Hooked

Stuart Howe is an award-winning Filmmaker with an strong entrepreneurial mindset and a passion for storytelling. His career started in 2003 with his documentary thesis film touching on the sensitive issue of the drugs problem in the UK. In July 2003 at only 21 years of age he co-found his own independent media agency. His determination and diligence just after one year, won him the Business Link Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2004) while he was also shortlisted for Business of the Year (2004). It was clear that Stuart had a unique skill and clear understanding of visual communication.

In 2008 Stuart saw a new opportunity in the market, China, but before he could take full advantage of the market, he knew he needed to fully understand it, so he decided to take sabbatical leave. This was later proven as the necessary two steps back, in order to go one step forward. In just one year with total immersion into the culture, he became conversationally fluent in Chinese (Mandarin), which brought him the opportunity to work with a local Chinese/American broadcast station to produce and direct a series of travel shows. It wasn’t until 2010 that he decided to make a shift to follow his childhood dreams of filmmaking. He wanted to tell stories, entertain people and challenge beliefs. Stepping away from Broadcast TV and from China he decided to go to South Korea, a place where the film industry (at the time) was booming, with box office sales from domestic films outselling foreign imports. He believed that if he could succeed in Korea as a director, he could succeed anywhere.

In June 2011, Stuart directed his first Korean Short Film, ‘Hooked’, which has since been officially selected to take part in several international film festivals, winning BEST DRAMA and GRAND PRIZE WINNER at The Smalls International Film Festival 2012 and was awarded third prize in the AUDIENCE AWARD at Premiers Courts International Festival 2011. Continuing his success, he teamed up with Nils Clauss (cinematographer, Hooked) and HyungKyung Lah (production designer, Hooked) to produce SinCity, a music video for German singer/songwriter SCHMIDT. This won GRAND JURY PRIZE in the prestigious Genero.TV SinCity Film Award competition 2011 – judged by the likes of Guy Chambers, Florian Gallenberger, and Paul Verhoeven.

In the summer of 2012 Stuart released his second short film, A DAY IN 1951. A war story that told a hard truth about the victims of war. The film quickly gained traction from distributors and festivals around the world and was chosen as the opening film at Cine Salon International Film Festival (2014) in Taiwan. In 2013 Stuart relocated to Hong Kong where he is currently based. His clientele includes prestigious companies such as Ogilvy & Mather, Hogarth, Nike, IBM, Shang-ri La, Philips, Huawei and many more. His understanding of visual communication, his advanced experience in production and post-production together with his passion for storytelling are why clients keep coming back for more.