Creating Portsmouth's City of Culture 2029 Bid Submission Film

Most of the work happened before anyone picked up a camera! We storyboarded the whole film: 19 frames in story order, before applying for a single permission. With a locked deadline and no contingency, there was no room to work it out on location. We ordered a fisheye specifically for the job, having never shot on one: on a cramped RIB it gives the feeling of being in the boat rather than footage of one, and it's earned a permanent place in our daily-driver gear bag. The admin upholding the whole thing: a film licence via the Hampshire and Solent Film Office, with the council waiving its fee in support of the bid; King's Harbour Master consent; airspace clearance around HMNB Portsmouth, with a ground-based alternative behind every aerial; and RAMS covering wet pontoon boarding, marine work with an 87-year-old principal, and drone ops over a congested area.

Wednesday opened at 08:15am in the Eldon Building, to a live pianist: unplanned, unexpected at that hour, and it set the tone for a fast morning. We met Gemma from Portsmouth Creates, our talent Binit Gosh, and the cannister the whole film follows, made by Ming of the Makers Guild. At 09:30 the Guildhall stood in for a Whitehall department, framed tight and long to keep Portsmouth out of shot, the runner going up those steps more times than he'd like us to mention! At 10:30am came Gunwharf Quays Marina and the honour of meeting Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who had us out on his RIB onto the Solent before we knew it. The finale was Thursday evening at the Round Tower, in the last of the light with the We Are Pompey 2029 team.

The edit followed the structure we'd storyboarded: build on the water, let the throttle push carry the gear change, and hold the music turn for the arrival so the cut to Whitehall reads as a change of place. The fisheye material did exactly what we'd hoped. Then the last-minute tweaks, which is where every deadline film lives: notes came in late, changes went in later, and the final files were delivered at 05:00am. We delivered three pieces: a vertical teaser, the main landscape cut, and a vertical follow-up Reel pointing to it. The follow-up reel went out first, which wasn't the plan, but social media being unpredictable as ever, it worked anyway! And the headline was: Portsmouth's bid is in.