Building on the high-quality, narrative-driven content we’d produced for Debitam previously, we began the production with a discovery call to get a better insight into the company’s content goals and to understand what they needed. From this call, we internally brainstormed a number of key ideas and created a concept presentation outlining seven of the best ideas. The majority of these included elements of comedy and humour, as this tone has been well-received by Debitam’s audience in our previous work.

Once ‘The Ritual’ idea was selected, our creative team put together a series of moodboards to show what we wanted the video to look like. This provided us with a solid starting point to plan what we needed for the shoot. In addition, we drafted an early script and storyboard and refined these as we went along. Having a script and storyboard in the beginning of the process, allowed us to think about all the logistical elements we would need to consider when preparing this shoot.

Throughout the pre-production process, our producers worked closely with the creative team and our wider network to source materials, props, costumes, actors, equipment, and crew to help bring the idea to life.  

This complex shoot required us to source vintage props and niche costumes, such as a medieval robe and accessories. Fire was a key element in the narrative of ‘The Ritual’ and using it on such a large scale, we brought in a pyrotechnic who could advise on how best to build a large bonfire that would burn continuously throughout the shoot. A fire performer was also brought on board to further boost the visual elements in the advert.

Production of ‘The Ritual’ took place overnight in Bentham, North Yorkshire with our core team present (Director, Producers, Videographer, Photographer), as well as a Gaffer, Pyrotechnic, Make-Up Artist, and a cast of seven actors. Crew calls were scheduled throughout the day, with the earliest arrivals at 11 am to welcome the tents and wood pallets. These were set up and left in position for the first call time.

‘The Ritual’ was shot in 5K on our two RED Scarlet-W cameras, enabling us to capture every detail with brilliant clarity and colour. We shot at 48fps, giving us both beautiful slow-motion footage, as well as the flexibility to speed up the clips to 24fps in post if required.

The set was lit with 1x Arri True Blue 2.5K HMI and 1x Aputure Nova. These allowed us to create the illusion of brighter moonlight. Most of the light in the video came naturally from the fire, which the cameras were able to pick up with fantastic detail. The organic flickering and dancing of the flames added a feeling of authenticity to the video, making the story come to life even more for the audience. The shoot wrapped at 3 am, with the final crew leaving the site at 6 am.

Working with the detailed script and storyboard, we pieced together the 90-second advert, as well as the 6 social clips, which were optimised for quick, vertical viewing on platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok. The video was edited, mixed, and graded by our in-house team, with a voiceover provided by David Lambert.

The video was delivered in a number of social-ready formats with and without captions, including 9:16, and 16:9, as well as our usual cinematic widescreen (2:35.1).