Commercial video production

End client: University of Hull
Commissioning agency: Net Natives Ltd
Campaign: Let’s get on with it!

In 2018, Slate and Mortar’s extensive expertise in commercial video production for TV and cinema advertising was required when we were invited back to produce a second TV and cinema ad for University of Hull’s new student recruitment marketing campaign, ‘Let’s get on with it’.

The creative treatment (commissioned by the Higher Education marketing agency Net Natives) required a commercial video production company to come up with a concept for a TV and cinema advert that sat within their pre-existing campaign assets. As part of the brief, a piece of prose was commissioned that needed to be used within the TV and cinema adverts, as did the use of actual University of Hull students and alumni.

Working within these creative parameters, we came up with the concept of a Marine Biology student (a course actually offered at University of Hull) delivering the monologue of prose directly to camera in one continuous take, before diving into the sea to continue his studies or research. Essentially ‘getting on with it’.

All TV adverts need meticulous planning, and this one was no exception, with the video production needing extensive input from a vast team of specialists to overcome the many technical and logistical challenges that we faced. Challenges such as; Health & Safety on and under water; diving training for the actors, location planning for weather conditions and tide times, as well as the huge array of boats needed to accommodate the cast and crew of 28.

The shooting of the television advert took place over one day and required 54 takes to get the right shot! A detailed behind the scenes video was produced that shows some of the challenges you can face in commercial video production, which can be found here.

There were various deliverables for the final video as it was to be published across multiple University of Hull social media platforms, as well as the TV and cinema ads having a national and regional roll-out across cinema and TV (All4, Sky TV and ITV).

Following on from the overarching marketing campaign, Slate and Mortar were then commissioned to produce a number of departmental student recruitment video content on the same theme of ‘Let’s get on with it’. We produced video content for their Music department, School of Medicine, and a number of deep-dive international documentaries for their Geology and Human Geography departments, filmed in Almeria, Barcelona and Berlin.