News Using time-lapse: developments in the retail sector

Our “using time-lapse” spotlight blogs take a closer look at how businesses big and small are utilising our full range of services.

Our time-lapse solutions have often been used to document internal and external developments for reputable retailers across the UK.

As part of our industry-leading service, we professionally time-lapse UK retail projects in a variety of settings, for a variety of different clients.

We have worked with reputable supermarkets, major telecommunications providers, car showrooms, kitchenware specialists, opticians and more; such retail projects add to the many years’ of experience we have had capturing both indoor and outdoor developments.

Of course, construction is not just about concrete posts and steel beams, but can be about more intricate building processes. Time-lapse is a great way to document the construction of an indoor space. It helps to keep people in the loop regarding developments as they happen, or retrospectively.

Although fit-outs are typically short-term, these indoor works still require careful management as the speed of change is usually much quicker due to the restricted time scale.

Project file #1 – Leicester Square Lego Store

Location: 48 Leicester Square, LSQLONDON
Client: ISG
Capture duration: 18 weeks

Above: inside Lego’s Leicester Square store following its new fit-out (the biggest in the world) – an exciting retail development we captured for ISG, one of the UK’s leading contractors.

In the heart of London’s West End, we utilised a dual camera system solution to capture works across two floors of a major new Lego store.

The flagship retail space is now home to a 637,000-brick Underground train and a one-tonne scale-model Big Ben. Our cameras provided comprehensive capture of these model installations, as well as other key activities as part of the fit-out, such as stocking shelves and a special launch event.

Rapid interval capture allowed detailed construction of this flagship retail space to be visualised memorably in three minutes.

Above: tilt-shift shot of the car park at Tesco’s Cannock branch, part of a retail project we were commissioned to time-lapse and monitor.

Just one of the many other internal Lego projects have worked on includes a Star Wars Miniland attraction at Legoland Discovery Centre in Manchester.

We have also captured various retail developments for many of the UK’s major supermarkets, including Tesco, the Co-Op and Sainsburys. Projects like these often consist of large indoor spaces, with long aisles under construction and important fit-out processes undertaken.

Our supermarket clients have also utilised our time-lapse to monitor external developments on site.

For one of Tesco’s branches in Cannock, Staffordshire, for example, our camera system was installed overlooking the supermarket car park. This allowed for our client and their consultants, Transport Planning Associates, to monitor traffic flow and the way the car park is used.

Project #2 – Waitrose plant room

Location: Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire

Client: Weatherite
Capture duration: one month

Another variation of retail work in our time-lapse portfolio involved the British supermarket Waitrose.

Energy cooling solution specialists, Weatherite, asked us to document the modular build of one of their special bio-fuel plant rooms, which was then transported to Waitrose’s Chipping Sodbury branch where it was to be permanently installed.

Fixed time-lapse solutions were put in place, firstly at Weatherite’s warehouse to capture the plant room build, and then to follow the complicated manoeuvres as the structure was taken to the Waitrose store.

The complexity of these prefabricated builds – in terms of their construction also also the robust methods put in place to transport them to their permanent home – are fascinating to watch in time-lapse.

Modular work also provides a different perspective from which to appreciate retail developments.

This is only a spotlight on the varied retail projects in our time-lapse portfolio. As we have detailed with just a handful of projects, there are many interesting elements to this sector which this mode of photography compliments.