Leeds City Council - 'All In A Day's Work' When Leeds City Council wanted a DVD to demonstrate the range of services it provides, we felt it was important put those services into the context of typical citizen's daily life. Using actors as typical citizens, the video follows them as they go about their normal daily business. Taking the children to school, visiting a household refuse site, having school lunch or going to the park are some of the scenarios used as springboards into the wide range of services provided by the Council. The video was filmed documentary style to avoid it appearing promotional or staged. This led to some very early starts and some very late finishes as the Council operates around the clock, 365 days a year! Hailed as a great success by our client, the video illustrates what goes into providing many of the essential services that most of us simply take for granted.

Harewood House Trust - 'The Harewood State Bed' The restoration of the Chippendale State Bed, transforming it from little more than a timber frame into a priceless work of art, was a major project for Harewood House. Northern Television was chosen to document the progress of the work and to produce a video for visitors to tell the story behind the refurbishment. Filming took place at various locations throughout the country over the course of a year, capturing footage of many increasingly rare and dying crafts. Master carvers, plaster tablet makers, gilders, silk weavers and tassel makers were among the crafts featured in the video, plus the story of the painstaking research undertaken by specialist historians. This is a good example of having to gather footage and then produce a script around it. The skeleton of the programme was worked out in advance to give direction to the filming and a minimum of staged or re-enacted scenes were done later. The final video, narrated by Loyd Grossman, was a great enhancement to the exhibit when the bed was put on display, and it has proved to be very popular with the many thousands of visitors who go to Harewood House each year.

Provincial Museum Walraversijde - 'The Siege of Ostend' Northern Television was chosen to produce an interactive display of the weapons used during the 17th century siege of Ostend for a major exhibition at the Walraversijde museum in Belgium. Various sequences were produced to demonstrate how to load or use muskets, pikes and cannons. Every detail had to be historically correct. We worked under the direction of an expert historian and the filming was done at a location in the heart of Wales - a place carefully chosen to look exactly like the Belgian countryside 400 years ago! Working with antique firearms which were loaded with real musket balls called for disciplined filming and strict adherence to health and safety procedures - but we lived to tell the tale! The edited sequences were displayed on a touch screen unit which we programmed to give the viewer a choice of sub-titles in four languages.