BOCM PAULS – Step Away From The Machinery

As a full-service production business we’re used to clients asking us to take a programme from concept to completion, or building a production from a storyboard. So it’s a fascinating departure for a client to come to us with a concept and a shooting schedule - and tell us he’s going to shoot and Direct it himself!

But as Steven Hall is one of our finest DOP’s – he regularly shoots commercials for us, we knew we were in for something special. Our working relationships with other facilities companies and modelling agencies meant that we could provide all Production Facilities; including hiring all necessary equipment and booking all the talent for the shoot. Steven’s wife Janie Swerling Hall Produced the film with our very own Luke Witcomb acting as overseeing Producer both on-set and through Post production. JMS’s Ellie Green Coordinated the Production from our Hethersett studio.

Steven was extremely keen not only to impress his client, the leading animal feed’s producer BOCM PAULS (who recently ranked 33 on the Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250) he also wanted to push their expectations of what a “corporate video” could, and should, be.

As the production was to headline their annual Senior Management Conference, Steven was determined to avoid an obvious, straight forward (but potentially dull) approach and treat the production as if it were an extended, branding TV commercial – ‘A time to be proud of the company’s contribution to national and international agriculture’. So, out went real farmyards, production machinery or bags of animal feed, to be replaced by a model farmyard, a family kitchen complete with a young family, and fresh, wholesome cooking ingredients.

With Steven’s DOP background achieving the right look was obviously going to be a high priority. So having total control over the shot size and depth of field via the use of different lenses was vital. On recent commercials we’ve been achieving fantastic results with Steven shooting on the ARRI Alexa, but on this production Steven chose the more intimate but no less filmic looking option of shooting full HD on a Nikon DSLR (a first for JMS).

We had just two days of editing available to experiment with the script and soundtrack and get it ready for the all important first client viewing. With it being such a bold approach to a corporate video and being as Steven had been given a totally free rein during the brief, we don’t know who was more nervous; Steven or Nick Major – Marketing Director at BOCM PAULS. However, after a very successful client screening in one of our state of the art edit suites everyone went away knowing this collaboration had produced something fresh, stylish and beautiful that we’d all want to show off long after the close of the conference. Steven’s advice to any Producers wondering whether to work with JMS? “It’s been wonderful to have JMS on board as Executive Producer and as a Production Facilities Company. I’ve been able to concentrate on my client and my film making skills – and the results are right there on screen”

Credits:

Director / DOP - Steven Hall
Executive Producer - John Mountford
Producers - Luke Witcomb, Janie Swerling Hall
Production Co-ordinator - Ellie Green
Editor - Hugh South
Audio Producer - Keith Lindsay