In its latest work for Richard Curtis’ Make My Money Matter Campaign, Lucky Generals helps turn Academy-Award winner Olivia Colman into ‘Oblivia Coalmine’, a latex-wearing, potty-mouthed CEO of a fossil fuel company financed by UK pension holders.
In this slick star turn, “The Queen” and “The Favourite” actor is transformed into a smarmy, smug and self-righteous CEO, oozing evil and condescension, as she thanks the viewers on behalf of the fossil fuel industries for their generosity in unwittingly giving their pension funds to help them enjoy a bumper year of profits.
To learn more, we spoke to Emma Fasson, Head of Film at Lucky Generals.
What was the brief?
The campaign was created to help Make My Money Matter raise public awareness of the damaging links between our pensions and the fossil fuel industry, and in doing so, increase pressure on UK pension schemes to invest more sustainably.
Most people have no idea where their pension money goes, let alone that it could well be being used in a way that harms the planet.
How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?
It was a very collaborative and fun process with us and the client realising we’d hit upon a brilliant creative idea and couldn’t wait to see the end results.
What was the process behind ideating the concept?
Danny, our Creative Founder, wrote the script and one of the most important things was to get a great director and we couldn’t have been more delighted to work with Raine Allen-Miller.
When we were looking at the script, she began to offer up thoughts immediately; she is amazing with casting, performances and the fact she has a great sense of humor was a massive bonus. We then hit the jackpot by securing Olivia Colman and it all came together brilliantly.
What was the production process like?
The process itself was very quick and a very small team pulled it all together in just under 8 weeks.
The main thing was to get a great director and we couldn’t have been more delighted to work with Raine Allen-Miller. When we were looking at the script, she began to offer up thoughts immediately; she is amazing with casting, and performances and the fact she has a great sense of humour was a massive bonus. She also has a great sense of fun which comes through her work and on set too.
We loved [multi-award-winning] ‘Rye Lane’ and have always wanted to work with her. Somesuch are one of the top production companies who we have a great relationship with, so we knew we were in safe hands.
Usually, you get a treatment from the director - but as we had the clock against us we had some key concept slides - Olivia's wardrobe and the art dept on set being the key bits. From a production point of view, there were a lot of instances where Elly (Raine’s producer) and I relied on our black book of very talented people within the industry for people to give their time for free - the very real challenge of making a film with little to no budget.
On the day, it felt like a very intimate team pulling everything together to get it done - a different vibe from a lot of the bigger productions you often work on but just as, if not more, gratifying.
What was the biggest challenge during production? How did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge was creating the engine table as we weren't sure until it arrived on the shoot day(!) if it could be raised and would be high enough to be a desk and not just a coffee table, which would not have had the same impact for Oblivia in her full glory!
As mentioned, there was little to no budget so working out where we put that money was very important - these were hard costs such as the engine table/ dressing the space and Oblivia’s wardrobe. Everyone gave their time for free and where possible we leaned on people for favours on certain bits of the art department.
What is one funny or notable thing that happened during production?
In the script there is a moment where Olivia drinks crude oil from a champagne glass.
Asking her if she would prefer to drink savoury-flavoured Bovril or Bovril with added caramel flavouring as her drink was definitely a high point! She preferred the caramel flavour (it actually smelt quite nice!).
What’s the main message of this project and why does it matter?
The main message is to ask yourself where your hard-earned money is actually going. It is so important as billions are being poured into the fossil fuels industry without most people even knowing about it. If everyone looked into this and acted on it we could make a huge impact.
How long did it take from inception to delivery?
From script approval and getting Raine on board to delivery was under 8 weeks. Olivia gave up a day of her holiday to do this and make it happen in time as we had a hard deadline for launching around the COP28 conference.
She is amazing.
What do you hope it achieves for the brand?
We hope it brings awareness and actually jolts people into looking at where THEIR money is really going.
