Showcasing a Facility Upgrade at One of the UK's Largest Anaerobic Digestion Plants
Generate Upcycle operates waste-to-value facilities across the UK and internationally, turning food waste into renewable energy and organic fertiliser. Following major upgrades to their Fernbrook Bio plant in Kettering — including new digesters, a feedstock hall, and gas upgrading systems — they needed fresh visual content to reflect the facility as it stands today.
Delivered
- Aerial Cinematography
- FPV Close-Up Footage
- Facility Photography
- Website Header Video
- Orthophoto Mapping
The Brief
Generate Upcycle’s Fernbrook Bio facility processes up to 100,000 tonnes of organic waste per year, producing enough electricity to power around 5,000 homes and gas to heat a further 6,000. After a significant round of upgrades, their existing website imagery no longer represented the facility accurately. They needed a comprehensive content package — stills, video clips, and a website header video — to update their online presence and support business development.
What I Delivered
38 High-Resolution Photographs
Covering the full facility from multiple angles and perspectives. A mix of wide aerial shots showing the site’s scale and close-up compositions using visual compression to add depth and impact. Every image colour graded and ready for web, print, and marketing use.
31 Video Clips
Combining traditional aerial footage with dynamic FPV close-ups of the facility’s infrastructure — digesters, feedstock areas, and operational equipment. These clips give Generate Upcycle a library of footage to pull from for future promotional videos, social media, and presentations.
Website Header Video
Edited, colour graded, and optimised for web delivery at 1920×1080, complete with a fallback poster image and implementation guide for their web developer.
Orthophoto Map
A geometrically corrected aerial composite of the entire facility. For a site of this scale, orthophotos are a practical tool for site planning, tracking infrastructure changes over time, coordinating with contractors, and giving stakeholders a clear top-down view of the operation without needing to arrange a site visit.
The Shoot
Industrial facilities of this scale present specific challenges. Active operations, heavy machinery, restricted zones, and the sheer size of the site all factor into planning. The Fernbrook Bio plant sits across a large footprint with infrastructure at varying heights — from ground-level processing areas to the tops of the digester tanks — which made a combination of aerial and FPV drones essential for capturing the full picture.
FPV drones allowed me to get close to structures and infrastructure in ways that traditional camera drones can’t — threading between tanks, flying low across processing areas, and capturing the industrial detail that communicates the scale and sophistication of the operation.
Why This Content Works
Accuracy matters.
For a facility that’s recently undergone major upgrades, outdated imagery undermines credibility. Generate Upcycle now has a complete, current visual library that accurately represents what clients, partners, and stakeholders will see when they visit.
Multiple uses from one shoot.
Rather than commissioning separate photo and video shoots, a single visit produced 38 photographs, 31 video clips, a website header video, and an orthophoto map — maximising the value of one day’s production.
Built for their team to use.
Everything was delivered in formats ready for immediate use: web-optimised video with developer implementation notes, high-resolution stills for print and digital, and video clips suitable for social media and presentations. No additional processing needed.
