The brief.
That Lot brought me a social idea for Lloyds Bank: short films set inside a working branch, built on unscripted conversations around topics the agency had chosen, and cut for vertical feeds.
There were no scripts, so nobody knew exactly where a conversation would go. The branch was the set, and the job was to be in the right place when it went somewhere good, keep it feeling unforced at social length, and get all four films inside one day.
How I shot it.
- Sony FX3 on a gimbal
- Camera and sound run by one person, with a sound mixer and shotgun mic
- Blocked around the real branch layout, using its own depth and sightlines
- Four films covered across a single shoot day
Working solo on a day like this is a scheduling problem before it's a camera problem. The day only holds together if every set-up is chosen so one person can strike it and rebuild it without anyone standing around waiting.
Lighting a working branch.
Branch lighting is built for staff and customers, not for cameras. Lots of small overhead spotlights, which drop hard shadows onto faces and give you very little to shape.
So the approach was to soften what was already up there and push level back in from the side. One LED panel through diffusion pulled off a softbox, a reflector to lift the fill, and a K clamp with spigots to put the light where the room would not otherwise allow. Small kit, picked so one person could move it between set-ups and still make the day.
Turnaround.
Brief on the Monday, pre-production on the Tuesday, shoot on the Wednesday. First pass edit across the Thursday and Friday, with the project file back with That Lot by the Friday. Finishing ran through the following week.
Delivery and credits.
Four vertical films delivered to That Lot. I shot the job and cut the first pass. Callum Cartwright finished the four films. The logo lockup and lower third artwork came from That Lot and were animated agency side.
