Recently, the Coolbox team worked on a project for Manchester-based clothing brand, Morale. A shoot that initially wasn’t meant to be ours to edit. But when the footage looked too good to ignore, we couldn’t help ourselves. What followed was two very different edits from two creative minds at Coolbox, each bringing a distinct vibe and technical approach to the table.
Here’s how it went down.
A Shoot in Two Worlds
The shoot took place across two locations: the windswept, cinematic backdrop of Dovestone Reservoir and the clean, controlled setting of a photography studio in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. The contrast couldn’t be more striking – a gritty, moody forest vs a minimal indoor setup, which presented a unique challenge: how do you stitch together two completely different moods into one cohesive commercial?
Connor wasn’t even on set during the shoot, while Cal was right in the thick of it. That difference shaped how each of them approached their edit.
Found Footage, Real Vibes
The team captured some of the shoot on an old-school DV tape camcorder, we’re talking grainy, handheld footage that screams “early 2000s home video”. Originally, the plan was just to film, not edit. But once that grainy DV footage was reviewed, the potential was undeniable.
“I wanted to do something fun,” said Connor. “That DV look, shot-on-tape feel – I knew I could build something interesting around that.”
Meanwhile, Cal was more drawn to the studio setup. While the forest visuals were cinematic, he’d seen too many shoots up at Dovestones to get excited. “It’s been done,” he said. “The studio setup was fresh, clean, and gave us total control over lighting, that’s where I saw the creative spark.”
Technical Workarounds & Glitchy Goodness
Capturing footage from the DV cam wasn’t straightforward. It involved a string of increasingly ancient cables and a heroic old MacBook Air. After daisy-chaining various FireWire connections, the team managed to digitise the footage.
Once they had it, things got experimental.
Connor leaned heavily into the lo-fi look, using glitch effects and visual distortion to create a sense of analogue chaos. He even added transitions using After Effects rotoscoping, layering models over glitching backgrounds to create an almost music video-like feel.
Cal took a more streamlined approach, focusing on pacing and vibe. While he included a few DV clips, he leaned more into bold visual effects, lens warps, facial distortions, and anamorphic framing – to give the studio footage a surreal, edgy flavour.
Same Footage, Two Stories
Interestingly, both editors took the same footage and ended up telling very different visual stories.
Connor structured his edit like a mini-film with three acts: forest, reservoir, studio. “I got about 30 seconds into the forest footage before I got bored,” he joked. “So I split it up and added transitions to keep it moving.”
Cal, on the other hand, tried to go all-in on the studio stuff but found it lacked enough variation on its own. “I almost did a one-minute cut of just the studio,” he said, “but in the end I brought in some forest stuff to add depth.”
Creative Freedom, No Pressure
One of the most interesting things about this project? It wasn’t for delivery. The edits weren’t client-mandated; they were experiments. That freedom made the difference.
“There was no pressure to get sign-off,” said Cal. “It let us push the boundaries a bit. You can ask yourself: How would I do this if it were totally up to me?”
Both edits were shared internally until Jess, from the team, turned it into a friendly competition. A simple poll: which edit do you prefer, A or B? Neither Connor nor Cal had planned for it to be a contest, but the comparison was a great reminder of how the same footage can lead to completely different outcomes, depending on the creative vision.
Final Thoughts
This kind of experimental editing doesn’t come around often, especially in the thick of regular client work. But it reminded the Coolbox crew why they do what they do. With a bit of downtime, some found footage, and zero expectations, they created something bold, gritty, and totally their own.
Whether it’s dragging and dropping effects or mapping out a glitch-to-black-and-white transition with rotoscoping and VFX finesse, one thing’s clear: no two editors will ever tell the same story even with the same tape.
Watch the full podcast episode below. Or listen on Spotify.