Commercial filmmakers The Fourthe – integrating generative tools into live productions for agencies, production companies + post houses
The Fourthe is a local team of filmmakers and generative AI specialists, bringing backgrounds in directing, VFX, and producing – alongside almost fifty years of set experience and project delivery – directly to the pipeline. No outsourcing. No tricky timezones.
Jay Topping (below right) has directed for brands including Air NZ, CBA, XXXX, Woolworths, and eBay.
Digby Hogan (below left) founded post house The Empire Post, spending fifteen years delivering for brands including Toyota, YouTube, Jeep, Flight Centre and Google.
Nick Kelly (below middle) has produced both agency and production side – from Saatchi & Saatchi and M&C Saatchi in London, to Eight Productions and Good Oil across Australia and New Zealand.
Says Hogan: “We understand the demands of production and the reality that doing the job is only half the job. We launched The Fourthe to connect AI tech with real commercial execution. Same discipline, new application.”
Flexible integration for every stage of production – For Agencies: Full-service execution and campaign extensions
Says Hogan: “We handle projects end-to-end – taking raw storyboard frames into high-spec execution, including character animation and stylised product environments, as seen on Thinkerbell’s recent Donut King campaign. We also solve the versioning headache. Need a summer variant, a fresh pack, or dramatic shifts in weather and time-of-day without a reshoot? We extend footage you already own: matching talent, lighting, and grade precisely. One base plate becomes an infinite asset library, delivered straight to your online.”
For Production Companies: Virtual pickups and logistical solves
Says Hogan: “Some setups are never worth the unit move. Others die on the day. On a recent Sydney Water campaign directed by Josh Logue, three elements were practically unachievable – including a talking cow on a closed beach. We built and finished them at 4K to drop directly into their cut. Whether it’s high-risk creative like placing a wild cassowary alongside live talent, or rescuing a shot that got away, we match your camera package, colour treatment and direction, then hand it back.”
For Post Houses: An embedded generative unit
Says Hogan: “When a brief demands high-end generative work outside your current pipeline, you shouldn’t have to turn it down or over-extend. We slot seamlessly into your existing team as a white-label specialist unit – operating in the background, while you steer the ship and maintain the client relationship. On a recent job for Mountain Dew, we executed full set replacements, blue-screen extensions, and weather augmentations behind live talent while post house White Chocolate ran the broader pipeline. Having run post houses ourselves, we know exactly what ‘edit-ready’ actually means.”
Zero creative compromise
Says Hogan: “The client gets the frame they envisioned instead of the compromise the budget forced. Agencies and directors get to execute boards that would otherwise die in pre-production.
“If there’s a shot on your board right now that everyone quietly knows is impossible to pull off in the current scope, drop us a line.”
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