Uprising: Brock Neal-Roberts is Deliberately Navigating a Fickle Industry

Brock Neal-Roberts grew up in Hackney and has come all the way to now be based in the neighbouring northeast London borough of Tottenham. But while having the British capital on your doorstep might seem like a privileged position, he quite literally had to start at the bottom in the filmmaking industry. 

Now a director represented by Agile Films, Brock knew he wanted to get into the production industry and was “very deliberate” in making it clear how much he wanted it. Not content to wait for an opportunity to land in his lap, he offered to clean toilets for the chance to become a runner at a production company called Pretzel Films. 

It worked out. He ended up running on shoots for them, going through all the production rite of passage moments that differentiate the world of filmmaking from most other jobs. One odd situation he remembers is having to hand-courier cooked frog’s legs from a French restaurant to set on a cramped, rush-hour Central Line Tube train, “which stunk so much I had the entire carriage looking at me,” he says. 

Single-minded in learning his craft, from there Brock did the usual “bit of everything” over two years, working as a production assistant, editor, DOP, colour grader, getting a broad view of every stage a film goes through. All the while he had a goal in mind - taking a shot at directing his first music video - squirrelling away what money he could to make sure he could achieve something worthy of his vision. “It’s a draining way to get into the industry/directing,” he says, “but you learn so much by starting from the bottom and doing so many different roles.”

Eventually he had enough money saved to make that video, for a track called ‘Twix’ by Tottenham rapper Oscar #Worldpeace. “It was something that I was invested in emotionally and financially,” he says. “I thought to myself that if I couldn’t make this video something worth watching then directing probably wasn’t for me.” Fortunately due to, as Brock sees it,  “the work of an amazing crew, it turned out really well.” A gently-told personal story of young love incorporating warm and intimate portraits of various couples, the promo reflects the nostalgia and innocence of the track perfectly, ending with a scene that makes a chocolate bar feel a lot more significant than you thought it could.

With that video in the bag, Brock was able to justifiably start calling himself a director. He got signed to Blink and says people began taking him seriously. “It’s a really fickle industry and when you’re hot, you’re hot and when you’re not, you’re not,” he says. “But the plus side of that is that one project can really change your career and that’s really exciting.” 

Fast forward to two and a half years and it feels like Brock is very much in the ‘hot’ category right now. His boisterous portrait of love, drugs and violence for Jeshi’s ‘Look Like Trouble’ has been racking up the views for the past month. And this week he followed that up with another intimate exploration of young love in the form of his video for ‘Caroline’ by Arlo Parks - undoubtedly one of the most hyped breakout stars of British music in 2020. 

2020 has brought its challenges but Brock is very grateful for what he’s been able to achieve while locked down in Tottenham. “Lockdown has been a weird experience, not seeing family and friends for the first one was quite long,” he says. “But you learn how to adapt to these things pretty quickly.” He knows he’s fortunate to have been working throughout most of the year. “I was able to keep myself occupied with all the navigating around shooting under the ever-changing lockdown rules. It’s amazing how quickly a production/producers can adapt to any problems thrown at them,” he says.

More broadly, Brock is grateful for the soul searching that the year has provoked for the world he works in. “I think at the moment the whole industry is having a long overdue reflective moment and hopefully is driving towards change and becoming much more inclusive to people who aren’t white, male, straight and middle/upper class.”

He’s always cycling through people to look up to and admire as he’s surrounded by creatives pushing for positive change, but recently Brock’s been particularly looking up to cinematographer Deepa Keshvala. “Deepa is someone operating at the top level and really leading the way in terms of how to act and how to drive change,” he says. “It makes you think if a (amazing) cinematographer can do all the work Deepa is, there must be much more powerful people at the top who could match this effort and really speed up change.”

When he’s not thinking about or making films, Brock enjoys cooking and making things - “little projects that are still quite immersive but also therapeutic at the same time.” But to be honest his life is dominated by filmmaking. Surrounded by friends who aren't in the industry helps him to maintain perspective, he says. “I’ll show them a video or something that I think is amazing and then they’ll be like ‘meh, it’s alright’. It kind of serves as a reminder that you’re there to make stuff people want to watch as well as something you like, which is a great way to keep ideas fresh and not self indulgent.”