UEA
Creative Writing at 50 Years
Crafting a Unique Visual Style
To celebrate 50 years of UEA’s prestigious Creative Writing course, we were commissioned to create a film that captured its legacy. The university wanted to highlight notable alumni, sharing their experiences as writers, memories from their time at UEA, and their visions for the future of literature. The structure would move chronologically, featuring authors from each decade, starting in the 1970s and progressing to the 2020s.
UEA aimed to generate excitement around the course’s impact on alumni while inspiring future generations of writers. The film’s key audience included aspiring and established writers, current and prospective students, and fiction lovers worldwide. As a video company, we knew this project had to be both nostalgic and forward-looking.
Filming took place during the first national lockdown, meaning traditional in-person shoots weren’t possible. Instead, we developed a remote filming approach. We conducted all interviews via Zoom while guiding interviewees to record high-quality footage on their phones. To help them, we created a simple ‘how-to’ guide, ensuring consistency across recordings.
Since we couldn’t physically shoot in personal spaces, we found a creative way to bring each decade to life. We designed and filmed top-down shots of reconstructed desks, styled to match the era in which each author studied. Using props from the UEA archives, we curated each setup to reflect the personality and time period of the writer. These visuals, combined with their anecdotes, created a dreamy, nostalgic, and immersive storytelling experience.


Working on this film was an incredible experience. Speaking with such phenomenal authors and shaping their stories into an emotive narrative film was truly rewarding. The project also demonstrated our ability as a video company to adapt under difficult circumstances. Rather than seeing lockdown as a limitation, we embraced the creative challenge and found a way to make it work.
UEA has trusted us on several projects, and CW50 reaffirmed that collaboration. We gained a deeper appreciation for the impact of the Creative Writing course and how it has shaped modern literature. The final film captured the heart of the program—its history, influence, and future—proving once again why UEA remains a leader in the literary world.
This project reinforced our belief in storytelling’s power. As a video company, bringing narratives like this to life is what drives us forward..
Credits
Like what you see? Let’s work together