Shipyard Beer: Brand Film

Client: Shipyard
(part of Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company)

Agency: OMNE Agency

Campaign: Well Deserved

Deliverables:

1 x 30s brand film
3 x 15s edits
Social cuts in 1:1, 9:16 and 4:5 formats
72 x social clips
60 x super slow motion studio clips
45 x 5K screengrabs
Still photography for OOH

Dead Pixel did:

Location scouting
Casting / Props
Treatment
Filming
Directing
Editing & grade
Sound design

Quote of the Shoot:

“This is looking great - as a beer ad, it will really raise the bar! 😏”

Shipyard beer video production bar scene

Brief

After delivering a raft of foodie videos for our friends at OMNE Agency over the past two years, they approached us with the challenge of taking on the production of the video and still imagery for their latest Shipyard campaign.

The brief required us to capture a mix of high-end visuals across multiple locations, including some that would be logistically difficult to source. Our experience of shooting regularly in the outdoors, combined with our knowledge of food & drink video production, meant that this project was a perfect fit and we instantly had plenty of ideas to add.

We detailed our approached and was quickly given the green light to get things moving (any excuse for a day trip / recce to the coast!).

Pre-Production

After getting into the detail of OMNE’s concept, we produced a treatment and refined the storyboards, ensuring that all stakeholders were in agreement with the main narrative and how we intended to portray the brand. This then gave us our shopping list of requirements to begin working on the logistical elements of the pre-production.

First up… finding our locations. Knowing exactly what we wanted to see in our shots gave us a specific but hard-to-come-by list of requirements. After some extensive Google maps research, we narrowed it down to a preferred hit list and then spent a day driving around Greater Manchester and North Wales to recce our sites. As well as their visual appeal, it was vital that we chose locations which were accessible to 15+ cars, had local accommodation and would be easily contactable to gain the permission of local councils or land owners.

In the background, we began casting our 5 main talent and Fergus the (very talented) labrador. Once the locations were locked in, we sourced a number of extras which were only required for the pub scenes.

The final big task was planning and sourcing the props for each scene. From fishing gear to campsite fairly lights, we covered every detail in order to create a realistic and natural looking set for every frame - we even chartered a local fishing boat, complete with fresh lobsters!

Production

With all of the planning complete, we finalised the shot lists, booked hotels and began shooting. We allocated one day for each of the three stories, starting with the builders amongst a real pub setting in Manchester City Centre. From there, we travelled onto Bangor for our forest scenes then onto Cemaes Bay (North Anglesey) for our fishing and harbour part of the story. To keep us mobile, we hired an RV to utilise as a unit base, dressing room for talent and toilet for crew in remote locations.

The timing plan was key to ensuring we captured the long list of requirements, yet remained fluid enough to adapt to the uncertainty of British weather (including a 5am call time to battle the ever-changing tidal times).

Throughout the three days, we operated two stations shooting video and stills simultaneously. Whilst our DoP was capturing footage for the main brand film, photography was taking care of social media content; working with products in the local environments (woodlands, harbour rocks etc). Once video had finished each setup with the actors, we swapped sets to produce high-end commercial photography with the talent for out-of-home advertising and video moved over to social content. Our Director and producers worked between the two setups to keep everything on track.

All content was shot using our RED Gemini 5K cinema camera and Hasselblad Phase One for stills.

Post-Production

Our in-house team were then straight into the edit to produce the main cut first, followed by the individual stories. After the hard choice of selecting which shots make it into the small 30-second window, we moved into the sound design to bring everything to life. Once approved by the client, we then did a full grade to make the most of the amazing colours in each scene and establish a connecting look & feel across the three locations.

Once the main edits were completed, including the retouch on the stills, we mined the raw footage to produce over 60 individual graded video clips to supply to the client and keep the Instagram bank topped up.