woman’s hour - expect the unexpected

The brief

To produce a 30 second TV commercial for Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour with the tagline ‘Expect the Unexpected’.

The aim of the ad was to encourage audiences to see the programme in a different light, by featuring a series of soundbites on topics that people might not consider to be their usual subject matter.

‘People assume Woman’s Hour is like listening to your aunt about ‘’Women’s Issues’ when it’s anything but.’

The BBC also wanted to use this project to engage with female graduates from animation schools throughout the country, giving them an opportunity for career progression through paid work.

The process

The team at the BBC wanted to produce an ad featuring a range of eclectic design styles and animation, seamlessly flowing from one subject to another, illustrating the thought-provoking voiceover.

Due to Covid restrictions, the entire team was working remotely, so we set up a tight production pipeline to ensure that there were no hold ups in communication, side stepping possible creative bottlenecks!

Along with woman’s Hour presenters Anita Rani and Emma Barnett, the speakers included Claire Eastham, author and Campaigner graphically describing how it feels to have a panic attack,  singer Arlo Parks talking about using music as a soothing agent in the time of the COVID lockdown, female astronaut Samantha Cristroforetti talking, amongst other things, about the skills you need to make it in space and artist Tracy Emin, candidly discussing her recent radical surgery.

Mindful of the client’s wish to work with recent graduates, we brought on board talented designer and animator Devon Short to act as Animation Director, working alongside established Director, Claire Grey.

In consultation with the client, we assembled a crack team of designers with their own distinctive styles, each having a specific section of the film to illustrate.

Meanwhile, we put together an animatic with all the scenes and transitions sketched out and set to the voice track to get a feel for the flow of the film.

Once the design styles and animatic were signed off, the carefully chosen team of animators were each assigned their segment of the film.

Under the direction of Devon and Claire, they each set about bringing their scenes to life, collaborating with their fellow animators on the flowing transitions into and out of each section.

The team

Kilogramme

Direction / Production– Claire Grey

Animation Direction – Devon Short

Illustration

Devon Short, Ana Curbelo, Alexandra Francis, Maria Samaniego, Mokshini

Animation

Devon Short, Claire Grey, Pypah Santos, Sophie Ann Mitchiko Ogden, Rustis Balciunas, Jamie Walsh

BBC

AGENCY- BBC Creative

Head of Marketing, BBC Radio - Max Buckland

Marketing Manager - Charlie Akeroyd

Creative Director - Lambros Charalambous

Creatives - Gen Helme, Olga Chwilowicz, Zeynep Oguz

Head of Production - James Wood

Producer - Jess Greshoff

Sound Engineer - Lewis Clark

Researcher - Ed Hobson

Media Planner - Sam Cuthbertson

Client relations

Working with Producer Jess Greshoff was a great experience.  Her speedy responses and sensitive collation of several rounds of feedback from the BBC team meant that we could smoothly manage the production pipeline from start to finish.

The project took about 9 weeks to complete, running from late May to July 2021.

It was aired during that year’s Euros, so seen by millions and nominated for a Royal Television Society Craft Award.