Hayloft Point and Parkway Gate

Unite StudentsWe were commissioned by Leeds-based agency Revolution Viewing to produce property showcase and lifestyle videos for Unite Students’ new Hayloft Point and Parkway Gate properties.

The goal was to promote these properties to prospective international students, especially those in China, who were considering studying in the United Kingdom.

The concept was to convey the student experience at Unite properties, showcasing not only the premium features of the properties – such as luxury studio flats, cinema rooms, and private study spaces – but also the cities themselves to give a sense of the student culture.

Pre-Production

Pre-production for this project was extensive, lasting close to three months. We went through seven rounds of storyboard and script revisions before receiving the client’s sign-off. Once approved, we moved straight into casting. We secured permits from several borough councils in Central London, which took around six weeks, and conducted recces of each potential filming location.

The major challenge at this stage was how to effectively showcase properties that had not yet been built. We liaised with Unite’s student team and determined that their White Rose View property in Leeds most closely resembled the new properties, with elements of their Bridgewater and Artisan House also fitting the aesthetic. The establishing shots of the properties were created as CGI elements in post-production.

Production

The videos were shot over five days: two days in Central London, two days in Manchester, and one day at Unite’s White Rose View property in Leeds. We enlisted Aiden Metcalfe, a Leeds-based DoP, to shoot the content, working alongside our internal team. Members of Revolution Viewing served as Production Manager, 1st AD, and Production Assistant, assisting with client management and scheduling.

The most challenging aspect of the shoot was implementing the match-cutting style the client wanted. To achieve this, each final shot was captured and placed onto a reference monitor during the shooting of the following scene to ensure continuity or to facilitate transitions between sequences – using techniques like slider shots across pillars to block off frames and seamlessly slide into the next scene.

We used a combination of gimbal and handheld shots throughout the shoot, utilizing the Sony PXW-FX6 and PXW-FX3’s touch-tracking and autofocus tools to ensure subjects remained in focus and to allow for automated focus-pulling. We shot several hyper-lapse sequences, especially in and around Manchester, to establish key areas of the cities and add a visually striking element to the content.

Shots of the subjects at key landmarks were more spontaneous and run-and-gun in nature to comply with permit restrictions, using a skeleton crew and a more streamlined setup.

Editing was carried out by our post-production team at our York Studio.

We worked closely with Leeds-based animation and CGI studio Rebel Digital to build the CGI assets for the videos, extensively storyboarding and shot-listing sequences to ensure that lighting and camera movement mirrored the live-action footage.

We suggested incorporating text graphics during post-production to add further context to the visuals. The copy was developed and written by Ether/Awe’s internal team, based on Unite’s brand guidelines and property decks. The graphics templates were then sold to Unite for use in future video campaigns.

We delivered a total of forty assets for this package, including 16:9 and square versions of both main videos, 30-second cut-downs in 16:9, 9:16, and square formats, and Mandarin versions of each. We also produced Audio Described versions of all English-language and Mandarin videos.

Overall, this was an incredibly successful project for Ether/Awe. We effectively executed the match-cutting style outlined in the brief, utilising techniques such as frame matching and masking to achieve our goal.

Rebel Digital’s CGI seamlessly integrated with our live-action footage, providing a comprehensive overview of the properties’ features.

The client was extremely pleased with the content package, which was released in full during the summer of 2022.

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