A royal success for King Lear: The Film
Throughout 2016 we have had the absolute pleasure of working on the multi-platform release of King Lear: The Film for digital arts commissioning body The Space. Captured at the Royal Exchange Theatre, a co-production with Talawa Theatre Company, where it played to sell-out crowds, the production was critically acclaimed, with the Guardian calling it ‘as close to definitive as can be’, so, as you can imagine, we were super excited to be on board.
Award-winning actor Don Warrington has been highly praised for his brutal and powerful portrayal of King Lear, which resonates particularly as the UK’s awareness of the impact of Dementia on family bonds and decision-making grows. The film has already seen support from the downright lovely folk at Dementia UK, Alzheimer’s Society and Lewy Body Society who ran news stories and engaged with us on social media.
Meanwhile the casting of King Lear’s family as black reminded us that the presence and influence of black people is potentially un-documented in our ancient history. The casting also addresses the debate about the lack of availability of roles for black actors in the UK; we were able to ignite a discussion about diversity in the industry, with titles such as Digital Spy and the Metro as platforms.
There were three exciting stages of release for King Lear. First off, the film was made available to everyone with access to the internet on BBC iPlayer as part of a series called Shakespeare Lives – in the digital age. We wanted to spread the word to as many people as possible that Lear was stream-able, and we were able to support the launch with a huge spread of press coverage including the Daily Mail, BBC News and the Stage.
King Lear: The Film then went on tour. It was shown at thirteen cinemas across the country, all completely free to encourage students to attend. We hit the regional press to let the locals know and managed to secure 43 regional pieces of coverage.
At 7pm on Christmas Day, King Lear added a generous slice of culture into the mix on BBC Four. We sat back, digested our excessive amounts of turkey and looked on with immense pride as our ‘Pick of the Day’, in many leading national publications, yet again took centre stage.
Deservedly, the interest in King Lear: The Film increased across all three stages of its release, with the screening previewed in titles such as Sunday Times: Culture, Daily Telegraph, i, Financial Times, Sunday Express, Daily Mail, What’s on TV, Total TV Guide and the Times.
We are so happy to say that we are continuing to work with the Space in 2017; keep a lookout for the specifics… ‘cos they be comin’ to ya on the fly.
Tom x
(Images: Jonathan Keenan)
LSFF 2017: This is happening without your permission
We’re incredibly excited to be working on London Short Film Festival 2017. Now in its 14th year, LSFF is renowned for its daring cross-arts programming and has been recognised as the cutting-edge UK independent film festival.
LSFF is showcasing over 500 films across ten days, in some of London’s most exciting venues including The ICA, Picturehouse Central and Hackney Picturehouse, in addition to screening one of the festival’s special events, David Bowie: Sound & Vision, nationwide in 19 Picturehouse cinemas for the first time in the festival’s history.
LSFF 2017 has programmed a wide variety of ground-breaking and pioneering films across the following strands: music, comedy, fashion & culture, LGBTQ and international; featuring a collection of specially commissioned features specifically for the festival as well as popular classics from across the decades.
The festival features two premieres, via the inaugural With Teeth commissioning fund, the first to debut is Alex Z Taylor’s Outsiders Inside Us, followed by Alnoor Dewshi’s Kickbox Hijabi. It’s also been announced that the first open call for submissions of With Teeth is taking place in the summer 2017 – this is the opportunity for up-and-coming filmmakers to enter the competition to be in with a chance of winning a bursary to make a bespoke film to debut at next year’s festival!
My highlight so far included the David Bowie: Sound & Vision screening as it featured cult classic films, starring the main man himself – The Image, Cracked Actor and Julien Temple’s classic film Jazzin’ For Blue Jean – it was a really lovely way of celebrating Bowie’s life and legacy, which included a huge round of applause and not a dry eye in the house.
Tomorrow I’m off to the White Trash Girls, Gun Girls & Riot Grrrls event which I’m super excited about as one of my all time favourite director’s, Tamra Davis, is premiering one of her short films, No Alternative Girls, followed by a Q&A panel discussion which she’s taking part in. I’m a huge fan of the 90’s riot grrrl movement so this event is right up my street, I’m also looking forward to seeing the specially commissioned zine, based around the content and ethos of the films.
So far LSFF has garnered press in The Guardian, Metro, Evening Standard, Time Out, NME, Dazed & Confused, i-D, The Huffington Post, Shortlist, BBC Radio London and LBC.
We’re looking forward to the feature length screening of cult-classic film: Crossroads, as well as the Awards Ceremony taking place on Sunday’s closing night, we’ll announce winners asap!
Nikki x
(Images: Courtesy of London Short Film Festival)
A very Sundae Sunday running the BBC Sports Personality Red Carpet
On the weekend before Christmas the Sundae team headed down to the vibrant city of Birmingham, where Andy Murray was crowned once again as BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2016 for a record breaking third time.
The prestigious awards ceremony was held at Birmingham’s Genting Arena and after a massive year of Olympic success in Rio, we were proud to run the biggest SPOTY red carpet ever seen!
The atmosphere was electric as some of the biggest names in the sporting world arrived to walk down the carpet. It was an honourable experience being able to chaperone the likes of Judy Murray, Jamie Vardy and England rugby star James Haskell through the hustle and bustle of flashing photographers, live television crews and journalists. It gave me a brilliant insight into how hectic their showbiz lifestyles must be.
We welcomed press from near and far onto the carpet including the Daily Mail, The Sun, Daily Star, P.A., Birmingham Mail, Style Birmingham and Radio 1’s Newsbeat who were joined by Olympic medallists, Jason and Laura Kenny, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Premier League cup winners, Leicester City Football Club, plus a rich selection of non-sporting celebrities like Eddie Izzard, Laura Mvula, Bake Off’s Candice Brown, Gareth Malone and Strictly Come Dancing 2016 winner, Ore Oduba.
In front of a 12,000-strong audience, the show was another huge success, with performances from Robbie Williams and Laura Mvula, a lifetime achievement award for Michael Phelps and a surprise appearance from Prince William! Murray accepted the award via video-link from Florida as runners up Alistair Brownlee and Nick Skelton collected theirs in person.
It was an amazing feeling to see all the blanket entertainment coverage the next day in the Daily Mail, Daily Star, Mirror Online, The Sun and The Times and making the front page of the Metro! Here’s to 2017!
Marie-Clare x
Scream Street asks, what are the grossest things that PARENTS do?
Voiced by John Thomson, Debra Stephenson and Tyger Drew-Honey, Scream Street is Coolabi Group’s hit comedy-horror animation.
Scream Street is packed to the bat-filled rafters with hilarious gross out stories centred around Luke Watson (Tyger Drew-Honey) and his best friends, (almost) vampire Resus (Rasmus Hardiker) and sassy 4,000-year-old mummy Cleo (Tala Gouveia), as they deal with everyday problems, and super-natural situations, in the spooky underworld of Scream Street.
We are HUGE fans of the show, which we first launched back in October 2015, and so we wanted to create a huge buzz around 13 spooky new episodes of the show, which launched on CBBC last week.
Everyone knows that parents thinks their kids do gross things, so what better way to get them back than a nation-wide survey to find out the grossest things that PARENTS do? Now there’s a comedy-horror story.
We worked with a national survey company to ask 1,300 kids the things their parents get up to that really gross them out.
Getting kissed at the school gates, holding hands and being told off in public were high on the list, along with wiping food off their face, seeing their parents snog and getting called pet names in front of their friends.
And our friends over at Coolabi rightfully said, “UK families have great fun grossing each other out, and that no matter your age, parent or child, being gross is universally funny.”
The press loved it; from The Sun, the Daily Express to Entertain the Kids and Good to Know , who even put together their own gross quiz from our findings, Scream Street hit the headlines and told parents a few home truths in the process 😉
(Images: Coolabi Group)
Call the Clangers at King’s Cross
The Clangers new episodes hit CBeebies screens in May and to celebrate we worked with our client, Clangers international rights owner, Coolabi Group, to collaborate with infamous UK yarnstormer Deadly Knitshade and Teasemade in a Clanger-ific kids activation.
Armed with an iconic red phone box, Tiny and Small costume characters and the wonderful film crew at CBeebies, we set up camp at Battle Bridge Place Kings Cross on the morning of Saturday 21st May.
Our magical knitters worked for weeks to hand craft and knit a bespoke Clangers pink phone box cover that magically transformed a traditional red London phone box into a Clangers experience, where families could hear the loveable, pink, mouse-like creatures whistle a mysterious message to the world.
With a phone line straight through to the pre-schoolers’ favourite little blue planet, parents and children were put through to the international space via a special pink telephone.
That wasn’t all though, a familiar Clangers friend and show narrator Michael Palin recorded a message encouraging the children to guess what Tiny ‘whistled’ to them. Children were then invited to guess the message from Michael and the Clangers, which was later revealed in a video on their social channels as the wise words: ‘be kind to each other’.
We had an incredible day with Coolabi, the Clangers and Cbeebies and so did Netmums and TV Choice who came along with their kids. Hundreds of thousands of people caught the campaign online and both the reveal video and the CBeebies film had around 30,000 views each!
PR Week took a liking to our pop-up brand activation too, and they picked it as one of Five Campaigns we liked in May 🙂
Toy World, Event Magazine and License Global also covered the fun!
Take a look at the CBeebies video narrated by the inimitable Michael Palin.
Becca x
(Images: David Jensen)
Jodrell Bank announces we are not alone in the universe #littleblueplanet
Friday was an exciting day at Sundae, we arrived at the office just as the sun came up to make sure we hit all the national news desks with our lovely April Fool story from Jodrell Bank and Clangers.
At 7am on 1st April, Jodrell Bank Observatory made the exciting announcement that a signal had been received by the giant Lovell Telescope, proving beyond doubt we are not alone in the Universe…they had found a little blue planet!
Tim O’Brien, Professor of Astrophysics at Jodrell Bank, announced that although the signal was extremely weak and so very fuzzy, the astronomers had been able to enhance it using techniques they normally apply to observations of distant galaxies and produce a video of the planet’s surface. He said that, astoundingly, the pictures show this little blue planet is inhabited by what appears to be a family of mouse-like creatures.
The story and the accompanying (seriously cute) video, lovingly created by Factory animation studios, caused quite a stir. Of all the amazing coverage, including Manchester Evening News, Digital Spy, BBC North West Today, ITV Granada plus a mention from Mr Michael Ball on BBC Radio 2, one of our favourites was a piece on CBBC Newsround as it spoke directly to kids.
There were also tweets from BBC Breakfast, European Space Agency (who said they’d let Tim Peake know about our discovery) and CityLife Manchester.
The partnership between Jodrell Bank and Clangers aims to engage children with space and science, and get them excited about the solar system. They have worked together to create some special activity sheets which you can take a look at over on the Clangers website- I might have a go at making a rocket myself!
Katy x
Jumping on board with the The Railway Children…
We’ve been working hard on the stage to screen film of E Nesbit’s The Railway Children – and it’s been such a wonderful campaign to be part of.
The Olivier Award winning production was filmed by Genesius Pictures in the unique Signal Box, a custom built theatre at the National Rail Museum in York. This production featured the train from the original 1970 film, which made it extra special.
We launched press and publicity campaign late last year, in addition to looking after all social media marketing for the film, which was shown on Easter Monday in over 400 cinemas.
We gained exciting national and all-important regional coverage through interviews, competitions, reviews, video content, features and listings. Some of my favourite pieces appeared in The Guardian, The Londonist, Evening Standard,The Mail On Sunday, The New Day, The Mirror, Top 10 Films, The Skinny, Metro. In addition there were hundreds of regional pieces of coverage, which were produced working with the local cinemas and the film’s marketing director Jane Smith.
I loved producing and delivering the social campaign, in particular creating videos for social media from BTS footage and tailoring our posts to ensure they worked perfectly for The Railway Children’s very specific audience.
It was very exciting for me personally to work on The Railway Children, as it was my first experience following a film from production through to launch. I found it so insightful seeing the film grow from initial plans to then gaining coverage in some of my favourite publications such as The Guardian.
It was also an absolute pleasure to be part of the press launch at The Courthouse Hotel, Soho; everyone who attended loved the film and the whole event was a massive success.
There are still lots of encore screenings making their way to various cinemas in the UK, be sure to jump on board and catch it if it is calling in to your home town.
Becca x
(Images: Andrew Lamb and Anthony Robling)
It’s a Hong Kong Crime Wave
We’re incredibly excited to be working with HOME Manchester on CRIME: Hong Kong Style, a national touring film season and the UK’s biggest celebration of Hong Kong cinema to date.
The explosive new film season is showcasing 20 film titles at HOME, Manchester and will be going on tour around the UK, screening in venues in Scotland, London and Bristol, to name a few.
CRIME: Hong Kong style features a collection of comic capers, cult classics and forgotten gems, including Infernal Affairs, Overheard and Police Story. Having visited family in Hong Kong for many years I got to know more about the country and its cultural heritage so I was looking forward to catching some of the films at HOME.
The season features not one but four UK premieres: Dante Lam’s That Demon Within, Felix Chong’s Once A Gangster, Alan Mak & Felix Chong’s Overheard 3 and Ringo Lam’s Wild City.
Last night we went along to the UK premiere of Felix Chong’s Once A Gangster at HOME, which was a comic head-rush! Felix has flown over to the UK to join the tour and gave a Q&A after the film to a hundred strong audience including his hardcore Manchester fan base who stuck around afterwards to get autographs!
Hosted by season curator Andy Willis, Chong talked about his career including working with Martin Scorsese, who remade Infernal Affairs into Oscar-winning The Departed starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. He gave some interesting insight into life behind the Hollywood film lens, and the unique situation of collaborating with a Hollywood director who has his own vision of your film.
Visiting 18 venues across the UK, one of the first stops on CRIME: Hong Kong Style’s tour is Scotland with screenings in Glasgow, Dundee, Inverness and Edinburgh, where Felix will join audiences for a Q&A before heading back down South for appearances in Sheffield and London.
So far, the tour has caught the attention of the Edinburgh Evening News, TimeOut, Londonist, London LeCool, and the Guardian, with much more to follow.
We’re looking forward to this next leg of the tour with films being screened in London at Barbican, King’s College and Picturehouse.
Katy x
The Railway Children steams into town
We are very proud to be working with our friends at Genesius Pictures to promote the theatrical release The Railway Children (2016), a film of York Theatre Royal’s Olivier award-winning production performed in summer 2015 at the National Railway Museum, Yorkshire.
There has been huge anticipation for the film so, last night, it was incredible to finally run the press screening at London’s The Courthouse Hotel with the full cast and some very key national media present.
The response to film was incredible. Produced by Genesius, it captures Mike Kenny and Damian Cruden’s imaginative stage adaptation of E. Nesbit’s cherished novel on its return to its Yorkshire roots, and features the original locomotive from the much-loved original 1970 film.
Filmed with seven cameras by an expert team, who navigate the unique staging including moving platforms, props and rail carts, the film captures every moment of the fast-paced production and is a completely new experience of it.
The Railway Children follows the story of Roberta (Bobbie), Peter and Phyllis, three sheltered siblings who suffer a huge upheaval when their father, who works for the Foreign Office, is taken away from their London home and (falsely) imprisoned. The children and their mother, now penniless, are forced to move from London to rural Yorkshire near a railway line. The story deals with themes of justice, the importance of family and the kindness of strangers.
The countdown to national release is now on and it will hit over 400 cinemas on Easter Monday – 28th March and we honestly can’t wait…
Tom x
(Images: Anthony Robling)
A festive Red Carpet at BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2015
On the Friday before Christmas, Sundae’s bags were packed and headed for Belfast to BBC Sports Personality of The Year 2015.
This year’s much talked-about, prestigious awards ceremony was held at Belfast’s SSE Arena and we were very excited to be running the SPOTY red carpet for the fourth year.
Andy Murray was crowned the BBC’s Sport Personality of The Year, after walking the red carpet with his Davis Cup-winning Great Britain squad, who also picked up the award for Team of The Year.
We welcomed press from near and far onto the carpet including the Guardian, The Daily Mail, P.A., Reveal, Closer and The Belfast Telegraph who were joined by guests including Jessica Ennis-Hill, Greg Rutherford, Becky Adlington, James Nesbitt, Eamonn Holmes and Ella Henderson to name a few. I loved seeing Northern Ireland’s golfing great Rory McIlroy walk the carpet with his star 1D caddy Niall Horan, sending photographers into frenzy.
For the first year, BBC2 were on the carpet filming a live red carpet show, which was great to watch back and spot the team! It was also the perfect place to see some of the glittering outfits close-up, including Lizzie Armistead’s gorgeous Stella McCartney dress.
With amazing performances from Ella Henderson and Sigma, and an on-stage gymnastic routine from Max Whitlock, which was my favourite moment in the show (followed closely by Jess Ennis-Hill picking up third place), the show was another roaring success.
It was fantastic to see entertainment coverage appear the next day in Daily Express, The Mirror, The Sun, OK Magazine, Daily Mail Showbiz and Belfast Telegraph.
Katy x