Ad agency Mother launches scripted indie

Advertising agency, Mother, has launched ‘unbranded content’ indie, Mother Pictures, with a focus on scripted content for TV and cinema.

Mark Waites, one of the founders of Mother, is leading Mother Pictures and has hired former Head of Development at Raindog Films, Andrew Gow as Producer. Gow was most recently head of TV at Mother and has held previous development positions at Heyday Films and Silver Reel Partners.

Mark Waites, Founder of Mother Pitcures commented: “We’ve seen many fantastic storytelling talents emerge from the ad world over the years, some of them having started at our company, so for a long time we have felt this itch to participate more meaningfully in the storytelling space. Covid or not, this is a very exciting time for British TV and film; the rise of streaming services and a desire for greater diversity and inclusion mean stories are being told now that would never have made it over the line in years past. So the time has come for us to build our own slate of projects, gathering distinctive, authored IP, and courting this generation’s most promising talent, across TV and film.”

The new indie has launched with new drama, The Leak, written by Matt Hartley and directed by Lisa Spirling. In The Leak, as lockdown drags on, Sarah realises that her previously watertight friendship “boat” might have sprung a leak. Someone’s been informing her ex-boyfriend about what she’s been up to in her newly single, socially-isolated life. Amidst a painful breakup and a global pandemic, Sarah is determined to find the culprit using everything she has at her disposal… wine and video conferencing.

Matt Hartley, writer of The Leak said: “Whilst there may be some debate over whether Wagatha Christie was 2019’s biggest news story, there is no doubt that Covid has been 2020’s. The Leak’s starting point came from mashing these two stories together to explore friendship, family and the pressures that we have all been living through this year, whilst embracing a new form of telling dramas.”

Lisa Spirling, Director of The Leak commented: “We’ve all been through the mill recently, this drama explores what that means for a socially distanced, yet still interconnected web of people – it’s experimenting with the tools we have at our disposal to help tell a relatable, human story.”