2021: well, it wasn’t boring.
Looking back to this time last year where everything seemed stagnant, it’s almost confounding to believe that 2021 was one of our busiest years. Lockdown meant it seemed few people were willing to spend money and most businesses were cutting their expenditure. But when we went back to work in early January, work started to come in and it just didn’t stop. This year we worked with some new clients and some former clients, every project a joy and a challenge in equal measure.
We delivered a number of remotely filmed promo videos for Ramarketing, teamed up with Crystallised to create marketing video content for Northern Stage and their productions, we spent a week with the team at Newcastle Castle creating videos to celebrate this ancient heritage site in the centre of Newcastle. Over the summer we travelled to space with Sunderland Culture and tiny dragon productions, worked with Gateshead International Festival of Theatre, Universities UK and ended the year by spending a month documenting a ground breaking arts project in Blyth with Esther Huss before ending the year making videos for the Discovery Museum in Newcastle.
This year also saw lots of drone flights, shooting drone video content for BBC, Newcastle University and our own upcoming project.
Beyond client work and video content productions, we had a lot of success with our own original projects. We successfully secured development funding from the BFI for MARWELL a feature comedy film written by Benjamin Bee. At the beginning of the year, SOON WE WILL ALL BY HISTORY HERE by Saeed Taji Farouky secured development funding from the Jordan Film Fund and later was accepted onto the Torino Script Lab. We sold SHE LIVES ALONE written and directed by Lucy Rose to ALTER and were selected for EIFF Talent Lab Connects development programme to work on Lucy’s feature film THE MAN AT THE WINDOW. SHERBET a feature film written by Elan Gamaker and directed by Michelle Williams is part of the Attagirl programme.
2021 was also the year we made our first 360 video theatre production, collaborating with Blowin’ a Hooley Theatre company. We completed two short films under lockdown restrictions, THERE ARE LIGHTS written and directed by Nadia Emam was filmed on location in Whitby and TYPE by writer / director Lesley-ann Rose was shot in studios at Teesside University. We successfully raised over £5000 towards our next short film production TASTE.
Looking ahead to 2022, we are committed to new projects lots more video content for our commercial clients, new collaborations and taking a big leap forward as a company as we raise finance for our film, tv and VR ideas. We’re a company that’s ambitious and hungry to try new things. If 2021 has taught us anything, it’s that nothing in life is certain, and that it’s never been more important to be adaptable, patient and determined.
See you in 2022!