AN ADVERT which will be seen by hundreds of thousands of students across the country is about to go live having been produced by a York film director.

Nik Morris Associates was commissioned by the Higher Education Academy to produce an advert for a new service it supports called HEAR, which allows students to collate and present their achievements during their studies.

Set up by University of York graduate Nik Morris in 2012, the business worked with local film makers and actors to product the film.

After around six months in production, the advert, which is aimed at 18 to 21-year-olds, will be streamed on the Student Room website.

Creative director Nik Morris described the advert as a cinematic parody of the Marvel superhero trailer, asking new students: ‘What’s your origin story?’ He said: “We won the contract with the Higher Education Academy and started having conversations a year ago.

“It took about six months to film and direct, with a lot of that time being down to writing the storyboard with their in-house team.

“We really wanted to connect with the students and considered filming in London. However, York gave us such a diverse set of locations. We used more than 30 around the city, and shot the advert in six days. York gave us all the locations we needed and easy access to them. We would not have been able to manage that in London.”

Mr Morris runs his “boutique agency”, working with local film making talent and graduates to produce commercial film and music videos.

He said: “Having a story like this to work on has been wonderful. It’s something I really want to build on.”