A Tale of Two Lakes, or Dhahran Lakes, as it was called on release and probably something I should get used to and change where applicable, won a Silver at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards. That’s two major awards now for the film I directed about the life of two lakes… See the original name kinda works better, no?
It’s funny, because this project became the antidote to the conversations I was sick of listening to around how Ai was going to absorb all creative work and leave all creatives jobless. This film became more than a tale of two lakes. It was a collaboration of talents. Unique perspectives and skillsets draw together with one goal.
Each person put their soul into their department and as the director and editor I had the real pleasure of combining these and adding my own take to it all. Something Ai can’t achieve because it gathers global interpretation and mixes into a big bowl, which is why it often all seems the same. It is, it’s the same gathering of information. Our little film was the perspective of five individuals honing their craft at a specific junction in their life.
I needed to absorb more nature, something Jack and I discussed often on our calls. It was this longing, and adoration of the feat these birds undertake each year that guided the direction of this film.
From an animation point of view, it reignited my love for things to feel raw, tactile, constructed with a little chaos, and although the Ai conversation hasn’t gone away, I have realised that my worth as an artist, a director and a story-teller isn’t just in what I know, but what I’m learning while I’m on the project.
