Working in partnership with Comic Relief and building on our understanding of British Airways’ brand requirements, we devised a concept for this Flying Start inflight fundraising film, based on capturing real interviews with the real change-makers of the future from two sides of the world. The premise of the film is to show how the ripple effect of our actions can have a wide-reaching impact.

This film was played 40 minutes before landing on all of British Airways’ mid- and long-haul flights.

We also made an accompanying longer version for internal colleague engagement that is a core part of British Airways’ Flying Start campaign.

Flying Start has raised over £25 million to date from inflight and colleague donations.

As part of our long-standing relationship with British Airways’ Community Investment team we spent time in Durban, South Africa, with Tom Hewitt and his crew of ex-street kids now-surfing professionals known as Surfers Not Street Children.

Apart from their partnership with Comic Relief, British Airways offer annual bursaries to individual projects around the world that they feel are providing long-term sustainable development to the community. Durban has a long history of homelessness and street crime, so a surfing project that engages young kids and give them some life-changing guidance can make a huge impact.

Once we actually managed to get all the kids in the same place at the same time (“it’s like herding cats” said Tom in despair) hanging out with these bright enthusiastic young guys was the highlight – you could feel the energy coming from them, all buzzing from the experience of surfing and being filmed. One even requested a coffee with seven sugars which probably contributed to the general energy level.

The delivery of a project shouldn’t be the end of the road for your footage.

To celebrate hitting £20 million in donations with their Flying Start campaign, British Airways commissioned us to make a compilation film using footage from all of the projects we’ve done with them so far.

Reusing footage reminds your audience of the incredible work you’ve done, while also maximising your return on investment for each project. This is a great example of how we’re able to incorporate our client’s own footage into re-edits.