Close-Up is an ethnographic research and video agency specialising in sharing stories of real, lived experiences.
Our films and insights help our clients to evaluate, design, and communicate more effective policies, products, and services.
In partnership with Renaisi, we conducted ethnographies with 18 families where children had shown persistent violent or defiant behaviour, to produce written portraits, a case study podcast, and an insights report with recommendations for better support. More here.
ECC’s ‘Family Innovation Fund’ supported different organisations to help families in volatile situations build resilience, and reduce their reliance on statutory support. This video is one of the ethnographic case studies we produced to accompany Traverse’s written report.
The VRU ‘Stronger Futures’ programme funds organisations to engage with younger people, especially girls, to reduce their potential involvement in violence. This participant-codesigned case study is part of our three-year ongoing evaluation for the VRU.
Short edit for Twitter. Full film here. Through 218 youth projects, the Young Londoners fund aimed to help children and young people to fulfil their potential, particularly those at risk of getting caught up in crime. This video case study informed and accompanied Traverse’s written report.
To help evaluate ACE’s ‘Cultural Citizens’ programme, we accompanied a group of students on their trip to Blackpool and returned months later to interview them, to find out what it was like being on the programme, what its impacts were, and how it could be improved.
IntoUniversity runs after-school centres that provide academic support and mentoring for young people from less privileged backgrounds, to help them attain a university place or pursue a chosen vocation. We spent a month visiting their Brent centre to produce this ethnographic report.
This campaign film was shown at The House of Commons to highlight the realities of living in temporary housing. The voices heard are from real research interviews with young people, who also helped out on set as a co-production.
A ‘remote ethnography’ project, we asked six young people with mobility issues, from across England, to record video diaries documenting their transport experiences over a month, and to reflect on how their experiences might differ if travelling by driverless car.
To find out more about the young people who attend IntoUniversity’s after-school support centres, we visited attendees across the country, to take their photo portraits and interview them in their homes. The theme we used for both the portraits and interviews was ‘three things that bring you most joy’.
