Pride, in their own wordsLondon Business School · Social videoSELECTED MOVING IMAGEFILM / PEOPLE / MOTION / LIVE EXPERIENCE
MIHAELA MOTICA / STRATEGY · STORY · CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
I don’t just tell stories.
I find what makes them
worth telling.
SELECTED EXCERPTS · SOUND OFF
FILMMAKER · CREATIVE DIRECTOR · ARTIST · FOUNDER
I see beyond the brief, connect the dots and ask the questions that get to the heart of what matters.
From the first conversation to the final frame, I care about both the meaning and the making.
Storytelling is a human language.
The person behind the work ↓01 / SIX HIGHLIGHTS
Selected work.
Six highlights. Open a project to see the work and thinking behind it.
Start with six highlights, or explore the full collection by discipline.
Six highlights above. More projects follow after my story.
No projects in this category yet.
More work after my story ↓
02 / THE PERSON BEHIND THE WORK
Curious about people.
Drawn to what lies beneath the surface.
I’m a filmmaker, creative director, artist and founder who has never fitted neatly into one discipline.
Having lived across four countries, I’ve learned to see things from different perspectives—and recognise connections that aren’t always obvious.
I love the moment a conversation goes somewhere unexpected. When someone feels comfortable enough to speak more openly, and a new understanding emerges. I never take that trust lightly.
That curiosity travels into everything I create: finding the bigger picture, shaping a direction and bringing it to life.
For me, the work has always been about the human behind it.
Explore my journey ↓I work independently and alongside agencies, production companies and in-house teams—from finding the direction to filming and shaping the final edit.
Let’s work together ↗MY STORY SO FAR / SEVEN CHAPTERS
The thread
through it all.
Seven chapters, if you’d like to know how I got here. Explore at your own pace.
BEFORE THE CAMERA, THE IMAGINATION
Present for the photograph.
Elsewhere for the possibilities.
That’s me on the left, a little apart from the group. I still look away in photographs. I’m usually imagining what could be.
For years, I felt like an alien trying to work out how to fit in. It took a few decades to realise I didn’t have to.
I still live inside my imagination. Now I’m building things from it.
WHERE THE FILMMAKING BEGAN
A little
foreshadowing.
Around sixteen, still at college, on my first Bollywood set. Twelve hours of assistant direction, BTS filming and photography. Apparently, one hat was never going to be enough.
A fairly accurate trailer for the next decade.
ASSISTANT DIRECTION · BTS VIDEO · PHOTOGRAPHY
THE FIRST OFFICIAL AWARD / TRUSTING MY INTUITION
I almost
gave it up.
When I presented I – Installation to my class, they laughed. My lecturers told me they didn’t understand it: a film, an installation—the whole thing made no sense to them.
I almost abandoned it. There were stomach ulcers along the way—literally. Eventually, I decided to follow my intuition, even if the work failed.
It went on to win a Royal Television Society award in 2018 and was exhibited in installation form.
The questions about identity, perception and what lies beneath the surface are still at the heart of my work.
THE ROUTE IN / MAKING WITH WHAT I HAD
I had to find
my own way in.
I didn’t come into filmmaking with industry connections or money for the equipment. I came with the need to make things—and bills to pay.
I completed my college photography work on an iPhone. At university, I borrowed cameras whenever I could. My first one of my own was an inexpensive camera shipped from the US, bought with my student loan.
After university, I thought I was heading straight onto film sets. I was an immigrant without industry connections or financial privilege. My route took me into marketing and corporate videography while I paid the bills.
When I started my company in 2022, I bought my first Mac for editing. It felt like the most expensive thing I’d ever owned. When it was later stolen, along with my smaller cameras, I thought the business might end before it had really begun.
I worked, replaced the Mac and kept going. I learned to make the work with what I had. That resourcefulness is part of the practice I’m building today.
MY OWN PRACTICE / FOUNDED 2022MIRADSTUDIOS
Reality before
resonance.
resonance.
WHY I BUILT MIRAD / 2022 → TODAY
The story
was the missing piece.
I kept finding myself in rooms where organisations were paying a lot to work out why their communication wasn’t landing. The answer I kept coming back to was simple: storytelling.
So, in 2022, I started a storytelling-led production company to bridge the gap between what organisations do and how they communicate it. At first, I focused on impact-led businesses.
My slightly cheeky working tagline? “A BS-proof marketing company.” Impact, without the greenwashing. That conviction also led me to study environmental sustainability.
Four and a half years later, the practice has grown into strategic communication consultancy and the SER framework I developed through that experience. Production is still part of the work: I continue to film and edit, now bringing in freelance specialists when a project needs a wider team.
Still plenty of hats. A clearer reason for wearing them.
2026 / RETURNING TO THE ARTIST
The artist
was still here.
In 2026, something reawakened. The artist in me had been asking for space for years.
I’m returning to that part of myself through new mirror and installation work, developing ideas about identity, perception and the person we carry beneath the surface.
It feels like a return. And a beginning.
My wider artistic practice ↗
THE NEXT CHAPTER / AMONGKIND
The next chapter
has room for others.
For a long time, I looked for somewhere to belong. Now I want to help build it.
AMONGKIND is the institution I’m building to explore how we live, connect and lead—and to bring together the black sheep, creative aliens, deep thinkers and feelers.
A place to belong, with room to be different.
The world I’m building at AMONGKIND ↗01 / 07 · Imagination
03 / MORE SELECTED WORK
More stories.
More ways in.
Pride, in their own wordsLondon Business School · Social video
A moment worth celebratingLondon Business School · Social video
The story of EUROUTLondon Business School · Social video
Teamwork under pressureExecutive Education · Social videoGO DEEPER / LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL
A body of work.
Many kinds of leadership.
Programme films, specialist interviews and social storytelling across Executive Education. A longer look at the voices, subjects and situations behind the selection.
Explore the film collection ↗GO DEEPER / SOCIAL & CONTENT
The direction.
And the daily expression.
Brand strategy and the content that makes it visible: founder stories, social films, images and words.
Explore social & content ↗
NATURAL BODY CARE BY ROS / FOUNDER PARTNERSHIP ↗04 / BEHIND THE WORK
The thinking
behind the frame.
Strategy, interviewing and creative judgment shape what you see. SER is the framework I developed from that experience.
Explore my Strategic Emotional Resonance™ framework +
A DECADE OF PRACTICE, GIVEN A FRAMEWORK
Strategic Emotional Resonance™
Developed through Mirad Studios, SER gives structure to the judgment I have built across a decade of interviews, narrative, production and founder experience. It connects strategic diagnosis with the work of making meaning clear, human and actionable.
01 / SIGNAL
See what is real.
Identify the real direction, the belief that matters and the gap that needs to change.
In narrative work: find the question beneath the brief, whose perspective is missing and what the audience needs to understand.
THE QUIET REVOLUTION
Room for
a longer
conversation.
HOSTING / INDEPENDENT FILMING & EDITINGa longer
conversation.
05 / IN CONVERSATION
Some stories
need more time.
The Quiet Revolution is a space for the questions running through my wider work: how we live, connect and remain human.
I shaped the editorial direction, curated the guests and voices, and handled the studio filming and editing independently. The pace and sound-led opening are part of a considered approach to human connection.
FORMAT Long-form conversationMY CONTRIBUTION Strategy · Curation · Filming · Editing
Explore the podcast series & production ↗The Quiet Revolution · Tim Allen: Beyond the Lens · An AMONGKIND conversation.01 Strategy02 Storyboarding03 Filming04 Editing
One accountable creative partner. The whole production understood.
London Business School
eharmony
BBC / CBBC
CJ E&M
DLA Piper
Milliman
RTS AWARD WINNER ↗04 / PHOTOGRAPHY
A story can begin
with a single frame.
My story, writing, artistic practice and public voice.
THE STRATEGIC ADVISORYMirad Studios ↗Narrative, strategic communication and creative implementation.
THE INSTITUTION IN DEVELOPMENTAMONGKIND ↗Exploring how we live, connect and lead in a changing world.