MORNFLAKE

A while ago, back in 2017, I spent a couple of amazing days up in Crewe shooting for one of Britain's oldest and longest running family businesses, Mornflake. At the beginning of the summer I was approached by Kream and Otherway London to directed the series of films. Rebranding Mornflake over the course of the year, the three commercials were part of a campaign to elevate the brand and show the care and attention each grain goes through to take it from the fields to peoples tables at home.

On day 1 we were out in the fields on one of the Mornflake farms. Catching one of the most beautiful days of the summer, we filmed from sunrise to sunset seeing the harvest take place as it happened. We shot on Arri Alexa mini on Cooke Anamorphics. I loved the look of these lenses and the way they handled the light and flares. It suited the setting and feel of these films perfectly.

We began the day capturing the farm come to life, waking up with the dawn. We followed the farmer, Hartley, as he drove his truck out through his fields. It was a perfect morning and the light that morning was something else. Streaks of golden light cutting through the morning mist across the corn fields.

After capturing the dawn, we built a mini studio in one of Hartley's barns. Being able to control the light we captured some details of the oats falling and tumbling which we knew we wouldn't be able to capture inside the combine harvester and in the factory the following day. It was a relatively simple setup and some of the time it was just a couple of us pouring oat grains through beams of light... but sometimes the simplest things come out the best!

With a hugely powerful combine harvester in tow, we spent the rest of the day capturing the harvest of the all important oats. It was awesome to see the farmers working at speed and with precision - within a matter of hours, the entire farm had been harvested and a years worth of work had come to fruition.

The following day we were inside the Mornflake factory. Like being inside Willy Wonka's chocolate factory... but for oats... there were pipes with oats flying around. Magical lifts taking bags of oats at various stages through the mills eight floors. Top secret machinery that separates all the different layers and husks off the raw oats. We were allowed a peak behind the closed doors and captured the oats flying around the factory. It was a really interesting experience being allowed inside the factory.

The final piece of the puzzle was capturing the finished product and seeing the oats served as some delicious bowls of creamy porridge. We shot these in a home setting in London, capturing three different serves and packshots with the new Mornflake branding.

I'm really pleased with how these films came out and loved how my work with food, combined with my work with real people and landscapes all came together under one project.