Business Description
Founded and run by Ashley Cowan and Darren Emerson, East City Films are leaders in the production of purpose-driven, social-impact storytelling. From award-winning virtual reality documentaries, 360° video and augmented reality to brand experiences, television and music video content.
We immerse audiences in important stories, whether it's a VR documentary about the UK's detention system, an AR app about air quality for the British Heart Foundation or anti-bullying PSAs for Cartoon Network. We work with bands, brands, media owners, agencies, charities and broadcasters and produce our own documentaries.
We are the foremost VR documentary producers in Europe and one of the best known virtual reality production studios in London. We make immersive experiences which focus on issues of social justice, human rights and wellbeing. Often directed and produced by our co-founder Darren Emerson, our immersive content has played at film festivals all over the world. From Cannes, Raindance and IDFA to Sheffield Doc Fest, Venice and Tribeca, our VR productions have been celebrated and awarded by audiences and critics alike.
We are a 360 video company and have delivered 360 films to MTV, ITV, the BBC, the National Theatre, the Old Vic, and numerous brands. We've produced VR tours, 360° living streaming, multi-sensory experiences and projects using Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR.
Away from immersive, we continue to pride ourselves as purpose-driven, social-impact storytellers and have travelled the world to unearth people and places which interest, inspire us and need to be given a voice. We’ve produced HIV-awareness documentaries in Nigeria, Portugal and India. We’ve filmed Jason Mraz in the first-ever open-air pop concert in Myanmar as he campaigned against human trafficking in South East Asia. We’ve produced a series of short documentaries for History Channel about Solar Impulse, the first-ever solar-powered flight around the world.
East City Films is an eclectic company - a VR & AR company, a 360 filming company, a TV company, a branded content company, a content company - but we have one vein running through all our work: we strive to push the boundaries and illuminate the world with purpose-driven storytelling using traditional and immersive platforms.
We invest in our productions from the very beginning to the end. From the development stage where we get our creative juices flowing, to the planning and production process where we work on maximising the budget as much as we can. With in-house 4K post-production facilities, high-spec cameras, lights, grip and sound equipment and in-house producers and directors we keep external costs down and rarely need to spend production money anywhere but on screen.
Be it virtual reality production, augmented reality, 16:9 branded content, music video, documentary or 360 video production, if you have something important to say and are interested in your project becoming our next, then we’d love to hear from you.
