UNLOC x Portsmouth Inspires: A First Step Into the World of Work
Fifty-three young people. One city. A behind-the-scenes look at the careers they never knew were on their doorstep.
Youth charity video production for UNLOC’s Portsmouth Inspires programme, following Year 11 and 12 students as they explored real careers across Portsmouth and discovered what they might be capable of.
Key points
- Client: UNLOC, programme funded by NCS
- 53 young people from across Portsmouth, in Years 11 and 12
- Four films: a hero summary plus three individual journey stories
- Four shoot days across iconic Portsmouth locations
- RED Digital Cinema cameras and drone
- Real young people, real businesses, real career insight
The challenge
UNLOC’s Portsmouth Inspires programme, funded by NCS, gave 53 young people from across the city an intensive three-day experience designed to connect them with their community, build skills for life, and open up career pathways they might never have imagined. Across the February and Easter holidays, they went behind the scenes at businesses unique to Portsmouth, from Victorious Festival to Nike Unite Portsmouth, BH Live Active and The Southsea Deli.
UNLOC needed video that captured the energy of all of it: the visits, the masterclasses, and most importantly the change in the young people themselves. The brief was to show, not tell. To let the young people’s own growth carry the story, and to give UNLOC and NCS a piece of charity video that proved exactly what the programme achieved.
The plan
We built the project as four films that worked together. A main hero film summarised the whole programme and its energy, while three individual journey stories went deeper: one following a single young person through their experience, one capturing the friendship between two participants as they took it on together, and one set at The Southsea Deli, where young people took part in a cookery class, complete with an interview with owner Daniel.
This mix of a high-energy overview and intimate personal stories is what makes a programme like this land. The hero film shows the scale. The journey films show what it actually meant to the people who lived it.
We filmed across four days at locations including The Southsea Deli, BH Live Active, Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth Guildhall and other spots around the city, shooting on RED Digital Cinema cameras with drone footage to capture the scale and character of Portsmouth itself. Filming across live business environments meant working quickly and unobtrusively, keeping the young people relaxed so their genuine reactions and growth came through on camera.
The results
The films captured something every youth programme hopes for and few manage to evidence: real change, in the young people’s own words. Their feedback said it best.
One young person described it simply: “It was amazing. I met new friends as Unloc gave me the opportunity to meet new people. Additionally it improved my confidence and social skills. Unloc also showed me many new job opportunities.” Another said the programme “gave me a lot more confidence to talk to strangers,” while others praised how practical and engaging it was compared to sitting and being talked at.
For UNLOC and NCS, the four films became a powerful record of the programme’s impact and a tool to show funders, schools and future participants what Portsmouth Inspires can do. It sits alongside our wider video production case studies as a clear example of how video turns a great programme into a story people can actually see.
What the client said
“Creation DMC are fantastic to work with. After working with the team on multiple occasions they really put their all into the whole process, from the initial touch point to delivery, as well as making everyone in the room feel so at ease. Highly recommend.”
Jess Cowling, Community Manager, UNLOC
Tell your story properly
Every organisation has stories worth telling. We will help you tell yours with the same care and craft we brought to this one. We are a video production team based in Hampshire, working with charities and youth organisations across Portsmouth, Southampton and beyond. Explore our charity video production work, or book a free discovery call to talk it through.