Simon Burgess Video Director & Managing Director

Hi and welcome to my personal site.

It’s aim: to provide you with my thoughts and my approach to using video in this new and exciting
video age.

It shows you how my approach has been helping businesses make the most of it.

Please get in touch if you like what I say.

Thanks
Simon

• Call me: +44 7831 837764
• Email me: simon.burgess@sugarsnap.tv

When the screenwriter of such classic movies as
The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid declares that, for all his experience and talent, ‘nobody knows anything’  when it comes to making hit films and TV shows and any other artistic endeavour you’d care to mention, then we need to listen.

William Goldman wasn’t saying that anyone could make a blockbuster, but that there was no science you could apply to guarantee a successful communication.

You had to be able to trust your instincts rather than focus groups, and work hard to putting quality up on the screen.

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I’m always honest with my clients.

I tell them that the process of making any kind of communication should be a judicious mix of creativity and excellent organisation.

It should not be about the egos of the people involved. The message is the point. It’s important to put the audience first.

It might sound strange for a producer/director like myself to say that making a video or film isn’t about ego – surely all of us are arrogant and confident and willing to battle for our ideas? Well, some are, but I don’t think that brings success.

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I went into business-to-business communication because I enjoy the challenge of turning what some might call dull messages into vibrant pieces of communication that change the perspective of the audience and make them do things differently.

It might sound strange, but I don’t crave the limelight: I enjoy the fact that my clients get it; that their peers and, of course, their superiors praise them for getting an important corporate message across successfully.

Naturally, that success means I get more work because my clients trust me to deliver every time. It’s a virtuous circle.

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It actually pays to be dull. And that’s true when it comes to budgets, I thrive on being dull.

I’m no creative accountant – and I certainly don’t employ one – all I do is look at the amount of money available and then make an honest assessment of what can be done with it. Then as the job progresses see what else I can do to eek out every last penny.

I’m also clear about what can and can’t be done before you even think of how big a budget should be.

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I like to manage a coherent team. And coherent teams – with the right balance of technical and creative know-how – deliver successful programmes.

It’s important that any producer-director has a real business sense; an ability to manage creative ideas so that they match the original brief and then be able to navigate their way through the whole process of making the budget, schedules and delivery of the programme work.

Teams deliver communications – individuals don’t.

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I didn’t go to university nor did I do any courses to learn how to make good programmes. I just knew I could do it and honed my skills with hands-on experience.

I left school and went straight into the industry by making models for the animators who made programmes such as Paddington and The Wombles, FilmFair. That gave me an insight into the creative process and the highs and lows of production.

I learned that it took a lot of effort from a lot of people to satisfy the world’s hardest audience: children. If you can entertain them and get messages across at the same time, then you are a consummate professional.

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Running a business is not as satisfying as making programmes and helping clients make the most of video and other media to get their messages across.

So, I decided to get out of the office and get back to making programmes and in 2003 I created a new business called SugarSnap.

The aim was simple: I wanted to help my clients realise the potential of the new age of visual communications. My clients trust me to deliver the goods.

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I enjoy the practical side of giving new life to corporate messages.

I like putting together a cohesive team to bring an idea alive – wherever that idea came from. And, simply, I like it when my client gets praised for using my talents and expertise.

You could say that’s good for my ego – and yes, I’ll admit it is – but, most of all, it’s about the satisfaction of doing a job as well as you possibly can.
That’s what drives me. That’s what I enjoy. Life’s too short to compromise.

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