Bastion Films rebrands to reflect 360-degree production capabilities
Bastion production house Bastion Films has repositioned as Bastion Make, reflecting a newly expanded range of production capabilities, Mumbrella can reveal.
The agency’s production service has spent the last 12 months undergoing a transformation under the leadership of managing director Jacqueline Archer, who was appointed to the role in September 2021 to change the way Bastion delivered its projects.
Building upon Bastion Film’s original specialty in film production, Bastion Make includes an in-house production studio with more than 30 on-site craft specialists offering clients cost effective, 360-degree content and campaign delivery from the one team.
Speaking to Mumbrella, Archer said she was brought in “to bring together the whole delivery department”.
“As I joke with everyone, I could have called it Bastion delivery, but we would have sounded like a courier company. And it’s not as sexy is it? So, my remit was to change the way that we that we delivered projects together.”
The newly relaunched Bastion Make brings together in-house craft experts with deep expertise in motion, digital, studio and print, who work in tandem across all production disciplines to deliver integrated, end-to-end campaign and content delivery for Bastion and direct clients.
In addition, the upgraded studio allows all editing, grading and VFX to be done internally in Bastion Make’s post-house, creating efficiencies for clients.
Having shifted the role of the agency within the wider Bastion business, the rebrand was soft-launched internally several months ago, with Archer acknowledging that ‘Films’ no longer represented what was on offer.
“We do a lot more than films,” she said. “We do social, digital, out-of-home, photography, print, animation. So [Bastion Films] didn’t really say what was on the tin.”
The in-house team includes two editors/shooters, two digital producers, a supervising producer, EP of digital, a print producer, finished artist, animators, production company producers, traditional agency producers and animation producers.
The increased offering of the agency under Bastion Make further cements Bastion’s new world agency model and ‘Think Wide’ vision. With a focus on deep expertise in each of Bastion’s service offerings the agency increasingly provides clients with a “one-stop” streamlined offering.
Jacqueline Archer, managing director, Bastion Make
According to Archer, the changes were a result of client demand, with clients increasingly wanting their delivery partners to sit together.
“When they have a campaign, they don’t want it to be siloed, as a lot of our competitors might have been siloed, as divisions. They’d love it to be one entire unit that sits together and delivers seamlessly. So that was the main reason that Bastion Make came together. Because when we do the brief, when it comes to shoots or photography, we can sit together as a unit and talk together about how are we going to deliver it seamlessly. So it stops the miscommunication, the crap deadlines, because we can all sit coming together as a group.”
The new 360 model has also been boosted with the senior appointment of executive producer for Sydney, Galadriel Roussos. Roussos brings more than 20 years of experience to the agency, across broadcast, networks and events, including four years at Foxtel.
As part of the the expansion of Bastion Make, Archer has also built a team in Melbourne, with executive producer Kaelene Morton to lead the charge, alongside editor Dave Wade and producer Ravenna Bouckaert.
“The team is now big enough to execute 360 campaign solutions in-house, while retaining the fluidity and agility to still work as a collaborative delivery group,” Archer said.
Jack Watts, Group CEO of Bastion added: “Out of the wide range of services we provide to our clients, content production in all its forms is the one thing every client responds saying they need more of, and delivered in a faster, better model. This is what has driven our significant investment in people and both physical and digital infrastructure to rapidly expand our capabilities. We now have a 30 strong team of Makers – producers, directors, artists, designers, post-producers, editors, and many more that are focused on producing stunning work for our clients, in an efficient and effective manner.”
However, for Archer, the most exciting part of Bastion Make is the way in which it has brought the team together.
“What’s really interesting is the whole makers idea, and it’s so beautiful,” she said. “They love sitting together. There is a real joy and a culture that is vibing at the moment, that I really hoped would happen.”
“I think what’s beautiful about us is we’re still big, but also we talk all the time and we communicate all the time. So that nothing is ever really lost.”
Bastion Make is currently looking into expanding into other Bastion markets in the US and New Zealand, following the recent launch of four new business units at NZ’s Bastion Shine.
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