On Tuesday 20th February, we invited 10 of our sponsor companies plus our Jury Chairs, Rick Russell of Final Cut and Ana Balarin CCO at Wieden + Kennedy, to ARRI Stage London’s facility in Uxbridge to take part in our virtual production series ‘Perspectives’.

The British Arrows celebrate the best in moving-image advertising content so this year we really wanted to experiment with virtual production for our own moving-image social content, and leverage our new partnership with ARRI Stage London and Creative Technology.

The entire advertising industry is having to adapt and be open to new technologies, especially with the proliferation of AI, so it makes sense for us to be at the vanguard of this new technology. Part event, part content production, we wanted our social films to be an innovative opportunity for us and our sponsor companies to better understand virtual production and showcase it to the wider industry.

Creatively the films are about Perspective - principally reflecting on the industry - and developed by British Arrows Creative Director, Michael Lenz. Five natural and beautiful vistas inspired by locations around the British Isles - from an Estuary at low tide to the top of a Scottish Munro - where our sponsors and Jury Chairs have a moment of calm and serenity to have their reflective conversations. The environments were built in Unreal Engine and include water and wind materials so needed to be deterministic across nodes and screens to be believable and not break the illusion due to tearing. The procedural animations of arrowheads added a layer of dynamism and continuity across the series, linking the content directly back to the British Arrows brand.

We are a small team so lots of help was needed and therefore a lot of thank you’s to mention: firstly to Academy Head of Production, Gemma Priggen and Senior Production Assistant, Heza Jalloh; ARRI’s Marketing Manager, Katie Colledge and the extended ARRI Stage London and Creative Technology Team; DOP, Rob Payton. A huge thank you to the entire crew on the day; Shots Co-Editor, Jamie Madge; and finally Editor, Matt Gabzdyl (Final Cut); Colourist, Tash Hicks (Coffee & TV), Machine (Sound Design & Music) and obviously a final thank you to our sponsor companies’ willingness and openness to be part of this production. The beauty of our industry is collaboration, and this really wouldn’t have been achieved without the generous and collaborative spirit from everyone aforementioned.

A Perspective film will be released every day as we countdown the final 2 weeks before the British Arrows Awards 2024! Check them out on our socials: British Arrows on LinkedIn, @britisharrows on Instagram and X or across the news part of our website.

Read what Shots had to say here!

BTS 📷 by Ian Wallman