PROMOS — David Heslop Creative

A selection of promos produced for CITV and BBC Creative. As a promo producer I wrote the scripts based on a given brief, logged or sourced footage (often self-shooting or directing a crew), and either self-edited or directed the edit.

A promo I produced for CBeebies' hit show "Hey Duggee". I wasn't asked to make a bespoke trail for this episode, but after viewing "The Stick Badge" I loved the song so much I cut one anyway and pitched it to the creative heads and the marketing department. Realising how good it was, they decided to air the trail in addition to the "regular" one I'd already made. The Stick Song became a phenomenon, a social media sensation, and ended up being played on BBC 6 Music. Whilst I can't claim credit for that - it's a song featured in the show - I like to think highlighting it in my promo played a part.

Promo for Sony's "True Movies" channel. This is one of the first "adult" promos I made as a freelancer, having spent years working specifically in children’s TV. Edited using Adobe Premiere with graphics/captions created in After Effects. This was great fun to make!

The launch promo for the 2015 Share a Story competition on CITV. This was shot in a greenscreen studio at the Sharp Project in Manchester with animation from Jardine Sage. I believe at the time it was CITV's most expensive single promo.

Promo made in August 2018 for True Entertainment's "Classic Crime" strand. This was to help promote the channel's launch of Hamish Macbeth. It was fun to work with these classic programmes and make something a little playful, especially with the short duration.

This was a bespoke piece for the CBBC Facebook page; the brief was to create something that could be played silently, as people tend to skim Facebook with the sound off. I came up with the idea of using Bob Dylan-style caption cards. As it was promoting a live presentation event, I chose to use presenters Lauren Layfield and Hacker T. Dog, and I directed the piece in the CBBC HQ studio.

Promo for hit CBBC show 4 O'Clock Club. This was designed exclusively to play on Facebook, where viewers generally tend to have their sound turned off; as such it had to get its message across silently. Given this series followed a tumultuous romance between main characters Nero and Clem, I thought a pastiche of a silent movie would work. As with other CBBC work, this was self-edited.

Promo for the "Heavenly Mornings" strand on Sony's True Entertainment channel. This strand featured back-to-back shows with a religious theme, and therefore had to be sensitive to the audience's beliefs, but still work as a compelling trail to get them to tune in. All within a very tight duration.

Promo for The Aquabats! Super Show! The brief was to showcase the characters and serve as introduction. I wanted to replicate the retro styling of the show, which references everything from Batman '66 to anime to 8-bit videogames.

The Britannia High CITV launch was my first big campaign as a promo director for CITV. This is one of several promos I made to promote the launch. The campaign resulted in a very large audience for its premiere episode.

Promo for the new series of hit CBBC drama 4 O'Clock Club. I was asked to showcase both the fun musical elements of the show, and also the will they-won't they romantic angle of the central couple. As with all CBBC promos, this was self-edited.

Launch promo I made for the second series of Danger Mouse. I wanted to reflect the fast, fun, and funny feel of the show, so I cut it to a Killers track that I thought had the right atmosphere. Danger Mouse is a very high priority for CBBC so I was pleased to get this brief, and it was great fun to edit. VO is by Marc Silk, who is also one of the performers in Danger Mouse.

A promo I made for Sony’s kids’ channel Pop. It was the launch of a brand new series and I had to highlight the madcap nature of the show, and convey the characters without dialogue. Good fun to make on a tight turnaround. Edited using Premiere.

Promo for CBBC, showcasing a weekend programming block of Danger Mouse and The Deep. As these two action-adventure animations skewed younger, I was more playful with tone and music, hence the use of Kenny Loggins. This was a great promo to edit.

The first promo I made for CBeebies. I tried to keep the tone and rhythm of the show itself, writing a simple rhyme and picking similar music. This was fun to write and edit.

I was asked by Happy Films to make a bespoke Bookaboo trailer for use at festivals and to promote their show. As a huge Bookaboo fan since his premiere on CITV, this was tremendous fun to do. I made a shorter "promo-style" cut, and also this longer, "trailer-style" version.