How we supported the world-class Dalton Nuclear Institute in their win of the prestigious Bhattacharyya Award.
The Brief
A client within The University of Manchester recommended us to the Dalton Institute team back in 2023 as they had just been shortlisted for the Bhattacharya Awards and needed our help for the next step of the submissions process.
The goal was to showcase the impact of their innovative work and partnerships in a film which could be used in the award submission. This was no simple task. We had three-minutes to cover the £148bn programme spanning 100 years, involving 17 sites, over 30 nuclear reactors and 3 large chemical plants, including interviews with all the key people involved – most importantly Institute Director Francis Livens.
On top of that, we were also tasked with capturing enough content and footage for other communication purposes and wider promotion of the Institute’s activities and impact.
The Solution
Topping and tailing the video with the most important voice – Francis Livens – we broke the film down into six constituent themes which gave us our chapters:
- Robotics deployment at nuclear sites
- Reduction in Discharges
- Research Support
- Input to Policy
- Developing People
- Fostering Innovation
Through close dialogue with all the key people involved, including Francis and the institute’s Comms Manager, we built up a detailed understanding of their impact across all six themes, developing a core structure and suggested responses that would allow us to give equal impact to each aspect and individual.
The script we wrote outlined this extraordinary collaboration whilst striking a careful balance between relaxed, authoritative and concise, compressing the supplied pages of overview into just a few lines.
Interview scripting, shoot planning and risk assessments were planned next with the challenge of working with our client partners’ busy schedules and accommodating their needs.
The Seveer team successfully filmed in multiple locations across the UK on a tight schedule to produce a scripted master film and capture all content.
The biggest challenge? Distilling a vast amount of complex information into a three-minute film. The team achieved this with a tight post-production deadline, delivering the final film in time for the award submission.
The Results
The end result was an engaging and impactful film, highly visual and packed with lots of detail and with a strong narrative throughout. The Institute used the film to support their award submission, which they won, securing both vital funding for future research and industry recognition for their fantastic work!
The client also requested an additional eight themed films which focused on different aspects of the Institute’s work and industry role.
Internal feedback was extremely positive and after premiering at the awards ceremony, the film is now being used to generate awareness for the Institute and its activities.
Client Feedback
“Seveer were an absolute pleasure to work with and we were extremely impressed with the videos they created for us – one of which helped us showcase our research partnerships with industry to win a prestigious award. Would highly recommend working with them.” Rachel
“Seveer were great to work with, helping us very professionally to produce an award-winning video describing aspects of Manchester University’s nuclear research work. They guided us through all the different steps and made an excellent end product under significant time pressure.” Francis
