We’ve just wrapped a shoot with Fathom at 30 St Mary Axe, better known as the Gherkin, one of the most recognisable buildings in the City of London.
Fathom is a global leader in flood risk intelligence and climate data. Founded in 2013 and now part of Swiss Re, they provide scientifically rigorous flood mapping, catastrophe modelling, and climate risk analytics used by some of the world’s largest organisations, from Microsoft and Arup to WSP and major reinsurers worldwide. Their work sits at the intersection of hydrology, machine learning, and real-world risk management, and their research is peer-reviewed and publicly available. In short: they’re serious scientists solving serious problems.
We’ve been working with Fathom’s team over the past few months, and this latest shoot brought us to the Gherkin for a day of filming high above the London skyline. We can’t share the storyline just yet, the film is still in the edit and the release is tied to a larger announcement from Fathom, but we can say that the location matched the ambition of the project. There’s something about shooting forty floors up in one of London’s most iconic towers that sharpens everything: the interviews feel bigger, the B-roll writes itself, and the whole production takes on a different energy.
The Gherkin itself is a striking place to shoot. Designed by Foster + Partners and completed in 2004, it sits right in the heart of London’s financial district at the junction of St Mary Axe and Leadenhall Street. The building’s distinctive shape isn’t just for show, the tapered form and diagonal structural grid were designed to reduce wind loads at street level and maximise natural ventilation. For a production crew, the curved glass and open floor plates create natural light conditions that are hard to replicate anywhere else in the City. It’s one of those London locations where the building does a lot of the visual storytelling for you.
This is our second production with Fathom. Earlier this year, we filmed at their headquarters in Clifton, Bristol, working closely with their comms and product teams to capture the people and science behind their technology. That shoot gave us a deep understanding of what Fathom does and how they communicate it, which made the London leg of the production smoother and more focused.
The film is coming soon. We’ll share the full piece and a detailed behind-the-scenes post once it’s released.
If you’re a London-based brand, or a brand that wants to shoot in London, we’d love to chat. We’re a London-headquartered production company with teams across Bristol, Cornwall, and Manchester, and we know this city well.
