FUTURES AFLOAT

TRINITY HOUSE

Trinity House's Futures Afloat programme opened a fully informed and engaged vendor field for its fleet procurement, through briefing film shot on location aboard the Galatea by Gunpowder House Productions.

THE REASONING

The two-speaker structure was part of Trinity House's initial brief; Gunpowder House and director Harry Norton’s job was to convey it effectively and concisely to screen. Splitting the briefing between the Senior Responsible Owner and the Programme Manager lets the film answer the two questions every bidder asks: why does this programme matter, and how will it actually run? Both speakers know the programme in depth, and that command of the material is what persuades. The film's job was to present it cleanly and let it land.

The locations used were also determined by Trinity House, with Gunpowder House collaborating on how best to utilise them. The working fleet is the subject of the procurement, so filming aboard active vessels grounded the briefing in the operational reality vendors would be building for, and showed a programme run by people who understand life at sea.

Pre-bid communications travel through websites, inboxes and social feeds, we structured the shoot and editing in order to be compatible across all of these formats. Most prominently this meant keeping in mind shooting for both vertical and horizontal formatting by keeping the subjects framing clean with enough room in the frame for both formats to remain clear.

THE OUTCOME

The film went out as part of Trinity House's pre-bid communications, across LinkedIn, the Trinity House website and direct email to prospective ship-builders. Because the briefing had already done its work, the formal process opened with an informed and engaged field of vendors. Feedback from the vendor community was positive, and the bid stage that followed was a success.

THE CONTEXT

Trinity House keeps the waters around England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar safe to navigate, and the vessels that service its network of navigational buoys are central to that work. Futures Afloat is the programme tasked with replacing that working fleet - a complex procurement that will shape Trinity House operations for decades.

Ahead of the formal bid process, Trinity House needed to brief potential ship-building vendors, experienced maritime professionals weighing up whether to commit to a significant commercial opportunity. The quality of the bids would depend on how clearly those vendors understood the programme's scope, intent and timeline. Formal documentation could carry the information, but Trinity House wanted a briefing that would also carry credibility. Gunpowder House had already worked alongside Trinity House to edit pre-existing footage regarding the initial announcement of Futures Afloat. The goal of that re-edit was to condense the information from a previous video and a question and answer session into a single short video (90 seconds) that could be sent to potential bidders and stakeholders. It was this work that led to the commissioning of a film to be created fully by Gunpowder House, putting the programme's own leadership in front of the vendors deciding whether to bid.

THE STRATEGY

Trinity House came to the project with a clear vision: the people leading the programme should deliver the briefing themselves. Gunpowder House's role was to take that vision, focus it, and build the film around the audience receiving it. Producer and director Harry Norton took all the elements that Trinity House wanted - the speakers, the information, the tone, the locations - and combined them fully into a coherent and high-quality final product. His thinking was to keep everything as simple and concise as possible while conveying all the necessary information required by Trinity House.

That meant pairing the right two voices: Damien Oliver, Senior Responsible Owner, carries the strategic case; Neil Grant, Programme Manager, carries the operational detail. Between them, a prospective bidder gets the complete picture. It also meant taking the cameras out of the boardroom and into the maritime world the programme exists to serve. It was a key component of our collaboration to understand how to communicate with the target audience of this film - that being individuals with vast experience in the maritime sector.

THE WORK

A three to five minute two-speaker briefing film, shot over two days on location in Southampton. Filming took place aboard a working Southampton to Isle of Wight ferry and on Trinity House's current vessel, the Galatea.

We shot the talking head portions of the film out on the exterior deck of the ferry. The Galatea was used for capturing footage of the ship at work for use in this and future Trinity House communication films.

The work was also edited with simple graphic elements, such as animated lower thirds, as well custom graphic elements designed exclusively for Trinity House. All of which adhered to their brand and font design guidelines.

The final film was delivered as a master cut alongside horizontal and vertical formats, each in subtitled and clean versions, ready for the Trinity House website, stakeholder emails, LinkedIn and direct distribution to prospective bidders.

CREDITS

  • Commissioned by: Trinity House

    Senior Responsible Owner, Futures Afloat: Damien Oliver 

    Programme Manager, Futures Afloat: Neil Grant


    Production Company: Gunpowder House Productions 

    Directed by: Harry Norton

    Produced by: Harry Norton & Max Mir

    Cinematography by: Boris Jevric

    Production Sound Mixing: Samuel Thomas

    Edited by: Harry Norton 


    Speakers: Damien Oliver, Neil Grant

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL

During our call, we’ll explore your objectives, uncover the barriers holding you back, and map out effective video strategies designed to help you achieve your goals and targets.

PUBLISHING CONTENT

srishti@gunpowderhouse.co.uk

PRODUCTION OPERATIONS

harry@gunpowderhouse.co.uk

CHARITY FILM CONTENT

max@gunpowderhouse.co.uk