Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade – A Personal Journey with Alex James

Alex James on his farm. No hard sell.

Blonde took a full day of footage shot on Alex James’s Cotswolds farm and shaped it into a twelve-minute film for the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. The aim was to hold an international audience’s attention without losing what made the material interesting in the first place, Alex himself.

The department’s in-house team handled the filming and motion graphics. We brought the story together in the edit, then shaped the picture and sound to make the whole thing feel like one coherent film.

The Brief

The department’s Communications and Marketing team wanted to show international buyers and investors what makes UK food and drink special. The challenge was to do it without making another conventional government film. The approach was playful on the surface, informative underneath, and built around a twelve-minute YouTube film designed to remain relevant.

The Material

A walk and talk around Alex’s Cotswolds farm. A mini-Feastival in his kitchen. A sit-down interview.

Two cameras rolling across a full day on the farm. Hours of material to work with.

We synced everything, broke the walk and talk into manageable pieces, and built a first assembly and from there, with the department’s notes, we worked it down to the final film of twelve minutes.

The Edit

Alex James is a natural on camera. The warmth, the digressions, the asides about pigs and monks and cheese sold in tins in Japan, none of that can be scripted, and none of it should be. Our job was to preserve that natural rhythm, finding the story without sanding away the personality.

We trimmed dialogue where needed and let silences do some of the work. We pulled the music back in places and added establishing shots to give the film room to breathe.

The marketing team marked the lines they needed. We found places for them within the natural flow of the conversation.

The Grade

Naturalistic and positive. Skin tones first. Greens lifted in the Cotswold fields, reds brought up in the meat and the tomatoes, subtle vignettes to lift Alex off the background.

The challenge was to make footage from different sources feel as though it belonged in the same film, with a consistent sense of light, colour and atmosphere.

“I am particularly taken with the way you’ve matched the stock footage in with our footage – superb gold and green glow.”

Jacob Brookman, Head of Video & Photography, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade

The Sound

Sound design built around the farm itself with wind reduction in the outdoor sections, atmospheres to put you on the land, a light music bed, and a final mix which put Alex’s voice first. The result feels present and natural, without losing the clarity of a carefully finished film.

Working with an in-house team

The department brought the footage, graphics and brief. Blonde brought the material together into a finished film.

That meant finding the story in hours of footage, shaping the pace without losing Alex’s personality, and making material from different sources feel part of the same whole. It also meant working through approvals with the video team, marketing team, lawyers and Alex James’s own team, while keeping the film’s character intact.

The craft is in knowing what to leave alone.

Credits

Client: Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
Directed by: Jacob Brookman and Fabio Youniss
Director of Photography: Alexandra Boanta
Videography: Peter Kindersley
Post-production: Blonde
Motion design: Alex Hollowood
Senior Marketing Campaign Manager: Hannah Dowdall
Senior Production Manager: Sophie Williams

Results

The film – UK Food & Drink: A Personal Journey with Alex James | A visit to a Cotswolds farm – has had a second life on the festival circuit, released as the short film Down on the Farm with Alex James.

• Winner – London Film Club Short Film Festival 2026
• Official Selection – Filmmaker Sessions 2026
• Official Selection – Innovart Festival 2026
• Official Selection – European Short Awards 2026
• Nominee – London Art Film Awards 2026