Empowering People with Inspiring Storytelling

Investing in equal opportunity, Buildcorp seek to inspire new pathways for the next generation and growth in women's and girl's rugby with sponsorship of the Buildcorp Wallaroos and Buildcorp Super W. And this year despite season interruptions, the prominent construction business is celebrating the power of preparation.

Like rugby, much of their work in construction is also unseen and it's the behind the scenes work that determines the final outcome. So when Buildcorp asked us to partner with them to create a special sponsorship film celebrating 'the preparation you don't see', we were humbled to bring our cinematic prowess to the project.

The concept of 'behind the scenes' preparation also resonates with us just as much. In film production, the preparation and behind the scenes work we put into each project is the key to its success. We only have a very limited amount of time to shoot each scene of a film and an emotive montage film like this means multiple shoot days across many locations. Knowing in advance things like what the location is going to be like, what time of day is best to shoot outdoors, what the scenes and actions we need to shoot are and who will be in them, the lighting approach we will need to take in indoor scenes, and how we'll schedule our shoot, is all something we have to prepare for in advance to ensure our time on set isn't wasted and quality video footage is captured.

From the outset, we felt the film offered incredible storytelling opportunities. There was an obvious need to heighten the drama for visceral effect. The script, which is read by Buildcorp Wallaroo player Sera Naiqama, called for corresponding visuals that compared the preparation the players put in with the preparation the construction crews undertake. During preproduction, we encouraged the utilisation of special filmmaking mechanisms designed to heighten audience engament, such as filming with anamorphic lenses, selecting key times of day, capturing drone footage and creating atmospheric lighting effects with haze.

The project was filmed over six half days with a small crew to enable a nimble and responsive shooting approach. Montage films like this, are like a jigsaw puzzle. We created a shot list of scenes that corresponded with our narration and then scheduled our shoot days. But we never ruled out the opportunity to capture unscripted shots that may or may not make it into the final edit, as we piece the puzzle together. Additionally, since our shoot days were scattered across a four week period, we also moved the edit forward and began cutting the story prior to completing the filming. This enabled us to see where any potential gaps were and tweak our shooting plan as we went.

The beautiful thing about film production is the opportunity to show the world in ways we can't naturally experience it. Drones enable us to see the world from a birds eye view. Slow motion increases the time a fleeting moment lingers before it can escape us. For this film, we chose to work with specialty anamorphic lenses to impose a "look" to the film that would heighten the cinematic experience for the viewer. Anamorphic lenses produce a fascinating image, with a wide 2.4:1 aspect ratio, streaky lens flares and oval bokeh. When the subject is placed in the centre of the frame, the out of focus area towards the edges of the frame is slightly more circular, forcing the eye towards the centre. This visual sense of engulfment furthers the emotional connection with the audience as we hone in on the people in the film.

Time of day also plays a huge factor in the emotional response an image delivers. Since the story sights hard work with preparation during early mornings and late nights, we made sure the film corresponded by starting our shoots before sunrise or late into the evening. Carrying this throughout the film, we also ensured other scenes, such as the opening scene of a construction site, was also filmed at dawn.

Finally, a powerful musical score was sourced through a premium music library and the voiceover recorded and mixed with our sound studio. The result is this stunning film filled with emotive, powerful, inspiring imagery and narrated with an equally powerful message.

That's a Wrap!

We hope you enjoyed this insight into creating this emotive brand film. If you also have a project you'd like to discuss, we'd love to hear from you.