Client
KYN
Twenty films for a London care home group, 2024 to present.
KYN runs later-life care homes in London, including KYN Hurlingham in Fulham and KYN Bickley. Since 2024 it has given us five briefs: a series on the people who made the homes, a film about its residents and their families, films to recruit its team, a new film for its homepage and a history of its Hurlingham building.
- 20FilmsFive commissions, 2024 to present.
- 34Edits from one programmeBelong, the careers films and the homepage film, with their social cuts and banners.
- 4Shoot days for Belong and the careers filmsTwo with residents and families, two with the team.
- 3Ratios for every film16:9, 1:1 and 9:16, clean and subtitled, from Belong on.
The film
Belong · KYN · Branded micro-documentary
The work
Five commissions
What KYN asked for each time, and the films that came out of it.
Branded micro-documentary series
Meet the Makers
Seven films · KYN Hurlingham, KYN Bickley and Adam Ellis’s studio
KYN wanted families choosing a home to meet the people who made it. The brief asked for films that look beautiful “because, well just because, but also we are an expensive product”, and that above all show “our legitimate expertise in caring for later life.”
Seven films came out of it. A three-minute hero film, The Making of KYN, led by the managing director. Three on the makers: interior designer Nina Campbell with graphic artist Adam Ellis, garden designer Randle Siddeley, and executive chef Tristan Welch on dining and nutrition. Two on care, and a one-minute walk through KYN Hurlingham’s rooms with no words at all. The scripts were cut from what people said in interview.
KYN put the films on its website, YouTube and newsletters, with 15-second cuts in three ratios for paid social and 10-second loops for the website. Its staff email signatures link to the series.
Branded micro-documentary
Belong
Residents film and three short films · KYN Hurlingham
KYN came back with a new brief, in its own words: “When you move into a care home, the standards of care and environment are really important, but you also want to know who you are moving in with.”
In the week of the shoot, KYN asked for the film to be told “through the eyes of the families as well as the residents”. We rebuilt it around three families, each a resident with their grown-up children and the carer they know best, filmed together and apart over two days. With team interviews from the careers shoot, we also cut three shorter films for families, on food, nursing and the people of KYN.
Recruitment films
Careers
Careers film and six role films · KYN Hurlingham
KYN’s people team wanted to answer the question candidates from hotels and restaurants ask: “Why would I want to leave my industry and go and work in a care home?”
We spent two days with seven of the team, each filmed mid-task in their own part of the home, from the head gardener at 7am to the deputy home manager on her nursing rounds. Each role leads into the next. The gardener cuts flowers that the housekeeper carries into a bedroom, and the chef plates a dish that front of house takes to a resident.
One careers film and six role films came out of it, for nursing, care, front of house, kitchen, housekeeping and life enrichment, each ending on a call to action for that department at kyn.co.uk/careers.
Hero film, recut
One film for the homepage
Hero film, recut with residents · KYN Hurlingham
After seeing Belong, KYN’s senior partners asked for the residents to go into the Meet the Makers hero film, so that one film on the homepage showed the homes, the people who made them and the people who live in them. The original film showed the rooms without the people in them, so we swapped its general shots for residents in the same spaces, kept its structure and music, and regraded both shoots to match. It was made for KYN’s homepage and an online advertorial.
History film
Through the Ages
History film · KYN Hurlingham
The first thing KYN asked us for was one day at KYN Hurlingham, while the building was still being finished. The historian Ruth Goodman told the story of the Grade II building on Daisy Lane, a school and a youth club long before it was a care home, and we cut her interview with the exterior and archive images into a short film. Three weeks after we delivered it, KYN briefed us on Meet the Makers.
How we worked with KYN
Credits
- ClientKYN
- For KYNRosanna Fishbourne and Anya Chasovskaia, with the team at KYN Hurlingham
- On cameraNina Campbell, Adam Ellis, Randle Siddeley and Tristan Welch
- On cameraThe KYN team, and KYN residents and their families
- On cameraRuth Goodman, historian
- ProductionHere Now Films
- Executive producerEd Smit
- Creative directorOllie Couch
- Head of productionMorgan Cartlidge
- ProducerMeg Amos
- Edit, Belong and the careers filmsGreg Hayes
- ColourHannah Squires and Steve Watson
- Sound design and mixDCA Sound
Consent first
KYN chose and briefed every family, sent the release forms and told residents what was happening. We never approached a resident or a relative ourselves. Anyone who hadn’t agreed stayed out of shot, and one background figure was replaced in the edit.
A working home
Every scene had a second room ready, and KYN held a bedroom for us. We filmed around move-ins, mealtimes and the activity programme, with no hair and make-up, so everyone looked like themselves.
Only what’s true
Every claim on screen had to be literally true. A line that overstated the food came out, and any moment that looked like watching residents rather than being with them was cut.
One shoot, two audiences
The careers shoot also gave the residents’ films their team interviews and b-roll. KYN liked one careers passage enough to run it as a paid consumer film.
Cut for every placement
Every film from Belong on came in three ratios, clean and subtitled. The 15-second cuts name KYN in the first three seconds, and silent 10-second loops play in the website banners.
“Assets produced by Here Now consistently delivered the highest click-through rates of any creative we’ve used, and drove noticeably higher engagement across our social channels.”
Anya Chasovskaia, Marketing Manager, KYN · verified review on Clutch
Questions
How do you film care home residents with dignity?
The home leads on consent. For KYN’s residents film, KYN chose and briefed three families and secured every consent before we arrived, and we never contacted a family ourselves. We filmed each resident with the relatives and carer they know best, in rooms they knew, with no hair and make-up, and cut any moment that looked like watching them rather than being with them.
How do you make a recruitment film that doesn’t read as an advert?
Film the real team at work, in their own spaces, and keep every claim literal. For KYN’s careers films we spent two days with seven of the team at KYN Hurlingham, asked each of them the same opening question and linked each role to the next. The strongest voices go first, because most people don’t watch to the end.
Can one shoot serve recruitment and marketing?
Yes, if it’s planned for both. KYN’s careers shoot also gathered team interviews and b-roll for its residents’ films on food, nursing and the people of KYN, and one passage from the careers film became a paid consumer film.
How long does a film series like KYN’s take?
Meet the Makers took about five months from KYN’s brief to the finished films, with about twelve weeks from the shoot to delivery. For Belong and the careers films, the whole programme ran about nine months from the first conversation to the last files: Belong was signed off about six weeks after its shoot, and the careers films were delivered about ten weeks after theirs.
What does a series like this cost?
Our productions start at £9,500. The number moves with shoot days, how many films and cutdowns each day has to produce, and how much of the planning sits with you. Belong and the careers films came from two two-day shoots, with KYN arranging the families, consents and staff rotas.
Got a place people need to see for themselves?
Send a brief, or a rough idea and a budget range. We’ll come back with a treatment, an estimate and a timeline, and that part costs nothing. Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours. Or call us on 07412 543822.
