Filming across 53 locations and delivering six films plus a project promo, we helped Visit County Durham bring the Northern Saints Trails to life — a post-Covid tourism initiative showcasing the North East’s most remarkable places.
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Problem:
Visit County Durham needed a way to bring the newly launched Northern Saints Trails to life — a post-Covid tourism initiative encouraging people to explore 53 heritage sites and beauty spots across the North East. The challenge went well beyond filming: it meant coordinating access and permissions across dozens of independently owned and managed locations, each with its own opening hours, custodians and stakeholders to keep on side, all while working to a schedule that had to align with Visit County Durham’s own commercial and marketing plans.
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Solution:
We worked closely with the Visit County Durham team from the concept stage onwards, helping shape the story for each stop on the trail and mapping out a filming schedule that could realistically cover 53 locations. Our team took on the liaison work directly, contacting landowners, custodians and local organisations, arranging access and booking in filming days around each site’s own commitments. That groundwork let us shoot efficiently across the whole region without compromising on the quality or variety of footage needed for six standalone films and a project promo.
We won the project by competitive tender, shortly after Covid, when the region needed a reason for people to travel again. James sourced every contact and booked every one of the 53 locations himself, with no help from the client, filming from Berwick down to Hartlepool, taking in Bishop Auckland and Hexham, with every route converging on Durham Cathedral. One creative rule kept the films from dating: no faces on screen, so hands and feet carried the movement instead.
Outcome:
The finished series gave Visit County Durham six standalone films plus a project promo, ready to support the launch of the Northern Saints Trails and slot straight into their wider commercial and marketing plans. The films now act as a lasting visual showcase for the trail, driving awareness of the initiative and encouraging visitors back to the North East’s coastline, countryside and heritage sites.
Filming took one week across the whole route. The entire project, six trail films and the promo, was delivered within six weeks, in 2022. The wider Northern Saints Trails campaign has since drawn over £700,000 in media coverage and is estimated to deliver £2.2 million a year in economic impact for the county.
