Rollo Hollins is a British commercial director and filmmaker who has made an impact on the industry with his stylised approach to short form filmmaking, infused with a sense of adventure and creative exploration. Whether pulling a comedy performance from the legendary Usain Bolt for Epson or capturing the gen–z zeitgeist in campaigns for Samsung and TikTok, his work consistently reflects his dynamic and contemporary vision.

Rollo's career began when he worked as an apprentice under director of photography Chris Herd, before becoming a DoP himself, going on to shoot award winning film and TV shows in both the UK and US, establishing a solid foundation in visual storytelling and a highly technical approach to commercial production.

Rollo excels in blending fiction and non–fiction elements, creating fresh and memorable visuals with emotional beats that resonate with wide audiences. Characterful casting, relatable comedy, fantastical CGI, and clever camera techniques distinguish his work. With an unstoppable momentum in the commercials industry, and several narrative projects currently in development, Rollo continues to make fun and engaging work.

Rollo sat down with LBB to discuss his upcoming spot for Sky Business, his background as a director of photography and his unique process for creating a treatment.

Name: Rollo Hollins

Location: UK, Margate

Repped by/in:

UK: Armoury London

US: All Day Everyday

Awards: Yes. Various. Including Grocer Magazines Ad of the Week, Feb ‘22

LBB: What are some upcoming projects that you're excited about? Tell us a bit about them?

Rollo: I’m just about to release a spot for Sky Business with House 337. We worked with a small A–team at the agency. Ross Newton and Laura Melville who were a total joy. It’s got a killer cast of faces, rollerskating action over a Sugababes soundtrack and we got to swing a big techno around the streets of Cape Town with one of my fav service co’s Orange. It’s a fun ride, made with the best team.

LBB: What excites you in the advertising industry right now, as a director? Any trends or changes that open new opportunities?

Rollo: The gap between traditional ‘broadcast’ audiences and social audiences is closing faster than we think and that offers a huge opportunity to creatively push the way we make stuff. I feel there are bigger visual and narrative leaps we can take that lean into how smart today’s audience is.

LBB: What elements of a script sets one apart from the other and what sort of scripts get you excited to shoot them?

Rollo: I used to be a DoP so I tend/ed to get a lot of transitional or camera first briefs, which are super fun, but I lean in more to character and casting. I’m not a comedy director, but I do really push quirk, charm and ‘aren’t we humans a strange and unique bunch’ style of performance.

If I see a chance to cast and work with some fun talent, I usually say yes before they tell me the budget.

LBB: How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot?

Rollo: Often, after a call late on a Thursday or Friday, “For delivery Monday, is that cool?”

“No, ummmm…” Breakdown first. What is the film, roughly? Usually with my eyes closed, on the sofa in my studio.

Or I’ll try that and instead, get distracted by the rest of the pitch; tone, vibe, fun, how? Etc. My treatments are DEEP.

By that point, the first round of image selection has usually come in and I often use that to force myself to think differently about the breakdown, if only as an exercise.

Coffee.

I have a secret folder of random inspiration; camera ideas, tones, colours, that I purge every year or so and collect back into, so I'll have a scroll through that in case it adds a little something.

Coffee.

Call with the producer; “Take out ALL mentions of dinosaurs, please.”

Coffee won’t help any more.

Pick up kids from school. One will tell me about a new 3–axis stabilised head – Wake up on the sofa in the studio. Write breakdown.

LBB: If the script is for a brand that you're not familiar with/ don’t have a big affinity with or a market you're new to, how important is it for you to do research and understand that strategic and contextual side of the ad? If it’s important to you, how do you do it?

Rollo: Defo. I really try to understand what the problem/solution the client is trying to achieve and how the creative is doing that. That sounds well .’biz’, but I do find it really important. It can define the emotive theme of the project and it’s surprising how many of the billions of important problems on a production can be solved by referencing it.

I also research what ads the client has made before, it’s a REALLY good signifier of how they will view the ideas you’re trying to make with them and how much you may need to hold their hand.

LBB: For you, what is the most important working relationship for a director to have with another person in making an ad? And why?

Rollo: Oh yikes, Creatives? Producer? Cast? My first? DoP? Casting director.. Editor!? It takes a village right? And the director is in the village square trying to persuade all those villagers to leave their nice village and build another one somewhere else.

My goal is to help everyone else do their best work, so it’s hard to say who’s most important.

Producer though I think, innit?? Must be? I work a lot with the gem of a human, James McLaughlin, and we manage to make great work whilst making it fun, on time and on budget, I’m told.

LBB: What type of work are you most passionate about – is there a particular genre or subject matter or style you are most drawn to?

Rollo: I spend so much time developing long-form projects: writing, planning, scheming. That’s always been the goal, it’s what filmmakers do, but I’m never quiet about how much I deeply, deeply love making short, sharp ads.

Being given great, focused, punchy creative and turning it into a super distilled, characterful, visually surprising moving image is such an utter joy. I bloody love it.

LBB: What misconception about you or your work do you most often encounter and why is it wrong?

Rollo: This is tricky, can we do a poll?

My work’s quite dynamic, I suppose. The camera flows around performances, but I really want that journey to be enjoyable for the audience… rather than chaotic. I want them along for the ride.

The level of planning, to the frame that requires… For every element to work right, is huge. We often set up shots for just 8–12 frames of action. The only way I found I could sleep after a shoot day is to secretly cut playback takes together onset, just so I know it all works…

The biggest misconception of that approach is that I find all of that over–planning makes performances way more fun and loose on-set. Because the window for what can/could happen is so defined, it allows the cast space to play way more with surprising ideas in that framework and I/the agency/the client will know it’ll fit the edit.

Over the past couple of years of working like that, I find first assemblies are usually within frames of the right length and the edit is really about perfecting tone and performance.

LBB: Have you ever worked with a cost consultant and if so, how have your experiences been?

Rollo: Yes! It was harder when my reel was less consistent, as I had less work to justify why certain kit, or processes were needed. In the past few years, the way I make work has had a consistent enough vision that it becomes much easier to clearly fight for your way of doing things.

If an agency/client wants a certain feel in my reel, then I’ve found it’s usually quite straightforward to show what’s needed to achieve it. Is that just luck? I do also say no to jobs because of this!

That being said, most of my shoot life is spent in a studio in a far-flung industrial estate very, very far from London.

LBB: What’s the craziest problem you’ve come across in the course of a production – and how did you solve it?

Rollo: Oh, so so so so many. We’ve bribed local paramilitary, physically lifted cars out of shot, hidden twostory tall dinosaurs, hypnotised chickens, border run props, and expended an entire country's supply of glitter. I LOVE a crazy problem.

LBB: How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?

Rollo: I feel the idea always belongs to the creatives. They’ve worked the hours to understand the clients’ needs, been through rounds of amends, killed their babies and been subjected to the focus groups. As a director, I’m there to translate that idea into some bold moving image that can live up to that journey and learning, but still surprise the client.

So, that route and my vision for it should be super clear at the treatment stage and I work super hard to lock everyone into that. Production is about how we make it happen rather than figuring out what it is.

My other focus is working with really great creative teams, which helps with all of the above.

LBB: What are your thoughts on opening up the production world to a more diverse pool of talent? Are you open to mentoring and apprenticeships on set?

Rollo: 100% As everyone should be. I mentor on set and off, it’s incredibly important. I never went to university or film school, I started as a runner and apprenticed under a DoP, so it’s super important to me to give those opportunities back.

LBB: Your work is now presented in so many different formats – to what extent do you keep each in mind while you're working (and, equally, to what degree is it possible to do so)?

Rollo: I try to have a campaign approach for sure. It’s really useful to know where most of the ad spend is going, it helps define the audience and can help adjust the visual language/tone of the campaign.

LBB: What’s your relationship with new technology and, if at all, how do you incorporate future–facing tech into your work (e.g. virtual production, interactive storytelling, AI/data–driven visuals etc)?

Rollo: I feel the way we communicate with the audience HAS to keep changing, or we won’t be heard. Film is a technical language so it’s always going to evolve. I love that about it.

I already use a lot of AI processes in post production. Not a massive fan of virtual production stages currently – the camera can’t move as fast as I’d like yet. I LOVE experiential consumer formats, 360 cams etc, wish VR was more popular, I got well into developing stories for that and I play around a bit in unreal. Tools change, the intent, the craft stays the same.

LBB: Which pieces of your work do you feel show what you do best – and why?

Rollo: UTV– my dream creative; character led, unique casting and visually playful.

EPSON Bolt – This is a few years old now, but it re–defined my work and I still love it.

Sky Business – Latest and greatest (if it’s out by the time this is?).

Thoughtful ‘Valentine’ – We shot four of these in a day, madness, but this one sums up all I love about making ads.

Nando’s – I could make ads like this every day.

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