Cats Protection comissioned us to film a behind-the-scenes mini-documentary for their Christmas campaign with Aardman Animation.

Telling a brand story with a behind-the-scenes film

Cats Protection commissioned us to film a behind the scenes ‘Making Of’ documentary of their Christmas animation produced in collaboration with world-class studio Aardman Animations, and star of ITV’s This Morning Holly Willoughby, who made her ‘acting’ debut as the voice of mum.

In addition, we also produced behind-the-scenes photography and a suite of films for use across social media channels.

The results were staggering. The film generated over 8 million impressions, which was an increase of over 400% on the predicted results. It also generated over 81,000 clicks through to the website, this was a staggering 3,000% per cent increase on the predicted results.

And the film is still performing on both YouTube and Facebook driving engagement and awareness of Cats Protection.

The quality and talent Fieldcraft Studios exhibit means a high-value production that stands proudly side-by-side with our Aardman animation.

Judith Barnard, Director of Communications, Cats Protection

A Christmas Story

Casper’s Magical Journey is the heart-warming story of a much-loved, mischievous cat called Casper who goes missing.

Casper’s family, Daniel aged 9 and his Mum, Anna, are devastated.

Three years later Casper turns up at a Cat’s Protection centre in Turo, Cornwall, having travelled 55 miles from his Plymouth home.

Because Casper had a microchip Cats Protection were able to reunite Casper with his family just in time for Christmas.

Storytelling for audience engagement

Our brief was to go behind the scenes and capture the collaboration between Cats Protection and Aardman Animations as they brought this magical tale to life.

As well as giving an insight into the creative process the charity also wanted to tell a more in-depth story of their work.

This included their campaigning work on the importance of microchipping your cat so all lost cats can find their way home.

Through extensive storyboarding, we were able to weave the two narratives seamlessly together to produce an engaging behind the scenes film that performed well above expectations.

Collaborating with Aardman and the in-house team

The success of this film can be attributed to the relationships built with Ardman Animations and the Cats Protection team. We really enjoyed working collaboratively with everyone involved and it enabled us to get the quality and volume of footage that we needed.

“As soon as we appointed FIeldcraft Studios, they quickly become part of the Cats Protection in-house team, getting under the skin of what we were trying to achieve, and contributing great ideas and suggestions to shape the project.”

Judith Barnard, Director of Communications, Cats Protection.

Animation

We included sequences from the Ardman animation in our behind-the-scenes film. In addition, we also worked creatively with the animated elements editing them into our own live-action footage to bring the story to life, for example, Daniel dreaming that Casper had gone to Paris.

Content for broadcast media, fundraising and social media

Cats Protection also asked us to produce content including photographs and video reels, to assist the Cats Protection PR team with their media strategy.

In addition, we produced a suite of short teaser films to be used across social media.

“We chose Fieldcraft Studios as an experienced production house that has extensive experience of powerful storytelling, coupled with an instinctive nose for PR and promotion – so the outcome delivers the impact we need,” says Judith Barnard, Director of Communications at Cats Protection.

“I’d worked previously with Fieldcraft Studios several years ago at another charity and had been impressed with their insight as well as the calibre and resourcefulness the team had demonstrated.”

Filming during a pandemic

Producing a behind the scenes brand story mini-documentary in the midst of a global pandemic brings its own set of challenges.

The whole project was produced remotely with the team scattered across the south-east, south-west and London.

Since the pandemic hit we have put robust COVID safe filming guidelines in place so we can be nimble in our response to the ever-changing guidelines.

“Trying to create something new like this against the backdrop of the pandemic created a whole raft of additional challenges. What was possible? How might we do this? And with ‘rules’ changing all the time during various lockdowns – it wasn’t simple!,” says Judith Barnard, Director of Communications at Cats Protection.

“It was nigh on impossible to define a detailed brief for the project. There was a constant need for health and safety risk assessments, to explore and evaluate possibilities and alternatives, to be agile and able to adjust plans in a heartbeat. And there were endless hours of Teams and Zoom calls that were filmed and reviewed – it was an unusual way to pull something like this together!”

“Above all, we were able to put all of this in the hands of the Fieldcraft Studio team who managed this and navigated us through this complex landscape with remarkable ease (at least from our viewpoint!)”

Filming a brand story in a complex landscape

“It was a real honour to be commissioned to produce the ‘Making of,’ film for this project,” said Liz Scarff, Director, Fieldcraft Studios.

“Commissioning a ‘Making of,’ film was a genius strategic move on their part as behind the scenes films are an engaging way to tell a brand’s story.

“They had a fantastic Christmas tale that was being brought to life by the world-renowned studio Aardman Animations, and we always relish the opportunity to work on creative, complex projects with multiple moving parts,”

“The resulting film performed way above expectations generating over 8 million impressions and 81,000.”

Get in touch if you want to discuss producing a brand story or behind the scenes film – we’d love to hear from you.