Ships that changed the world (Doc)– 3 x 60 min / 22 VFX

Project: Ships that changed the world
Client: Aboutface Media
Broadcaster: BBC
Work: 3 x 60 min Documentary
Itemised: 22 VFX shots, opening titles and motion graphics

Our work: Commissioned to produce over 22 VFX shots comprising of full CGI. The documentary explores the history of the workers and ships built at Harland and Wolffe, Belfast, through the 20th C, including dreadnoughts, the Olympic, Titanic, Britannic, Lusitania, and Canberra.

Feedback:
"With Ships That Changed The World" (BBC/HIstory Channel) we wanted some great photo-realism, so we returned to the Glowfrog designers. Of course what we got way outstripped that asked. We got instant large as life drama - a dozen sequences which were so un-CG like they dropped straight into our own films without an edit. They also did some stunning things with a slowly spinning CG world globe to "show" the outbreak of war. They brought the HMS Brittanic and the HMS Olympic to life - and then sunk the Brittanic in one of the most memorable sequences we've ever seen. Spellbinding. Working with them changed our personal threshold."
Michael Appleton, Series Producer

"Every time another sequence from Glowfrog arrived in the studio I always knew because the directors, APs and researchers didn't keep the excitement to themselves. They were watched over and over again. In the later viewings they just took the films to a new level."
Tony Rowe, Exec Producer

Michael Appleton, producer said: “The story of the Titanic is well known, but the fact that tiny Northern Ireland on the far-flung margins of Europe was the biggest player in global shipbuilding is still our ‘secret history’. Belfast produced one in every eight ships afloat on the planet at one time, and even before she built the Titanic, the shipyard really transformed the White Star Line into the biggest name in transatlantic passenger shipping. Director David Starkey employs a restless inventory of surprises to bring this story to life, Glowfrog Studios in London created the CGI effects, and National Museums Northern Ireland provided access to hitherto lost Titanic footage.”