Richard Neville

richard@animl.co.uk / +447500082338 / www.animl.co.uk

I'm a writer director. My heart has always been in storytelling. So far, I've written and directed short films for commercial purposes, mostly through my company Animl.

My commercial clients employ me to tell stories that go beyond conventional advertising - giving me advertising briefs, but with longer durations and a less constricted creative approach. These branded films are often produced in remote locations or complex social circumstances, using a small crew and usually with non-actors playing lead roles.


Selected Scripts

Dog 'xploding

c.3 minutes, comedy (28/2/2019)

Bear is ever so worried about fireworks. Perhaps with good reason.

Hide & Seek, or Max's Traumatic Incident

c.8 minutes, horror comedy (v1.1)

Something bad happened to Max and Superteddy on holiday that year.

Escape

c.8 minutes, drama (v1.0)

Deep in the woods a girl finds she has something to escape from.


Selected Commercial Films

Links to view all films here: animl.co.uk/richard

Unilever / Vaseline Healing Project Indonesia

Credit: Campaign creative, Writer, Director. (Indonesia)

To promote the humanitarian work of this Unilever project, huge viewing figures for a warm and touching film about a mother having her child cured of leprosy - a topic with terrible social stigma.

Unilever / Persil First Day Of School

Credit: Campaign creative, Writer. (India, Brazil, UK)

This project documents the first day of school for children in tough circumstances - in a slum in Mumbai, and a Rio favela. Most liked and most effective media Unilever had ever measured, i.e. more "likes" per view and greater completion rates than any other Unilever-produced film.

Unilever / Vaseline Healing Project China

Credit: Campaign creative, Writer, Director. (China)

Again promoting a Unilever humanitarian project supporting a diminishing ethnic group... A beautifully shot film with a rich original orchestral score, hailed by the Chinese interior ministry as "a lasting cultural artefact to document the Miao ethnic people."

Stagecoach / Creative Courage For Life

Credit: Campaign creative, Writer (UK, Europe)

Inspirational advert for the UK's largest children's acting school, empowering kids to develop creative courage for life.

Met Police / Drop The Weapons

Credit: Campaign creative, Writer, Director (UK)

Films featuring ex-violent criminals talking to camera, giving the advice they wished they'd received about how to avoid a life of crime. Part of Met Police's most effective weapons amnesty campaign.

TED / Through A Child's Eyes

Credit: Writer, Speaker (USA)

TED recognised my Kids Today Project for Unilever as one of the most innovative campaign ideas they'd seen, and invited me to talk in New York about what we'd learned. The project was about seeing the world from a child's perspective (literally, via head-mounted cameras) in order to understand how children really learn.