Below the Belt Productions is a multimedia collective based in Bristol, founded in 2022. The mission from the start has been to promote the musical talent of the South West through online content and live events. As a collective, we have used our limited means as a springboard for creativity and innovation. We believe that large budgets do not determine the quality and resonance of a project; rather, understanding the unique voice of the artist we are promoting is key to producing projects that successfully meet their briefs.

 

As the lead filmmaker in the collective, my role is to generate and develop ideas in collaboration with artists. Often, the role is less about execution and more about communicating an idea to an artist in a way that builds their enthusiasm for the project. This ensures that when inevitable budget-related challenges arise, they have the patience and passion to allow me and the team to problem-solve effectively.

 

One project that embodies the collective’s ethos is the video Smiling Truth for Trans Siberian Express. The creative brief from the band was simple: a violent football game. For us as a collective, the broader goal was to embody the personality of the music and the band through visual storytelling. As we developed the video, we realised that the key lay in the juxtaposition between the cheery folk song and the on-screen violence. With this in mind, we sequenced the match to crescendo in line with the song’s folky climaxes, extracting maximum absurdity. The final result was creatively exactly what we set out to achieve, capturing the band’s sense of mischief and humour.

 

Double Hammer was a web series on YouTube that documented live studio sessions with some of the South West’s most exciting musical talent. We understood the success of the studio session format and wanted to produce a series that felt culturally relevant to the South West. Bristol has a strong sense of pride in its local communities and artists, which provided direction for adapting the format. As the videographer for the project, I researched visual references, produced editing guidelines, and defined the tone of the live sets. This approach was proposed and collaboratively refined prior to launching the initial series to ensure we were producing something culturally relevant.

 

In terms of results, Double Hammer Volume 1 gained solid traction, achieving 30k views across three episodes. The process also revealed the realities of producing a series of this scale, helping inform where to invest for Volume 2 and 3, namely in production quality. The wider impact was the creation of an artistic network within Bristol. Artists from different backgrounds and genres performed at each volume’s launch gig, resulting in communities mixing and engaging with art they may not otherwise have been exposed to. Folk, punk, and hip-hop all shared the same bill.

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