After producing three successful series with Arup, I was asked to devise a format for short, snappy films with Arup’s Fellows.
The Arup fellowships are almost unique; a life-long title bestowed on the organisation’s world-leading experts, but who remain practitioners and centres of excellence within the company, inspiring and mentoring others within that discipline.
Previous films had been quite lengthy interview-based profiles of the new fellows. The challenge was to find a more concise and compelling format that could quickly communicate the Fellow’s ethos, way of thinking and career highlights in a fun and playful way.
Another challenge was the location of the fellows. In the first filming block alone, we had to work out how to create films with experts in China, Spain, UK & Canada. The films needed to feel part of a series but would be filmed by different teams, in different locations.
I approached the problems logically, one by one;
Making the films feel like a series.
In partnership with the marketing team at Arup, we considered several formats, including a conversation with an AI bot(!) but the simplest and most visual felt like the ‘magic box idea’.
Influenced by the landmark BBC radio series ‘The History of the World in 100 Objects’, we would encapsulate the fellow’s career, approach and famous projects with just three objects. This had the advantage of getting the fellows to talk off the cuff about their passions, without scripting or contrivance.
This approach would give a strong cohesive thread through all films, while being inexpensive and achievable by teams around the world. Using the shot footage in conjunction the Arup brand motion graphics pack; we could assemble films that felt like part of a whole, even though filmed by different people on different continents and about very different disciplines.
Empowering local teams to shoot.
I produced a mood board and detailed shot-list for production teams around the world so a ‘kit of parts’ could be shot. These included room, set-up, lighting, shot sizes, technical details and cutaway compositions.
I wrote nine bespoke questions for each Fellow which would be asked on camera. We used these responses to intercut with the discussion of the objects.
To properly prepare the questions, it was important for us to meet the Fellow and get to know them, their passions and find out more about their proudest work. We undertook further research to understand their contribution to the projects very carefully. I used this research to suggest objects, although the selection of representational items continued to be a two-way discussion with the fellows.
Delivering the films.
Delivery of the rushes was done online using data transfer tools such as Microsoft OneDrive, WeTransfer and Google Drive. The London-based shoots obviously remained on SSD drives, as we were able to shoot these ourselves.
We used Adobe’s Frame.IO as an online review and feedback system, allowing us to circulate multiple films to multiple relevant stakeholders, gathering important feedback and ultimately delivering great films.
For the Out of the Box series, we developed a low-cost, highly flexible production method to create a large number of high-quality, engaging films about Arup’s experts. We’d love to use this method to tell stories about more great minds!
Michael Orwell 