Client Story: The Making Of The Bristol Crocodile - Video project
What better way to start my Client Story series than with the tale of how I documented a local legend: the Bristol Crocodile!
In reality, I worked with super talented multi-disciplinary artist, Dorcas Casey, filming her artistic process as she created an incredible crocodile sculpture to be publicly displayed in Bristol.
Here’s how it all happened…
The Brief
The amazingly talented Dorcas Casey was commissioned to create a full-sized crocodile sculpture, which would be on display at the entrance of a new development in Bristol’s Temple Quarter called ‘The Welcome Building’.
The funding for the project included a ‘Making of’ video which would be featured at the launch of the Crocodile, and would be linked on a QR plaque next to the finished artwork.
Take a look at the Bricks website to delve into the folklore and the back story of the Crocodile project - it’s really cool!
Hang on - is there really a Bristol Crocodile?
To those who don’t know, the legend of the Bristol Crocodile came about after a local bus driver apparently caught sight of a croc in the River Avon back in 2014.
This spurred numerous other sightings around the city, but despite lots of police investigation, a real life crocodile was never found.
The myth of the croc still lingers however, as a symbol of Bristol’s love of folklore, quirkiness and playfulness.
Where I came in…
Dorcas and I met around 15 years ago - I’d photographed some of her previous exhibitions.
When the filming element of the brief was introduced, I sprang to mind as she knew that I was starting to do video for my photography clients.
Dorcas wanted to feel at ease in front of the camera, and have a relaxed environment so that she could get into the flow of building the sculpture, without feeling like she was being watched.
As an added bonus, I studied Fine Art Sculpture at university, so I had a small amount of knowledge about some of the processes involved.
The project was centred around Bristol community, and felt right up my street. I jumped at the chance to collaborate with such a talented bunch of local creatives. - from Public Art Producer Kerrie Burke-Avery, podcast creator Rowan Bishop, to graphic design Studio Mothership.
A Snappy Beginning
After speaking with Dorcas and Kerry from Bricks, we decided I would come into the studio at ad-hoc intervals to film the croc at different stages of creation.
The very next day I started filming, just as Dorcas was forming the main body of the croc by sculpting clay over a large-scale styrofoam mold. The Mama Croc (yes, there were babies - more on that later!) was constructed in a few locations, but primarily St. Ann’s House in Bristol. Dorcas has a permanent artspace on Jamaica Street, but there are so many flights of stairs, there was no chance of carrying a huge, heavy croc out of there! St. Ann’s, however, is a creative arts hub with a spacious ground floor, which gave us lots of room to film and play as the croc took shape.
The next stage of making was giving texture to the skin, which was created via community workshops held in St. Ann’s and in The Dings community. Members of the public were invited to imprint jewellery, significant objects and their fingerprints onto clay, which was painted in latex, and laid onto the crocodile’s body to become its decorative, reptilian skin. This was an exciting part of the croc’s story, as it emphasised that it’s a community-built piece, made from the contributions of many local people.
Capturing the Croc
The crocodile was built over many months, and luckily I could fit filming this video around my other client work and adapt to the croc’s very changeable schedule. On some occasions Dorcas would text me to say a new part of the process was kicking off, and I would rush over with my camera and shoot a few minutes of action. I realised it was sort of like making a cake; I knew the ingredients needed to make a cohesive and engaging process video, and as each stage was underway I could grab the next piece of footage.
As we weren’t in charge of the sound (Rowan, who was making the podcast, agreed to make some long-form audio clips for us), we could really chill out while shooting - the audio was just Dorcas and I chatting and joking, with a lot of David Bowie in the background!
One of the highlights of this project is that I had creative freedom to play and just go with what felt like the best way to capture each moment. Various techniques suit this form of video - I chose a mix of stop motion, timelapses created from long exposure images, sped up, and slowed down footage. I mainly shot on my tripod as I felt the main source of movement should come from the art transformation that was happening, but I did a little pan and zoom within the edit.
The Baby Crocs Arrive
Look at these cute baby crocodiles! At first the plan was for one big croc, but babies were introduced later on; smaller crocs made entirely of bronze. These were originally intended to be displayed around the Welcome Building and keep the croc theme flowing throughout.
The babies were made slightly differently to Mama Croc and in numerous locations of Castle Fine Arts Foundry - moulded and cast in Stroud, and then the bronze poured in Wales. This wasn’t the only travelling the crocs did - after the main body of the Mama Croc was stitched together in Bristol, the full mould was shipped all the way to Liverpool to be cast - and then shipped to Stroud for the finishing touches.
The Video Edit
When I’d filmed about 99% of footage, I began editing it all together. Though at first there was an overwhelming amount of footage, the edit was so enjoyable, as I loved bringing all of the great work I’d witnessed into one film that really captured the magic.
I’ve mainly created social media clips and website banners up to now, which are much shorter - so creating such a lengthy film was new to me. Scary, but fun!
I found I had a good instinct for timings, and I could tell when a clip didn’t flow properly. I really enjoyed adding in timelapses and stop motion, to break up standard video clips. I’ve been creating bonus stop motions my product and interiors clients for years, so it was great to lean into my existing skills as a photographer.
In addition to the main 5 minute video, I also repurposed some shorter clips for social channels, and website content.
We created a series of teaser reels on instagram in the build up to the launch, to add to the suspense of the unveiling.
Stills of the video were used for pamphlets and posters, and were also featured on these incredible billboards dotted around Bristol…
The Final Croc Launch
In total, the crocodile project took around a year from initial concept to the sculpture’s unveiling. I got involved in May and the Private View was in March - so it was a true passion project for everyone. There were fits and starts, building work on the Welcome Building that delayed things and also the task of transporting the crocs to different places! Of course, my work took me right up until the week before the launch, where I had to shoot the last bit of the film - footage of the croc in its final display location.
There was a revolving door at the entrance to the Welcome Building, and my vision was to film someone walking past the croc and entering the newly opened building. Typically, on the day I arrived, the door in question had a technical issue and was jammed! Thinking on my feet, I changed the ending to a panning down onto the main croc using a mix of old and new footage. It was super effective (thankfully!) and Dorcas was really happy with it.
The ‘Making Of’ was played on a giant screen within the Welcome Building after the crocodile was unveiled. It was such a great moment to see all of our hard work come together in an epic celebration. The manager of the building loved the video so much that he asked if they could continue to show it once the cafe was open to the public - and obviously, I agreed.
See Ya Later, Alligator
Documenting the creation of an incredible piece of permanent Bristol artwork was such a privilege - and very cool! Dorcas is such a talented artist, and it was so great to capture all the unseen, behind-the-scenes work that goes into her amazing sculptures.
I’d not worked on such a large scale filming project before and loved it; using a mixture of videography and photography was a real joy, as I was able to draw on my existing skills and be part of a huge career milestone for Dorcas.
Collaborating with such a creative bunch of people in such an inspiring environment only added to the experience. I’m so keen to do more projects like this.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am with your film. It’s just so bloody brilliant. People are absolutely loving it and it’s just so good to have a beautiful portrayal of all the invisible parts of the making process to share with everyone! It makes me feel very proud!”
- Dorcas Casey, multi-disciplinary artist
This video shoot was a bespoke service, and I’m open to more projects like this! Interested in finding out more about how I can help you with your video.
Go check out my “Meet the Maker” and “I Video, You Edit” B-roll packages, or drop me a message below