Series of 30 social media videos for Time Out London’s Instagram and website. Produced, filmed and edited by Dreaming Fish Productions.
The client
Founded in 1968 by publisher Tony Elliott, Time Out has grown to become a household name for many people around London and the world. Starting life as a weekly magazine full of culture (food, drink, art & theatre), upcoming events and suggestions of things to do in the city, Time Out is now a global media and hospitality company covering 333 cities and 59 countries. In the summer of 2022, Time Out published the magazine’s final issue and launched its new digital era.
As a result, brands now partner with Time Out to leverage its strong reputation and loyal audience; like FREE NOW. Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, FREE NOW is Europe’s biggest mobility app, available in 100+ cities. It gives users the option to book taxies, e-bikes and scooters via an app. In August 2022, Time Out and FREE NOW partnered up to create a digital video campaign called City Life. This campaign explored London’s independent restaurants, bars, and venues, with FREE NOW providing the transport.
The project
After winning the competitive pitch for the City Life campaign’s video production, we were excited to kick things off. Time Out developed a six-episode series for the campaign, with monthly releases covering themes relevant to each month. The 6 episodes were: Street Life, Black Culture in London, Autumn, Nightlife, City Secrets and Cosy London.
Within each episode, there would be 5 sub categories of short form videos in the theme of Eat, Do, Listen, Watch and Drink, totalling to 30 videos, delivered in a 1:1 and 9:16 aspect ratio, across the whole digital campaign. Time Out are known for collaborating on projects with influencers and for this campaign, they chose comedian and musician Josh Weller to be the face of City Life. More importantly, with 14.4k Instagram followers of his own, Josh introduced each long form video, as well as featuring in a few short ones too. With pre-production sorted (souring locations and arranging filming permits etc) we were ready to tackle Episode 1 | Street Life.
The production
We maintained Time Out’s signature social media style across all campaign videos to resonate with their loyal audience. The videos were snappy, engaging, to the point and fun. We took a user-generated approach, shooting natively at 9:16 for this social-first campaign.
As most of the shoots were scattered all around London, our crew and equipment had to be minimal for ease and transportation. 90% of the shoots had a Producer/Director and a camera op using a shoulder rig with a Sony A7RIII. We also had a few litepanels, a lapel mic on Josh and a few more for additional talent. As we were filming in busy venues, we had a very short filming window. We were usually wrapped after 3 hours! Check out Episode 2 | Black Culture in London here.
Speaking to our Producer, Tom said “It was great fun running around London going to places you wouldn’t usually go to or even knew existed. In the morning you might be filming in a bar that serves cocktails in teapots and then in the afternoon, you’re shooting a drag artist with flaming nipple tassels! No joke.”
As a result, the campaign succeeded massively for both Time Out and FREE NOW. It drove high engagement on Instagram and had strong click-through rates on the bespoke digital hub. A big thank you to Time Out London, all the places we filmed at and all the lovely people we interviewed throughout this project. It’s been great working with you all.❤️
