Real Watch Stories / Apple / 2024–25
Rick's Rescue, 2025
Australia can be as deadly as it is beautiful. A day off can turn life-threatening in an instant, and Apple Watch has features built for exactly those moments. But Australians are cynical about advertising, and nobody believes a brand that says its product will save your life.
So we built the platform on proof. Real Stories. We found Bruce, a cyclist hit by a kangaroo in the Macedon Ranges, and Lexie, whose watch kept warning her about a heart condition she didn't know she had.
We developed the idea in-house and MAL produced the films. We made everything else, from a landing page on apple.com to retail activations in Apple and Telstra stores across Australia.
It drove a spike in sales and a run of earned media, and Apple rolled it out globally. In 2025 we came back with Rick, swept 1.6km out to sea off Byron Bay, calling Triple Zero from his wrist.
Creative Director: Dimitri Kalagas
Copy: Chris Cork
UI/UX Design: Thomas Williams
Design: Alicia Goodmanson
Producers: Jennifer Grant, Jonty Rumbold
Real Stories, 2024
Photography: Saskia Wilson
Photo Production: The Pool Collective
Real Stories, 2025
Product Imagery: Optical Arts
Rick’s Rescue Film
Agency: Media Arts Lab Sydney
Director: Michael Spiccia
Production Company: Scoundrel
Edit: Arc Edit
Made on iPad / Apple / 2025
Australian Open crowds are the reason it's known as the Happy Slam. So when Made on iPad came to the Open, we made the fans the stars.
The illustrations and animations, made on iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, took over outdoor sites across Melbourne for the tournament, clustered around the Tennis Centre. For TikTok, Instagram and Apple's Australian homepage, we made films that take each piece apart to show how it was brought to life.
Creative Director: Dimitri Kalagas
Producer: Jennifer Grant
Buck
ECD: Gareth O'Brien
Creative Director: Lucas Brooking
Producer: Chelline Nel
Illustration and Animation: Glen Miralles and the Buck team
House of Slé / Apple / 2023
Apple's Instagram is one of the biggest accounts in the world. We used it to put Bhenji Ra, the founding mother of Australian ballroom, and her House of Slé in front of a global audience.
Ballroom comes alive in the dark, which made it the perfect test for the iPhone 14 Pro's low-light camera. James J. Robinson shot it at the Red Rattler in Marrickville, one of the spiritual homes of Sydney ballroom, and we released it for Pride Month.
Creative Director: Dimitri Kalagas
Featuring: Bhenji Ra, House of Slé
Choreography: Bhenji Ra
Production Company: Majella
Director & DOP: James J. Robinson
Executive Producer: Gabrielle Pearson
Producer: Bella Millikin
Production Designer: Alice Joel
Editor: Geri Docherty
Original Music: Oscar Key Sung
Stylist: Kevin Cheung
What Will You Design Today? / Canva / 2022
Manifesto Film
Melati Wijsen, Youthtopia
Alexis Bowen, Elsewhere
Joe Moruzzi, Pleesecakes
Canva's first global brand platform. Take technical design skills out of the equation and the gap between an idea and the real thing disappears. What Will You Design Today? was the provocation.
We wrote the manifesto film and cast it with real Canva users, then told their stories in full in a documentary series, Design Stories. The whole campaign was produced in-house and ran across every channel in every market. The line is still the first thing you see on canva.com.
Global CD: Dimitri Kalagas
Creative Leads (Copy): Keely Quinn, Elliot Struck
Creative Leads (Art): Raul Taborda, Kristian Saliba
Copywriter: Kieran McConnell
Art Director: Indah Shillingford
Motion Design: Phillip Tibballs, Jordi White
Editor (Design Stories): Andy Lloyd
Producers: Diana Parada, Georgia Creer, Lydia Sarks
Production Company: Good Oil
Directors: Novemba
Edit: Arc Edit
Young Bucks / Documentary / 2022
A documentary short about three young riders on the Bill Pickett Rodeo, the national circuit honouring Black cowboys and cowgirls and their part in building the American West.
Official Selection at seven festivals in 2022.
Executive Producers: Rance Randle, Dimitri Kalagas
Producers: Aileen Baliat, Whitney Husnik, Greg Dyer
Director: Rance Randle
Cinematographer: William Perls
Assistant Camera: Nate MacNabb
Editor: Andy McGraw
Assistant Editors: Roy Herbert, Zoe Kraft, Chris Catanatch
Colourist: Aubrey Woodiwiss
Composer: Alain Emile
Sound Engineer: Ruth Krager
Sound Mixer: Jordan Meltzer
Design: Doug Alves
Photography: Dimitri Kalagas
Official Selection 2022: LA Shorts, Golden State Film Festival, Twin Cities Film Festival, Oakland Film Fest, Newport Beach Film Festival, New York Indie Festival, Santa Cruz Film Festival
Famous Mouths / AT&T TV / 2020
Dimmer
Martha vs Monster
Dance Party (Agency Cut)
Pita Chips (Agency Cut)
AT&T TV entered the streaming wars with a voice remote. So we handed it to some of the most famous voices in the world.
My team made hundreds of assets, from the broadcast spots down to a Facebook chatbot and a Giphy sticker pack.
Agency: BBDO LA, Critical Mass
ECD: Dave Povill, Dave Cuccinello
CD: Dimitri Kalagas, Mike Costello, Katie Brinkworth
ACD: Rance Randle, Will Danilow, Toby Brewer
Senior Copywriters: Kristin Wellmer, Brendan Duffy
Copywriter: Amanda Kim
Senior Designer: Alice McCarthy
Designers: Alexa Aguilar, Julia Meade
Agency Producers: Katie Porter, Whitney Husnik, Briana Hemphill
Production: Radical Media
Director: Dave Meyers
Cast: LeBron James, Elijah Wood, Martha Stewart, Missy Elliott, RuPaul, Tracy Morgan, Evan Rachel Wood, Jonathan Van Ness, Cookie Monster
DIRECTV Meow / DIRECTV Now / 2018
The Rider
Dressing Room
A wide-open brief with Taylor Swift. Her fans wanted to know what happens when she steps off stage. Turns out her cats run the house.
No broadcast budget. A social series released chapter by chapter, ending with the cats taking over DIRECTV NOW's Twitter. Tens of millions of views.
Agency: BBDO LA
ECD: Matt McDonald, Frank Dattalo
CD: Dimitri Kalagas, Uli Luetzenkirchen
Art Director: Thomas Hinkamp
Copywriter: Ally Farrish
Agency Producer: Bree Hopenwasser
Production: Hungry Man
VFX: The Mill
Director: Bryan Buckley
Dos and Don'ts / Tinder / 2017
Presenting yourself on Tinder is harder than it looks. A film of data-backed advice for a better profile.
It ran globally across Tinder's social channels and helped move the app past its hook-up reputation, towards something more playful and sophisticated.
Agency: Tinder (in-house)
Global CDs: Dimitri Kalagas, Chris Cork
Production: Ways & Means
Director: Jimmy Marble
Original Score: Jeffrey Brodsky
Orange Is the New Black / Netflix / 2017
Season four ended with Poussey Washington killed by a prison guard, a storyline that echoed real deaths of Black Americans at the hands of authorities. To announce season five, we memorialised her in hand-painted murals across eight cities.
The murals spread across social before the press caught up. Samira Wiley spoke about them herself, and The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Entertainment Weekly and Refinery29 followed.
Agency: B-Reel
Creatives: Dimitri Kalagas, Chris Cork, Kristina Mueller, Jim Olofsson
A Very Long Journey / Google / 2016
Follow Saroo's journey in Google Earth
Saroo Brierley was lost at five and found his birth family 25 years later using Google Earth. With the feature film Lion about to open, we told the Google side of his story, narrated by Saroo himself.
Made in a matter of days. It screened at Lion premieres.
Agency: B-Reel
Director: Dimitri Kalagas
Director: Chris Cork
Producers: Aneisa Hagen, Eva Mautino
Motion Designers: Jon Brennan, Maxence Parache, Thomas Buffet, Joakim Ekstrom, Emil Karlsson, Neil Lavigne
Editor: Herman Forsman
Narrator: Saroo Brierley
What Health Looks Like / Apple / 2016
Password on request
For the second Apple Watch, the brief moved from fashion to health. We used the watch's own interface to draw a portrait of the person wearing it.
The launch strategy changed and the film never ran.
Agency: Media Arts Lab
Exec. Director: Julia Leach
GCD: Chris Ribeiro
ACD / Art: Dimitri Kalagas
ACD / Copy: Chris Cork
Agency Producers: Felix Messina Jr, Chad Powszok
Production: Method Studios
Directors: Rupert Burton, Jon Noorlander
Worldwide / Beats 1 / 2015
Password on request
A music video with Romain Gavras for the launch of Beats 1, Apple Music's global radio station. People in every corner of the world hear the same track at the same moment.
The long version was never released. Cut-downs ran globally at launch.
Agency: Media Arts Lab
ECD: Steve Turner
CD: Zach Watkins
ACD / Art: Dimitri Kalagas
ACD / Copy: Chris Cork
Agency Producers: Chris Perry, Ricara Stokes, Destiny Hannon
Production: Iconoclast
Director: Romain Gavras
Second Unit Director: So Me
Don't Seek the Spotlight / Media Arts Lab / 2015
A manifesto for Media Arts Lab, the agency behind Apple's advertising. How it thinks about the work, and why it stays out of the spotlight.
Agency: Media Arts Lab
GCD: Chris Ribeiro
ACD / Art: Dimitri Kalagas
ACD / Copy: Chris Cork
Original Score: Nathan Doiev
Production: Buck
The Song / Apple / 2014
The film
Behind the scenes
Kathie Lee and Hoda played the full film on Today, then wept.
Apple's 2014 holiday film. A young woman finds an old record of her grandmother singing, and records a duet with her.
Covered everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to Jezebel, which gave it my favourite headline of all time.
Agency: Media Arts Lab
CCO: Duncan Milner
ECD: Eric Grunbaum
GCD: Drew Stalker, Chris Ribeiro
ACD: Greg Greenberg, Parker Grant
Senior Art Director: Dimitri Kalagas
Senior Copywriter: Chris Cork
Agency Producers: Mara Milicevic, Katie McCain, Adam Nelson
Production: Park Pictures
Director: Lance Acord
Perspective / Apple / 2014
The film that opened Apple's September 2014 keynote, the one that revealed the Watch. A manifesto for the people inside and outside Apple who have always seen things differently.
Twelve years on, Apple still shows it to new starters.
Agency: Media Arts Lab
Global Chairman: Lee Clow
CCO: Duncan Milner
ECD: Eric Grunbaum
GCD: Drew Stalker, Chris Ribeiro
Senior Art Director: Dimitri Kalagas
Senior Copywriter: Chris Cork
Agency Producers: Mara Milicevic, Adam Nelson
Production: 1stAveMachine
Directors: Aaron Duffy, Andrew Sloat, Bob Partington
30 Years of Mac / Apple / 2014
The film
Behind the scenes
For the Mac's 30th birthday, Apple set out to prove it had kept the promise of 1984. The film was shot on iPhone in a single day across ten countries.
Chris Cork and I directed the behind-the-scenes film on how it was pulled off. Both ran on apple.com.
30 Years of Mac
Agency: Media Arts Lab
Global Chairman: Lee Clow
CCO: Duncan Milner
ECD: Eric Grunbaum
GCD: Hector Muelas, Ricardo Viramontes
Creatives: Media Arts Lab Creative Department
Production: RSA Films
Directors: Jake Scott, Ridley Scott
Behind the Scenes
Producer: Stephanie Gocke
Directors: Dimitri Kalagas, Chris Cork
DP: Fernando Cardenas
iPhone Every Day / Apple / 2013
Facetime Every Day
Music Every Day
Competitors were shouting about specs. We made quiet, observational films about the small ways people use an iPhone every day.
Music Every Day set off Apple Watch rumours in Adweek.
Agency: Media Arts Lab
CCO: Duncan Milner
ECD: Eric Grunbaum
GCD: Chuck Monn
CD: Simon Cassels
ACD / Art: Antoine Choussat
ACD / Copy: David Young, Krista Wicklund
Art Director: Anthony Williams, Dimitri Kalagas
Copywriter: Elizabeth Marks
Agency Producers: Perrin Rausch, Stephanie Gocke
FaceTime Every Day
Production: Epoch Films
Director: Everynone
Music Every Day
Production: Reset, Iconoclast
Director: So Me
Identity and Campaigns / Reform / 2008–2013
2011. Colour, taken literally.
2012. Dressed for the end of the world.
2013. Unlucky for some.
The rebrand.
Five years with a Melbourne clothing label, from art directing its annual campaigns to a full rebrand.
Reform grew from a small warehouse to offices in Australia, China and the US.
2011 and 2012 campaigns
Creative and Art Director: Dimitri Kalagas
Photographer: Christopher Tovo
Styling: Nicole Collins, Sarah Newland
Hair and Make-up: Natalie Burley
Character Illustration: Short
2013 campaign
Creative and Art Director: Dimitri Kalagas
Photographer: Josh Robenstone
Hair and Make-up: Megan Harrison
Styling and Sets: Andy Irwin (SPR/PPL)
Retouching and Design: Dimitri Kalagas
Music Videos / Yang and Yang / 2010–2012
Elliott Spencer, The World Is Empty
Operator Please, Like Magic
TST, Speaking Zaans
For a few years Chris Cork and I ran a very small production company called Yang and Yang.
We wrote treatments for countless music videos and made a handful ourselves.
Elliott Spencer, The World Is Empty
Directors & Producers: Dimitri Kalagas, Chris Cork
DP: Zachary Piccolo
Editors: Dimitri Kalagas, Chris Cork
Animation: Dimitri Kalagas
Colourist: Daniel Stonehouse (Crayon)
Operator Please, Like Magic
Directors & Producers: Dimitri Kalagas, Chris Cork
Producer: Rachael Sheridan
DP: Adam Howden
Editor: James Harmsworth
Colourist: Daniel Stonehouse (Crayon)
TST, Speaking Zaans
Directors & Producers: Dimitri Kalagas, Chris Cork
Producer, DP and Assistant Editor: James Harmsworth
Wardrobe and Make-up: Nicole Collins
Steadicam: Glen Clayton
All Day I Dream About Sneakers / adidas / 2008
We invented a sneaker designer called Fritz Träumer and told his life story through the shoes. It ran in stores and as a limited edition book, now a collector's item.
Gold and silver at Young Guns, and a feature in Communication Arts. Two hundred posts across the web within a day of launch.
Agency: Lifelounge
CD: Daniel Pollock
Art Director: Dimitri Kalagas
Copywriter: Chris Cork
Photographer: Christopher Tovo
Retoucher: Todd Riddiford
Sculptors: Roger Mitchell, Corey Thomas
Designers: Dimitri Kalagas, Yolanda Collins, Michael Pham
Illustrator: Michael Pham