Designed to Last

A film that reflects on the disposable nature of consumer design today and celebrates things that are “Designed to Last”

Straight 8 Film Competition

Never ones for shying-away from a creative challenge, when we heard of the Straight 8 film-making competition where there’s one super 8 cartridge, no playback, no editing, no audio recording and no second chances we entered it without hesitation [gulp].

In a world with an increasingly disposable outlook, we wanted to make a film about craft, quality and longevity. Things that are “Designed to Last”.

Finding Dieter

When planning our film, we were aware the Braun camera which we would film on was designed by Dieter Rams. The iconic designer and man who coined the ten principles of design would make an excellent subject for our themes of sustainability and functionality. How perfect it would be to come full circle and record him on the very device he imagined.

The Straight 8 Competition

The rules were deceptively simple yet brought their own challenges in conceiving, planning and shooting our film.

You have one Super 8 cartridge. It’s approximately 3 minutes of film. Once it’s in the camera, it won’t see the light of day until the end of the project.

There’s no editing room floor with this method of film-making. It’s all manual cuts, storyboards and memory. Oh and no audio.

The first time anyone will ever see the film (including us) is when it’s debuted at advertising week in Cannes.

Process

Due to the ‘unique challenges’ of the Straight 8 competition we would have to record audio separately. This meant taking a tripto Vitsoe’s London showroom and interviewing planners with a view to how they interpret the lifespan and place of Rams’ designs in today’s world. These conversations gave us some strong themes which evolved into the backbone of our storyline.

After collecting our audio, we began to edit it into a narrative arc. Once this was established we returned to London to capture our images before syncing the two halves of our project as seamlessly as possible. Coupled with this, we working closely with our composer, establishing a score that suited the tone of our piece, assisting the blend of audio and visuals.