Stomping Ground was approached by the fashion brand Paul Smith to make a series of films for their Women’s Show, part of London Fashion Week.
The location was the Royal College of Physicians in Regents Park, a beautiful Grade 1 listed building designed by Denis Lasdun and finished in 1964. On the first recce it was instantly obvious why it had been chosen as the venue for the show. The staircase in the centre of the building is stunning and seems to float despite its mass. The gallery around it is majestic, multilayered, and a little bit surreal. We knew it was going to be an amazing spectacle for the audience, but with obscured sight-lines everywhere, the prospect of filming in this space was daunting.
The list of deliverables was daunting too. There was a massive screen in an adjacent room to the main hall on which would play a looped mini film as a background for the models and run for the duration of the show, and this film needed to be shot, edited, graded and tested before the main event. Then the first cut of the show needed to be delivered by the end of the next day. The legacy cut which you can see above. And then a week later on, a series of teasers and bumpers for social and digital.
So with 7 camera operators, 2 editors, a DiT/Grader, 3 camera assistants, a crane operator and and assistant, we figured we had the best possible chance budget and time would allow. We had half a rehearsal and then the show began… And finished a breathless 11 minutes later.
But it was a blast from start to finish and went off without a hitch. Special thanks are due to Shift4 Broadcast London who were truly marvellous.
Below are three, 15 second teasers for the show.