Emotive storytelling using stock for skincare giant, Dove.
Klaxon Studio worked with Dove to produce a film for their ‘Act of Care’ campaign where Rugby legend Scott Fardy reflected on the 2011 tsunami and the impact it had on the fishing town of Kamaishi, Japan.
This one is a favourite of Matt and James. Whilst no filming took place specifically for this project we crafted the narrative arc of Scott Fardy’s emotive story and then whiled away many, many hours sourcing archive footage of Scott and also the Tsunami that hit Kamaishi.
This film that we produced was one in a series that Dove commissioned for their ‘Men’s Act of Care’ series. We flew to Dublin to interview Scott about his experiences in Japan when the Tsunami struck Kamaishi and how he helped in the aftermath. From that we built the narrative structure of the film, sourcing the relevant supporting archive and contributors to help tell the story.
Having spent over a month on this project conceptualising, researching, planning, interviewing and editing there was a strange twist of fate 3 years later when Matt actually ended up in Kamaishi for a different project. It was humbling both to see the remarkable rebuilding that had taken place in Kamaishi after the Tsunami and also to speak to the locals about what they had gone through. An amazing experience.
Yes, and it's a genuinely different discipline. Archive-led filmmaking is about constructing the narrative arc first, then sourcing and structuring existing footage to support that story, rather than starting from a shot list, which requires strong storytelling instincts more than production logistics.
Building trust with the contributor before shaping any narrative matters more than technique. Spending time understanding someone's actual experience, rather than treating them purely as a subject to extract soundbites from, tends to produce a film that reflects their real perspective rather than an outsider's interpretation of it.
Sourcing and clearing usable archive footage for a specific historical event often takes considerably longer than a standard shoot day would, since it involves research and rights clearance rather than simply capturing what's needed on location.