Unity Through Music: Filming One World Orchestra (Crawley)
Some projects just speak to you differently, and One World Orchestra was one of them. This wasn’t just 'another performance video'. It was a chaos... beautiful, high-energy, authentic, impactful, much needed, mentally rewarding chaos. Like a family coming together to celebrate at a time of togetherness, everyone had a role and an importance. This celebration of music, culture, and community goes beyond anything we've experienced in live events. Different languages, different instruments, and a room full of hearts coming together with stories that make you connect as a human. As they stated on the night, in language and custom not all communities mix, but through music, rhythm and movement those boundaries are nowhere to be seen. If there’s a better way to sum up unity and mutuality, we haven’t found it yet.
Simply put, the breif was to capture the heart of the event without stripping away its much needed, and celebrated, community. Fortunately OWO had seen our portfolio (www.mikebdesigns.com/portfolio) and knew our style. This wasn’t about making it look glossy and staged, it was about embracing the packed, lively, unpredictable setting for what it was. In our opinion, that’s what made it special.
We were grateful to have Hannah as a second camera, whose eye for finding artistic angles made the footage even stronger. Together, we found well over the amount required to pull together a five-minute video, which we later extended by 20 seconds to include an important moment we just couldn’t leave out. Because when you’re telling a story like this, the little details matter.
Challenges & Triumphs
Dodging the Chaos: A tight space full of moving people meant filming required a certain delicacy (and the occasional polite nudge). However it presented beautiful moments that unfolded between or through other scenarios happening right in front of you. The natural layering of a busy room is often where you find those 'diamonds in the rough'.
Capturing Real Moments: Serious conversations don’t always come with smiles, and the goal was never to force them. The connection between musicians and their audience was something else. Many of these performers also run workshops in the hotels where displaced communities are living, so when they came together here, it felt less like a performance and more like a long-overdue reunion of long lost friends. Not to mention a release of emotion and a connection to a former world that had been lost and sought after for time.
A Standout Shot: Mike: "I connected so much with the parents in the audience, I can only empathise and I am ever grateful for my family not experiencing displacement of this nature. Seeing parents teaching, nurturing and supporting their children in obviously turbulent times was inspiring and heartwarming. Hopefully as a filmmaker I could capture even a fraction of this contrast of innocence and resilience."
What made this project even more rewarding was how much One World Orchestra valued the storytelling process. It wasn’t just about delivering a polished video, it was about making sure they felt heard and represented. And judging by the feedback, we think we got that right. "There's a sensitivity and understanding to your approach and the way you perceive what unfolds around you that is unusual and wonderful to work with." *
Projects like this remind me why video is such a powerful tool. It connects people, shares experiences, and tells stories that need to be seen. If you’ve got something meaningful to capture, let’s make it happen. These moments deserve to be shared.
The video hasn’t been released officially yet so hold this space.
