Co-Director Rob Marchant's initial contact with Channel 4 came through the IDEASFACTORY website through which he entered IDEASFACTORY's 30 Second Films competition in 2005 in which the challenge was to reinvent the public information film as a dynamic, concise communication. He submitted a very well put together anti-smoking campaign film called Reasons to Stop. His film came runner-up in a very high quality field of entrants and he won a digital video camera.
In the wake of the competition Rob was invited to discuss his pet projects with a Commissioning Editor at C4 and Second Lives was top of the list, an idea he and co-director Nic Stacey had devised specifically for the 3-Minute Wonders strand. The project was spot on for the strand, fresh and contemporary, and was commissioned soon after – Rob and Nic's first broadcast commission, primetime to a national audience. They are now exploring a follow-up project with the Channel's Documentary department.
In the wake of the competition Rob was invited to discuss his pet projects with a Commissioning Editor at C4 and Second Lives was top of the list, an idea he and co-director Nic Stacey had devised specifically for the 3-Minute Wonders strand. The project was spot on for the strand, fresh and contemporary, and was commissioned soon after – Rob and Nic's first broadcast commission, primetime to a national audience. They are now exploring a follow-up project with the Channel's Documentary department.
Both Rob and Nic work in fairly humble (but aspiring) positions for a London-based indie called Dangerous Films which specialises is drama-documentary/factual drama. Before Second Lives they described their position as having "extensive high-level experience in zero budget film-making and extensive low-level experience in multi-million pound projects". Second Lives was done with the blessing and support of their employers, as part of their professional development (entirely initiated by themselves), and has helped them bring together their own double lives – what was a pet project developed in their own time and under their own initiative has boosted their reputation as film-makers in their own right and taken their position at their employers up a gear or three.