Centre for Ageing Better - Filmmaking Examples

RELEVANT EXAMPLES

Below are some examples of the projects mentioned in our proposal. They include: individual case study videos; key-insights summary videos; video diaries; videos exploring a group; videos exploring place/community; vox pops with the ‘person-on-the-street’; and examples of different types of animation videos, including one anonymity-protected campaign video. Also, three examples of more aesthetically-driven, stylistic filmmaking, can be found at the bottom, in the form of recent music videos made by our director Elliot.

INDIVIDUAL CASE STUDIES

How do people older people help each other out within their communities? / Centre for Ageing Better

This example is one of four ethnographic case studies we produced, looking at the experiences, motivations and challenges, of four ‘community contributors’, in Leeds, Settle, Scarborough, and Bristol.

The overall aim of the research, which also included full written reports by Traverse, was to help national/local government, the voluntary sector, and business, better support people in later life to find meaningful ways to contribute to their communities through ‘informal volunteering’.

You can see all four films, with a 1-min overview edit for social media, here.

What does successful Age-Friendly & Inclusive Volunteering look like? / Centre for Ageing Better

We visited five people in five different places across the country, to find out about the impacts of ‘age-friendly and inclusive’ volunteering. This video follows Jenny, in Oxfordshire. To see all five individual films and a summary video, click here.

What were the impacts of a ‘family innovation fund’? / Essex County Council

Essex County Council launched a ‘Family Innovation Fund’ Early Help programme to help families in volatile situations build resilience, and reduce their reliance on statutory support in the future. The programme was implemented by six different partners across the region, each offering their own intervention service.

As such, Traverse were commissioned to write an evaluation report, with Close-Up producing two ethnographic video case studies, exploring: what impact, if any, have these interventions had? And where could they be improved?

Above is one of the case studies, following 12-year-old Lewis, who had been experiencing extreme behaviour at home. Traverse’s final interactive report was also designed by Close-Up.

How does ageing affect older people’s ability to get around? / Channel 4

Shot in standard definition, this is one of our much older, but much cherished videos. It’s a case study by our director Elliot Manches, exploring how ageing affects people’s mobility and their daily life.

The resulting film, titled ‘Getting On, Getting Around’, was made Channel 4’s ‘Four Doc Of The Week’. It uses the traditional ‘co-discovery’ ethnographic research method, where the participant is invited to reflect on the footage we’ve recorded, which in turn forms the narration to the final film.

KEY-INSIGHTS SUMMARY VIDEOS

How does having a long-term condition affect how people work? / Centre for Ageing Better

As part of a new report by the Centre for Ageing Better (CfAB) and the Institute of Employment Studies, we were commissioned to we produced four films with seven participants, exploring how having a long-term condition can affect work for people over 50. This is the summary video. You can see it in place along with the full report here.

What’s it like to live in ‘non-decent’ housing? / Centre for Ageing Better

As part of a new report by the Centre for Ageing Better (CfAB), we were commissioned to carry out four ethnographic case studies, exploring the experiences of people over 55 who had been living in ‘non-decent’ homes.

The aim of the report and resulting video case studies, is to provide an overview of housing conditions in England, particularly in the context of population ageing, to inform the policy and practice that relates to ageing well at home.

You can read the full report with accompanying data reference, here.

What are the barriers faced by full-time, low-income workers? / National Consumer Council

This is one of much our older, but still very pertinent, projects. Through a written report with Traverse, and ethnographic video studies with Close-Up, our client wanted to find out: what socio-economic barriers are faced by full-time, low-income workers? And what policy measures would reduce those barriers?

As such, we carried out three ethnographic case studies, with participants from different representative demographics, which were edited together into this single key-insights summary video.

We focussed on people’s experiences of: jobs and money, housing and transport, time and relationships, and consumer services. The resulting video was then twice shown at the House of Commons.

VIDEO DIARIES

What have been the community impacts of the ‘Empowering Places’ programme? / Power To Change

Power To Change having been funding and providing support ‘community anchor’ organisations across the country, to help local businesses.

We were initially tasked with carrying out two simple case studies in early 2020. But when the pandemic began, we switched to longitudinal video diaries and follow-up Zoom interviews, to document how the all eight of the organisations, and their respective communities, adapted and were impacted throughout the year.

The result was a 23 minute insights video, and several shorter excerpts for social media. The clip above explored the ‘impacts on people’.

What are the transport Experiences of Young People with Mobility Issues? / Flourish

Flourish is a multi-sector collaboration to advance the successful implementation of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) in the UK.

As part of Traverse’s public engagement and research project for Flourish, we were commissioned to produce an insight film based on video diaries. We asked six young people from across England, to record diaries that documented their different transport experiences over a month, and reflect on how their experiences might differ if travelling by driverless car.

(Due to the impracticality of self-filming whilst travelling for this project, the diaries are based around the before and after of each journey.)

EXPLORING A GROUP

What were the impacts of a Cultural Citizens Programme for young people? / Arts Council England

Arts Council England funded a ‘Cultural Citizens Programme’ to promote arts and culture to young people who would not normally have access or an interest.

For this ethnographic study, we followed a group of students in Liverpool, to find out: what was it like being on the programme, what were its impacts, and how could it be improved?

Our findings complimented a written report, which was published by the Arts Council.

What are the impacts of an after-school support charity? / Into University

IntoUniversity runs after-school centres that provide academic support, mentoring and other constructive activities, for young people from less privileged backgrounds, to help them either attain a university place or purse another chosen aspiration.

As part of the charity’s 2019 evaluation report, we were commissioned to spend a month visiting one centre, in Brent, to create an in-depth ethnographic video case study about the place and its impact.

We then spent a few months taking photo portraits, with interviews, of 24 IntoUniversity students in their homes across the UK. For the portraits, we decided to take the theme of ‘what brings you most joy’.

The results were incorporated into an Impact Report, assured by PwC, and a full qualitative Impact on Attainment report.

EXPLORING A PLACE / COMMUNITY

How can citizens’ assemblies help residents tackle local issues? / Innovation in Democracy

We spent time with three citizens’ assembly participants, each from a different part of the country. Our aim was to understand their experiences, and provide a context to the issues being addressed by each assembly – in this case, the redevelopment of their respective town / city centres.

Our resulting film appears alongside the citizens’ assembly handbook on The RSA and Involve‘s websites, and the evaluation report published by Renaisi, which were both published yesterday.

What are the impacts of funding a community organisation in Canterbury? / Power To Change

Power To Change have been funding community organisations through their Next Generation fund. As part of their 2021 evaluation report, we were commissioned to visiting three places, in Tisbury, Canterbury, and Dover, to create ethnographic video case studies about the organisations and their impact. The video above is the Canterbury case study.

What are the impacts of funding a community organisation in Dover? / Power To Change

VOX POPS

Health Priorities in Lambeth & Southwark / Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity

This is a one-min snippet from a project for Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity, exploring the health priorities for people living in Lambeth and Southwark. Carried out in conjunction with Renaisi, it involved visiting five locations across the boroughs, from a BMX club in Peckham, to a community garden in Streatham, to speak with as many different people as possible. The main questions were: what are the most pressing health issues in the area and why? And what could be done to help? Our resulting research and video fed into and complimented a written report by Renaisi.

What matters when it comes to getting older? Centre for Ageing Better

Last year we harassed random strangers across town to find out:

– When does old age begin?
– What are your hopes and fears for older age?
– Do you have a role model for older age?
– And what could be done to help people have a better later life?

Also using simple hand-drawn animation, this is the first of four 1-minute videos which accompanied a report by the Centre for Ageing Better, called ‘State of Ageing’. To see all for videos, click here.

ANIMATION VIDEOS

What’s it like for young people living in temporary Housing? / Children’s Rights Alliance for England

Thousands of children without permanent homes are growing up in B&Bs, spending months and sometimes years there. As such, the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), wanted to us to find out and communicate: what’s life like for young people experiencing this kind of temporary housing?

We worked with several young people who had lived in temporary housing, to understand what life had been like for them, and come up with a respectful and effective way to communicate their experiences.

To protect the young people’s privacy, no faces are shown. But the voices you hear are not performed, they’re from authentic interviews with the participants, who also helped out on set for the filming as part of a ‘co-production’ process.

For maximum traction, we titled the video ‘Thousand of British Children Live Like This’, and the film was shown to MPs at the House of Commons.

HOW CAN PUBLIC DIALOGUE BE USED TO HELP INFORM SOCIAL POLICY? / Sciencewise

Every so often we’re asked to make an animation to help explain some of the research we’re involved in. This one for Sciencewise and UK Research & Innovation, about the value of public dialogue, was especially fun to produce.

Over the years we’ve worked with Sciencewise and the public, to explore subjects such as ‘smart’ drugs, autonomous vehicles, nanotechnology, genomic medicine, and mitochondrial replacement.

WHAT IS THE COMPREHENSIVE PERSONALISED CARE MODEL? (1min snippet) / NHS ENGLAND

This is the first minute of an explainer video we produced for NHS professionals, using the hand-drawn animation technique, mixed with a few stop-motion tricks.