Origin Gymnastics

The Mission: A new gymnastics business needed a launch film people would actually remember. The idea we landed on was not a modest one: take a pommel horse to the top of Scrabo Hill and have Rhys McClenaghan perform his gold medal-winning routine on it, in the open air, above his own hometown.

The Execution: Getting a pommel horse to the top of Scrabo Hill is the part nobody sees, and it was most of the job.

Beyond that, this was a shoot with a very short window: outdoor light, Northern Irish weather, and an elite athlete performing a competition routine on ground that wasn't built for one. I directed and shot it, using aerials to place the routine in the landscape and hold Newtownards in frame behind him.

I'd directed Rhys before, on Chasing Gold for BBC One, so no time went on building trust on the day. He knew how I work, and I already knew what that routine looks like from every angle worth shooting.

The Result: A launch film built around a single image: an Olympic champion's gold medal routine performed on a hilltop above the town he's from. Which is what a new business actually needs at launch — not a description of what they do, but a reason to remember them.