On the 10th October we hosted our flagship event, the bCreator Awards, and this year it was bigger than ever, taking place at the iconic Roundhouse in London with headline sponsor Virgin Voyages and supporting headline sponsor YouTube.
Before the dust has chance to settle on the trophies in their new found homes, we caught up with Hayley Morris who won the coveted bCreator of the Year Award. Previous winners of this Award include the internet’s resident librarian Jack Edwards and wonderful lifestyle creator Grace Victory.
It’s been a few weeks since the Awards, looking back can you sum up the night and following day?
I moved house the day of the awards, so it was all boxes and minor breakdowns, but come 7pm I’d dug my dress out of a box filled with kitchen knives and Christmas decorations, plastered on make-up in front of a make shift mirror and frantically made my way to the Roundhouse.
It was bloody lovely to see so many wonderful, familiar faces and because I genuinely didn’t think I’d win I was nerve free, right up until the moment I won and suddenly my brain failed me. I’m not sure I remember anything from being on stage apart from the video I saw of myself mentioning my vagina (very on brand).
I think I spent the following day pinching myself and forcing myself to stare at the award until I’d fully taken it all in…
I’d actually like to say what I wish I’d said when I accepted my award here, obviously this came to me in the shower days later, where I have all my hypothetical conversations and speeches:
A huge shoutout to all the creators in my category who in my eyes are all winners, it was an absolute honour to be in the same category as such talented and inspiring people.
I also wanted to say a huge congrats to ever creator who was nominated/shortlisted for an award, creating can feel like a really lonely job sometimes and I’m always so amazed at the work people make online and I hope every creator feels so proud of themselves.
Thank you to the committee, to bCreator, my agent and my wonderful supportive family and boyfriend.
Finally my biggest thank you goes to my wonderful audience who bring me so much joy and have changed my life in more ways than they can imagine, I wouldn’t be anywhere without them.
Has winning the bCreator of the Year Award changed how you feel or approach your content?
I think more than anything it’s given me that spark again, social media really gives you an opportunity to look into the window of other people you admire and at some point this year that became quite a negative thing for me. I found myself comparing myself to others a lot and was really negative about my own work, convincing myself I wasn’t good enough and that I wasn’t doing well. It’s ridiculous really, but I think a lot of that has to do with the way social media is built. It’s something that is really important to be honest about and it’s a reminder that we all have these moments and should be really careful with how we use these platforms.
Winning the bCreator of the Year Award was a really big moment for me though as it really reminded me why I create. It’s always been for my audience, my goal has always been to make people laugh and help people feel more ‘normal’ or less alone.
So in short, yes, it’s made me feel excited to create more for my audience and reminded me how much fun I have creating content.
Footage by our event sponsor and video partner Shoutout
What does the development process typically go like for your videos – how do you note down your ideas and format a script?
My ideas always start out as a simple idea, thinking about a scenario or a situation that happens in day to day life, something that might feel taboo to talk about, or just something we don’t all necessarily talk about with other people. I’ll then try and find a way to gamify that scenario and that’s when I go on to write the ‘bones’ of the script.
Once the bones are down I’ll just keep tweaking them, adding more layers, trying to get a couple of written or visual gags in there too. I’ll agonise over this for a while, then a day later do my final edit and get filming and then it’s onto the edit.
Basically, my notes app is filled with half written scripts, one liners and topline ideas that are yet to be made.
What was the writing process like for your book?
That felt like a very different process, I’ve been used to writing scripts for a video that is less than a minute long, so writing long form felt really unusual. Where I’d normally edit and cutdown lines, I was now finding I was adding in lines and constantly developing each chapter as it wasn’t visual the little details needed to be there.
It was basically the reverse of everything I’d done for my shorts, gamifying the situation was still there to a degree, but this time it was about creating the scene for the reader, so they could visualise it.
Beyond writing a best seller, do you have any other projects or goals for 2024?
2024 is set (I hope) to be a really exciting year, I can’t mention too much about the projects I’m working on for next year, so stay tuned. Aside from that, acting is going to be a big priority for me going forward.
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Photography by Fordtography and Zoe Griffin Photo