Visit Manchester : TV commercial
Client: Marketing Manchester
Project: It’s time to go live in Manchester
Location: Manchester, UK
Deliverables:
2 x 0:60s brand films for TV, social and web usage.
>30 version with different cutdowns and call to actions
50 x 5K screengrabs
Dead Pixel did:
Ideation & Creative Treatment
Pre-production
Casting
Location scouting and sourcing permits
1 day studio filming
>30 locations sourced and filmed
Directing
Editing & grade
Clearcast approvals
Quote of the Shoot:
“The most wild filming day in Dead Pixel history - from a historic library in the morning, to the velodrome in the afternoon to filming slipknot at night"
The Brief
Following a competitive public tender process we were awarded the contract to write, shoot, produce and edit 2x 60s brand films to promote Manchester globally.
We wanted to showcase the culture, music, sports, achievements, people, lifestyle and opportunities available at this great city in an impactful piece of video that makes people sit up and listen.
Pre-Production
Full storybaording and creative script development was handled by our in-house team. We wanted to create something a bit different than a traditional ‘visit’ ad so we wrote a script and appointed award-winning rapper, poet and DJ, Meduulla to lead the performance.
Casting models, sourcing location permits and organising crew all happened over a 2 month production pulling on every contact and friend we had in the city to make it happen.
Finding the right location to match the dynamic script and fitting it into a very tight schedule was the most challenging but rewarding part of this project.
Once script and locations were signed off it was onto production.
Production
The bulk of filming was spread out over 9 filming days often covering multiple locations and scenes in one day in the height of Northern Winter. A particular highlight was filming at John Rylands historic library in the morning, National Cycling centre in the afternoon and Slipknot at Co-Op live in the evening.
We formed great partnerships across Greater Manchester who helped pull this together and want to thank the teams at National Trust, Refuge, Media City & Manchester Met for everything they did.
This was all anchored by one studio day involving Meduulla in our blacked out studio performing in front of 20 vintage TV screens. We opened up this filming day to 4 students looking to job shadow the professional film crew as a way of sharing the production with the next generation of talent.
Post-Production
Because the production was storyboarded and signed off during pre-production it meant pulling everything together into a workable edit quite seamless.
The full 60s TV ad took approx 2 weeks to edit including grading, soudn design and time for client amends. Once this was approved it was onto Clearcast and then. Peach submissions to hget the ad onto Sky TV.
You can read the full press release here
Behind the scenes with Dead Pixel and Visit Manchester
