To bring to life its new mantra – ‘Take Another Look” – Ace & Tate joined forces with a director who'd previously only worked in the world of fiction. The campaign marks the award-winning director's commercial-debut, allowing her to literally 'take another look' at the approach to the campaign. In this way, coming from a different background proved key in honouring the messaging at the core of the campaign. The director wanted every aspect of the film - from the visual landscape, to the sound design, to the relation between the characters and their environment — to act as catalysts for viewers to see things differently. She took a lot of inspiration from the shapes of the glasses themselves: square, round and so forth — and referenced them throughout the film in different ways. By creating light-hearted, striking visuals that play with the viewers’ perception, the director translated the brand’s message into a striking campaign film. There are plenty of visual cues and tricks to slightly distort the viewing experience, that hopefully fuel the viewers to literally take another look. The direction of the film balances an idealistic and almost 'magical' reality without being surrealistic, resulting in a relatable yet inspirational piece of work encouraging the viewers to stay curious and creative in their outlook on the world. The same goes for the edit, that had to encourage the audience to take another look whilst still allowing them to actually look. In addition, by matching the shapes of the glasses with their environment or props on display, there's a theme in the film's craft approach that marries with the messaging. This approach dictated the craft throughout, in everything from locations, casting, set design, music and the cinematography.

Thessa Meijer is an award-winning director whose work is characterised by dreamy magical realism with a humorous undertone. Her commercial-debut with Ace & Tate won the first ever Young Director Award at the 2020 ADCN awards – perhaps not surprising to anyone familiar with her successes in the world of fiction. When graduating in 2015 from the HKU University of Arts, she was immediately awarded the Netherlands Film Festival’s Dioraphte Award and a Wildcard from the Netherlands Film Fund. What followed was a mid-length television film, ‘The Day My House Fell’, which screened at several international festivals and got selected for the Debut competition at the Netherlands Film Festival. Her music video ‘Mind Dear’ premiered on Nowness, was shown at SXSW Film Festival and got nominated for a 3FM Award Best Video. SXSW also picked her project HEAT, a short romantic comedy horror film featuring the acting debut of Dutch influencer Famke Louise, for their 2020 edition. Her first collaboration with HALAL, a project leading to signing the talented director to its commercial roster, was the short film ‘The Walking Fish’. The fantastical tale wowed the 2019 Young Director’s Award jury and earned her the Special Jury Prize and a Gold Screen. It was also awarded the prestigious Grand Prix at the 2019 Ciclope awards. The film was the 2020 Oscars submissions for the Netherlands in the Short Film category and was nominated for a Golden Calf award (Dutch Oscars) to mention some. The film wrapped up an astonishing festival run by releasing online as Vimeo Staff Pick.