Bringing History to Life

Introducing our latest project for BBC Bitesize

Truely an epic of a series and a joy to work on, this suite of films, created for BBC Bitesize, covered Scotland’s dark history of witchcraft, the origins of modern medicine, and the dramatic outbreak of World War One, amongst other dark and gruesome topics, for an audience of early teens.

Created on a tight budget but with high ambitions, we opened each film with short, beautifully illustrated sequences of animation, inspired by videogame cutscenes, each telling the tale of one historic moment or figure - the Luddites smashing up looms, a local healer escaping persecution, or a teenager heading to battle at sea…

From here we moved to the meat of the films, taking archival documents, woodcuts, paintings and the like, and bringing them all, magically, dynamically, to life, to tell the full context of each story and event. Throw in some flickers of stop motion animation and some electrifying sound design, and we found ourselves with one of our most rewarding series, shining a light on lost tales from across the country.