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An image of a family crossing The Rope Bridge at Heligan Gardens.

The Lost Gardens of Heligan

Play. It’s in Our DNA.

Reframing the Lost Garden’s of Heligan as a place to play.

The Lost Garden’s Of Heligan are one of the nations favourite gardens, so to be asked to re-imagine how their summer campaigns could look was a huge deal. The brief was simple, show Heligan as a fun, family centric place that kids can be let wild to do whatever they like.

Don’t: Look stuffy, boring or like anything else out there.

A FatFace model in the front seat of a Beetle Car parked beside a road in Tenerife, Canary Islands.
Summer 2023 Hero Film – Play it’s in our DNA

Kinetic Still Series

Animated Photo Albums, As If You Were There.

Alongside the main hero edit we created two animated photo album films that feel like you’re looking through a fun loving family photo album. Each film had a different feel, play and adventure.

An image of a child jumping up and down on the Heligan play pillow.
An image of a boy on the rope bridge at Heligan looking out across the jungle.

Heligan Play

The Outcome

Heligan is a place people go to to make memories, it’s more of a tradition than a visitor destination.

Playing on this we created a brand film that felt both old school in look and feel but super modern in approach and pace.

Alongside that we created animated photo albums of the different areas of the gardens that felt rough around the edges but deeply connective.

At the time of release visitor number in Cornwall were down and companies were seeing big dips in their numbers.

After the release of the film, Heligan’s summer sales improved by over 15%. We like to think that at least one of those percents where down to our film.

A lifestyle brand film, shaped by play.

A one day shoot working seamlessly besides stills

A lot of planning went into the shots before the day of the shoot. When the day of the shoot came… half the shots went out the window.

Filming with kids is a joy and challenge, what’s beautiful is the off-the-cuff moments, the unbridled excitement and the willingness to be a part of the process.

We focused on a number of key locations at Heligan; the rope bridge, the play area, ice creme; the rest of the day had a fast and loose shot-list that allowed us to be more reactive than prescriptive.

The whole day was shot alongside the brilliant John Hersey who captured a suite of summer adventure photos to lead banners and social.