Four years ago we were contacted by Solomon Commercials about producing a company film for themselves. Solomon are a nationwide manufacturer of temperature controlled vehicles, supplying a number of well known high street brands, such as Tesco, Sainsburys, John Lewis and many more. As such they wanted a film that shouted about who they were, their work and incredible eye for detail. STANDBY delivered in style and the resulting film has been a staple of our showreel and website ever since.
In the four years that have passed, both ourselves and Solomon have continued to grow and evolve to even greater heights, so when Solomon got in touch with ourselves about producing an even bigger promotional film to show-off their new facilities and capabilities, we felt it was the perfect chance to demonstrate how far STANDBY had come since then. Delivering our creative concept would not be easy though – our idea involved producing a “walkthrough” film that felt as though it was all taking place in one continuous shot. This was made more complicated by our decision to include aerial footage throughout as well as Solomon’s widespread separate facilities across Rossendale.
Manchester-based DoP Mike Staniforth (who we have collaborated with on a number of occasions) was brought in as our “ground level” camera operator, utilising his MoVI to create a smooth movement that would take us from warehouse to warehouse and shot to shot. These transitions were planned out in advance with the STANDBY team, to work out exactly where and when the camera would need to duck behind a piece of machinery or person in order to mask a hidden cut in the edit. For aerial filming we once again called on one of our past collaborators.
The ground-level filming and aerial shots took place on separate occasions, to ensure we had enough time to capture everything we needed, but both were not without their own complications due to the precise nature of the concept. This involved having to brief in and synchronise movements for workers (up to 15 people in a couple of scenes!!), machines and lorries – no easy feat! Once back in the edit suite with the footage we began to piece together the footage. Solomon, feeling there were a few more areas they could potentially showcase in the film, decided on extra filming of aerial shots to incorporate these ideas into the movie. However, finding a shooting date for this would prove difficult due to the notoriously unpredictable North West weather and Rossendale’s apparent micro-climate!
After many postponed shoot dates due to high winds, rain, snow and storms over the Christmas period, we finally found a day where we felt the weather would play ball. Again we found ourselves at the mercy of the unpredictable conditions around Rossendale, as the crew went through heavy fog, rain, hailstone and glorious sunshine – all in the space of a few short hours! The team worked through these challenging conditions though to capture everything required, and with the final pieces of the jigsaw acquired, we set about creating the film in the edit suite.
The finished film has received a fantastic response from the team at Solomon, and we couldn’t be any happier with it, feeling it perfectly showcases the superb creativity and quality of work that defines us here at STANDBY PRODUCTIONS.
>ENJOY