Features / small business
Rubber Republic brings big ideas to Bristol
Imagine The Grand Budapest Hotel, but with bees. What about a Star Wars imperial walker in the back garden? Ideas like this are brought to life by Rubber Republic, an independent film studio with their head offices in Bristol.
Rubber Republic create video content for companies, broadcasters and charities. From adverts to campaigns, they have worked with companies such as eBay and Disney, including a recent campaign to get one of the UK’s biggest Youtubers into Wreck-It Ralph.
The studio was started in Bristol over 15 years ago, by creative director Matt Golding. Matt said Bristol is a great place for their work because of the “great creative community because it’s more concentrated”.
Inside the studio at Rubber Republic
Their main ethos as a studio centres on maintaining creativity at the heart of everything they produce, whilst operating ethically as a business that is “positive for society and the world”.
Rubber Republic is not run like a traditional film studio. Instead of being headed by a producer, over half of their team write and make films themselves. This has allowed them freedom in the content they produce and Matt says “we make things we would want to watch.”
It is very important to them to be a positive business. The company recently became a certified ‘B-corporation’, meaning they are committed to operating in ways and only working with other companies that do not negatively impact society or the environment.
Being environmentally friendly in their production means they recycle any props they can from their shoots, donate money from every project they work on to charity, and create films locally whenever they can, to save on transport emissions.
The Star Wars imperial walker built in a back garden
Many of their projects are shot in the city as a result of actively working locally.
A recent project they worked on in conjunction with eBay and Warner Bros was filmed at Lacock Abbey, well-known as a filming location for the Harry Potter films. To celebrate the release of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, they invited young fans to learn spells among the famous Hogwarts cloisters and proceeds from the event went to charity Lumos.
Going forward, Rubber Republic continuing to push the boundaries of creativity and positive business practice and aim to predict “where video is going next.” Matt assures that they won’t be moving out of the city any time soon, saying the studio can “produce world class work out of Bristol.”
Photos provided by Matt Golding and Rubber Republic.
Read more: ‘Small business owners are Bristol heroes’
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