Making of ‘Misbah: A Day in the Life’

Client:

Global Engagement Division (GED), University of Bristol

Brief:

Profile of Misbah, a first generation mature student and how a Futures Scholarship provided vital support to continue her studies.

How we did it:

We’ve seen and made films before that follow students going about their day, but for this film we chose a documentary-style element that felt lively, fun and in the moment. To achieve this, we combined fly-on-the-wall interview technique with a more traditional sit-down interview to provide Misbah's narrative in her own words.

For a relaxed and unobtrusive feel on location, we decided to keep the crew small and cross-shoot with two Sony A7Siii cameras, one on a shoulder rig, and one on a gimbal. Producer Helen Waddell directed and co-shot the film alongside Cameraman Dion Owen and then edited the film with finishing editing from Dion Owen and Creative Director Hamish Beeston.

Phone calls to get to know Misbah early on in production meant we really took onboard her story, her routine and the finer details of her university experience, so we could build them into a script. This isn’t a script like you’d expect in a film or drama but is a prompt for the filmmakers to build scenes, schedule the day and have relevant questions ready. Breaking a film down in this way makes it much easier to think of shots, think ahead to the edit and pre-empt logistical issues from location permissions to where to grab lunch.

The result of taking the time to plan is that Misbah’s life and personality shine through in on screen moments such as glimpsing Wills Memorial Building from her taxi, her love of lab work and having a natter with friends. And wrapping the film up with a call home to her 8 year old son really gets to the heart of why financial help matters so much to students like Misbah, for whom alumni support was a lifeline.

Client feedback:

We wanted to create an original and fresh fundraising video that had one of our students at its centre. Misbah is an incredible and ambitious student who has demonstrated a lot of resilience during her time at university, and speaks very eloquently about how philanthropic support has helped her over the years. Beeston Media responded really well to our brief to capture a day in the life of Misbah as a neuroscience student, balancing campus life with relevant discussion on student support and the impact philanthropy has had on her. They worked with diligence, care for us and Misbah, and creativity and we love the result.

Some of our favourite parts of the video are the attention to details – when Misbah crosses her feet in the lab, for example, which is a fun and creative way of suggesting she is deep in thought – and the ways they’ve brought different campus locations to life (traveling to campus, library, lab, meeting up with friends). It was a great day of filming and Misbah felt very confident and supported on the day which was our main priority. Beeston have also really carefully balanced the creativity with the core fundraising messaging, which isn’t an easy thing to do. They were responsive, thoughtful and very relaxed in the lead up to and on the day of filming which helped create an easy and productive environment.

It's still early days so we don’t have too many metrics on video engagement yet, except some amazing in-person feedback from other universities and colleagues, many of whom have asked me about our process of putting the video together. We’re still getting it out into the world but it’s designed as evergreen content that we’ll be using over the next 18 months or so.

Grace Sims

Communications Content Manager | Global Engagement Division (GED)