The British Ceramics Biennial (BCB) commissioned a series of instructional videos for their Transferer project. This initiative supports students in Stoke-on-Trent, using clay to develop oracy and critical thinking skills. Our role was to film the ‘Toolkit Techniques’ resources—visual guides demonstrating core skills like joining clay, coiling, and sgraffito for use in classrooms.
The Approach
The priority was clarity. These videos needed to be effective teaching aids for secondary school students. We opted for a clean, overhead perspective to give the viewer a ‘maker’s eye’ view. The focus remained entirely on the hands and the material, ensuring every movement was easy to replicate.
Challenges & Solutions
Ceramics presents unique filming hurdles. Clay changes state rapidly; it dries and cracks under hot studio lights, making continuity a race against time. If a take went wrong, we couldn’t simply ‘reset’ the clay—we often had to prep entirely fresh materials.
Lighting was also critical. Wet clay can be reflective, causing glare that hides texture, while hands cast shadows over fine details. We used soft, diffused lighting to mitigate this, ensuring the texture of the slip and the scoring marks were visible without distraction.
Outcome
The final suite of videos now sits centrally in the Transferer Toolkit, providing a permanent, accessible resource that allows teachers to deliver high-quality arts education with confidence.