Tom Johnson House: a 1970s office, retrofitted
The Office of Public Works gave Tom Johnson House on Haddington Road, a 1970s office building, a deep retrofit, and it became the headquarters of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. We filmed the building before, during and after the works, and interviewed the people behind it. The job in the edit was to turn hours of interviews into one film of under two minutes.
Corporate videoWatch the film
What the OPW needed, and what we made
- When
- Filmed during the works, finished September 2024
- Filming
- Five days across the project
- Length
- A 1:59 film, in two versions
What they needed
A film about the retrofit: why the OPW rehabilitated a building it owns rather than leasing, how architecture and engineering came together, and what changed, from capacity to energy use and recycled waste.
What we filmed
The building through the works and finished, from the ground and the air, then interviews in the finished building with the OPW’s chairman, its architects and engineers, the Department’s Secretary General and the then Minister, Eamon Ryan.
Less, said well
The first cuts had too much talk. We cut the interviews down to the strongest lines, and let the building and short on-screen facts carry the rest.
What we delivered
- Five filming days
- A 1:59 film
- A version with motion graphics
- Names and subtitles
- Interview selects
- Drone footage of the building
Five filming days, a 1:59 film, a version with motion graphics, names and subtitles, interview selects, drone footage of the building.
From hours of interviews to two minutes
Most of the work was choosing what to leave out.
Step 01
During the works: filming
We filmed the building before, during and after the retrofit, five days in all.
Step 02
April 2024: interviews
The people behind the project spoke to camera in the finished building.
Step 03
June to August 2024: the story
The OPW chose its lines from the interview cuts, and we built a structure from them.
Step 04
September 2024: the final
Two versions, with and without motion graphics, went to the OPW with final sound design.
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