BLOK IS THE COMEDY DIRECTING DUO, PAUL CASEY & RICHARD JOBSON. The name itself has no meaning nor backstory, whatsoever… and in hindsight comes off quite pretentious, but they're stuck with it now and it does have a rather nice mouth-feel. So there.
Two of the three following statements about BLOK are true…
1. Despite being born a year apart (and of different parents), Paul and Rich are legally and biologically twin-brothers. They share everything… from sense of humour, to well-groomed facial hair, to filmmaking ideas…. the only thing they don’t share is Paul’s crisp phobia. Rich is, in fact, quite the crisp enthusiast… which he now has to keep from Paul for fear of his crispy-wrath.
2. BLOK took their name from the powerhouse Jennifer Lopez classic “Jenny from the Block” and play it on a continuous loop at their annual, two-man Christmas party.
3. BLOK first met on a job in the Arctic Circle where they bonded over the mildly traumatic experience of witnessing the castration of a reindeer by a young Sami tribe member, using only her teeth.*
Before there was BLOK, there was Paul and Rich, who spent many-a-year making long-form comedy series across the world for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Sky and Netflix. Then, in 2019, BLOK was born. Based in London and Stockholm and split as Director + DOP, BLOK makes performance-driven, comedy commercials, often combining multiple worlds, extraordinary characters, seamless transitions, quite a bit of art direction and set-building, as well as a smattering of VFX. Their commercials may be a far cry from their television work, but funny is funny and in commercials, they do get their collective name on the back of an uncomfortable fold-up chair.
*All three statements are true. Well, sort of.