Macmillan Cancer Support and Orillo Films have come together to bring MacMillan’s Mighty Hikes Challenge to the small screen.
Director Jack Turner and Macmillian both wanted the films to have true authenticity, so the idea of using real stories and a real Mighty Hikes event was key. The producers used Sticks Casting to find real-life talent that had been affected by cancer and used the backdrop of Northumberland Mighty Hikes for filming key scenes.
The event was filmed it over two days and director of photography Richard O’Hare used the Arri Alexa Mini with Cooke Anamorphics, adding in a full mixed media element with DV camcorder, flash photography, voice notes & FPV for the scenery.
O’Hare said: “Shooting with mixed media is always a welcome challenge for the camera team and even with a range of ratios on screen I felt using Cooke Anamorphic lenses would give our film that cinematic look we wanted even if we didn’t see the full frame.”
“We knew that this was going end up on TV but we didn’t know its final output, it was either going be a 30-second TVC, sponsorship ident or paid social. After finishing the principal filming we found it would be living on Channel 5 as idents at the start of any Great Outdoors Programming.”
Orillo managed the whole post process with the edit being taken on by James Umpleby and overseen by post producer Aisling O’Dea. Orillo used CHEAT for grade and online, while the music was custom designed by Hugo at Brother Music.
Producer Keenan Foley said: “For me it was the perfect project, two days in the great outdoors with the great British weather throwing everything it had at us, this made filming an exciting challenge.
“We purposely had a small nimble crew so we could move from location to location easily but made sure that this didn’t affect the quality of the our work by doing extensive recces and planning in the weeks leading up. I’m so happy we used five talent as meant we could show different journeys on the Mighty Hikes and give us separate standalone stories, as no one walk is the same.”
