Video: Perfect timing as Shrewsbury stars in watchmaker's promotional film
Postcards from picture-perfect Shrewsbury feature in a new film by an iconic county watchmaker that supplies Harrods.
Newgate, which is based in Oswestry, has created a three-and-a-half-minute film that depicts Shropshire's County Town in all of its glory. There are images of the Town Square, Quarry Park, Golden Cross pub, St Alkmund's Place and numerous other recognisable locations in the company's sophisticated and expensively-shot film.
Newgate sells design-led clocks and homeware sold in Liberty, Harrods and Conran's. It is unveiling the film to coincide with the launch of its new unisex fashion watch collection. And it chose the historic streets of Shrewsbury as the backdrop for their promotional video.
The brand is recognised across the world for their statement timepieces but the company's headquarters are still located in Oswestry, where Newgate was first founded. Owners and creative directors Jim and Chloe Read decided to use Shrewsbury as a backdrop because they live in the town.
The promotional video features soaring orchestral music and beautiful sequences of imagery, with a tale of secrets, spies and espionage woven around the brand's collection of 49 distinctive watches. The story unfolds against the local town's atmospheric backdrop.
Mr Read, Newgate's founding director, said: "Newgate has always been champions of our Great British design heritage. The location of Shrewsbury really lends that atmospheric feeling of vintage nostalgia to the film – you just feel it's quirky, medieval streets have so many stories to tell."
The historic town centre provided a wealth of visually stunning backdrops for director and cinematographer Robbie Meade, of Mount Creative films, to choose from when shooting. Mr Meade said: "The challenge was in deciding which bits to cut. We ended up with so many great shots it was a real challenge editing it down."
Mr Meade has just finished filming in several diverse locations abroad, notably documenting extreme mountain biking in the near vertical sandstone ridges of the Utah desert.
He added: "It was nice to switch up the pace, and get a chance to slow down and create something calm and elegant in keeping with Newgate's brand identity."
Amongst the vignettes instantly recognisable in the short film are St Alkmunds Place, Porthill Suspension Bridge, and the Dingle, the formal floral masterpiece created by world-renowned gardener Percy Thrower.
Some of the most striking sequences in the film took advantage of the stunning setting of the Quarry Park where camera stabilizers were used to film long sweeping shots of the open spaces.
Another distinctive location featured is the exterior of The Golden Cross hotel and restaurant, one of Shrewsbury's oldest public houses which has nestled on one of Shrewsbury's historic side streets for the past 700 years.
The male lead in the brand film, Phil Leaman, who has modelled on the catwalks of New York and Milan for Men's Fashion Weeks, also has links to the town of Flowers having grown up a short distance away in Guilsfield, Powys, and attended school in Welshpool.
He said: "It's great to be able to work with a big company that has kept its headquarters within Shropshire. Most companies up sticks and head to London once they reach a certain level of success, so it's really great that Newgate have stayed true to their roots and remained in the local area."
