In this latest edition of Outside Adland, James Crawley, founder of and creative at Common Ventures, tells us about his Volcano Man documentary, starring his own father.
I am an ad creative by trade, and without over-intellectualising it, I think it’s important to be interested in heaps of stuff (if you DO want to over-intellectualise it, read Range by David Epstein).
I keep myself quite busy outside of work – and that could be anything from getting obsessed with making sausages or attempting to learn saxophone, to converting a 1976 VW Kombi to be Tesla-powered.
However, the most satisfying project outside of work was a feature documentary I directed and co-wrote called Volcano Man.
My mother died when I was in my final year of university. My father did a couple of unique things after she left us. Firstly, he started filming intimate video diaries of himself from the day after she died. Secondly, he decided he wanted to become a rock star.
A couple of years later while I was down with him for Christmas, Dad handed me all the footage he shot of his grief. I found a spot in a dark corner and watched all of it in 4 days – it was a memorable Christmas. I vividly recall watching a particularly harrowing tape where he discussed suicide, whilst in real-time, Dad was dancing around the kitchen basting the turkey to the thrashings of Iggy Pop.
In this moment, I realised I had access to some very unique footage, and the ingredients to tell a powerful story.
Funnily enough, I actually wanted to go to film school after finishing high school but was warned off it by a friend in the film industry who shared a long list of Directors, four of which (he said) had any work.
Many years later – here I was thinking about films again. With the help of many crazy talented people, I made the bloody thing, which almost killed me. Volcano Man premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival, won best doco from the Australian Writers Guild, and ran in cinemas across the country in support of Movember and men’s mental health – I was even the subject of an episode of Conversations with Richard Fidler.
The whole experience reignited my love of directing and storytelling – something I’m now trying to do a lot more of in the commercial and narrative* space.
That’s the thing about learning new stuff – from sausages to Kombis to filmmaking – you just never have a clue where it’ll end up, and where it will take you. It might sound obvious, but I would never have guessed that making a film about my own grief would legitimately allow me to process it, or that it would give me the language to discuss some pretty hefty subjects with one of the best dudes I know (my old man).
You can watch the full documentary here.
*I’m currently making a film about a man in his mid-50s who wants to smash a world record and jump a car 50 per cent further than anyone ever has (attention brands – need a partner/sponsor to build a big ramp!).
