CASE STUDY:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
We partnered with Penguin Random House UK to create a bespoke series of promotional video content for author Lisa Jewell’s crime-novel, ‘None of This is True’. We worked closely with the Cornerstone Publishing division during the ideation phase through to post-production and then delivered the video assets in the various formats required by Century Publishing for the book’s digital marketing campaign.
CLIENT BACKGROUND
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House, the UK’s largest publisher, is a cultural leader committed to impacting communities beyond publishing. Through innovative campaigns, partnerships, and initiatives, we work to build a more equitable, diverse, and sustainable world.
Cornerstone Publishing
Cornerstone, a division of Penguin Random House, champions a vibrant array of voices across diverse genres. Committed to connecting each book with a broad audience, Cornerstone takes an innovative approach beyond traditional categories. Every team member brings specialised expertise to honour authors and meticulously shape each book. At Cornerstone, every detail matters, and every piece plays a pivotal role.
Century Publishing
Century, an imprint of Cornerstone, is one of the UK's leading commercial publishers, known for its successful and highly regarded authors in fiction.
OBJECTIVES
GOALS: To create a series of visually stunning and engaging clips based on excerpts from Lisa Jewell’s book, ‘None of This is True’.
CHALLENGES: We needed to carefully select visually striking moments from the book that would translate seamlessly to the screen. In order to keep the trailer as spoiler free as possible, we had to omit certain dialogue challenging us to rely on non-verbal storytelling to create an engaging intrigue.
APPROACH
In collaboration with Cornerstone’s marketing team, we crafted a script to bring five key scenes from the book to life, embracing the book’s riveting crime-thriller tone. We leaned into its true-crime documentary style, with interviewees speaking directly to the camera, and intercut these moments with B-roll of the protagonists, recreating pivotal, spoiler-free scenes. To maintain mystery, we kept the protagonists’ faces hidden and omitted dialogue. The setting and environment became essential in conveying each character’s motives, while meticulous attention to costume, set design, and hair and makeup communicated class differences, habits, and personalities in subtle, impactful ways.
PRODUCTION PROCESS
Pre-Production: Concept and script development, location scouting and recceing, casting of characters, and costume and production design.
Production: Two days filming across two locations transformed into eight distinct sets, all managed by a small, versatile crew.
Post-Production: Editing, colour grade, sound mix and subtitling.
SOLUTIONS PROVIDED
Our deliverables were set to be marketed across six platforms, each requiring specific export formats and aspect ratios. Anticipating this, we carefully framed each shot to accommodate different aspect ratios, capturing everything in high resolution to allow for cropping and reframing in post-production. Using a single camera with excellent low-light capabilities, we leaned into the dark, moody visuals fitting for a twisted crime thriller.
CHALLENGES
Challenge: To craft visually compelling, spoiler-free clips that captured the essence of None of This is True while translating impactful book moments to screen without revealing key plot points.
Mitigation: We developed a true-crime documentary style, focusing on non-verbal storytelling through selective framing, costumes, and set design. With shots tailored for six platforms, we used high-resolution framing for flexibility in aspect ratios. We also used a single camera, adept in low light, to create the dark, thrilling atmosphere fitting of the genre.
