Tyneside industrial historian Stafford Linsley advised Amber on the need to preserve workplaces that were vanishing. With the brickworks already closed and the owners showing no interest in its history, Amber employed the workers for an extra week to demonstrate their craft. The footage captures the rhythm, skill, and physical demands of the work, providing a rare insight into a way of making bricks that had remained unchanged for generations.

As one of Amber’s early documentary projects, The Last Shift reflects the collective’s commitment to preserving working-class histories in North East England. The film pays tribute to the skill of the brickworkers and highlights the wider industrial decline affecting the region. By capturing this craft at the moment of its disappearance, The Last Shift remains an important record of a community shaped by industry and left behind by economic change.