We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rob Kerr. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rob below.

Rob, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I remember the day vividly. I had just graduated art school in the U.K. (I was born and raised in Scotland) during a particularly nasty recession and was working 2 or 3 odd jobs… bartending, waiting tables, and weekends at my uncle’s sporting goods store. I had spent the summer working at a summer camp in Georgia and upon returning I was summoned to have an uncomfortable conversation with my parents about ‘The future.’ Unfortunately for me, the future involved a desk job in the financial sector that my dad had secured through a golfing buddy. A sweet gesture in hindsight, but for anyone who knows me, it was a disaster in the making. Thankfully, I had one last ace up my sleeve—a plan to travel back to the U.S. to try my luck securing a more creative-focused job there. I agreed that if things didn’t work out, I would take the bank job when I returned home. Failure was never an option. I sold my rust-bucket car, bought a plane ticket to Florida, and never looked back. After 30 years in the advertising business, I left the rat race and joined forces with a group of talented filmmakers at Orange where I’m a writer/director collaborating on commercials and branded content. My only regret is that I didn’t leave the corporate world sooner.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a storyteller at heart but developed a passion for filmmaking as the creative director for the southeastern office of /TBWA —a global advertising agency best known for its iconic Apple campaigns. I love the whole process… coming up with ideas, pouring over every word in the script, location scouting, wardrobe and set design, auditioning talent, the shoot, editing, color grading, sound design… there are so many details to consider and so many talented people you collaborate with along the way. It really is the most fun you can have working.

Telling a story in a 30-second format (if you’re lucky—these days it’s more like :15 or :06) is a very particular skill that takes years to develop. You may shoot for 8-10 hours to get just the right shots and performances to make those 30 seconds work. I once filmed for seven days in The Bahamas for one Super Bowl commercial. Nice work if you can get it!

While I love advertising, I’ve also dabbled in longer formats. I currently have three feature films optioned for the silver screen, one an adaptation of a YA novel I wrote. The next major project will be directing my own narrative feature.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I come from the ’90s school of advertising, missing out on the fun of 3-martini lunches in the ’80s. It was work, work, and more work. If you didn’t come in on Sunday, don’t bother coming in on Monday. Imagine working 9-5, grabbing dinner, back in the office by 7, and working until 3… 4 a.m. grabbing a few hours sleep, then back in at 9am. Every day. Every weekend. Holidays, kid’s birthdays, mom going through chemo’, chest pains because you think you’re having a heart attack, but you can never stop because there’s always a deadline, always a pitch, go… go… go… win awards, win that big account, suck it up… this is ADVERTISING! Even falling asleep at the wheel driving a car full of the company’s top executives wasn’t enough to stop the insanity. No excuse, but I was working on zero sleep building up to a pitch (and coffee can only do so much) No, the wake-up call came a few years later after about a month out of town. It was two weeks before Christmas and I hadn’t even thought about buying a single card or gift for my wife or daughter. I just had one more week of post-production and I could get my gifts under the tree and enjoy the Holidays. Then, within 3o minutes of each other, I received 2 emails with plane tickets to be on different coasts the following week. And I was already booked in an Atlanta edit studio. Nobody had even thought to ask my availability—it was just an expectation. At that point, I knew I had lost all control of my life. I immediately quit and I’ve never looked back.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I think creative people are naturally driven to make things. We’re not always the best verbal communicators (some are), so I think part of the drive is a desperate need to express ourselves. To be significant. Valued. It’s okay for your goals to change (and they will). I used to have a singular focus to be an art director in advertising someday. Then I did that. So the goal changed to be a creative director someday. Then, win awards. Done! International awards. Done, and double-done. Okay, how about an award my friends and family have actually heard of? Boom—an Emmy.

It’s all part of being creative. Pushing. Making something new. Experimenting. Redefining expectations. Reaching for the stars. I’ve made a career of setting insane goals and laughing at the doubters who said they were impossible. In the words of the great Wayne Gretzky: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

My current mission: to be knighted before I kick the bucket. Go ahead, tell me I can’t do it.

Contact Info:

• Website: orangevideo.co