October 9, 2026
Advertising stops being a director's school: at WPP's hub, Ford Capri goes onto a virtual Paris street
WPP has opened a hub in East London of 34,000 sq ft (about 3,160 sq m), where traditional filming and AI tools share one roof. For an ad, a real Ford Capri was placed on a virtual Parisian street: the scene was built in a studio, not shot on location.
Ridley Scott, accepting a BAFTA career award, called his years making ads his “film school” eight years ago. Guy Ritchie started with music videos and commercials, and Dagal Wilson shot John Lewis Christmas ads. Back then, people learned on live shoots with a client, a budget and a deadline.
Studio instead of location. Now the WPP hub runs a virtual stage of 7,000 sq ft (about 650 sq m), which the company calls one of the largest in Britain, with post-production on site. Automation cuts costs, and with them goes the chance to learn on the job, on a live brief.
The open question is where a young director will get their first shoot if ads are built in studios.