Ivo is a director who has taken his background in animation design and moved into vivid live-action films. The infectious energy of our Portuguese whirlwind comes through in his films by way of passionate performances and bold photography, all with a cheeky sense of humour. He is a generous, trusting and collaborative director.
Agency: Fuse
Production Company: Perfect Storm
Agency: Pablo / London
Production Company: Untold
The spot fluidly explores every crucial detail involved in the extensive preparation that takes place ahead of the F1 races. The piece utilises a left to right camera move, immersing the viewer in the F1 environment and showcasing key moments from practice sessions in the pit lane and around the track to qualifying and the main race event. Ivo states ‘My focus from the offset was demonstrating the importance of the team behind each driver. Each role is essential and preparation is meticulous, every part of the process counts. The engineering details are insanely intricate and yet, in contradiction, the sport is a brutal force. The viewer is transported into every pinnacle moment throughout the race to further the excitement and emotion involved in watching the sport. It was a pleasure to collaborate with the Sky Creative Agency team who were full of energy and passion for crafting this stimulating film.
Production: The Mill.
Production: The Mill.
The spot uses glitchy transitions to move between the urban real world and the psychedelic imagined world of the designs created by Niall Horn and Ivo Sousa.
Ivo Sousa explains ‘Bloka is a street style brand established by the artist Niall Horn. His art dictated the way in which I approached this film and it is a direct reflection of his lifestyle, where painting, clothing and music are his means to express himself. Intrigued by the context in which his work takes shape, I felt the commercial needed to take on a documentary feel, where his art would come to life and clash with its urban setting.’
Production: The Mill
Production: The Mill.
Two individuals come to the realisation of their unique potential when the environment reacts solely to their presence: bursting to life unexpectedly, standing them out from the crowd. This becomes the call to action for them to enrol at Northampton university. Director Ivo Sousa states: ‘The brief, set by the agency Daughter, felt fresh, cleverly written, using intriguing visual references with a bold colour palette and details that seemed appropriate to the target audience. We instantly connected to the initial style and concept that sparked lots of new ideas for further development, our collaborative process with Daughter begun. This advert reached a total of 1.3 millions views on youtube
Agency: Daughter. Production: The Mill.
The film, narrated by Jennifer Saunders, tells the story of a young girl, taken on a whimsical journey by the loose thread on her t-shirt in the quest to discover its origins. Inspired by the illustrative and graphic style of The Fableists’ t-shirt designs and by the concept of how a child might see the world, director Ivo Sousa and Kwok Fung Lam created an animation sequence using exaggerated angles, bold colours, distorted reality and tight cameras to create an epic fantasy journey full of energy and most importantly fun.
Agency: Brothers & Sisters. Production: The Mill
Every year, the D&AD awards highlight original thinking and inspirational work, which reverberates through the creative industry. The concept was therefore based on an insight into the power of industry trends and fashions.
The team set out to depict this culture through the inclusion of graphic patterns that move in a harmonious shared direction – a uniform visual landscape.
Production: The Mill
Ivo Sousa used a mixture of live action shots, abstract-graphical shots (to interpret Picasso’s emotions and feelings), archive footage (to set up the time and place in 1932), as well as artworks to showcase some of the content at the Tate exhibition.
Ivo explains, ‘We wanted to create a trailer which would not only reflect the scale of this particular exhibition at the Tate Modern, but also to be a stirring emotional device, a moving hook to the tile with the exhibition slogan, ‘Love, Fame and Tragedy.’
Everything was curated to fit into the world of what we interpreted as Picasso’s mind set in 1932.’
Agency: Tate Digital. Production: The Mill
Empara Mi had the idea that she wanted to express the feelings surrounding isolation & not fully belonging; developing this concept in tandem with the music to eventually “finding your people” by the end of the song.
Ivo explains “I was highly influenced by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London- where I have seen beautiful combinations of set design, sound, props, incredible body movements and routines. “Shout” is a combination of powerful vocals and beautiful lyrics which quickly sparked lots of ideas for scenes. It was important to strip it back to achieve a simple and graphic look with the usage of bold colours to keep enhancing the readability of the choreography.”
Production: The Mill
Production: Blackkite