Midlands Future Mobility

Client: Warwick Manufacturing Group
Project: Midlands Future Mobility

Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick were looking for a video production company to produce a suite of case study videos that promoted a £25M investment programme that would set the UK to become a world-class testbed for developing the next generation of connected and autonomous (CAV) vehicles. The pioneering venture would make UK roads ready for CAVs by developing wireless networks, analysing how vehicles behave in real urban environments and involving the public in their evaluations.

The UK Central CAV Testbed is based on 80 kilometres of urban roads in Coventry and Birmingham, creating a world-leading connected infrastructure and ecosystem, and positioning the Midlands as a centre for cutting-edge automotive and communication technologies.

WMG required the case study videos to be used on their project website, on social media, and on exhibition stands as part of a wider communications plan to promote their brand and the work of the test bed to encourage industry, government, and public engagement. They would also need to capture the imagination of the lay person in the general public, but include enough technical detail to engage industry and policy-makers.

Our solution was to produce two separate case study films; the first being a corporate video that spoke to industry using high level technical terminology, and another that spoke to the general public using layman’s terms. To get across all the various messages that sat within the project, the videos were to be a mixture of interview, voice over and complex 3D animation. Both case study videos set out to address WMG’s vision of the future and show how UK roads would look and operate when everything is connected and vehicles operate autonomously.

Filming took place in Coventry and Birmingham, focusing particularly on the network of roads that were designated to become the CAV Testbed site. To show traffic at its various states throughout the day, filming took place at key locations during peak and off-peak travel time, as well as late into the evening for a series of night shoots. Then, to add a touch that’s unique to Birmingham, we flew drones over the infamous spaghetti junction to capture a rare glimpse of Birmingham’s massively intertwined interchange.

Warwick Manufacturing Group were incredibly pleased with the final result and continue to enjoy a fruitful working relationship with Slate and Mortar. More recently, WMG have commissioned us to work on another Midlands Future Mobility brand promotion film, this time going into greater details, explaining their real-world and virtual testing methods for CAV.