We’ve been back at Stage One working on a new project to demonstrate more of the going’s on at this impressive powerhouse of design and engineering. Specialists in creative builds, Stage One is constantly innovating, so we were excited to come back and conceptualise a new project that would give a good overview of their facility and process as it stands today. So far we’ve filmed 4 days – take a look below at some of the behind the scenes.
We’ve been back at Pylon studios, Leeds, for 3 days with the Home agency to shoot a new advert for Mira showers. Here are a taster with some behind the scenes shots.
In October we were asked by Tom, Dick and Harry agency in Leeds to film and edit a mental health awareness film for the NHS in partnership with the M6 Theatre Company.
The film captures a single voice play exploring issues around emotional and mental health which had originally been performed in schools around Lancashire. Performed by the very talented Laura Wooff, the film raises awareness of emotional issues and serious self harm in young people.
Watch the 17 minute ‘Clueless’ film
Last month saw us shooting in a number of locations around the North West helping the Environment Agency put together 2 films for a conference that would discuss flood issues and in particular the 2015 winter floods.
We interviewed residents, business owners and local community services to get a good understanding of the situation they faced. In total we interviewed 20 people in locations from Salford all the way up to the Lake District.
Within a week we needed to compile all the footage into 2 films. One 15 min film that gave people’s accounts, the issues, aftermath and restoration along with a look to the future using what could be learned from what had happened. This would be used to open the conference and another film of 4 minutes would be used to close it. This end film had a more uplifting message and focussed on the positives people took away from the experience.
We were recently asked by Arris to help create an interesting film for their client Telefónica and the O2 bid management team.
They required a presentation to present a summary of what the bid team had delivered in 2015. This had been done historically using powerpoint. However in this instance they were looking to do a video presentation with their team which each member had shot themselves using their phones. This would run alongside the powerpoint slideshow information they had.
It was our job to come up with the best way to display these self made films and the powerpoint slideshow information in one interesting and enjoyable film. The turnaround was very tight and had to be delivered within 3 days. There was a lot of content and we had to get it into a concise 15 minutes.
We wanted everything to feel like it was part of the same film and not a bunch of supplied footage patched together, so the idea to display the films on the iPhones seemed the most natural option. It was known early this would be a motion graphics project and understanding this and the end delivery time meant the choices made could not be too render heavy. Rendering any motion graphics project takes time and this would eat into the 3 days we had. We used Premiere to edit the self made films initially and give us the guide for film length and After Effects for all the motion graphics. Element 3d for After effects was used for all the 3d models of the iPhones.
The end product had to be delivered quickly and therefore all the elements were rendered out separately with transparency and re-edited back together in Premiere. The background bubbles proved to be the most issue when rendering, so the choice was made to render out the transition scenes separately and have it loop elsewhere.
The month of March has seen the Double 8 team back at Pylon Studios in Leeds with the latest Home Agency creation for Mira Showers. The shoot has taken place over 3 weeks and has involved the considerable efforts of all those involved. We’ve had to pull in the talents and expertise of Kokoon in Bradford for set builds and water technician (plumber to you and me) Dave White. This has proved to be one of the largest shoots we have done to date and we’re happy to say it all went very well. We are very thankful to all those involved and can’t wait to show you the end result. In the meantime, here are a few behind the scenes shots from the shoot.
ISG PLC are an international construction company offering specialist construction solutions. Dealing with high profile jobs they are constantly being put in a pitch situation against like providers, which is for the most part about data and numbers and without the option to deliver it personally. ISG PLC contacted Double 8 to see if we could create a more personable approach to an inpearsonalble pitch presentation for an upcoming, large construction project.
We’ve had a lot of experience with drawing the best out of people and being able to deliver a message which reflects a person, product or service in a short film format. For ISG PLC we had very tight turnaround to do just this. Meeting with the pitch team we came up with the best solution for the availability the team would have in the short timeframe. This involved a very informal but well produced ‘talking heads’ film that would be shot on green screen and then cut together with strengthening statements. We worked closely with ISG PLC to create a series of questions for the team involved that would generate the content with a very honest and genuine delivery that we needed.
The filming took place in the ISG PLC offices in Manchester on a Tuesday and was delivered the following Wednesday to be presented on the Friday that week. The team were very excited and moved by the end film and we’re sure this is a great new level of pitch going forward, to deliver their message. We hope it did the trick.
Back in June we were contacted by Uber – The Integrated Creative Agency in Sheffield, to get involved in a charity campaign for ‘Healthy Lungs for Life’. This required a short promotional spot to push their marketing. It also needed photography for the large format offline advertising that would accompany the campaign.
We were really glad to be asked to be part of the campaign, so at the beginning of July on one of the hottest days of the year so far, Wayland and Adrian ventured to Sheffield for a very long days shoot of film and photography. Joined by Lyndsey, Dale and Katie from Uber we moved to 4 locations round Sheffield to capture the actors doing activities to bring awareness to active lifestyles for lung health.
The shoot finished about 7pm with very little down time from the start, so it was a well received finish. It was certainly a fast paced day, switching between film and stills photography, but was a lot of fun to shoot with the Uber team. The whole team worked incredibly hard and they put together a great promotional piece, which you can see for yourself above. Well done guys.
To learn more about the campaign, please visit
A few months ago Adrian and Mezz filmed a project with Wash Design for Lakes College. The shoot called for a studio setup and had a number of the West Cumbrian college students deliver some of their experiences and decisions when making choices for college education. It was a challenge for the creative team to get the delivery they needed but seeing the edit and the motion graphics that Wash Design produced to accompany the students, the end result looks great!
Last week saw us shooting in a studio in Leeds for our latest promotional film for Formica. Working with the Home Agency and their fantastic creative team we’ve helped them bring to life their vision for this wonderfully creative piece. The studio shoot had us putting together set builds for a hotel reception, sushi bar (with real sushi!) and forest to name a few.
It’s been a little bit frantic this week turning around the project but it’s been great fun putting it together and seeing it come to life. We’ll be putting this in the portfolio soon.
We’ve recently wrapped on a six week project for AB Agri where we produced an 18 minute documentary depicting the history of the company. This was along with animated idents and another 3 minute film; all to be shown at their company conference evening.
The project was managed by 10 Associates and saw us working closely together with the client to meet a very tight deadline. It took us up and down the country and involved a mixture of script writing, motion graphics, interviews, voiceover and sound track.
Post production has begun on on our film for Stage One Creative Services which aims to celebrate the designers that conceive the original ideas they create from. It involves a lot of green screen, slow motion, aerial cinematography from the Octocopter and a great audio soundtrack. We’ll be posting more as it becomes available.
On one of the hottest days in June we headed out to the Park Cliffe Campsite in the Lake District and shot an amazing film for Lunar Caravans. Armed with a RED EPIC, a great family and a creative director(in the form of Andy from Wash Design), we captured the essence of a Lunar Caravan holiday and aspired to show audiences a Great British holiday. It was an incredibly long days shoot and ended with almost sun stroke and a collection of midge bites, but the final film was worth the endured day and far exceeded the end clients expectations. So much so, as it was re-cut for T.V and broadcast over the end summer months.
We’re about to start production on a project using the wonderful ‘Red Epic’. The camera can shoot at a fantastic 300 frames per second which allows for shots to be slowed down dramatically so the shots look … well epic. With traditional photography when you have a faster shutter speed to reduce blur you need a larger aperture to let in more light and capture the detail; in film (and digital film in this case) increasing your frame rate to capture more frames per second has the same demand on the image being captured. Controlled environments in the case of lighting are required more when undertaking slow motion cinematography. Outside in the daytime is rarely an issue but it’s certainly an issue when shooting indoors and scenes will most likely need to be lit with additional lighting to correct the exposure. When done correctly, the result will be impressive.
We’re really looking forward to getting stuck into this and showing you the results. In the meantime, it’s time for Adrian to get his star jump on …
The footage above was shot and slowed down from 100fps (frames-per-second), which is only a third of the cameras frame rate capacity.
This week saw the last day of shooting for one of our upcoming films for the Wakefield Grammar School Foundation. The foundation provides private education for co-ed toddlers of 4 years at Mulberry House nursery and single sex education for those upto 19 years of age at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS) for boys and Wakefield Girls High School (WGHS). All of which deliver some of the best learning practices and results in the country, so it’s been a fantastic environment to work in and capture.
Double 8 had produced a series of 6 films for the foundation in 2008 in the form of a DVD so it’s been great to return and re-imagine a new film which encapsulates the journey of the schools in their current state. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to challenge conventional takes on educational films and embrace the importance and beauty of the journey itself. We’re really excited to get working on the post-production and will be posting the final film in the next couple of months. In the meantime; here are a few behind the scenes shots and video from our day using the Octocopter for the amazing aerial footage.
Back in July we produced a short film for our friend Matt Kenyon to promote his upcoming book ‘Everyday is Play. A Celebration of the Video Game‘. Matt wanted to make a snapshot of the gaming culture by showcasing artwork from designers, musicians, artists, writers and developers. The artwork is incredibly diverse and a rich collection of some of the most wonderfully game inspired masterpieces you will see. It features visual works from the likes of Build, Universal Everything, Human Studio, Daniel Gray, Everyday Something, Buro Destruct, Jeff Donaldson, Mike Sullivan, UNIT and 123Klan to name a few. The book also features interviews with some of the leading names in gaming, such as Konami, Edge Magazine, The Designers Republic, Indie Game the Movie, Studio Output, Eboy and Shaun Inman.Matt asked us to help him promote his project to the Kickstarter community by producing a short film that would encapsulate the aspirations and inspirations of the contributors and himself. With backing from Kickstarter Matt was hoping to raise £26,000 by September to get the book into production.
The project did incredibly well and raised over 10k more to ensure the book went ahead.It’s very exciting working alongside someone like Matt who has an amazing passion for design and gaming and it’s more than likely his passion that inspired the many backers (nearly 800) to get on board.We hope we played a little hand in its success too. If you haven’t seen the film, go view it now.
Update 11th July 2014
The book is going to print
We have recently completed work on a new production for our long term client Silicone Engineering. Having recently acquired a piece of equipment to improve on their already top of the line process, Silicone Engineering wanted to update their silicone sheeting film with the new process the equipment provided. The state of the art equipment includes a talcing module and a highly sophisticated gauge for dimensional stability.
With the requirement of incorporating the new process into the silicone sheeting film we thought it was a good opportunity to let the film stand alone outside the series we originally created. Sheeting is a major part of the companies output and would be their focus when they featured at the upcoming ‘K Show’ in Germany this October. With this in mind a new script and voiceover was produced that not only promoted the product, but Silicone Engineering too.
You can also see the new film along with our series trailer on the Silicone Engineering project page.
We’ve just returned from an exciting 6 days shoot in Scotland for another series of films for BMI Healthcare. That’s right, we’ve been back in scrubs filming at the Albyn Hospital in Aberdeen, Fernbrae Hospital in Dundee and Kings Park Hospital in Stirling.
When we shot 4 hospitals for BMI Healthcare last year we learned a lot in regards to shooting in a fully working place of business. You have to think on your feet and be ready to adapt to any changes caused by availability and changes of circumstances. A working hospital can’t change what they are doing just because of a film crew.
This year was no different and we slotted ourselves in and around the workings of the hospitals to get the story we had pre-conceived. We had some valuable assistance from Caroline and Typh who endured the long days with us and kept us on schedule (they both have cameos as our way of saying thank you). It also wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the E.D.s and all the staff that participated and made our days a pleasure.
We’ve been updating some motion graphics for a promotional film we shot some time ago for the web agency Door 4. The piece is looking great and we hope to have it on the site soon for you to see.
We’ve just setup a twitter account, so you can keep upto date with all the goings on with Double 8. Go ahead follow us.
We had a great time shooting at the BMI Healthcare Hospitals in September and we’ve now completed production for 4 hospital films and a staff motivational film.
The shoot took us to Glasgow’s BMI Ross Hall, Sheffield’s BMI Thornbury, Blackburn’s BMI Beardwood and Cheadle’s BMI Alexandra. As you’ll see, the eight day shoot took it’s toll but the finished result looks great.
We would like to thank the BDM’s from these hospitals; Heidi, Caroline, Shruti and Sui Mei for their valuable assistance, along with the fantastic Executive Directors and all the staff that participated and made it possible.
We’ve recently been working with Cherry Tiger creating their latest production for Barnsley Building Society. It was a lot of fun shooting with the green screen and getting the fantastic actors to deliver some pretty tricky dialogue.
Using the footage of the actors we put them together with great conceptual work from Two Teas and some inspired motion graphics to produce the final product. This was a great collaborative experience and led to a wonderful series of films.
We have recently been shooting at 4 different hospitals in the North of England for BMI Healthcare recently. Over 2 weeks we’ve covered 2 days location shooting for each hospital in Sheffield, Manchester, Blackburn and Glasgow. They’ve been long days and apart from getting in theatre blues to shoot in their great looking theatres it hasn’t felt like we we’ve been filming in hospitals at all.
The Tracey Morris web diaries have come to a close, but proved a great success.
