Bringing Academic Research to Life Through Creative Storytelling
Every department in every university holds a wealth of fascinating stories waiting to be shared, yet many remain confined to academic circles. At Preston Street Films, we specialise in working with academics to bring research to life, using not just film but also audio, photography, graphic design, and a wide range of creative techniques.
Our approach allows us to collaborate with you to enhance the impact of your research and expand its reach to a broader audience. These creative outputs can be showcased not only on your university’s own channels but also developed in partnership with external outlets, including broadcasters like the BBC, amplifying your research’s visibility.
Let us help you tell your academic story in a way that resonates with diverse audiences, deepening its influence and impact. Get in touch today to discuss how we can work together.
Documentary Films
Within your department there are undoubtedly many fascinating projects and people with stories waiting to be shared. Documentary films can be a powerful way of sharing and promoting your research projects. As well as Research Stories, films can also include Faculty Profiles or Student Stories to raise the profile of your entire department.
A 10-minute branded documentary telling the story of Bellhouse, a playful, interactive sound sculpture translating non-verbal climate data into the chimes of 35 bells.
By bringing together all the people behind the project, at a time when climate data is more important than ever, Bellhouse challenges the ways in which scientists communicate critical pieces of information to the general public.
Training
Whether it is a remote location or a budget constraint, we understand that sometimes you cannot hire professional help to create the content you need. Building some basic creative capacity within your team will give you the confidence to capture interesting moments in high quality.
We can provide in-depth and bespoke training in a number of areas to help you and your team capture important moments as they happen. These include: shooting video, photography, video editing, sound recording, and audio editing. We can provide training on high end professional equipment, or help you make the most of the equipment you already have such as your mobile phone.
Creative Workshops
Having a creative professional in a room of academics can help facilitate a different way of thinking that is outside the academic box. We can arrange workshops in a range of creative disciplines including graphic design, collage, drama and more.
A recent example is a Poster Workshop for The Department of Archaeology and History at the University of Exeter. We ran a one day design workshop with academics into how they could approach creating research project posters in a different, more creative way. The results were fantastic; the posters they created have been exhibited in the university and the creative techniques they learned will inform their approach to academic future communication.
“it was great to see the conversations and creative process in action and we are very pleased with the result”
University of Exeter
Podcast and Radio
Audio productions are an incredibly powerful way to generate impact and engage audiences. Whether it’s an ongoing podcast series or a one-off documentary story, audio offers a unique and effective way to bring your research to life and showcase the people and projects within your department. What’s more, it’s a relatively easy, cost-effective, and quick medium to produce.
A podcast series, for example, can be developed through a series of conversations that highlight interesting research findings and the stories behind them. The possibilities are endless—from behind-the-scenes insights into research projects, exchanges of ideas between academics, to cross-discipline collaborations with other departments. These formats can create a compelling body of work that attracts attention and amplifies your department’s impact.
By using audio, you can engage a wider audience and give your research a voice that resonates far beyond traditional academic circles. Get in touch to explore how we can help you create impactful audio content for your department.
At Preston Street Films we have access to a wealth of audio production expertise through our sister company Sound and Bones.
Case Study: Strandings – BBC Radio 4
Social Media
We can create content specifically for social media to drive audience engagement. However, creating interesting content is all well and good, but what do you do with it once you have it ready to go?
We can offer a Social Media Strategy – a bespoke approach that will maximise the impact of your content once it is published.
We can also offer Social Media Management – executing your strategy according to a planned schedule and targets.
As you can see, the possibilities of academic collaboration with Preston Street Films are limitless. Do have a look around the website and get in touch to see how we can work together.