Arcadia
Our client
Arcadia is a global fashion powerhouse, the owner of eight renowned high street brands, including Topshop, Miss Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins. Given the nature of the fashion industry, Arcadia’s head office team are perpetually busy creating new imagery for web and print media, with seasonal fashions and up-to-the-minute designs.
They approached us with a unique problem: they were interested in stepping up their social content to include video but had neither the budget nor the time to allow for a traditional shoot set-up. However, they did have a regular timetable of photography shoots which were already scheduled to take place.
Our challenge was to film content worthy of being its own advert around a fashion photography shoot day, without interrupting the photographer or the models, and without it looking like a simple behind-the-scenes video.
Our preparation
We sourced some of the best self-shooters across London’s diverse community of creative talent. To achieve the best results, we knew we would need to use film-makers who understood how to shoot fashion, including which aspects of the clothing to linger on and what the models needed to do to highlight these.
We also needed directors with experience in documentary-style film-making. This was because we would have no opportunity to re-shoot any model or outfit once they had finished their photography shoot. This style of filming is a learned technique, designed to capture the key elements of what’s happening in front of the lens on the first attempt.
Our strategy in motion
Upon arrival at each shoot day, we quickly established a rapport with the Arcadia team and made it very clear that we would work around their proposed running order. We would operate as a silent second team, and would aim to be unnoticed but were happy to take direction should we unwittingly interfere at any point.
Due to the exceptional professionalism of our self-shooting directors, this was never a problem. They immediately understood what parameters were needed which enabled the ease of the entire workflow. We operated a two-person team in each instance: one cameraperson continuously shooting and a producer/assistant at their shoulder with lens wipes, replacement batteries, sun-shields and an assortment of different depth lenses. All this was implemented to record the day in the best possible way.
Once filming had wrapped, GRAFT were also responsible for the entirety of the edit process, creating a range of social media spots from each shoot day. We even produced a master edit for use on Arcadia’s homepage.
Our shared results
Arcadia were very pleased with both our standard of professionalism on shoot and the finished results.
Our work for two of their brands, Evans and Wallis, is now online on both their brand websites and across social media channels and is performing well.
We have fine-tuned the shoot-day process even more and are excited about working more closely with Arcadia in the years ahead.