Fifty Years

A way into becoming a founder.

Fifty Years works with scientists and engineers who can spend years developing a technology before considering a company of their own. The creative question was how to make that leap feel possible to someone still standing at the edge of it.

Happy Warriors follows the personal transformation behind that decision. The films from inside 5050 meet scientists while their plans are taking shape. A developing series of scripted films brings those tensions into fiction, starting with Indispensable. Souvid shaped the creative direction across this body of work, developing formats that could carry the ambition of the science and the lives behind it.

Happy Warriors: the person behind the company.

Happy Warriors is a founder documentary series made for YouTube, with social stories developed from each conversation. Season one comprises 12 episodes; season two is underway. The films go beyond funding announcements and explanations of the technology to follow how scientists, engineers and dreamers become founders of companies they hope will matter for generations.

Preparation starts with earlier interviews, company history and the science behind the work. That understanding lets the conversation follow the person: what changed their direction, which setbacks made them question it, and why they chose to continue.

At Puraffinity, Henrik Hagemann describes the gap between a promising material and something industry could actually use. At ExpressionEdits, Kärt Tomberg talks through months of failed assays and the decision to test her strongest result again. These are decisions a viewer can recognise, even if the science is unfamiliar. Souvid directed and presented the series, with his passages to camera connecting ideas and the founders’ accounts carrying each episode.

Spend time where the work happens.

The interviews sit alongside laboratories, workshops and demonstrations. A founder can describe a process, then show it, letting the viewer see what the explanation leaves out. Conversations in motion also give people room to speak away from the interview chair.

Time on location is limited. Research helps decide which questions need the founder in front of us and which processes are worth filming. Afterwards, transcripts become a paper edit: a working structure for the interview, before the footage, presenter passages and graphics are brought together. The episode needs enough room for a personal journey while keeping the science accurate. Social edits give individual moments their own shape for a different viewing context.

Inside 5050.

Documentary coverage has followed more than 300 scientists passing through the 5050 programme, with six programme films released. Kickoff weekends, Founder Camp and Alumni Day give the films their settings. Participants test whether their research could become a company, share their doubts and learn from one another while the outcome is still uncertain.

These films bring viewers into that process through the people taking part. A room full of scientists becomes a set of distinct lives, with different reasons for wanting to build. The coverage sits within Fifty Years’ work delivering 5050 in the UK as an ARIA Activation Partner.

The work around the companies.

Alongside the series and programme coverage, the work includes more than 20 additional films supporting portfolio companies and the wider founder ecosystem. The brief changes with each company, but the creative task remains specific: understand what is being built, why it matters, and who needs to understand it.

Working across these formats means a company’s story can develop over time. A technical explanation, a founder’s account and a film made for a wider audience each have a different job. Creative direction holds them together without asking every piece to sound the same.

A scripted series, beginning with Indispensable.

Souvid spearheaded the development of an ambitious series of cinematic, scripted films for Fifty Years. Indispensable is the first: a 12-minute short, written and directed by Souvid and co-produced by Fifty Years and JBN in association with YCT Productions. It was shortlisted in Branded Content at the 2026 Young Director Award in Cannes.

Nathan Forge is a young scientist developing a solid-state battery cell. After a failed test, the film follows him beyond the workshop, into the life he shares with his partner Grace and younger brother Marcus. A toy rocket keeps returning between home and the work.

The film begins with a satirical rush of startup announcements. Then the noise stops, and Nathan has to decide how to spend his time. Later, founders from Astranis, Molten Industries and General Control Bio appear at work. The film moves briefly from Nathan’s fictional experience to people pursuing their own research and inventions.

Young Director Award / 2026 shortlist↗

Four days in London, with US pickups.

The satirical opening combines live performance on an LED-wall stage with generated environments and VFX. For the main story, the production moved onto locations, using vintage lenses and largely available light. The change gives Nathan’s everyday surroundings a different texture from the announcements that open the film. Generated imagery was confined to that opening sequence.

Principal photography ran across four days in London, with selected pickups in the US. Fifty Years and JBN co-produced the film, in association with YCT Productions. Sychelle-Kristina Yanda produced; Theo Tennant was director of photography.

Yujie Li and Souvid edited the film. Jamal Green composed the original score, Alfie Marcantonio designed the sound, and Gabriel Xavier at Priory Post handled the colour grade.

Social stories, and a home for the work.

More than 400 distinct social outputs extend the work across vertical videos, cutdowns, carousels and long-read posts. Each needs a reason to exist on its own. A moment from a longer conversation might become a short film; a difficult decision can unfold across a carousel. The six-slide Clippership and ExpressionEdits sequences below show two of those approaches.

Souvid also designed and built Worldbuilding, a work-in-progress content home for Fifty Years’ media, storytelling and learning resources. Films sit alongside conversations and practical reading, organised by series, themes and the questions a founder might be asking. It gives viewers somewhere to follow their curiosity after an individual story.

The visual direction carries across the site and its editorial illustrations. The prototype’s wider library also includes other presenters and contributors, credited on their individual stories.

Explore Worldbuilding / work in progress↗