The Edge pits Celere versus the elements

Brimming with the elemental forces of nature, Wales is a land of dramatic scenery from coastline to mountains captured by The Edge Picture Company for a distinctive new campaign.

Regional Champions Wales is one of ten short films produced by The Edge for Barclays celebrating the diversity, innovation and resilience of different UK regions.

“We are celebrating all the things that make Wales what it is from choirs to rugby to beautiful landscapes and also its heritage of industry from mining to tourism,” explains producer Jack Coulter. “We wanted to link the stunning scenery and the depth of Welsh passion with the elements – fire, wind, earth and water – and for this we wanted a cinematic look with shallow depth of field. We also needed a lens to bring all that to life.”

Since The Edge work with VMI for many of its projects it was natural to seek them out this time.

“It was on their recommendation that we tried the Celere,” says Coulter. 

The Celere T1.5 ‘Super Speed’ prime set consists of 5 lenses: 18.5, 25, 36, 50, 85mm. Uniquely, all the lenses are designed with the same weight and size for ease of use on set or location. 

“They are pretty fast lenses across the whole set which have a maximum aperture of T/1.5.  Being small and lightweight they a godsend with a small crew of 2, they just fit the bill.”

explains Chris Fergusson the film’s director of photography who paired the primes with a Sony FS7. 

With Coulter directing the pair had only four days to capture the material. They spent a day and half in Snowdonia, visited Barry Island and the Brecon Beacons before moving down to Cardiff, including at the Arms Park stadium. Along the way they shot mini-case studies of a water utility company and an entrepreneurial local business.

“I stayed a lot on the 18.5 because Jack wanted big cine wides and lots of close ups,” explains Fergusson.  “He liked the look of getting close on a wide lens then we could quickly run back and get these nice big wides and jump onto a longer lens for additional detail. Staying on the wider 18.5mm and 25mm lenses  helped with focus since it was only myself operating the camera.”

Fergusson set up with a 5.6 inch TV Logic monitor on the camera for framing and checked waveform on the FS7’s onboard monitor.

All the films in the series are shot on FS7 at 4K resolution on Sony’s XAVC-I format. Other films have a special focus on the West Midlands, East Anglia, the South East and the North West.  Each film has a distinct flavour and are edited on Premiere and graded on Da Vinci at The Edge.

The films will be shared with all 75000 Barclays staff, be screened at the bank’s London HQ in Canary Wharf and will be given a wider media release online at LinkedIn and Twitter.

Of course, getting so close to the elements in Wales can sometimes mean only one thing – rain. Adds Coulter, “The weather was testing at times but we were very impressed with how the camera and lenses dealt with that.”