SECTOR:
ENTERTAINMENT
YEAR:
2014
ROLE:
SENIOR CREATIVE
THE BRIEF
the brief.
Two flagship Sky 3D productions - Natural History Museum Alive and Conquest of the Skies - were campaigns written and directed by me.
Both campaigns required David Attenborough himself to be filmed for the campaign materials, bringing the partnership’s authority and warmth directly into the work.
THE IDEA
the idea.
I was hands-on for this project—pitching the creative territory, writing the inserts, and directly directing Sir David on set to ensure the performance landed
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM ALIVE
For Natural History Museum Alive, the creative territory was wonder at night: extinct creatures coming to life inside the museum after dark.
Storyboards drove the key art: a direct line from pencil to poster.
CONCEPT
TV PROMO
CONQUEST OF THE SKIES
For Conquest of the Skies, three hundred million years of flight were compressed into one campaign.
The work needed to hold the scale of expedition and discovery while still feeling personal to the man at its centre.
VR EXPERIENCE
The Attenborough partnership didn’t stop at broadcast. Sky created a landmark VR experience, placing users face-to-face with a photorealistic hologram of Sir David Attenborough inside the Natural History Museum. Captured using a 100-camera volumetric dome, the digital Attenborough could sit across a desk from you, hold your gaze, and guide you through the museum’s rarest fossils. Users could pick up and examine specimens in 3D space, objects that hadn’t been touched in decades. My role was maintaining creative cohesion across the full partnership: Attenborough, the Natural History Museum and Sky, ensuring the experience felt as considered and emotionally resonant as the campaign work that surrounded it.
ON SET
Across both shoots, I directed Attenborough himself, writing the inserts, briefing him on set and shaping the performances that became the campaign.
THE IMPACT
These shows were a huge collaboration with Sky and cemented a partnership that became the gold standard for prestige factual broadcasting in the UK.
Directing David Attenborough across both productions remains some of the most demanding and quietly extraordinary work of my career.
