Durham video offers slice of uni life

It’s pretty common for a feature film to take a couple of years to make its way into cinemas. Web video, on the other hand, tends to be a rather more quicksilver arena – and yet, for an infinitude of reasons, even short-form productions can sometimes take on a Sisyphean time-frame.

One such project we’ve been involved with is ‘Durham University: A Day in the Life’, which was originally commissioned in the first half of 2012 and has only just made its online debut, nearly two-and-a-half years later.

The aim of the film was to show off some of the things which make Durham a brilliant and distinctive university experience, including the scenery, the colleges, the sports and the social scene.

But rather than using typical student interviews, we wanted to do this in a way that was every bit as distinctive as Durham itself. Our solution was to orchestrate the everyday sounds of the city and the university into their own symphony, creating a living hymn to daily Durham life.

An ambitious idea, and one that presented its own obstacles, even apart from capturing all the different shots which appear across the film’s brief runtime. The biggest single challenge was fine-tuning the soundtrack in tandem with the edit – but it was a challenge that, we think, was ultimately well-met.

If you’re eager to use video to tell your university’s story, get in touch with Kathy or Oliver, our account managers for universities. Both have years of experience working within HE marketing and communications, and are passionate about producing fantastic content on behalf of our university clients.

Contact Oliver Knight on 0203 405 2271 / oliver@spectrecom.co.uk or Kathy Bird on 0203 096 2866 / kathy@spectrecom.co.uk