The lights dim, 10 control screens crackle with light and information in front of me - flooding the room with ominous rays – creating a moody, dramatic effect. I focus my eyes, ‘I understand this stuff’ I keep telling myself ‘you know what you’re doing’. The truth is, I didn’t have a clue and I’m sitting at one of the biggest and most complex control centres on our site!
This was the moment I undertook my first “professional” acting role at British Steel. Sorry, I could hear the gasps of relief from the health and safety department as I wrote that. We are filming a shot for the recently released British Steel: the movie in which I had been tasked with playing the part of one of the control room operators – a real one, of course, watched tentatively from the side-lines – keeping a keen and much more focused eye on the process.
You can see the resulting shot in the final film, many of my colleagues and friends have pointed out that I look like the big bad in a bond film or something. Blofeld eat your heart out!
No Mr Bond I expect you to….ermmm…increase production rates?
This was just one of the many stories that came from the production of the film, which I can say with great pride, has gone on to be a phenomenal success! As of the end of July the video has collectively reached well over 10,000 views across our Youtube and social media channels alone. The engagement and response rate has also been just as impressive, with many applauding the cinematic tone and the fresh new direction.
So what next? Well it’s no secret that I’m a big advocate for creating our very own British Steel cinematic universe! My character “control room guy” could even have his own spin-off film! Yeh… maybe not… but the film does give us a great platform to build upon in terms of our promotional and marketing videos going forward. We have over 10 hours of high-quality unused footage from the movie that we can incorporate into future projects. And let me tell you some of the footage that didn’t make the cut is epic on a scale of, well, epicness! So sit back, grab your popcorn and watch this space, there are some exciting things to come.