Zipline Creative Limited is a BAFTA winning South Wales based film, TV and radio production company, best known for its BBC Series Rhod Gilbert's Work Experience and contribution to the Cow- Don't Text And Drive campaign with Gwent Police. The company, founded in 2008 by two former BBC employees, is now based in Risca, South Wales and produces work for TV, radio and corporate clients.
"Cow" effective due to its highly graphic nature, affected the national debate in the USA about texting and driving. Following rapid viral success, major news outlets like The Today Show and all the national networks began to cover the film's impact. This was followed by worldwide coverage on news networks, online and in print. Furthermore, the film earned honours in the Advertising Age's weekly Creativity Top 5 video. It is now considered the most successful viral Public safety announcement yet experienced on the web.
The film began humbly, originally commissioned by Gwent Police to be shown only in schools in the county. Having previously worked with local director Peter Watkins Hughes, they were approached by him to produce and shoot the new project on a modest budget. Zipline's core team, Nathan Mackintosh and Rhys Waters, were previously students on Peter's Documentary Film and Television Degree course, who were still working locally and in the process of setting up their own company.
Mackintosh and Waters based themselves in a small unit near Tredegar where they built a large green screen with enough space for a car to be wheeled in front. Alongside this, three identical Ford Kas, two identical Ford Mondeos and two Ford Fiestas were donated to the project by a local car dealer. An abandoned road was chosen to crash the cars in Tafarnaubach Industrial Estate, several miles from the unit. With help from young film makers, local fire fighters and engineers, the team successfully crashed the cars with a multiple camera setup, including a birds-eye view on the impact using a Sony PD170 attached to the bucket of a JCB.