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When the marketing team at BRITE came to us with an elaborate plan to encapsulate the past 12 months of their innovation project into a mere 12 minute mini-doc, our creative cortex began to surge!
A 50 page research document landed on our desks… 21 case studies on the businesses that formed the inaugural BRITE cohort, detailing their journeys, highs and lows. Our Writer & Producer, Dan, was set the task of digesting this biblical document and selecting which companies would best help craft a narrative.
But before he could do that, we needed to decipher what that narrative looked like, how the film was going to flow and how we could orchestrate that fine balance of spreading our creative wings whilst ticking all the boxes within the brief.
As we began to read through the research doc, it became apparent that whilst all of the businesses on the BRITE project were unique, there were intertwining similarities between a select few. A number of the cohort shared a desire to make real global impact, to change the way people think and reinvent the way we do things.
The deeper we burrowed, we discovered it was these same businesses that also shared more finite, on the ground goals, like hiring local talent, collaborating with local businesses and connecting with the local community. The common denominator in all their stories was that BRITE had been their journey’s conductor. The instigator of imagination and innovation that helped/is helping them to achieve these goals.
It became abundantly apparent that we needed to get these businesses on camera.
So we have our participants, 12 in total, and by now a much greater understanding of the journey they’ve been on.
We can begin to sculpt the narrative.
Writer Dan & Director Tom battened down the hatches of one of Plus X‘s meeting rooms, armed with a giant whiteboard and array of coloured pens and devised The Sweet Wrapper ™ (not officially trademarked). You know the toffee penny you’d leave in the Quality Street tin… because we all know the Green Triangles are where it’s at? If you don’t, go find the tin of Quality Street at the back of your cupboard and I guarantee it’ll be the only sweet still in there… I digress. This was our inspiration for the flow of the mini-doc.
We start big, grabbing the viewers attention in those all important first 7 seconds by looking at innovation on a global scale. Why it’s important, why it’s needed and what might happen should we stop. Setting the scene for why the rest of the mini-doc and the BRITE project as a whole, has so much relevance in today’s world.
Viewers invested, we can now zoom in and focus on the Greater Brighton & Hove area: it’s appeal and why it’s such a captivating place to call home. Before reaching the little twisty bit of the wrapper that encompasses the giant penny that is all things BRITE.
Once in that inner circle, and referring back to the common goals mentioned earlier, we floodlit the project. We explored Collaboration, Investment, Hiring as well as the benefits Plus X & The University of Brighton directly bring to the table. Here, each business got the chance to really open up about their experience and tell their inspirational story in their own words. One of the imperative elements of this film for us, was that it was real. It had to be human, relatable. If we tried to hard to shoehorn anything in, not only would we loose the eagerness of the participant but it would become wholly apparent on screen, loosing any connection we had with the audience.
So, audience connection still in tack and all things project specific in the bag, we can move out of our toffee inner circle and back to the local landscape. The difference BRITE has made to the community and what the future of the area now holds as a result. Before finally opening all the way out once more, thinking on a global scale at what the future of innovation should look like and how this cohort plan to make it happen.
And there you have it. Sweet themed ideation created, participants selected, and narrative written. We were ready to head into production…
Interviews took place over two days, curated by our Production Coordinator, Jessie. Interview questions were written by Dan. Tom prepped his Director’s notes with DOP, Joe, who then transformed a Plus X office into a Netflix-esque interview setup. All whilst Mitch laced up for the editing marathon that was about to come his way!
Camera rolling and the rest as they say, is history…
