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. PreviousContinue reading “Arup Fellows: ‘Outside the Box’”
Author Archives: Michael Orwell
Ephesus Experience Museum
From January to November 2023, I worked with Marshmallow Laser Feast as Lead Producer to deliver this multi-room, permanent digital museum located on the UNESCO site of Ephesus Ancient City, in the Izmir region of Turkey. The experience, housed in a purpose-built building across three rooms, tells the story of the city from its prehistoricContinue reading “Ephesus Experience Museum”
Arup: Invest in Research
Back in 2020, we were asked to create a new format for telling the story of Arup’s world-changing research. The format needed to be short & snappy, informative, beautiful and bring out the personalities of the people who work for one of the world’s most-trusted design and engineering firms. The COVID pandemic made filming andContinue reading “Arup: Invest in Research”
‘Battle in Style’ T.R.A.P. live show
From June to December 2021, I developed, designed and produced an interactive, animated music concert for Unit9 & BBH China featuring the band T.R.A.P. from the popular ‘Free Fire’ franchise. I defined the interaction method for the experience and recruited key talent for the production, including choreographer, motion capture facilities and animation house. The animationContinue reading “‘Battle in Style’ T.R.A.P. live show”
National Poetry Slam Live
On the 4th of July 2021, I produced a live broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall, capturing the National Poetry Slam finals, streamed to Facebook’s Live platform. We used the polling function to allow audience members from anywhere in the world to give scores to the performance poets and help decide the 2021 slam poetryContinue reading “National Poetry Slam Live”
National Youth Orchestra
Stories of online collaboration. Elastic Semantic was asked to create short films documenting how orchestral musicians came together over Christmas using Zoom; creating new musical works inspired by a new genre or compositional method. We focused on four workshops that used folk music, jazz, loop-based composition and a collaboration with National Youth Dance Company. EachContinue reading “National Youth Orchestra”
Arup Adventures
In April 2020, I was approached by Arup to produce a short-film series. The numerous experts in the organisation wanted to give something back to the kids locked-out of school. They wanted to provide some entertaining, inspiring and fun videos, that might introduce children, 7-12 years old, to concepts of design and engineering in theContinue reading “Arup Adventures”
Bubble by Kieran Hurley
Working with Theatre Uncut, I developed and produced this experimental and explosive play, working with self-filming actors from the UK, Denmark, Spain and Portugal. I directed the three-week edit, devising the look and managing the post-production of the film. I also edited the trailer and designed an interactive opinion poll element which ran throughout theContinue reading “Bubble by Kieran Hurley”
A Short Ride In An Intelligent Machine
I collaborated with the Charisma.ai platform to create a reflective interactive experience set in 2035. By assessing each participant’s global values, we tuned a conversation with a driverless car to reflect an ideal future for each individual. The experience not only experimented with voice recognition and intelligent dynamic narratives, but demonstrated how personal data canContinue reading “A Short Ride In An Intelligent Machine”
The Great British Class Calculator
The Great British Class Calculator was a big data project, three years in the making. I produced the development of the results from the Great British Class Survey, and fully-collaborated with the academic researchers. I produced the design and editorial of the Class Calculator, the interactive experience that expressed the results from the nationwide surveyContinue reading “The Great British Class Calculator”
“Tell Me Your Secrets”
I conceived, pitched, wrote and produced ‘Tell Me Your Secrets’, an interactive, branching narrative graphic novel, telling a little-known, but crucial story from World War Two, about scientist Sir Henry Tizard. I assembled the production team, which included a videogames music composer, graphic artist, and videogame studio to produce an experience which has been usedContinue reading ““Tell Me Your Secrets””
Arup: The Future of Cities
I produced and directed this series for Arup on the Future of Transport, Water, Workplaces and Energy. Each topic was painstakingly researched and interviews were conducted with over twenty Arup colleagues to construct narratives about the futuristic solutions which are beginning to change the world.
How can I see the Northern Lights in the UK?
‘How can I see the Northern Lights in the UK?’ were a series of short-films, I produced and directed, following the BBC’s Carol Kirkwood as she attempted to track down the aurora borealis in Scotland. The films were watched over half a million times and were also showcased on BBC Breakfast. Watch on bbc.co.uk
Where in Britain would you be Happiest?
‘Where in Britain would you be Happiest?’ was the result of another big data project, where personality and life outcome data was gathered for the BBC’s ‘Child of Our Time’ programme. After collaborating with academic researchers, we developed a means of predicting the greatest life-satisfaction for particular personality types in specific British locations. I producedContinue reading “Where in Britain would you be Happiest?”
“How did so many Soldiers survive the Trenches?”
‘How did so many soldiers survive the trenches?’ was the launch content for the BBC’s WW1 Centenary digital campaign. I wrote, produced and directed Dan Snow travelling back in time to analyse life in the trenches. The short-films were the most successful of the BBC’s digital campaign. Starting off on the steps of the ImperialContinue reading ““How did so many Soldiers survive the Trenches?””
How British video games become a billion-pound industry
I wrote, produced and directed these short films with video games legend, Ian Livingstone, creating a comprehensive history of British video games, and the creation of a massive industry. View page on bbc.co.uk
The Global Change Calculator
For the BBC ‘Tomorrow’s World’ campaign, I commissioned and developed an interactive tool that would use various datasets to compare the global change in you and your family’s lifetime. The Global Change Calculator, compared change in seven different ways, including CO2 emissions, technological invention, species extinction and disease eradication. Launched on BBC Taster, with severalContinue reading “The Global Change Calculator”
BBC iWonder
BBC iWonder was the BBC’s interactive Knowledge and Learning platform. I produced key launch content for the platform and ran a team of assistant producers and researchers. Initially the platform created topical factual articles, but also developed animated, short-form video and data-driven strands. I produced several of the highest performing pieces in each category, includingContinue reading “BBC iWonder”
UK’s Solar Eclipse – a collaboration with BBC News
I co-produced with BBC News the live digital event of the UK’s 2015 Solar eclipse – partnering with the production team from ‘Stargazing Live’ to create the most successful factual live streams by the BBC, at that time. I commissioned scheduled micro-content, produced several Q&As, and brokered the live link with a camera crew aboardContinue reading “UK’s Solar Eclipse – a collaboration with BBC News”
BBC Lab UK
BBC Lab UK was a groundbreaking partnership between the BBC and academic research scientists. I started in the team as a producer and finished as the Editorial Lead. I helped develop the product and platform which gathered over three million cases of data over four years. I helped develop the core data-gathering engine, which wasContinue reading “BBC Lab UK”
Michael Orwell 