The Gateway to North Wales
Client: Visit Wales x Marketing Manchester
Project: Manchester. The Gateway to North Wales
Deliverables:
1 × 30s Brand film (with and without subtitles)
10 x product ads in 16×9, 9×16, 1×1.
Location: On location in Manchester and around Snowdonia, North Wales
Dead Pixel did:
Ideation, script writing & creative treatment
Pre-production & casting
3 days on location
Directing & Cinematography
Editing & grade
Quote of the Shoot:
“Are you okay with swimming in the Welsh river in February?”
The Brief
Marketing Manchester approached us with a brief for brand film that combines the beauty of North Wales and the adventurous side of Manchester. The brief was titled “Manchester: The Gateway to North Wales”
The brand film needed to include a couple of key attractions, partners and experiences. It had to appeal to a broad international audience, specifically the US market, interested in visiting Manchester and Wales.
How we showed that all in 60s was entirely up to us…onto the creative treatment.
Pre-Production
We handled the full scriptwriting and creative treatment in house. The 30s script was written to take the audience on a adventure featuring mountains, beaches, sports, food and unreal sights of the North.
Each frame was storyboarded with sample imagery, direction of the shot and the accompanying dialogue to clearly map out the concept. The client LOVED the draft and asked for minor tweaks to the script before signing everything off.
It was then on casting, sourcing locations and scheduling. We sourced 5 different actors from a shortlist of 30 to feature as the main stars with accompanying extras filling in the gaps.
We visited a number of sites in North Wales & Manchester to make sure they would be right for our brand film. Settling on key attractions like Conwy castle, Edwardian Hotel, Aber Falls, Conwy Beach and Pontcysyllte aqueduct. All with the own logistical challenges but showing the variety of things to do in the area was key to the success of the ad.
Understanding where the light will be at certain times of day, what the parking siuation is like and how far we’d have to hike to reach the waterfalls where all noted and considered for production. (p.s. It was a 30min hike without kit…)
From location scout to final shot
Production
Day 1: Manchester
Production began at 8am at Black Friars pub in Salford. We had 10 extras as well as our core cast members acting as football fans enjoying a pint. We chucked up some lights and after a quick rehearsal we bagged the shots and moved onto the next location.
We arrived at Stevenson square in the Northern Quarter to capture some short lines to camera with the artwork lined brick buildings as a cool background. We managed to get the shots we needed between intermittent cloud and reloaded the cars to head to the next location.
We unloaded all our crew and kit into the Edwardian hotel in Manchester City Centre. This exquisite hotel would act as 4 core locations including a restaurant, pool, balcony and hotel room.
Between each scene we asked our models to mix up their wardrobe as we dragged our kit in and out of lifts slowly traversing the hotel. We wrapped at 5pm and headed back to the studio.
Day 2: North Wales
After postponing the shoot 3 times due to poor weather forecast we eventually had to bite the bullet and head off regardless. The forecast looked like it would offer up bits of sun. Remember this is February in North Wales so we weren’t hopeful.
We first arrived at Conwy beach with travel influencer Jourdan to capture some dancing on the beach and sunset shots. The sunset didn’t fully materialise the way we wanted but that’s location filming for you. We got what we could and drove onto our hotel for the evening.
Day 3: North Wales
Up bright and early to capture the morning light we loaded our kit into canoes and began paddling across the Pontcysyllte aqueduct accompanied by experienced guides from Bearded Men Adventures. We then drove 1.5hrs to Aber Falls, loading everything including an underwater housing into a trolley and hiked it all to the waterfall. Jourdan was an absolute trooper and clambered into the freezing cold water to show the beautiful connection to nature.
We then high tailed it to Conwy castle to capture the remaining shots with the light gently fading away.
Post-Production & Results
All editing, grading & sound design were handled by our in-house squad. Alongside the main scripted version, we delivered an edit that was purely music driven for international markets, as well social cuts in 4×5, 1×1 and 9×16.
The main hero campaign had a successful run on US connected TV targeting potential tourists in the New York area to visit our great city and surrounding areas.
Behind the scenes with Dead Pixel & Visit Wales
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