When the 2021 JORVIK Viking Festival was replaced by an online version – That JORVIK Viking Thing – due to the pandemic, the team was required to create a lot of pre-recorded content in a short space of time.

With the in-house videographer already working at full capacity, Inkblot was approached to work on a key part of the Thing’s programming: the Viking Saga. The saga had been identified – Refr the Sly – and the storyteller (or Skald) had written a version of the saga suitable for the family audience. The location had also been agreed – at the living history Viking village at Murton Park – with filming planned to take place at the same time as video and photo shoots.

A Big Saga

With the in-house videographer already working at full capacity, Inkblot was approached to work on a key part of the Thing’s programming: the Viking Saga. The saga had been identified – Refr the Sly – and the storyteller (or Skald) had written a version of the saga suitable for the family audience. The location had also been agreed – at the living history Viking village at Murton Park – with filming planned to take place at the same time as video and photo shoots.

In a Small Space

As this was taking place during lockdown, there were additional pressures of social distancing during the filming process – no mean feat given the very tight space for filming.

“With other projects taking place on site at the same time, we just left the Inkblot team and our Skald to get on with it, so when the first drafts came back, it was entirely fresh to us,” adds Jay.

All Killer, No Filler

The films were very popular with visitors to the online festival from every corner of the globe, particularly when all five chapters had been released and the whole series was available to ‘binge watch’.

“
What we got back really exceeded our expectations by some way – I had expected good quality visuals and sound of a talking head, but they added in so many more details that made the videos much more engaging to watch. Each chapter was filmed from a slightly different angle, so this tiny house appeared almost like five different sets. They had captured other bits of footage from the window during the day – costumed re-enactors walking past the house, Viking children playing, even animals around the village – which gave the films a superior sense of time and place.

Jay Commins

Marketing, York Archeological Trust

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