With the recent news that in Bristol, we are heading into tier 3 in December we have taken time to reflect on the past year and see how lockdown and the coronavirus pandemic has affected us, and what we have done as a result.
March 2020, a time where everything that we thought we knew changed.
The coronavirus pandemic shook the whole world and made everyone question what they were doing and how they were doing it. This was particularly apparent for us and the rest of the event industry as the work that we had lined up for the rest of the year, vanished before our eyes. We had no choice but to focus and adapt if we wanted to make it through the next couple of months, and although this was not the way that we had hoped this year would go we rose to the challenge.
We immediately got to work on some projects that had interested us for a while. First was our wonderful motion-capture piece (is in an animation or a film? We can’t decide!). We had been planning on using a NOITOM (motion backwards) capture suit for a dance project with Bath Spa University but lockdown put a stop to that. We decided to get our own digital artists to act out this piece about isolation and reconciliation. It has been featured on various platforms but we were very pleased that we were on Film Shortage’s Daily Short Pick.
The big project was then to work with our clients on upping the level of their virtual events. We pooled all of our experience in a) creating events b) working in broadcast television and c) being a digital company for many years. We integrated our knowledge of capturing stories in film, creating extraordinary environments and presenting these on new interactive platforms for virtual events.
We were incredibly fortunate that our loyal and ambitious client CVC trusted us to pivot their main annual European investors meeting into an XR staged virtual live-streamed event. It was so successful that we then carried on an extra day to use the stage for their Strategic Operations meeting the following week. We streamed in people from all over the world to the stage including the US CEO from a hotel in Brooklyn with a wonderful view of Manhattan. The final event was capturing interviews from all over South East Asia for the Asia Investor Meeting. We captured everything through Vmix at the highest quality possible.
Soon into lockdown we were extremely fortunate to win Manchester United Football Club’s partnership events. We created a bespoke platform for them to host events for their sponsorship partners. Each event, split into three sections, allowed the partners to interact with a Manchester United legend, watch exclusive content and live interviews.
In January 2020, we never could have predicted that this is how our year would have panned out. It has been a really challenging and tough year for our whole team, as well as the whole event industry. But we have also been able to use these unprecedented times to focus and find some new creative inspiration. We’d like to thank all of our clients, and friends for their support this year and going forward we will be applying this level of focus and creativity to all our projects.
If you would like to talk to us about virtual events, animation, film or anything else that we have mentioned in this blog then please get in touch by calling 0117 972 0081 or email jon@studiogiggle.co.uk
