The antidote to short-form content
25/08/2026
Having recently completed After the Smoke Clears, a documentary about the devastating wildfires in the Goyt Valley last year, I have found that the film raises a significant point of interest. On paper, as a 16 minute doc, it shouldn’t have proved this popular, but the view count speaks for itself – 170,000 at the time of writing this.
The Goyt Valley is loved by many. An area for walking, cycling and sailing, it also forms a key natural habitat for rare red-listed birds and holds a huge carbon store in the form of peat. A huge amount of work had just been completed to repair the damage to the Moor, leaving it exposed to erosion and habitat loss.
At the time of the fire, this quite small valley in the middle of the Peak District became national news, stirring genuine emotion among locals personally affected by it. And at the time, there was a huge amount of awareness raised about the risk of wildfires in this country.
As the one-year anniversary of the fire’s start approached, I was contacted by Moors for the Future with the aim of bringing the memories of the fire back into people’s minds with the view of making a film that could be presented at the one-year anniversary. A few days after the fire, we were asked by a separate client to go and capture the devastation, the valley now completely charred. But there was never really a plan for how to use this captured footage. So when Moors for Future came to us and said, “we want to make some sort of film,” it felt like it was meant to be.
That’s where it all started.
So why have I written this insight piece? As a production company, as a sector, and for all comms teams across our clients, we need to be a bit braver.
There has to be more trust and respect for our audiences; the confidence that they will want to invest up to 15 minutes of their time, despite the overwhelming trend of short form.
Our client asked not to make a typical corporate film that needs to fit under five minutes and easily be extracted for socials. They knew this sort of content has its place, but since they have a lot of this already, they wanted something different.
There are also lots of videos and snappy posts saying “do not have barbecues on the moors, do not do this, do not do that,” but ultimately, viewers aren’t always receptive to being told what not to do. Our objective was to inform through story and interest, not through instruction.
Immediately, we were working without the usual shackles of a typical commission.
And we began to think:
How could we make a film that could be screened at festivals?
How can we make viewers care about moorland through people?
What would make the audience fall in love with the place?
I was lucky that our client was brave enough to see the opportunity. Clients Emma and Megan agreed to make a film as long as it needed to be (the original cut was 21 minutes, and the final edit was 16 and a half minutes).
Having local contributors telling their story is crucial to the film’s success. We hear the voices of the contributors only after 10 minutes into the film, and we only see their faces in the final 2 minutes. As I said at the beginning, this goes against all current comms thinking and expectation.
But by God, has it restored faith in the industry and the medium I have dedicated 25 years to. So much of the industry is depressed, being told audiences can only consume 15 seconds, and that video must be filmed in portrait form, with shite graphics, or worse – something that ChatGPT has come out with.
It was a risk, and Fuzzy Duck pushed the envelope on what we could achieve. But within a month our clients, and more importantly, the community, were very happy.
At the time of writing, the film has achieved 170,000 views with a very small subscriber base. It has made me totally rethink some of my own professional practice.
And ultimately, I think it leads to two things. A longer viewing period helps embed that message in the viewer. Secondly, it’s a really good return on an investment. This 16-minute film has an average watch time of 8 minutes. It was a £15,000 budget. Divide that by the number of views; that’s 1.5 pence per view, one month after it was released. That sort of investment return… you’d struggle if you made £15,000 through short social media with fewer stories.
Having faith in the viewer is something I think we all have, but we’ve started to second-guess ourselves in recent years; we’ve become driven first by data, then by intuition. This project has confirmed to me that it’s not about a film’s run-time, it’s about what’s in it that matters.
Yeah. Okay, cool. That’s enough.
Nigel
Production Director
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The story behind the badge
21/04/2026
Many of us support a sports team and care about it’s progress.
Dave’s sport is rugby and his team is Warrington Wolves. Dave produced this particular piece of work on the back of conversations with Neil Kelly the head of the Warrington Wolves Foundation. The two of them were keen to help develop the club culture, making good habits standard and building links between supporters, staff and players. Within this conversation the club’s heritage was discussed and keeping links with the club and town’s proud history; the club badge was discussed and what it means.
This animation was developed to help the players, staff and supporters know the significance behind the badge and it’s symbolism. And we were able to get club legend, Paul Cullen to provide a distinctive Warringtonian voice over.
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DEADCAST
21/10/2025
Some of the Ducks have been busy on a feature film this summer! 🦆🎥
Mark wrote and directed the film, Tom joined as camera operator on the second block of filming, Seb designed the Deadcast logo, and James is currently working on some VFX magic.
The film, Deadcast, follows two podcasters who take their show on the road — uncovering the supernatural along the way. After being in a previous film of Mark’s, (short film: Exorcising Barry), Anne Hegerty from The Chasers fame has a scene and was kind enough to mention the film in a recent episode of Loose Women…showbiz babe!
👻
#FeatureFilm #IndieFilm #IndependentFilm #Filmmaking #BehindTheScenes #OnSet #FilmProduction #DirectorLife #Cinematography #VFX #FilmCrew
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Find your balance
28/11/2024
Hayley takes on EditFest:
For this edit challenge, cut and sound designed in just a few days, Hayley chose to do an ad for a women’s health supplement using only the available music tracks. Here’s the result; a compelling, emotional yet uplifting cut.
And…(DVD extra!) – Hayley explains her choices for the edit. Hear the decision making that goes into editing and (in a film about balance), how to balance the cut to achieve the story you’re really wanting to tell.
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Spark of an Idea
18/07/2024
We’ve been developing a film that explores the birth of creativity and the journey of an idea growing into something grand. Initially, the project features performance-based art through dance and poetry, with creativity symbolised by a light spark that digitally evolves to represent various stages of the creative process.
This is an interesting, behind-the-scenes look at a few of the Ducks with an idea, all working hard to build a world of some sort to take the audience on a journey of creativity.
On this test shoot we were trying to build a world to express that feeling of that first spark of inspiration and following that creative path towards your finished work, be it a story, poem, film, painting, design, animation until you have something you love – and then having the courage to show people, to release it into the world and hear what they think of your baby.
The film was shot yesterday – there’s some exciting things to come!
2 thoughts on “Spark of an Idea”
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Exorcising Barry
09/05/2024
Exorcising Barry
This is the fantastic new short film production by our rockstar director: Mark Kuczewski. Mark wrote the screenplay then grabbed a few mates, a couple of Ducks and some amazing talent including a familiar Chaser, Anne Heggarty to film this short comedy. The script is class, we can’t wait to see the final cut.
For more details check out Mark’s site: That Camera Nerd
Get your audience listening
14/02/2024
Is your audience listening?
An animation job that began as an exercise in typography and paint splashes evolved into our very own marketing campaign. The visual was to mix the random freedom of paint plashes and ink in water with the precision of typography. Explaining our views on various creative challenges, from how we are inspired to telling stories, all to get your audience listening.
By Dave
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Rockfit
11/08/2023
Rockfit community film
I started going to Rockfit soon after the birth of my son. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was petrified of gyms so this was my only way back into exercise back then. I immediately felt welcome, never judged and I was so grateful that such a thing existed. I spent my classes observing the people around me, and how refreshing it was to have such a variety of people coming together, who would probably never have gotten together if Rockfit didn’t exist. I wanted to showcase the community spirit and the benefits of exercise that is the opposite of performance. After talking about my ideas with Jenny while we were both walking our prams, we both agreed that this community deserved a kudo.
Directed by Lili Blot
Filmed by Nigel Moore and Sam Davies
Edited by Hayley Repton and Lili Blot
Sound Design by Hayley Repton
Grade by Mark Kuzewski
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Glutened
01/05/2021
A rhythmic short film which expresses the impact everyday life has on a newly diagnosed coeliac, and how she discovers her own tempo.
Written, Directed & Edited by Hayley Repton
Starring by Holly Ashman with the voice of Debbie Nic Eoin
Assistant Director by Matt Geeling
Production Coordinator by Marina Oftedal
DOP by Mark Kuczewski
Camera Assistants by Matt Hackney & Nathalie Ekstrom
Sound Recordist by Jake Mckenzie-Hayes
Dubbing Recordist by Ruaidhri Nolan
Sound Designer by Hayley Repton
Props Design by Seb Chadwick
After Effects by Natalie Wood
Producer by Hayley Repton
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A place for Angels
05/11/2019
A place for Angels
Danny returns to the place where he was raised, where they called him ‘The Dorn’ (the fist). He wants to know why his mother killed herself when he was a small boy. Annie, believing Danny has the power of foresight wants to know if she is to die.
A place for Angels is an adapted scene from a feature film script, this scene is between the protagonist Danny and his auntie, Annie (the witch).
Written by Dave
Shot by Anderson, Nigel & Dom
Directed by Dave & Nigel
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Saucy Butty trailer
05/10/2016
Saucy Butty – Trailer
Saucy Butty is a 3 part whodunnit set in a greasy spoon, produced in 2015.
Here’s the trailer, see the 3 films further down the feed
Saucy Butty episode 1 – Back in the day
31/10/2016
The 1st of 3 Saucy Butty films
He is King Cobra, without remorse Israel Manu has built up his little empire, but he never will finish his breakfast and whatever our religion, we’re all about to learn a hard lesson in redemption.
1st episode to our mini who-dunnit set in a greasy spoon.
This looks really cool. Looking forward to seeing more.
Flint and Steel