What led you to start making drama films?
It all started 20 years ago when I suggested using drama as a training tool during a PwC assurance risk management meeting held in the wake of the Andersen audit failures at Enron and Worldcom. We were exploring ways to raise awareness among auditor colleagues of the adverse consequences – both for them and the firm – if they took shortcuts or were not sufficiently sceptical. That first film had a tiny budget and unknown actors, but it struck a chord. That’s when I realised the power of storytelling in audit training. Fast forward 20 years and I am on the brink of launching Crossing the Line, the fourth training film in ICAEW’s series of training films and my eighth and most ambitious film yet with a total run time of 55 minutes.
What is different about the new film?
This one has had the greatest input yet from those firms who are already using my other films, and I’ve tried to incorporate all of their great ideas into the storyline. Crossing the Line covers a wide range of audit challenges such as the importance of good audit evidence, the difference between principal and agent contracts, the disclosure of privileged advice, the supervision of component auditors, capitalisation of expenses, and going concern – keeping scepticism and integrity at its heart.
I’ve also been able to indulge two of my passions – film-making and football – by setting part of the story in the murky world of football finance which led to me taking a film crew to QPR’s football ground. If someone had said I would be doing that 20 years ago…
What’s been your personal highlight over the last 20 years of making films?
I love watching audiences experience the films for the first time and seeing from their reactions whether we’ve captured their attention. I guess the proudest moment – but possibly also the weirdest – was when I ended up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal in 2013, being referred to as “the accidental mogul of training videos”. I knew the journalist liked the film I’d just made (my fourth) but I had no prior warning of that description, and still find it quite surreal given how this all started.
You’d already made seven films, why make an eighth?
I do it because we continue to see cases in our monitoring and enforcement work where some auditors are getting it wrong. We’re still seeing a lack of scepticism, challenge and failure to gather sufficient audit evidence. We work as an improvement regulator and I see the films as a key part of our efforts to try to help members and firms attain and maintain high standards.
Why do you think your training films have been successful?
I aim to engage both the cognitive and emotional sides of an audience member’s brain. The emotional side is key – because if, in the future, someone feels comfortable taking a risk, I hope an emotional trigger reminds them how they felt watching a character they identified with face the consequences. This is why I insist on hiring only very talented actors for the key roles in my films to ensure the emotion is authentic and the impact lasting.
We have some terrific actors in Crossing the Line including Will Ellis and Priya Davdra who have both had recent long-running parts in Eastenders; Tim Plester who has appeared in Game of Thrones, Wolf Hall and After Life, and Sacharissa Claxton whose credits include Silo and Broken Bird. We’ve also cast a number of very talented younger actors – perhaps stars of the future?
What’s the hardest part of making films?
Finding the time to do this around the day job. Constructing complex stories or amending scripts is not something you can do in an hour between meetings. For me, it means giving up a lot of Sunday afternoons. The other challenge is striking the balance between creating something dramatic and interesting, but also something which is credible and realistic. The key to that is finding the right partner and, fortunately, I managed to do that 12 years ago when I met Nick White from the production company, Area 17. Nick is incredibly talented at coming up with ideas to make a mundane conversation between two members of an audit team look interesting! I can’t say we don’t have our creative differences on set, but I think that’s healthy. If I was left on my own, I would create a very credible but very boring film and if Nick was left on his own, he would create something much more interesting but not very realistic!
Who is the audience for the new film?
The ultimate aim is for Crossing the Line to become an integral part of training across all ICAEW audit-registered firms. Previous films have been very well used by the largest firms but, this time around, we want Crossing the Line to be used far more widely in the UK. To support this, I have a team working on a comprehensive facilitation guide covering technical, ethical and soft skills, along with a ‘lite’ version for those who have less time to prepare and want to focus on the essentials. I’m also hoping that the larger firms will again be interested in taking licences to roll out the training around their international network, and that they will set about subtitling this film, like the previous audit films, into the most common languages to make it widely accessible.
Can you give us any hints as to the plot of the new film?
The film follows two audit teams at a firm working on two very different audits: Xoltic, a listed software development company and Scarbridge FC, a second-tier football club which has just been acquired by Xoltic’s CEO. As the story unfolds, the audit teams’ worlds collide in some unexpected ways while the CEO wrestles with the limitations of financial fair play rules while trying to drive growth in a tough tech market. The film allows audiences to compare and contrast decisions taken by the two audit teams and how they deal with the CEO. I hope that gives you a taster of what’s to come!
When will Crossing the Line be available?
We’re launching the film with a screening at Chartered Accountants’ Hall on Tuesday 20 May. Invitations for this event have gone out to key contacts at firms who have been using my previous films, other regulators, senior civil servants and politicians. The event will feature speakers who will bring to life a number of the issues highlighted in the film.
We’re expecting a full house, so while I can’t promise we’ll have spare capacity, if anyone reading this from any of our audit-registered firms would like to come along, please email films@icaew.com by 10 May, and we will let you know if we can accommodate you.
Immediately after the launch, we will share details on how you can access the film, and all the details will be available on our website: icaew.com/films
I hope you enjoy the film!
Interested in finding out more?
- Register to be the first to find out how to access Crossing the Line
- Find out more about ICAEW’s series of training films
If you missed our earlier articles about the film: