Friction Collective: Meet the team behind our films.

The Friction Collective team has evolved a fair bit since it all started in 2014. You might notice some fresh faces, and some faces that are a little more hairy than before... We caught up with some of the team to chat about what it's like to work in the Collective, and how we spend our weekends.

fin davies director of photography
  • lewis smith film producer bristol
  • nick corkill voiceover artist
Josh williams creative director bristol

NAME: Josh Williams

START DATE: The beginning of time when Fin dropped the camera in the woods for the ‘First time ever’

WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT FRICTION COLLECTIVE? Creative Director

WHAT IS THE BEST PART OF WORKING WITH FRICTION COLLECTIVE? Being able to work with my mates, being able to create projects and bring them to fruition together, and also working on stuff that means something to me.

GOT ANY FUNNY FRICTION STORIES? Yes lots, but on one of my first jobs with Friction super early on. I had been looking up how to get steadier footage, this is before we had Ronins, or even mechanical stabilisers. I came up with what I thought at the time was a genius solution at about 1 AM the night before. So I turned up to the shoot with my camera on a cheap tripod with a Jack Daniels bottle taped to the bottom as a counterweight. The client understandably looked a little confused… I can’t remember actually using it on the day so I probably didn’t… You can actually use a lot of weird things to get smoother footage but I did consider first impressions a bit more after that…

BEST SKATE SPOT IN BRISTOL: Gotta be Filton Skatepark, I am spending more and more of my life up there and I also did some filming for ‘Jarpy’ there too. It’s a pretty fun mellow park with a great group of guys, and very little competitiveness or ego.

HAVE YOU BEEN ON ANY GREAT TRIPS RECENTLY? Scotland was pretty damn good. I’ve always wanted to ski/snowbaoard in the UK and woooow, it was so beautiful. There were stunning red hills in one place and then 30 mins drive away some of the most stunning mountains I have ever seen. The top of Fort William is just something else when the valley is covered like that. Cruising around the hill together was so fun.

PLANNING ANY ADVENTURES? Currently working on my van. I’m turning it into a mini camper for a trip around Europe with the girlfriend. Looooots of work to do, I designed the thing in 3D software but believe it or not its much harder to do in real life!

josie rae photographer bristol

NAME: Josie Rae

START DATE: Assisting with the odd festival shoot since 2017, properly since February

WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT FRICTION COLLECTIVE? Blog Editor, Chief of SEO, Photographer

WHAT IS THE BEST PART OF WORKING WITH FRICTION COLLECTIVE? Friction Collective is such a fun & friendly team, with a ridiculous amount of knowledge when it comes to editing and cameras – I’m always learning! It’s pretty cool to work on such a variety of projects while and meeting such a diverse range of people around Bristol.

IDEAL DAY IN BRISTOL: Oooh. A nice early Summer morning, a run in the sunshine, eggs & avvs for breakfast, read & write, yoga & handstands in the garden, go bouldering at the Mothership, friends over for dinner, a fire, & card games (yes I’m forever looking forward to retirement).

PLANNING ANY EXCITING ADVENTURES? My boyfriend is coming down on Friday to jump in the van & surf really badly together in Cornwall. Can’t wait.

Jack davies Film director Bristol

NAME: Jack Davies

START DATE: The idea formed at some point in 2011, and it came to reality in 2014.

WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT FRICTION COLLECTIVE? Chief Dreamer, Creative Director, Camera Nerd. 

WHAT IS IT LIKE RUNNING YOUR OWN FILM PRODUCTION COMPANY? It’s exciting, creative, all-encompassing, bloody hard work, sometimes stressful, always rewarding and really bloody good fun. 

ANY FUNNY FRICTION STORIES? Oh god, some incredible ones, some far too NSFW to talk about here. A couple of my favourites are; getting locked in an abandoned train graveyard with the band and manager we were filming with. Then there’s Lew and Fin stumbling upon a set at Boomtown on a rare hour off, watching them stumble in, mid-drop, expecting some drum & bass only to be confronted by 200bpm Gabber at the end of the drop. That was an exceptional moment in my career.

FAVOURITE RIDE NEAR BRISTOL: I love any route that takes me through the Mendips, Cheddar etc – they’re lovely places to ride. I found a new route the other day through Frome, Bradford on Avon, Corsham, Malmesbury and then Bristol again which was an amazing 101 mile route.

IDEAL DAY IN BRISTOL: 40 mile ride in the morning, get the cameras out and shoot something rad, maybe in the gorge, in the afternoon. Then stow cameras, get loads of pizza from Pizzarova, drink beers on the harbour til sundown, see some rad band and party at Mr Wolfs til morning.

We’ll have to chat to Fin, Lew, and Nick another time. Until then, you can check out our work here.