This has been a month of reflections at Seveer, because after 20 years of business we’re still going strong. And, as we’ve always known, it’s all down to people: our team and the talented roster of partners we’ve built over the years.
We started off by wanting to approach video production better and do our bit to push the industry forward. Now we’re proud to say we serve some of the biggest brands in the world. And we’ve recently expanded our operations to mainland Europe, thanks to our new Lisbon office – giving us more capacity to support clients on-site and remotely.
It’s a privilege to look back and take in our progress over the decades, and see what a strong position we’ve built for ourselves. So to celebrate our 20th birthday we thought we’d let you inside our reminiscing by sharing our favourite film projects from that time – an eclectic photo album that shows just how far we’ve come.
1. Salford University, Limitless Opportunities (2007)
This was our first really big project after becoming Seveer, and our first attempt at incorporating motion graphics into live action video scenes, a relatively new stylistic technique in 2007.
The commission came directly from the marketing department at University of Salford, and in collaboration with an external CD ROM developer who helped us bring it all to life, we were able to turn their brand work into something pretty groundbreaking for the Education sector at the time. The embedded format for the ad was a suggestion from us on how to best tell their story and capture the spirit of Limitless Possibilities, and it went down a storm with the client and their students.
We’re delighted to be able to say we’re one of the first production agencies to implement this style, in a project that helped launch a ten year relationship with the University of Salford, and lay the groundwork for a strong reputation in Higher Education.
2. Queen’s visit (2008)
It’s not every day you film the Queen! When Elizabeth II came to Central Manchester Hospitals we were given the genuinely exciting and deeply nerve-wracking job of recording the event. Commissioned by Admiral PR, our team operated three static cameras, recording the main action inside and out as well as a roaming camera manned by Adrian and Stuart to film the build-up, final touches, and vox pops.
The atmosphere inside the hospital was fantastic – and outside too, where crowds had gathered to watch our footage on a giant screen. We were allowed much closer access to the Queen and Prince Phillip than a lot of production companies get, and that intimate scenes were eventually used for the Celebration DVD, copies of which were given to every member of staff when everything reopened after the refurbishments. Despite the pressure it remains one of the best jobs we’ve ever done – definitely one of the crown jewels in our showreel.
3. Reaseheath (2008)
This shoot for land-based education college Reaseheath had massive variety and allowed us a chance to travel to a picturesque location near Nantwich too. Over the course of 10 days we shot a number of course overviews and the main promotional film, which used a seamless tracking shot following different students walking through their study environment – which ranged from engineering labs to a cow milking shed.
We got to see a lot and meet some very eager students and knowledgeable staff. It’s a rarity to learn so much and explore so many different visual set ups, especially when surrounded by so many lush, green spaces.
4. Edge Hill TV Commercial (2010)
When Seveer was founded in 2005 one of our main targets was to shoot a TV commercial. Five years in we achieved it, with Edge Hill University. After producing a 125-year celebration video for them we convinced them to add us as to the pitch list for their upcoming TV ad. We were definitely the wild card compared to the five production companies already on the list – including some real heavyweights – but we came out victorious with an ambitious vision we knew we could deliver.
Our concept was another visual technique that hadn’t been seen before in Education, capturing a single moment in time as ‘frozen’ scenes that our student presenter could walk through.
The result we achieved on their limited budget was exceptional, assisted with help from renowned film and commercials director Phil Hawkins, who has gone on to work on features and lots of other high-profile commercial projects.
Our talented team and unwavering desire to deliver was the key to this project’s success and we’ve loved watching Phil’s career go from strength to strength.
5. Little Greene Partnership with the National Trust (2018)
An ideal job for the Area-Of-Natural-Beauty lovers in our team. We were tasked with visiting several National Trust properties to film stories around their unique partnership with Little Greene paints. Having produced several animations for Little Greene, this was an opportunity for us to step more boldly into the world of B2C, with the freedom to explore the relationship between locations and colours.
After starting in the Cotswolds we then moved around for three days, filming as many Country Estate locations as we could in the time, enjoying special access and tracing the inspiration that Little Greene had taken for the tones in their range. The lovely July weather helped our cause and we soaked up centuries of history from each location, all of which is reflected in our footage. We got to see lots of places we would never normally get to, and they’re all on the list to visit again.
6. MEC Animations (2020)
During Covid we were commissioned to produce two animations for the Alliance Manchester Business School, or more specifically for the Massood Entrepreneurship Centre. One film was for potential students and the other for enterprise investments, and we were given complete creative freedom (within the Brand Guidelines) for both.
Being empowered to work like this meant we were able to push the boundaries with the animation style, crafting the tiny details, transition and ‘flare’ elements throughout. The final animations have a great fluidity and really showcase what we can do when we pour ourselves into an animated story. These kinds of free and open briefs don’t come around often, that’s exactly why we relish the chance to deliver something special!
7. Printerland (2016-)
We’ve been strengthening our relationship with Printerland, and our knowledge of their brand, for just shy of a decade and have evolved their style a lot over that time.
When their ‘YouTuber to camera’ style began to show its age we began adapting each shoot to cater more precisely to audience interests and contemporary aesthetics.
Making descriptions of printers compelling may sound like a tall order, but when you need to choose a new printer these details matter!
We don’t shoot in studios often, but our approach to Printerland has thrived on creating a studio-based formula that remains consistent and also flexible enough to adapt to our suggestions for keeping style and content fresh. Sometimes keeping the format simple and constrained forces you to find a creative way to highlight what really matters.
We’ve loved creating such engaging content with a human touch, and each new evolution.
8. Lazenby video content and social media content management (2021-)
From historic listed renovations to cutting-edge multi-million-pound commercial developments, each Lazenby project is completely unique. Finding new ways to capture the essence of this diverse luxury portfolio has been fascinating and inspiring us since 2014. There’s something very sculptural about decorative polished concrete and we treat each project as a work of art, thinking about intention, technique and visual impact.
In 2020, as Covid took hold, we decided it was time to expand our offering to clients, and embrace services like social media management and online content production. By deepening our relationships and knowledge we wanted to help reach audiences with more depth and interest.
When we heard that Lazenby were looking for an agency to do just this we knew it would be the perfect launch point. They had a great brand and an extremely photogenic premium product – with customers who really valued and needed visual inspiration.
After winning the pitch we set about translating our video images into engaging copy and content, capturing the spirit of Lazenby’s industry-leading work and introducing audiences to the immense opportunities offered by polished concrete.
9. Mercer Impact Investing (2022)
We’ve been brave in experimenting with new techniques and technology over the years, and it’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to deliver creative treatments to such consistently high standards.
When Mercer asked us to help engage a global audience around their impact investment offering, we pitched them a highly impactful concept. A presenter to camera shot against a giant LED screen in Manchester’s-leading VR studio – a single location technology that could deliver all the scenes we needed and nod to Mercer’s global reach, in a sustainable way.
It was a big idea and proved to be an equally big production, requiring many months of scripting, development and time prepping for the shoot, and post-production afterwards.
Having taken a break from TV ads, it was an extremely satisfying opportunity to throw ourselves back into something of this size and acquaint ourselves with so much cutting-edge tech. The outcome proved brilliant for the client and Seveer, and the perfect showcase of how our bravery can inspire clients to think bigger and engage audiences more deeply.
10. TikTok video campaigns for University client (2022-2025)
This was a fun, social-first concept that we absolutely loved being part of. From drafting initial concepts to delivering the final videos, we had to pack a huge amount into every script and every shoot day, so pre-production and production tested our team to the limit – something not necessarily obvious from the irreverent tone of the content.
This campaign was specifically tailored to target pre-graduate students considering where to do their degree, and the format, tone and impact of messages were all finely balanced in order to reach that attention-poor, rapidly-scrolling TikTok audience.
A definite highlight was dragging a human size – and weight! – mannequin around the university buildings, just one of the comedy characters we used to bring their state-of-the-art university facilities to life.
The series has been so successful we’ve developed this ‘student to camera’ approach for a number of other faculties in the university, and are now looking at producing our third set of videos.
11. Dalton Nuclear Institute (2023)
This project holds a special place in our hearts as it was one of the last trips Carolina our Producer did with the crew around the UK before moving back to Portugal to launch Seveer in Lisbon.
It was a high profile project that the University wanted to submit to an industry awards body, and saw us interviewing lots of high profile people, at high security locations. Conveying each expert’s passion and knowledge to the team of judges in a way they could easily connect with was key, but not easy in just three minutes, especially given the technical detail that needed to be covered.
So we scrutinised every component, from the narrative script that framed each interview, to the direction on the day, and the motion graphics that provided structure and flow in the edit.
And it seems we got the balance just right: the film went on to help the team win the Bhattacharya Award.
12. Kandou campaigns (2022-2025)
Our relationship with Kandou was a big milestone for Seveer, allowing us to provide a lot of tangential strategy, brand work, web design, social media and card design alongside our longstanding video briefs.
Building on the strides we had already made with Lazenby and Dematic it was an opportunity to provide a content offering that was broader and deeper than ever, working very closely with the central marketing team, as well as sales and engineers, as a full service extension of their operations.
Semiconductors are complicated – so our knowledge required constant updating, both in terms of their rapidly evolving product range, and the wider dynamics of the tech world beyond.
It was absolutely fascinating, and bringing such honest curiosity allowed our entire team to produce some really high quality work and showcase our talent across a wide variety of mediums – with video storytelling leading the way as ever.
Final thoughts…
It’s a joy for us to look back on so many projects and challenges, and we feel very grateful to everyone who has helped make our journey happen. So thanks to everyone who has been part of our story, and to everyone who is going to be part of the next chapter too.
