The producers' wrap: Dan Mace of Egg Films

Tusker was the first ad I directed, so credit to Net#work BBDO for giving me this break.

Music is super important to me as a director. I usually insist on having a soundtrack before we even shoot as this plays a large role with my conceptual process. I like to know exactly what the edit is going to look like and where my cutting points are, which is only really possible with the selection of a click track, a BPM. You can stretch and move visual rhythm dependent on what feels right, but with music you are stuck in a bar structure and can’t really break this pattern. I have always said that film is like music for the eyeballs. With Tusker, the way the sound, edit, music and character development worked together was so crucial to its success. I worked a lot closer with every single department than what I am used to. There were a lot of competing opinions in the beginning of the post process, but I am really proud of the product we released. The team worked bloody hard on pulling it all together.

I believe that South Africans understand how to tell a real story. When looking at the other directors that won from Egg and Arcade – Terence Neale for adidas originals, Kyle Lewis for Sanlam and Jason Fialkov for First Kiss – what all of these pieces have in common is a raw, authentic feel to them. It’s hard for me not to feel inspired being surrounded by guys like this on a daily basis. We come from a background where we didn’t have the budget to make Hollywood-scale TVCs, so we went into telling powerful stories and powerful ideas without the gimmicks.

Well, Tusker just won an African Cristal Grand Prix, so it's on a roll, but I never know what to expect with these award shows. For me, there is no better feeling than a good response from the public to an ad like this, so I feel that the team has already won. Nowadays we have access to understanding the public response very easily online, gauging by real people’s comments that are unaffected by the behind-the-scenes or knowing the initial idea, which is epic. I have put some money aside to attend Cannes this year though, as I love to be there and see the level of work being produced internationally.

As are we! Keep an eye on our Cannes Lions special section for the latest updates and revisit our One Show special section for key interviews, insights and accolades.

You can also view more of Mace’s work below. The Matt Simons Catch & Release (Deepend Remix)’ music video has had 18m views, Gift and Bomb-Sniffing Rats were CFP-e Shots winners and Fighting To Save Zanzibar’s Sea Turtles has had 1m views: