Key Objective of the Brief
WAAVE set out to change how Australians think about payments — moving money directly from bank to bank, securely and in real time, without the friction of traditional card-based transactions.
The brief wasn’t to explain the technology. It was to make people feel something about the brand behind it.
Cast from Melbourne’s diverse community, find the intimate and fun everyday moments that personalise the brand and make it feel genuinely human. A single hero brand film that introduced WAAVE to the world with warmth, confidence and a sense of real life being lived.
What Was the Idea?
Cast wide. Cast honestly. Show Melbourne.Rather than a polished, art-directed brand world, the creative direction leaned into real people in real moments — the kind of everyday intimacy that a fintech brand rarely gets close to.
WAAVE works in the background of life, quietly and seamlessly. The film needed to feel the same way: present, warm, and completely at ease.
Talent was sourced across Melbourne through StarNow, established casting agencies and Alec’s own community network — deliberately casting across a broad demographic range to reflect the genuine diversity of the city.
Every face in the film is someone Melbourne would recognise as one of its own.Locations were all sourced independently — found and secured to match the authentic, everyday quality of the creative. No sets. No manufactured environments. Real Melbourne spaces that felt lived in.
What Did The Tropics Bring to It?
A solo director production at this level requires complete creative control and complete creative responsibility — every decision from casting to location to music to edit sits with one person. That’s a different kind of pressure to a fully crewed production, and a different kind of ownership over the outcome.
Alec McCloskey directed, produced and edited the film end to end — casting across multiple platforms and his own network to build a talent pool that genuinely reflected Melbourne’s demographic breadth, scouting and securing all locations independently, and taking the project all the way through post-production to final delivery without a supporting crew.
The soundtrack was a particular focus. Finding production music that could hold the warmth and energy of the brand without feeling generic or over-produced required careful selection — the music needed to feel as considered as every other creative decision in the film. It does.
The collaboration with Matt Bagley as Senior Creative — someone Alec had already worked with closely onThe Story of Matt Bagley personal project — brought a creative alignment to the brief that a cold agency engagement rarely produces. Two people who already understood how each other thinks, working toward a shared vision for a brand that deserved something better than ordinary.
Was AI Used?
No. All capture, edit and delivery was handled through traditional production craft.
KEY OUTPUTS
1 × hero brand film
Delivered for WAAVE’s brand launch and marketing channels ahead of the company’s acquisition by global payments firm Banked in late 2024.
Key Challenges
Casting across a genuinely broad demographic range — age, background, lifestyle — through a combination of StarNow, casting agencies and community networks, then curating that pool into a cast that felt cohesive and real rather than assembled.
Sourcing all locations independently to match the authentic, everyday quality of the creative direction — finding real Melbourne spaces that felt lived in without the visual noise of an unmanaged environment.
Finding production music that could carry the brand’s warmth and energy without tipping into generic — a deceptively difficult brief that requires patience and a clear sense of what the film needs to feel like before the music arrives.
Delivering a fully realised brand film as a solo director, producer and editor — holding every creative and logistical decision across casting, locations, shoot days and post-production without a supporting crew.
