Visit Victoria
Stay Close, Go Further - The Grampians
About The Brand Video Project
The “Stay Close. Go Further” campaign was a partnership between Visit Victoria and Melbourne based content agency Monster & Bear that took two years to come to fruition – a collaboration that a certain pandemic had held at an unfortunate standstill.
Despite the turbulent stop-go nature of pre-production, we were excited to finally begin filming the three-part marketing brand video campaign; taking spectators on a virtual tour across Victoria’s alluring landscapes to encourage tourism throughout the state in the wake of the easing restrictions which, at the time, was in sight. It was almost 12 months later before production could actually kick off – in the small faction of time between two lockdowns!
When Visit Victoria first made contact with us, our creative team knew exactly what they needed – a content agency and creative collaborator that could supply high-grade brand videos and narrative stories, weaved through the lens of the Victoria’s natural terrains, whilst also driving the narrative through the people of the state. Just not in the middle-of-the-road, unremarkable way.
Visit Victoria wanted to do something different, bringing a touch of light to what could’ve easily been a tourism campaign that was indistinguishable from similar commercials out at the time. The people of Victoria needed to be inspired after a particularly uninspiring two years.
Creative Director Sarah Hickey took the helm – designing the brand stories and creative approach, paving the direction for our team to follow through, with Jem Rankin (Producer), Josh Mitchell-Frey (Cinematographer) and Julian Lucas (Director) bringing the visual content into being. Across a mammoth 162 individual locations, over a combined 3 months of filming throughout the different regions, our team captured enthralling sunrises, sweeping ranges, and striking landscapes, putting the beauty of Victoria on show.
“It was great shooting with the talent we had – we got great insights to the region that you normally wouldn’t get if you were just sightseeing. I think it elevates the films so much having these characters in it”– Jem Rankin, Producer
The three films delve into more than just the extraordinary land that makes up the state, further expanding to the creatures, landmarks, and unique beings that are the backbone of each region. The stories interlace both living creatures and land, coming to a crescendo where the two meet, before descending into another reminder of the breathtaking natural scape, and acing the concept “Stay Close. Go Further” message from Visit Victoria (if we do say so ourselves.)
Filming on location always brings its own unique hurdles, but shooting on location through imposing sweeping ranges in the middle of winter, presents itself with a massive orchestrational effort. The shoot itself went relatively smoothly (all things considered!), but one of the most memorable days was when we filmed up at Signal Peak. We had to maneuver around a level 4 track (out of a possible 5), in high winds, carrying all of our film equipment. It was a lot of hard work, but by time we’d got to the top, it was well worth it. Overlooking the entire Grampians range, you can see the incredible outlook in the final cut. We find that going the (literal) extra mile to capture these breathtaking moments really do pay off.
“Undoubtedly the biggest challenge was trying to organize a 20-day shoot during covid lockdowns – we were meant to be shooting in August, but we had multiple sets of lockdowns and covid outbreaks in Melbourne that pushed the shoot out til late November. I had to continually reschedule this massive shoot, probably three or four times.”– Jem Rankin, Producer
As with the other parts of the “Stay Close, Go Further” campaign, we encountered the challenge of attempting these shoots during tumultuous covid times. We became well versed in rolling with the punches, and finding solutions to get the job done. While we were lucky to shoot the Grampians campaign when restrictions were well and truly lifted, rescheduling the few times we did was a massive undertaking when there were 20 days worth of locations and crew and talent to juggle.
The Grampians, and the entire Visit Victoria “Stay Close, Go Further” marketing campaign showcases Melbourne content agency Monster & Bear’s dedication for delivering the full creative package in any situation – from pre-production to post production – creating branded content from story development and treatment, production shoot days, to editing, sound design and colour grading, bringing your company films alive. No matter what “uncertain” or “unprecedented” event comes our way, we’ll be there for the ride.