How do you show a machine that is bigger than the room you are standing in?
A plant film that follows the material rather than the optics — from pellets to the finished bobbin. The first film we made for SML, and the template for every one since.
The brief
The Austrofil HT is a multifilament spinning line. Pellets go in at one end, finished yarn comes off the bobbin at the other, and there are tens of metres of machine in between. SML needed a film that explains it — for sales and for trade shows, worldwide.
The trap you walk into
Film a line like this and handsome pictures come almost for free: polished steel, running filament, light on metal. That is exactly the danger. Close-ups and beauty shots alone get you nowhere — the viewer watches twenty pretty shots and afterwards cannot say what they saw. For a capital investment decision that is worth nothing.
The concept
- The viewer has to understand and feel, at every moment, where in the machine they are. That is the rule every single shot has to answer to.
- Work from the outside in: the whole thing first, then the section, then the detail. Never the other way round.
- Follow the path of the material — from the pellet feed to the finished product. The route the material takes is the story. The machine supplies it; you just have to follow it instead of cutting it up.
- Name the sections on screen where it helps: spinning section, quenching unit. The viewer should not have to guess.
- Shot as well as it can be shot, lit as well as it can be lit. A production hall is not a studio, and a line cannot be moved.
The outcome
A film that supports a buying decision instead of merely looking good. It runs in sales and at trade shows, and it has been reworked rather than replaced.
Why this film is here
It was the first film we made for SML. The principle behind it — follow the material, work from the outside in, always keep the location clear — has since become the basis for dozens of plant films and trade show loops. A different machine every time, and the same question every time: does the viewer know where they are?
Same principle, other lines
That first film turned into a series. Every line does something different; the question stays the same. Does the viewer know where they are?
What else we do for SML is on the SML page. The service behind it: Film & Photography.
Which of these do you actually need?
A conversation settles that faster than a quote. And we will tell you when something is no use to you.
Every enquiry is welcome — including the ones that never turn into a job. We learn something from every conversation. Tell us the problem, we will listen and think it through with you. That is the least anyone should expect.