Fashion Insiders
Zowie Broach
Nextshoot, a video production company in London, works with a list of global clients including an increasing number of agencies in China. Hantang Culture, based in Shanghai, used our video production services to support its series Fashion Insiders. The strand is made up of a number of short portrait films profiling leading personalities in fashion: from brand founders, visual artists and fashion icons to fashion curators and academics.
This film was about Zowie Broach - Head of Fashion at the Royal College of Art, an internationally renowned art and design university with an MA Fashion course whose alumni have gone on to work at Nike Futures, Tom Ford and Alyx.
Zowie is also one of the founders of fashion label B O U D I CC A known for its conceptual designs and architecturally inspired tailoring.
View the case study for Fashion Insiders
01
The Brief
Working within the series format - a voiceover captured on location and filmic shots and sequences shot on cine cameras - we were to create a film that represented Zowie’s approach to her work and her teaching.We had access to the RCA fashion studio in South Kensington, but we would need to consider other locations to film with Zowie in London within a single shoot day. A consideration was that by the end of the filming day it would be dark.
02
Our Approach
Tomas Frigstad, the director, had a recce day during which he met with Zowie - to interview her for the script material and also to scout locations that had been discussed as possible backdrops for the story. Open Cell Labs in West London were put forward by Zowie and we decided that this location could work well after dark, offering up interesting lighting and some reflections. We also chose to make the most of the iconic London landmarks and architecture around the RCA, including the Royal Albert Hall.As a video agency in London we have access to an amazing network of freelance crew. It’s impossible for a video production company to have every sort of technician in-house, but the skilled freelance 1st ACs we work with feel like a part of our own team, and always add enormous value to a shoot of this nature, setting up the cameras and pulling focus.
03
The Results
The film, edited by Tomas, gives an enticing flavour of Zowie’ approach to BOUDICCA and her teaching at the RCA: the influence of films she watched as a child on her design thinking, the importance of challenging and questioning the way the fashion system operates, and the importance of opening fashion to its future responsibilities.The look & feel of the film is refined, with some beautiful shots through glass and gentle camera movements. On a dull London day the daytime exteriors in South Kensington might have lacked sunny sparkle, but the decision to film at night at Open Cell Labs showed the location in its best light.
The result is a film we’re all proud to have worked on.
