UAL Extended Film & TV Production students have been working with local businesses to create promotional videos for their brands. The brief is an annual project that has seen our students work with a number of local institutions including cafes, barbers, arcades and more. This time students worked with Cafe Etch, Mr Coopers Coffee, Jacksons Barbershop and Pop Academy/Dye Hard Stylist in Middlesbrough.

The brief is arranged through film Lectuer Katt Mudd she said, “we have ran this project a few times now and it’s always great to work with local independent businesses to create a promotional film. I arrange it over the summer and then students liaise with the client, learn how to send a professional email, pitch their concepts to the client and then work with them to make something they will be happy with.  So student’s not only develop creative skills, they also learn some nice life skills too!”

Jacksons Barbers by Adam, Max, Josh & Roman. 

Adam England – 18 year old from Wheatly Hill – and his group worked with Jacksons Barbershop. Speaking of the development of his film he said, “when we first met Jackson’s Barbers he was quite happy for us to just do what we want as long as we ran it by him. Our film was a recreation of the fresh prince of bel air intro but based on Jackson’s Barbers. We had to use a lot of creative problem solving to work out our lyrics and what shots we wanted to use. We had some minor problems when working out lyrics and how we would make them match the beat but we managed to fix them in the end mainly.”

Reflecting on the film he said “I’m happy with the final outcome and I think we did a good job. I think it was a fun experience working with an actual client, it was a learning curve that I enjoyed the challenge of doing.”

Speaking of his course and future ambitions he said, “after college I would love to continue this course but I want to study abroad. I love my course that I’m doing and I think the environment and the college is an amazing space for creative minds and I think it’s one of the best decisions of my life to come here.”

Cafe Etch – El, Lou, Ruby and Joe

Student El Seaton, 17 years old from Guisbrough, worked with her team Lou, Ruby and Joe to capture content for Cafe Etch. Speaking of how her team approached the project she said, “the brief took a lot of planning, we first visited the company and had a coffee as ordinary students to get a feel for the place, then we went back a few days later with a range of ideas to pitch, we also wanted to narrow things down with what the company wanted from us. We had decided to make two promotional films combined together rather than one as it allowed us to use two advertising techniques at the same time.”

Reflecting on her teams final outcome and working on a live brief she said “I’m over the moon with the outcome, I don’t think it could’ve gone better. I enjoyed working with a client, it was my favourite project yet.”

Bethan, from Cafe Etch gave positive feedback to the students saying,  “A massive well done. The team got some really lovely shots, and the balance between interview clips and the cafe shots works well. I like how they selected relevant clips to play when those topics are being spoken about. All the camera shots are really well executed, and the light balance and camera angles work really well.

“The reel is also really great, and we will definitely use it to promote the cafe. The transitions are quirky and creative which suits the aesthetic of the cafe. The students  managed to include multiple aspects of what we do as a cafe without it feeling too overwhelming or cluttered. The team all had such positive and enthusiastic energy when filming the shots and I appreciated them asking what we would like from the videos. Although there wasn’t a solid brief set from the cafe they’ve captured a really nice essence. If I’d never been to Etch I would definitely be curious to visit after watching your videos and that’s exactly what we wanted.”

Speaking of her course and what her next steps after college are El said; “I’m still trying to find out what exactly I want to do within film. I love studying at this college and the course I’m on is perfect for me.”

Dye Hard Stylist – Ellen Asabrie, Keira & Ashley.

Ellen Namposya Serwa Asabrie, I’m 16 years old from Teesside, worked with Dye Hard Stylist with fellow students Thomas, Em and Hanah. She explains, “when we first met up with our client, we pitched 2 ideas to them which we were inspired from adverts, and the first one was the Schwarzkopf LIVE style advert, and this is because it was energetic, colourful and it showed a lot of diversity. Our second idea was B-roll and transitions which was where we would record b-roll clips showing off the process of hair and include transitions with it. In the end we decided to do a Pantene style advert mixed with b-roll and transitions as me and my group admired the two different styles.”

Reflecting on the skills she used she said, “The skills I used for this project were firstly, communication skills as I was the one communicating with our client Kayleigh on things like meeting times, sorting out which models we chose, slogans they would want to include in the film etc and lastly, editing skills, as I edited our final advert, going in to this I hadn’t had the opportunity yet to lead on editing in previous projects so I wasn’t fully sure on how to do certain things so this became a big challenge for me. I navigated this issue by searching up tutorials online which really increased my knowledge on how to edit using Premiere Pro and it allowed me to achieve an outcome I was proud of.”

Talking of working with a live client she reflected, “Working with a live client for the first time was intimidating to begin with because I wasn’t sure on what to expect, but after we met them and as time went on it became better. The client we had was super welcoming and was really helpful and they trusted us enough to guide them in creating the advert, which made the process more smooth and enjoyable but overall, having the opportunity to work with a live client was an incredibly exciting experience that allowed me to develop valuable skills such as effective communication and strong organisation abilities. It challenged me to adapt, stay professional and make sure the client loves the outcome.”

Speaking of the school and course she said “I really enjoy studying my course at college because it provides me with the opportunity to delve deeper into the world of film, I particularly enjoy the practical aspects of the course because it allows me to develop my experience as I get to work with equipment which is always fun, and I love being able to bring creative ideas to life. After college, I aspire to study abroad such as in the US for university where I can deepen my knowledge on film. My ultimate goal is to build a career in the film industry, whilst exploring and excelling the various roles in it.”

Kayleigh from Dye Hard Stylist said “It was our pleasure to work with such a lovely bunch! They were really keen and excited to get creative with us. Especially when Dean told them they didn’t need to play it safe with us, they really loosened up. We enjoyed having them in and watching how they put their ideas together and absolutely loved what they created!

Mr Coopers Coffee – Tal Thompson-Mckie, Thomas, Em and Hannah.

Student Tal, 17 from Newcastle, and his team created a film for Mr Coopers Coffee, he explained “we were given a brief for the project thanks to the course, but the client (Carla of Mr Cooper’s Coffee House) only had a couple requests for what we would be creating.”

Before starting to film the project the team conducted research “around the location, as well as breakdowns of other adverts that we hoped to match our techniques to and achieve a similar standard. Our class tasks during the project gave us the opportunity to experiment with those techniques and form a cohesive concept for the promotional piece that was the overall aim of the project.”

“Carla wanted the opportunity to talk about the Coffee House in as much detail as possible, and seeing as the food itself looked amazing it made the most sense to go for the mini-documentary approach. Our first few days filming was completely composed of taking B-Roll footage (basically just taking nice shots of the food) and then sitting down to discuss future plans with Carla and the other staff at Mr Cooper’s.”

The team supported staff members through the interview section of the film commenting, “We spent a day with her to jot down all the points they wanted to hit, and as we were filming the interview we would jump in with questions to keep her on track with those points.”

“Carla also wanted to focus on was the journey of the coffee that they made at Mr Cooper’s – they had a particularly special relationship with Rounton’s Coffee Roasters, athe building they occupied used to belong to Rounton’s so the team also wanted us to visit the roasters and interview the staff at Rounton’s.”

Tal acted as the project contact for the project he said both businesses were, “wonderful to work with” one challenge the team face was filimg in the Rounton’s location. “It was particularly difficult to film at Rounton’s because while the warehouse was large, they were definitely space efficient with all of their machines, and we didn’t have much room at all. We ended up filming the interview in one of their back storage rooms where the lighting was luckily well balanced.”

“Once we had all the footage, we simply assembled the interviews together and threw our B-Roll over the top – we had worked so hard whilst filming that most of the footage looked amazing by itself. I believe the result was overall a clean and professional video given our time restrictions and (mainly) the fact that it was our first time doing anything like this.”

Speaking of working on a live brief he said “The opportunity to work with an actual business is one that I greatly appreciated, and even though there were many difficult adjustments to make, my entire team and I learned so much from the experience. The course so far has provided invaluable opportunities, and I am looking forward to improving my skills in every area of filmmaking over the next 2 years.”

The team from Coopers Coffee said that,”the guys were great. Very respectful, easy going, had some of their own ideas and listened well to ours. Love the final video and loved that they got some of the outtakes in. We also loved that they got involved in the footage too. We enjoyed all the footage gathered with lots of different angles. They seemed confident in their shots too which helped things run smoothly. Overall a fabulous team. We would love to be involved again.”

If you are interested in studying Film at college-level make sure you check out our UAL Extended Diploma in Film & TV Production course page. Find out more about the skills and opportunities offered to students on this dynamic and industry focused pathway.