• Client: Dan Edelstyn, Optimistic Productions, London
• Livestream producer: Ben Kempas, Film & Campaign
• Audience platforms: Eventive and Vimeo Live feeding into Kartra

Hillary Powell and Dan Edelstyn’s Grierson-nominated film BANK JOB is about debt and our often misunderstood relationship to it. It was described by the Financial Times as a ‘jape with a gravely serious centre.’ So it was always going to require a unique impact event to match its idiosyncratic flavour.

The film was finished in late 2020, and its world premiere had to happen online due to the restrictions of the pandemic. Dan had already built a great community following and already sold 2,000 tickets for this online premiere. His ‘build it and they will come’ approach saw us produce our best-attended remote premiere – with all the challenges that implied.

With each ticket sold for at least £15 and an expert post-screening panel, would we be able to deploy our recently-acquired livestream production techniques to a standard that matched this ticket price?

There was great relief that the film screening went well. Here are some of the first reactions on the panel:

Of course, as with any live production, the unexpected inevitably happened at the next online screening: in the midst of the live discussion, panellist John McDonnell MP suffered a power cut. As John reappeared on his smartphone out of the darkness, it was noted that the Labour MP was also the UK’s former shadow chancellor… Here's a compilation of what happened:

We produced a third online event for BANK JOB in 2022 and also invited the filmmakers (who are now working on their new project POWER) to 'interrupt' an online session 'After THE OILMACHINE' from their rooftop...

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