Our Year In Review

2023 has been a challenging year for millions around the globe, wars and geo-political events continue to have massive impacts on peoples lives. In the UK, high inflation and interest rates conspired together with the struggling economy to hit us all hard. And as we round the corner into 2024 these challenges remind us of the importance of our values, which put people and planet first. Check-out what SoundView has accomplished this year…

Our net zero journey

Over the past twelve months we have continued on our mission to reduce our environmental impacts, and the good news is, that hard work is paying off.  In the autumn we moved to more sustainable premises and combined this with hybrid working practices. We’re particularly proud that we have increased the number of carbon neutral certified productions this year. Thanks to those of you who have worked collaboratively with us to ensure our content includes the Albert Sustainable Production logo, an important investment and commitment from many of our clients.

We have also revamped our website to reflect our values and we are proud to be sharing our people and planet motto with all of our visitors. To encourage even more conversations, forge new contacts and gather more tips and tricks we launched  Net(Work) Zero Plymouth, a new lunchtime networking event held bi-monthly for those with a passion for sustainability.

The Box – accessibility

One of our proudest achievements this year was delivering more accessible digital content for The Box, Plymouth’s Museum and Art Gallery. We consulted with the team at Living options Devon who advised us of best practice in creating captions for Deaf and hearing impaired viewers and audio descriptions for  blind and sight impaired audiences. A special screening event was held to officially launch the new content. It took place in the brilliant Media Lab at The Box. We had a wonderful diverse group of attendees, one of which was delighted when he saw a clip of football legend Pele in Plymouth, a match he’d attended as a fan, more than fifty years ago. What an amazing coincidence!  To find out more check-out our video.

Top projects this year

The Journey to The Bottom of The Celtic Sea

“Journey to the Bottom of the Celtic Sea,” explores the development of floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea – the new frontier of renewable energy. In this film, Professor Iain Stewart and colleagues describe the proposed developments and enhance our understanding of the seabed, technologies and the opportunities it offers the South-West. The making of this documentary took place over a number of months in some really interesting locations. (See us above in a wave tank in waders.) Check-out the final product.

Time Team

We’ve been on the road with Time Team again this year. “Digging the Band of Brothers” are some of our favourite episodes. Filming with Time Team and Operation Nightingale took place in the sleepy village of Aldbourne, Wiltshire. This is where in 1944, hundreds of US paratroopers were based. It was temporary home to the second battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, better known as ‘Easy Company’, who were made famous by the hit book and TV series ‘Band Of Brothers’. The filming of this was intense but it was also great to see regular faces from Time Team, including presenter  Sir Tony Robinson and archaeologist Carenza Lewis who dropped in to the dig and presented from location. We met some incredible people over that week. And without a doubt, it was a huge privilege to be invited to be involved in the project in the first place.

Another notable Time Team shoot for Chris and Jamie was Corfe in Dorset. As a child Chris used to live nearby and regularly visited the area where we were filming. The views were outstanding on this shoot and despite the less than ideal weather, peaking out of a tent to see the castle everyday was a real treat.

Safer Internet Day 2024

2024’s  Safer Internet Day campaign theme will be inspiring positive changes online. In the Autumn of 2023 we crated a series of films aimed at children and young people ready for the launch of the campaign in February 24. The content for the early years audience is narrated by Rebecca Hulbert who truly did a magical job at bringing the story to life. You can checkout the films here.

Our immersive projects

Cornwall air ambulance

We may bit a bit biased, but there is truly no better way to make your film feel real than making it 360. That was exactly the goal of Cornwall Air Ambulance, so when they came to us with the idea of turning a training mission into a VR experience we knew we wanted to be a part of it. It challenged the team at SoundView to think outside the box and try some new ways of shooting. It was a fun experience and we definitely achieved our high hopes with this one.

Green minds

To celebrate World Earth Day, SoundView and Real ideas created an immersive mini-documentary for the Green Minds Project. The 360 film shows the importance of green spaces in Plymouth and how Green Minds is ensuring we can all get the most out of the natural environments in the city. The film focuses on nature, and re-wilding, and features some four-legged ( and eight-legged ) friends.

The premiere was held at The Dome at The Market Hall in Plymouth. It’s Europe’s largest immersive cinema, 15-metre-wide and has state-of-the-art technology. It surrounds audiences with 360 vision and spatial sound. And yes, it is as cool as it sounds! The immersive film includes 360 videos captured over a period of months and includes 360 drone footage. It shows how the Green Minds project is having a positive impact within the city. One of our favourite locations was Poole Farm, in the North of Plymouth. Hemmed in by houses and highways, its most certainly a hidden gem. As well as rearing livestock (pigs were certainly some of the stars of the show), the Green Minds Project is also inviting wildlife back to the farm.

The Tourism Summit

The success of last years Tourism Summit inspired SoundView to once again co-create the “Tourism For Good” conference. SoundView’s Jamie and Gareth gave a talk on how to make your online content more accessible.  It was an unforgettable event and the take aways from the day can be summed up by the live scribing illustration above. See more from the day here

In conclusion

2023 has been a whirlwind of a year, as a business SoundView has truly blossomed and transformed and we are really proud of how far we have come. If you want to find out more detail about our projects check-out the news page. There is still always more to do but we can confidently say 2023 was a great year for SoundView and we wish the best to all our clients, old and new. Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!