Film firms criticise awarding of safety campaign to UK director

THE ROAD Safety Authority has defended the awarding of a new television advertising campaign to a UK director in preference to home-based film production companies.

Production work on the “Crashed Lives” campaign, which features graphic illustrations of the devastating effects of road collisions on ordinary people, is under the direction of a London company, Stink.tv.

The campaign has a budget of €200,000.

The decision has ruffled feathers in the Irish commercial film sector, where operators claim the work could have been done at home at a lower cost and to the same standard.

“There’s nothing in the proposed script that couldn’t be done by a competent Irish director,” said one leading advertising film producer, who declined to be named.

In recent years, the authority has run road safety campaigns featuring graphic images of the injuries people can sustain in collisions. However, with the shock effect of these images fading, it wants to try a documentary approach.

The authority said the ads were being produced by its advertising agency, Irish International, which was appointed following a tender process in line with EU procurement regulations.

A spokesman said the ads required a new and fresh approach and would be shot in documentary style.

The advertising agency approached four directors they believed were best suited to this task, including one Irish director, and three treatments were submitted for consideration.

“The director chosen was selected on the basis of the treatment submitted, which we felt best addressed the requirements for this campaign,” the spokesman said.

While the company chosen was based in London, the production of the films was then subcontracted to an Irish company, Zanita Films, he added.

As a result, about 60 per cent of the budget would be spent on production in Ireland.

Post-production work would be done in London because, the spokesman said, it was normal industry practice for directors to use teams they have worked with previously.

According to the brief, the campaign will aim to show that “nobody is immune from the damage a road crash can do”, and to look “more closely at how and why these crashes are so destructive”.

The ads will feature a number of people who have suffered horrific injuries in road crashes, and professionals dealing with the aftermath of such trauma.