 33% of your desired storytelling frame and just using that is just so incredibly reductive that it borders on blindness. The comedic act of putting the viewer in a set of social media horse blinders is so funny to me. It’s so far away from why a lot of us got into this that you just have to laugh and go along to stay sane.

LBB> What’s your relationship with new technology and, if at all, how do you incorporate future-facing tech into your work (e.g. virtual production, interactive storytelling, AI/data-driven visuals etc)?

Lex> I haven’t spent much time in the new-age tech world. I have found, if anything, taking opportunities to regress have been more fortuitous. Putting pen to paper, meeting in person around a table, purposefully thinking about what AI can’t do. I’m not afraid to adapt but I don’t want to unless I feel the need and it has nowhere near surfaced yet.

LBB> Which pieces of your work do you feel show what you do best – and why?

Lex> Salomon London. I think this is a great example of how I like to work with real characters and people. Giving space for them to exist how they want but also having them appear in situations that explain them.

Rapha Pro Team. This was more of a brand story than a product. That gave a lot of opportunity to be experimental and show a fuller arc.

Jawara Alleyne 2024 show. No budget. No crew. It was a ‘what can one person make’ type of job with no strings attached.

My first ever piece of work. I had no filmmaking experience. No one asked me to make it. I didn’t know I was ‘making it’ when I did. I just saw a story and I had someone willing to participate.