John Mouratis produced the BBC Winter Olympics film Trails Will Blaze, stop motion with 700 3D printed athletes and real fire. It won a Grand Clio and a D&AD Yellow Pencil. We talk fire, triple bidding, late sign off, agencies run like factories, and why a great career is built on the nos.

Ad Bits is supported by Green Desert Productions. One call. 14 territories. greendesertproductions.com

He trained as a mime. He ended up directing The Rolling Stones.

Joe Connor is a writer and director who trained in experimental and visual theatre, and has since worked with The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Sam Smith and Paul Weller, plus Land Rover, Volvo and Louis Vuitton. He has directed three feature length documentaries, worked on The Night Manager, makes his own music and keeps making experimental work through Supermodel.

In this one we get into:

Studying mime at the Central School of Speech and Drama, and how a job as a 35mm projectionist at the Everyman in Hampstead turned into his film schoolGoing to Bolivia with a camera to make a documentary on the cocaine trade, and weeks filming Dennis Rodman before North KoreaWhy music videos were the wild west, and the time he sent two TVs into spaceWhat Paul Weller taught him about building a long careerWhy he thinks commercials have become so risk averseMaking a Rolling Stones video in lockdown by posting lenses to filmmakers around the worldWhy the imperfect, human bit is where the magic comes fromWhy staying in your lane leaves you at the mercy of it

A big thank you to Kitty Sharp at Felt Music for kindly letting me use some of their music on Ad Bits. Just trying it out, hope you like it.

Supported by Green Desert, UK based representation for trusted service production partners across Europe.

Kit Lynch-Robinson is series director on Clarkson's Farm, spent years on Top Gear and The Grand Tour, directed Chris Hemsworth through Limitless, and makes commercials for Porsche, Toyota and Hawkstone.

He wanted to be a stuntman, worked out directing was all the fun without the danger, and his careers teachers suggested the police.

In this one we get into planning obsessively and leaving room for chaos, directing Hemsworth through real fear, coaching Caleb Cooper through the Hawkstone leap, why a perfect CGI ad left him feeling nothing, what lets a director say no, and why Top Gear never shot draft one, they shot draft 25.

Supported by Green Desert, UK based representation for trusted service production partners across Europe.

Thanks to Kitty Sharp at Felt Music for kindly letting me use some of their music on Ad Bits.