Beeston Media is a video production company based in…

In November 2024, Emma Rose, Centre Manager at the University of Bristol's Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS), asked us to film the arrival of four shipping containers to a building site. This was no ordinary cargo, but the heart of the UK’s fastest AI supercomputer – the £225 million Isambard-AI.

At the mercy of snowy weather and construction logistics, we scheduled a 3 day window to get the shots we needed. Keen to add value and variety for the client, we filmed from the ground and the air. We also set up a portable edit suite in an office in the neighbouring National Composites Centre for fast turnaround edits for social media.

Day one, the snow fell, the camera people filmed, the editor edited and we had a nice 20 second piece to be published on socials on the same day that one of the four containers was craned into place. We even managed a shot of a snowman. Day two, the sun shone and the remaining containers were installed. Day three, we cancelled the final day shoot and instead, back in the office, finished the fast and furious 45 secs story of the build socials piece. Hats off to our in-house editor Nick O'Leary for a top job.

When the University of Bristol posted this film, it outperformed all other content on their social channels within the last 12 months. RESULT!

Since then, in collaboration with new BriCS Communications Manager Emily Coles, we have returned to the NCC site on numerous occasions to film key moments in the installation, typically shooting video and stills at the same time. The drone has been up for a wider view. We've shot stills of the key movers and shakers from Hewlett Packard Enterprises and BriCS boss Simon McIntosh-Smith and in March filmed the installation of the actual computer itself, now sitting snugly in a data centre constructed from the shipping containers.

The multi-million pound kit was delivered to site by the aptly-named specialist firm Carry Gently Ltd. Their logo is, appropriately, a crocodile cradling an egg in its mouth...

We've also workshopped and scripted upcoming Hero and About Us films, which we'll shoot once the scaffolding is down later in the summer, and attended the Isambard Day conference, with supercomputer experts from around the world, to immerse ourselves in the world of AI and its fascinating use cases, which was great for originating loads of new content ideas to suggest to the client.

All in all, it's been a fantastic project so far and the perfect fit for us as science and tech content producers who feel personally invested in promoting our region's innovators and pioneers. Our video production agency has grown from 3 to 7 staff over the last 18 months - meaning we have the capacity to rapidly deploy on jobs both large – like a video strategy for a suite of films, or small – such as sending out a lone videographer for a ‘quick and dirty’ social reel.

This project has also helped to push the boundaries in terms of our shooting and editing style with the high energy final build films (60 sec and 90 secs versions) complete with hyperlapses, super fast cuts and a number of more conventional edits for web headers and conference films. Shout out to Lobster Pictures Ltd. for their timelapses of the whole build from empty car park to finished supercomputer and to Oakland Construction Ltd. for accommodating our film crews.

Thanks to the Isambard-AI team of Emily Coles, Emma Rose and Simon McIntosh-Smith from BriCS and good luck for the big launch of Isambard-AI in a couple of weeks!

"Beeston have been an excellent content production partner on the Isambard-AI project for both video and stills, truly working as an extension of our team at Bristol Centre for Supercomputing. They really take the time to understand the brief and work through ideation and strategy with us, leading and challenging at the right times. Creative and responsive, they're exactly what we need to deliver impactful videos and stills to explain and promote this incredible achievement."

Emily Coles, Communications Manager Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS), University of Bristol