To help push future-farming thinking, AB Connect asked us to produce an internal film for their upcoming conference, highlighting the need for a positive organisational change to meet the challenges of the ever-changing food and farming industry within the UK. This time, getting “out in the field” was a literal job description.
We saddled up into our trusty van (for some reason officially named Duke Vincent van Bants—The Duke for short) and set out on our expedition to shoot across a multitude of AB Connect sites. This neatly packed 4-day shoot called for maximum collaboration, overcoming any hurdles (and wooden styles) that we were faced with on our journey.
As you can imagine, agricultural locations aren’t usually designed with sound recordists in mind (and the animals certainly don’t care about Josh’s need for room-tone), needless to say we had to be flexible, think on our feet and opt for effective solutions. Our locations varied from customer’s farms to formal office spaces, meaning we had to pack light and be agile with our approach. If you couldn’t lug it across a boggy field, it didn’t make the cut. Finding ourselves in the most scenic of landscapes, for a moment we forgot that we were up to our ankles in fertiliser…
What initially may have seemed like a simple conference video, through a series of carefully captured cut-aways, it was brought to life in an “udderly” exciting way. Who doesn’t enjoy a shot of someone’s hand running suggestively over a field of wheat? With locations running into double-digits, our farming foray concluded after four days on the road. The final film was presented to the AB connect team, and was warmly received by all. Next time, we’ll remind Mari to bring her wellies.
