SEAWEED IN EAST ANGLIA

VIDEO PRODUCTION & CONTENT CREATION

Telling the story of a pioneering East Anglian seaweed project, from the Norfolk coast to the laboratory

Hethel Innovation approached Treefrog with a unique, fascinating and slightly unusual brief: create a short video exploring the potential of a seaweed industry here in East Anglia.

The original plan was for a two-to-three-minute film. But once we started speaking to the people involved, learning about the research and understanding just how many organisations were collaborating on the project, something became increasingly obvious.

This wasn't a two-minute story.

Working with Hethel Innovation, the University of East Anglia, CEFAS, Biotechnica and Norfolk Seaweed, we developed the original concept into a 15-minute mini-documentary exploring the complete journey of seaweed – from growing and harvesting it off the Norfolk coast to the research, innovation and potential products that could ultimately make it a valuable new industry for the region.

The production took the Treefrog team across Norfolk, onto the water and into laboratories, combining expert interviews, location filming, drone footage and extensive B-roll to tell a complex story in an accessible and engaging way.

The finished documentary was premiered at the Seaweed in East Anglia project showcase in January, where our team was invited not only to see the film shown to stakeholders, but to introduce it and talk about our own experience of documenting the project.

WATCH THE VIDEO

ABOUT THE PROJECT

When you think about East Anglia, several things may come to mind.
Maybe you think of Carrow Road and the Canaries, maybe Norwich Market or even Great Yarmouth Seafront, but seaweed probably isn't the first thing you think of.

But behind the scenes, a group of businesses, researchers and organisations were and are exploring the potential for exactly that.

The Seaweed in East Anglia project brought together expertise from across academia, marine science, biotechnology, innovation and commercial seaweed production to investigate what developing a seaweed industry in the region could look like.

And the potential applications went much further than we initially realised.

Through our early conversations with the project team, we learned about the different ways seaweed could be grown and harvested, the research taking place around it and the opportunities to transform it into everything from food products to more sustainable materials.

There was a genuinely interesting story here.

Our job was to find the best way of telling it.

THE CHALLENGE

The more we learned about the project, the harder it became to see how we could tell the story properly in two or three minutes.
There were multiple organisations involved, each contributing different expertise.

There was the story of cultivating seaweed in East Anglia.
There was the marine and environmental side.
There was scientific research.
There was the process of taking harvested seaweed and exploring potential applications.
There were physical products being developed from it.

And underpinning everything was the much bigger question of what a successful seaweed industry could potentially mean for the region.

Trying to squeeze all of that into a couple of minutes would have meant sacrificing much of what made the project interesting in the first place.

So rather than simply delivering the brief exactly as it had originally been written, we challenged it.

We went back to Hethel Innovation and discussed the possibility of creating something more substantial: a mini-documentary that would give the different contributors enough space to explain their role while allowing us to follow the journey of the project properly.

Hethel agreed.

Our two-minute video had just become a 15-minute documentary.

And with that, the story was underway.

THE APPROACH

Once we'd agreed on the longer format, we could start thinking about the production as a story rather than a collection of interviews.

One of the most important decisions was allowing the people actually involved in the project to explain it.

Rather than relying on a presenter or voiceover to tell audiences what was happening, we wanted to bring together the researchers, specialists, businesses and project partners who understood each stage first-hand.

That meant filming with Hethel Innovation, the University of East Anglia, CEFAS, Biotechnica and Norfolk Seaweed.

Each organisation could provide a different piece of the puzzle.

Our role was to understand how those pieces fitted together and create a structure that would take somebody with little or no prior knowledge of seaweed cultivation through the story without overwhelming them with technical information.

The interviews would provide the narrative.
Everything else we captured would help bring that narrative to life.

Ultimately, we decided the best place to start the story from, was the beginning.
If we could shape the narrative to start with farming and cultivation and track the journey all the way to the end user

PRE-PRODUCTION

A 15-minute documentary involving five organisations, numerous contributors and several very different filming environments needed considerably more planning than the original short film.

Before filming began, we developed a production schedule that worked backwards from the January showcase deadline.

We liaised with each participating organisation to coordinate locations, availability and interview times, arranging calls and conversations where required so we understood what each contributor could bring to the film.

Interview questions were developed around each person's expertise rather than asking everyone the same generic questions. We needed individual contributors to explain their part of the story while giving our editors enough crossover to connect those interviews together naturally afterwards.

We also began planning the visual side of the documentary.

A film about seaweed couldn't consist of 15 minutes of people sitting in offices talking about it.

We needed the coast. We needed the seaweed itself. We needed the science. We needed the products. And we needed the people actually doing the work.

Understanding the story
Before filming began, we worked closely with Hethel Innovation to properly understand the Seaweed in East Anglia project, the organisations involved and the story we needed to tell.
This early research helped us understand the science, potential applications and wider regional opportunity, while also identifying the role that Hethel Innovation, UEA, CEFAS, Biotechnica and Norfolk Seaweed would each play within the documentary.
Planning the narrative
Once the original 2–3 minute brief developed into a 15-minute mini-documentary, we created an initial structure and storyboard to map out how the different interviews, locations and subjects could form one coherent story.
This gave us a clear direction while deliberately leaving enough flexibility for interesting topics and perspectives to emerge during filming.
Scheduling and coordination
With five organisations, multiple contributors and several filming locations involved, scheduling was a significant part of the process.
We coordinated shoot dates, interview times, locations and points of contact, while creating a wider production timeline that allowed enough time for filming, editing, client feedback and amendments ahead of the January 2024 showcase.
Interview research and questions
Rather than asking every contributor the same generic questions, we researched their role within the project and developed interview questions around their individual expertise.
The questions were designed to generate natural responses while ensuring the different interviews would complement each other when brought together during the edit.
Shot lists and B-roll
We also planned the supporting footage required to bring the story to life.
This included laboratories, research activity, seaweed samples, prototype products, coastal environments and the cultivation and retrieval process itself. We also planned additional drone and landscape filming around the Norfolk coast to establish the project's connection to the region.
Planning for different environments
The production would take us from professional interviews and laboratory environments to coastal locations and filming out on the water.
For each shoot, we considered the cameras, lenses, lighting, audio, drone equipment and supporting kit required, alongside any practical considerations associated with the location.
By putting that work in beforehand, we could arrive at each shoot knowing what we needed to capture while still having the flexibility to follow the story wherever it took us.

FILMING THE DOCUMENTARY PIECE

This project took us into one of the widest ranges of environments we'd filmed within for a single story.

Our team travelled across Norfolk, interviewing the organisations involved and capturing the places, processes and people behind the project.

We filmed expert talking-head interviews, laboratories, research environments, seaweed samples, prototype products and extensive supporting B-roll.

Then there was the coast.

We headed out early to capture additional footage of Norfolk's coastline and used drone filming to establish the environment at the heart of the story.

And at one point, the production took us off dry land altogether.

Our team joined a trip out onto the water to capture the retrieval of seaweed lines, giving us first-hand footage of the marine side of the project rather than relying on stock imagery or trying to explain the process through interviews alone.

At the other end of the journey, we were putting on lab coats and filming some of the potential applications being explored for seaweed, including experimental materials and food products.

One production had taken us from seaweed growing off the Norfolk coast to seeing what could ultimately be made from it.

That visual variety became one of the greatest strengths of the finished documentary.

Hethel Innovation
As the organisation coordinating the wider project, Hethel Innovation helped provide the overarching narrative: why the project existed, how the partnership had come together and what developing the sector could potentially mean for East Anglia.
University of East Anglia
Filming with UEA allowed us to explore the research and academic expertise supporting the project, giving the documentary the scientific context required to explain both the opportunities and questions surrounding seaweed cultivation.
CEFAS
Working with CEFAS introduced the marine science perspective and helped connect the wider ambitions of the project with the realities of working within the marine environment.
Norfolk Seaweed
This was where we could get much closer to the physical process itself. Alongside interviews, our filming included the practical side of seaweed cultivation and retrieval, including heading out onto the water to capture footage that became an important visual part of the documentary.
Biotechnica
Filming with Biotechnica helped us explore what could happen after seaweed had been grown and harvested.
This gave us some of the project's most unusual B-roll, including examples of seaweed being investigated for use within different products and materials, and helped bring the potential commercial applications discussed throughout the documentary to life.

POST PRODUCTION AND EDITING

By the time filming finished, we had accumulated interviews from five organisations alongside footage from laboratories, businesses, the Norfolk coast and out on the water.

Then came the difficult bit.

Turning all of it into one story.

Our editors worked through the interviews and supporting footage in Adobe Premiere Pro, identifying the strongest contributions and beginning to construct the narrative.

We had developed an initial structure before filming, but one of the advantages of documentary production is being willing to let the story change when the material tells you it should.

Some subjects became more important than we'd anticipated. Certain interview responses created natural connections between organisations. And footage we'd captured on location gave us opportunities to show parts of the story more effectively than we could ever explain them.

So while the original structure remained our guide, we let the story breathe.

The edit was refined through music, audio processing, colour grading, graphics and extensive B-roll, before draft versions were shared with Hethel Innovation for review.

We then worked collaboratively through feedback and final amendments until everyone involved was happy with the finished documentary.

Finding the story
With filming complete, we had hours of interviews and B-roll captured across multiple organisations, locations and environments. The first job was reviewing and organising everything we'd collected and identifying the strongest contributions.
Although we'd developed a storyboard during pre-production, we didn't force the footage to fit it. Some interviews introduced new ideas and connections, so we allowed the story to develop naturally during the edit.
Building the documentary
Using Adobe Premiere Pro, we began bringing the different interviews together into a single narrative.
With five organisations contributing different perspectives, this wasn't simply a case of placing one interview after another. We selected, trimmed and rearranged responses so that contributors could effectively continue each other's conversations, helping the documentary feel like one connected story rather than a collection of separate interviews.
Bringing it to life with B-roll
Once the core narrative was established, we layered in the extensive B-roll captured throughout production.
Footage from laboratories, the Norfolk coastline, drone flights, seaweed retrieval, research environments and prototype products allowed us to visually demonstrate what contributors were discussing and keep a 15-minute documentary engaging.
Music, audio and colour
We sourced professionally licensed music through Artlist to complement the documentary without overpowering the interviews.
Interview audio was cleaned and balanced, music levels were mixed around dialogue and footage was colour-corrected and graded to create consistency between the very different environments we'd filmed in.
Titles, graphics and other supporting elements were also added where required to identify contributors and help guide viewers through the story.
Client review and refinement
Draft versions were shared with Hethel Innovation for review, allowing us to work collaboratively through feedback and amendments.
This stage was particularly important for a documentary involving several specialist organisations. Alongside making sure the film worked creatively, we needed to ensure the finished story represented the project and its subject matter accurately.
Following the final amendments, we completed our quality checks and delivered the finished 15-minute Seaweed in East Anglia documentary ready for its first audience at the January project showcase.

THE RESULT

What started as a brief for a two-to-three-minute promotional video ultimately became a 15-minute mini-documentary telling the much bigger story of Seaweed in East Anglia.

The longer format gave each organisation enough space to contribute its expertise while allowing audiences to follow the journey from the marine environment and cultivation through to research, innovation and potential commercial applications.

More importantly, the finished film gave Hethel Innovation a single piece of content capable of bringing together a complicated, multi-partner project and presenting it to people who hadn't been involved in it.

And we got to see that happen first-hand.

The documentary was completed in time for the project's January 2024 workshop and showcase, where the Treefrog team was invited along to see the culmination of the project.

We were also given the opportunity to introduce the finished documentary to the audience and talk about our experience of creating it.

After months spent learning about the project, travelling across Norfolk, interviewing the people behind it, heading out onto the water and eventually piecing everything together back at Treefrog, being able to watch the finished film presented to the project's stakeholders was a particularly satisfying way to bring the production to a close.

And, most importantly, the client was happy too.

Working with Treefrog to create the Seaweed in East Anglia project video to aid us with showcasing what we are doing and the potential of the seaweed industry has been nothing but a joy. The enthusiasm from the team, as well as their professionalism, has resulted in a brilliant piece that we are super proud of showing to our stakeholders and anyone else interested in what we are doing. We will absolutely use Treefrog again in the future if we require further video content and recommend them to the fullest.