When we get a call or email from the wonderful team at Norton Abrasives we know we’re in for a treat. Why? Because they trust us, which makes the whole process effortless.
Norton Abrasives are a multinational with a well-established brand identity. Their tone of voice, colour palette, visuals and messaging are all well known. It’s a lot to keep on top of, but they’ve made it easy through detailed briefs and clear guidelines. It means we can jump straight into development without getting bogged down in guesswork. We understand their brand, and they trust us to get it right.
It’s more involved behind the scenes, but it often feels like this:
“We’re thinking about creating a video about X that says/does/shows Y””
“We think idea A, B, or C would be cool”
“Let’s go for A – here’s all the bits you need to bring it to life”
“We’ve shot it, what do you think?”
“Brilliant, let’s tweak this bit then we’re done”
“Here’s the tweak – that looks brilliant!”
That’s more or less how it went on this project.
The Brief
The task was to create a punchy, polished demo product video that introduces their brand new Sustainable Discs: high-performance cutting and grinding discs made with recycled materials. Norton Abrasives are one of the first manufacturers to produce cutting and grinding discs made with recycled materials, so it really was a campaign worth shouting about!
The film needed to:
- Highlight the discs in use
- Emphasise their environmental credentials without veering into corporate jargon
- Appeal to a DIY-savvy audience
Deliverables:
- 1x hero launch film
- 1x teaser per language
- A full suite of stills for digital and print
- All content delivered in English, Polish, German, and French
- 8 x deliverables
The ask was to showcase the sustainable discs in action and highlights their eco credentials without making it feel too ‘corporate’. The film needed to resonate with the DIY crowd, show off the product’s performance, and get Norton’s sustainability message across. Final deliverables would include the main film, teaser content, a bank of stills for wider marketing use, all prepped for a multilingual global rollout.
Sector
Manufacturing / Construction/ DIY / Sustainable Consumer Goods
Challenges
- Capturing reliable slow-motion footage of real cutting and grinding
- Keeping crew safe whilst working with potentially hazardous equipment
- Creating an engaging narrative whilst avoiding corporate jargon
- Coordinating multiple language versions with precision
Our Role
We handled the entire campaign from creative through to delivery with multiple languages:
- Concept development and scripting
- Full shoot production (camera, lighting, direction, safety)
- On-set editing and DIT workflow
- Multilingual voiceover recording and subtitle localisation
- Still photography and behind-the-scenes content
- Colour grade and delivery across all formats and platforms
Production Approach
We shot everything on location at a home in the North East. Our garage setup was the main scene, where we filmed a full run of materials: stainless steel hollow tubes, aluminium, paving slabs, tiles and PVC piping. Every disc had a use case to cover, and every cut had to be captured cleanly and repeatably. When you’re creating product videos, the products have to look flawless. They performed brilliantly but it;s tricky to get everything perfect when you’re working with sparks, dust, and awkwardly shaped bits of metal. (Did they ALL need to come in 2 metre lengths? Well now the Turps office is filled with offcuts if anyone fancies a go at building their own model railway)
All slow motion was captured at 240fps. It might look like we’re using the house lights but for you camera geeks out there, you know that high framerate + domestic lighting = flickering. So there are loads of lights in the scene. Let’s see if I can remember them all:
1 x Aputure 600D with a fresnel – outside pointing in, that’s our lovely fake sun.
1 x Aputure 600D with softbox – Key light
1 x Aputure 60D (yes 60, not another 600) – Backlight, to separate our actor from his environment
1 x Aputure MC – Making the blades really shine! (literally, not metaphorically)
1 x Neewer Tube Light – Edge light
Loads of neg fill and juuust out of frame trickery.
…we’re not sponsored by Aputure but we probably should be.
We rigged the lighting to stay hidden within the scene, giving us strong contrast and definition without making the setup feel staged. Richard Power our trusty set builder brought the product handling to life, working methodically through each material to keep continuity across takes. We filmed with a one camera setup. Our trusty Sony FX6 on a slider with Adam’s favourite, the DZO Catta Ace 35 – 80mm.
Multiple Languages
Once the English version was locked, we handled full localisation in-house. That meant multilingual video production, not just dubbing.
That’s a big ask for a production company led by a bloke who claims to speak Spanish and German but stumbles at anything more than pleasantries. So how did we do that?
We’re lucky enough to have a super strong network of talented people around us including translators, voice over artists and agents. We chat to our pals, tell them what we need and things slowly start to come together. We shared two lines with a couple of agents and said we needed options for various languages. We listened to around 40 applicants per language and picked our favourite 5. We sent those options over to the guys at Norton and they picked their favourite.
I couldn’t possibly pick a favourite but what I will say is that the voice over artists we worked with were all incredible. They all came with brilliant attitudes and even better performances. Good voice over work can massively elevate a production and bad voice over work can completely ruin it. Side note: Please don’t use AI generated voices – everyone can tell and frankly, they sound rubbish.
From there, we:
- Rebuilt every version with the correct voiceover pacing
- Synced audio precisely to the action
- Localised all motion graphics, on-screen text and CTAs
- Adjusted layouts to fit translated line lengths
- Managed output across multiple aspect ratios and formats
It’s not just the narration that’s changing. The graphics and branding requirements are different for each region. Working with a company that is skilled in working with larger brands is key when tackling a project like this. Dominic, our post-production head is meticulous with project organisation. So he knows that any output for the French market has a different “Norton Expert” logo. He knows that pack shots vary on which market they’re delivering to. Also…by now I think he could sell these discs in his sleep…right across Europe!
So what did we do:
- Sourced voice actors in Polish, German and French
- Directed each VO session remotely, giving performance feedback and timing adjustments
- Localised all on-screen graphics, product copy and call-to-actions
- Synced new VO recordings precisely to visuals
- Delivered one teaser and one full-length film per language, exported in platform-ready formats
We worked closely with the Norton marketing team to make sure each language version stayed on-brand. This included reviewing every translated line with native speakers, adjusting pacing and emphasis, and re-exporting each video with tailored captions and layouts.
Outcome
The final product video launch campaign was delivered in four languages and distributed across Norton’s global platforms. The visuals held their strength, the message stayed clear, and the localised versions carried just as much punch as the original.
This was a standout example of a product video done authentically, detailed and made globally ready.
A top team effort, and one we’re genuinely proud of. Here’s the Sustainable Discs in action:
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