Chasing surfers on the North Devon coastline.

We recently completed a new lifestyle film for outdoor adventure blog and retailer Wildbounds. We wanted to show the raw power and beauty of nature and to encourage others to get out and experience it for themselves. Tom, the founder of Wildbounds gave us complete creative feedom to develop the concept and make a film we’d love.

The film was shot from sunrise to sunset near Croyde Bay, North Devon in September 2018. Shooting was actually postponed twice due to poor weather forecasts and we’re very glad we waited. Although we’re a Manchester based video production company we’re not afraid to travel worldwide. The more remote the location, the better.

The film starred yoga/ surf instructor Elly Whittaker from Swell Yoga and kite surfer/ all round adventurer Pete Hughes from Barefeet living.

We rose at 5.45am to get to the beach before sunrise to start filming. We wanted to show an awesome day out with two outdoor enthusiasts and what can be accomplished with adventure at your heart. We started on a quiet pristine beach catching the surf. The early morning light was perfect but the waves just weren’t playing ball and the athletes were struggling to get any speed. Oh well, onto the next scene and we’ll have to come back.

We then captured a lovely early morning coffee break showing the bushcraft essentials bushbox. We then headed out on a hike hunting for cool bouldering spots. Safety was paramount here to ensure no one was injured during the climb. Some of the cliffs were well over 100m tall and would have required safety ropes and multiple spotters. We eventually found the perfect spot and laced up.

We kept the kit and crew small and lightweight as we covered around 10km that day hiking all around the caves, cliff tops and fields finding the best light and locations.

For you tech geeks out there. The in house video production kit we used included:

• Sony FS7 shooting in 4K50p in Slog 3

• Tamron 24-70mm 2.8

• Canon 70-200mm 2.8

• Core SXW V-lock battery (lasts for 6.5 hours on our kit)

We decided to utilise zoom lenses to ensure we got the variety of shots sizes required for the film.

We returned later that afternoon as the sun was setting to capture some more surfing. It was a Sunday afternoon and the beach was now packed with surfing enthusiasts. It was then up to us to try and frame out as many people as possible whilst capturing the action. The waves were much larger and Elly and Pete both managed to stand so we could get some action shots.

We finished the film with a beautiful campsite setup in the woods overlooking the sunset. We wanted to highlight the product from Tentsile that uses rachet straps and a few trees to elevate it’s guests from the floor. A truly compact and innovate piece of kit.

Kit featured includes: Trakke Bags, BBCO Headwear, Jago Jackets, Tentsile, Hydroflask and Bushcraft Essentials. All available to purchase on the Wildbounds shop.

View the full advert below

Some behind the scenes goodies.

Feel free to browse some our other behind the scenes blog posts below:

Working with a global nutrition brand

We recently produced a social media campaign for UK based health company Go Nutrition. Go Nutrition asked us to pitch ideas for their latest pre-workout powder titled 'Up Your Game'. We came up with 5 very different concepts and they whittled them down to the best option.

The concept of the film was to show a gritty intense work out in a strong man type gym. Our athlete would push himself to his absolute limits doing a series of weighted pullups, tyre flips, hammer hits and chain pulls. The film would PAUSE. We then speed backwards following our athletes journey through the locker room, past busy streets, right the way back to his kitchen to consume the pre workout powder. Short, snappy and highlighly effective.

Pe-production for us included storyboarding, casting, crewing, and location scouting. This all made the shoot go smoothly when it came to production. We wanted the film to be contrasty, gritty, grainy and to get people fired up for a workout.

Production

We commenced shooting at 7am in Manchester city centre in February 2018. We wanted to capture our athlete walking to the gym before the rush to work. We wanted to show determination and passion which meant shooting before the sun came up.

We then headed over to Stockport's Strength and Performance gym to film the workout portion of the film. We used all our own in house equipment including our Sony FS7 and LED lighting kit. We added haze to most shots to add depth and draw the audience's attention to our athlete. We shot everything in 150 frames per second to be able to get those super dramatic slow motion shots. It also allowed for a lot of speed ramping in post to increase the intensity of the film.

Post Production

We edited 3 cut downs for Go Nutrition that all derived from the longer 48 second ad. Whilst it doesn't seem like a particularly long time we always knew this was going to be a fast paced social media sting to catch people's attention and to ultimately direct people to buy the product. On platforms like facebook and instagram you have around 5 seconds to grab people's attention before they continue scrolling and they certainly won't be sticking around for 5mins to get the final message.

From concept to execution, it was an absolute pleasure to work with Dead Pixel. Their professional nature and ability to take the lead on the project made the whole process very seamless.

We'd strongly recommend Dead Pixel Films to any brand looking to produce high level video content to to promote their commercial campaigns.

- Josh Burke - Digital Channel Manager, Go Nutrition

We edited a 5 second teaser, 15 second teaser and a full 48 second film using Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

Watch the film here:

Behind the Scenes of 'Plastic Tide'

Our environmental documentary 'Plastic Tides' featuring Sian Sykes and the importance of reducing single use plastic consumption has gone live with rave reviews. 

"So great guys, So positive and motivating for people to just get out there and do something big or small" - Clean Coastline Collective

"It's great so many people are creating ways to spread such an important message" - Sea Shepherd

Production

We got in touch with Sian Sykes from Pysched Paddleboarding to create a hard hitting documentary around single use plastic. We knew Sian was a huge advocate of fighting marine litter and thought it deserved a voice. We shot this in Angelsey, Wales on our Sony FS7 in February 2018. Thankfully the weather was on our side for the day. We filmed for approx 4 hours paddling around the North Wales coast.

We wanted to show the day to day activities of Sian paddle boarding around the coast and how stumbling upon marine litter can make you feel. We stumbled upon a secluded beach and noticed an enormous amount of plastic waste. Within about 5 minutes we'd picked up more than we could carry. Litter included plastic bottles, fishing nets, plastic straws, kids toys and cigarette butts. 

We then headed back to base to record the voice over which is played throughout the documentary.

Post Production

We edited this documentary in house using the latest version of Adobe Premiere Pro. As we shot in a flat SLog3 profile it meant we had the maximum dynamic range and could grade the film how we wanted.

You can view the film here:

Yummy Hot Cross Buns from Asda

We were tasked with the challenge of shooting and editing the journey of Hot Cross Buns for Asda's Easter Campaign recently. We were commissioned by Manchester creative Agency BJL who came up with the concepts and storyboards.

We started the production with a little recce. This is a great way to 'feel out' a location and iron out any kinks before shooting commences. We arrived on site bright and early the following day to capture the Asda bakers in action. The crew began with rigging lighting, monitors and the camera.

We started by mixing ingredients in a large steel bowl slowing adding sugar, yeast and raisins. The batch then went into a mold before being cured in an oven. The bakers added the infamous crosses which is actually a very impressive skill. It was then back into the oven for the final bake and browning of the buns.

The main challenges were that the location was quite industrial looking. After all Asda are a commercial business and need to produce their products in high volumes and high quality. We therefore covered most of the process with close ups. We needed plenty of light as we were shooting at 100fps with a shutter of 1/200. We used 2x large Aperture LED panels which kick out an equivalent of 1K of light. We diffused the light heavily to soften the shadows. We utilised the Samyang 100mm 2.8 macro lens for a larger number of shots to get that glorious 'food porn' close up.

We covered the majority of the process in about 2-3 hours. Then it was onto the edit. We edited a 30 second and 10 second version for different social media platforms.

Once we received sign off, Asda shared the video on their Facebook page. It received over 600,000 views, 1500 comments and 129 shares within 12 hours. We couldn't be more happier with the response.

You can watch the full 30 second edit here:

Drones, Slow Motion and Mountains

We are customers and big fans of Peli Products and we know that quality is at the forefront of their business.  Therefore we knew that when working with them they would want a high quality video. As we personally use the Peli 1510 to safely secure our Sony FS7 cinema camera, and accessories we have real life experience of how we use the products and how they work within the industry.

This inspired us to approach Peli with an idea to show the journey of one of their latest products 'Peli Air'. We also wanted to show their new, user friendly Trek Pak dividers which we found incredibly useful and would recommend to anyone!

Because we use Peli products every day our approach to this shoot was different than it may be with some of the other brands we work with. We began by brainstorming various scenarios in which a Peli hard case is used by ourselves and came up with the idea of following a photographers journey up Mount Snowdon, Snowdonia National Park, Wales.

Snowdonia National Park, Wales

The concept meant we could show some beautiful scenery and also the versatility of Peli products, how well they work outdoors, and how robust they are. We also hoped that showing the case being taken up a mountain indicated to the audience how light-weight the new case is, and with the newly designed case being 40% lighter than a normal Peli case all of us on the shoot can agree this is a much better product to take up a mountain!

We realised early on that our biggest obstacle was going to be the weather, but we really wanted the location to reflect the extreme organisation tag line developed by Peli. Therefore being able to do an outdoor shoot was important to us and the brand. After all, what's more extreme than a mountain range in winter?

We were also keen to add production value by using our DGI Phantom 4 Pro drone, in order to capture the last shot we imagined, and this can't be used in winds of over 40 mph.

All of this meant that whilst the scenery looked great on camera it proved logistically difficult as the weather forecast was forever changing. We conquered this by planning extra days to shoot if needed, including agreeing that last minute filming may need to be an option. Luckily on the day that the shoot was planned for the weather held off just long enough for us to obtain the shots we needed.

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You can view the adventure film here: