The Best Work You May Never See: E.ON UK, House 337, Director Hans Emanual Affirm "It’s Time" To Fight The Climate Crisis

Energy and sustainable solutions provider E.ON UK has issued a rallying cry to fight the climate crisis in this “It’s Time” campaign from creative collective, House 337. 

Directed by Hans Emanual of production house Familia with Mathematic Studio serving as VFX studio, this 60 second hero commercial launches on June 24 across TV and cinema, running in the U.K. until August. Written by House 337 sr. creatives Kenny Meek and Mary Johansen, the idea is simple. Using striking CGI, businesspeople and homeowners are captured on melting ice caps, on flooded streets, in a tornado and in burning forests. Each of them nonchalantly sings lines from the Irma Thomas song “Time Is On My Side” as their focus remains locked on other things. 

As the climate crisis-induced scenes escalate, we finally see one woman realize the urgency of the situation. The film resolves with the positive view of the future that E.ON is striving to help bring about through sustainable energy solutions for homes, business and cities.  

Creative collective House 337 ensured the process of making “It’s Time” had as little carbon impact as possible, using a combination of solar powered studios, a responsibly sourced wardrobe, recycled rather than re-filled water tanks and keeping travel and shoot attendees to an absolute minimum. Every partner involved also had a clear commitment to sustainability. Checklists were used to track the entire process from the carpenters to the caterers and after all carbon reductions were made, the entire production’s carbon footprint was calculated with any remaining carbon output offset. 

The imagined scenarios in the spot were complex, from flooding a village, to traveling to the Arctic. In production terms, this level of detail could have been hugely unsustainable. But by utilizing technology, the team was able to use virtual backdrops and virtual video villages to reduce the need for travel, cutting emissions and budgets in the process. 

Director Emanuel said, “What I loved about the concept was the juxtaposition. Seeing familiar home and work settings amongst ravaged landscapes. Hearing care-free singing between the soundscape of natural disasters. From a directorial perspective this film had all the components from epic wide shots, interspersed with intimate personal moments to huge VFX builds to wirework. The finished film is testament to the hard work from the amazing team at agency House337, my production team at Familia and post house Mathematic.”