An example of a promotional video that was shot in one day, edited in two – and pretty much immediately signed off by the client with no major changes (other than correcting the spelling the MD’s name!).
I’ll not deny that this was a long day’s filming for a single-handed DSLR shoot – starting at about 7.30am and ending at about 8.30pm once all the files were downloaded off the cards – but it was all worth it. One very happy customer who is now talking about two or three more videos and, more importantly, they are going to be incorporating my services within their offerings to their extensive client database.
If you could see my face now its looking like my name is ‘Mr. Chuffed’!
And, if you are looking for a visual communications company then you could get a lot, lot worse than N2. A fantastic team of very talented and enthusiastic people to work with.
I’m not ignoring you… honest! Here’s a run down on what’s been keeping me away from my blogging duties for the past couple of weeks.
The Eiger Safety film is still going on though it has been hampered by bad weather and date clashes. Having said that I’ve just packed my rucksack and I’m about to head down to the tube station as I’m filming the guys on the roof of St James’s Church in Piccadilly today. Eiger worked on the church tower restoration there and its a fabulous building to get some material of.
Tomorrow I’m going back to Claridge’s with Eiger to film them showing the BBC how to work safely at height! The Beeb are in the middle of producing a documentary about a year at Claridge’s and as Eiger are Claridge’s safety boys everything that’s filmed at height has to be done under their supervision. Should be interesting!
The Beaver84 job is all done and dusted – apart from waiting to hear back from end client on delivery. The brief on this job was to simply record an open day they were holding at their new branch in Cardiff but the weather was so appalling that only a handful of customers turned up – leaving me nothing much to capture on camera. To save the day I shot a couple of interviews with the MD and branch manager and cut these together with some general views and shots of their yard area (in the few moments of relative dryness). The cut is now more akin to a short video production about the branch which they can send out to those who were unable (or un-motived) to attend. You never know – it might just have made all their hard work worthwhile.
There might be some final changes to be made – but I’ve just un-passworded the most recent version on Vimeo…
Last week was my busiest yet – where I completed the filming for the N2 Visual Communications promotional video. This was an extremely knackering shoot which included interviewing key personnel from the three main divisions within the company, an interview with the MD plus general views around their offices, factory, design studio, large format print works and digital creation offices. This made me hot and tired but I’m gagging to get this one on the edit suite as it could lead on to much, much more work for me.
The week was finished off with my trip to the Blackpool Dance Festival at the Winter Gardens to film the Supadance stand in full frenzy when the doors opened for their sale. It was, as they’d explained, total bonkers. Worldwide recession… what recession?!
With some of their shoes selling at half their normal price dancers often save up and buy stacks of them at this event (the world’s largest dance festival) and then struggle to get them home. “Home” could be pretty much anywhere on the planet as the event attracts a worldwide list of competitors – with a massive Far East and Eastern European contingent. A whole new and different world to me – which I hope continue to learn about in the coming years.
Another full-on day’s filming with Eiger Safety last Friday – this time heading to theatre land, Claridges and then on to Trinity House.
St Martins Theatre – home of the Mousetrap
Eiger have installed and maintain various man-safe systems in theatres throughout the West End of London. The two examples they wanted to show in their promotional video were those installed in St Martins Theatre (home of the Mousetrap) and the neighbouring Ambassadors Theatre.
The St Martins Theatre latch-way installation is located over the glass dome above the auditorium and allows for safe cleaning and maintenance. It was a very tight, dusty space with virtually no light other than a couple of dim, coloured highlighters and the natural light coming in from the small entrance hatch. The aim was to “show it how it was” as it was a challenging installation let alone a difficult space to film in. Adding my own light was therefore not an option – plus like all the other Eiger Safety locations we don’t have all day to get the shot.
Admittedly, the picture below is tweaked a little in Photoshop but it’s pretty much how it looked to the naked eye. The ISO was set to 2,500 so its as noisy as you’d expect – but I’m convinced had I used a normal video camera it just wouldn’t have given me any pictures at all (another big plus point for shooting on DSLR).
Shooting in the dark above the dome at St Martins Theatre
There was just one simple shot required at the neighbouring Ambassadors Theatre and that was of a ladder system which connects two of the roof levels – again to allow easy and safe maintenance of the roof and gutters. The best place to get this was from one of the actor’s changing rooms in St Martins Theatre – which looks directly over the Ambassadors Theatre roof.
Safe perambulations on the roof at the Ambassadors Theatre
Claridges should have been a flying visit as it was a simple job of taking a couple of still photos of a specific type of latch point they have installed in this hotel. Clients seem to think you do both stills and video these days – and whilst they’re happy to pay me for what I can do stills-wise then I’m not turning the work away! But as usual its always the simple jobs that get you bogged down as it took nearly two hours to a/ Convince the management to allow us to film (although we’d already arranged this), b/ Find an empty room, and c/ Find a room with the right kind of latch point. Needless to say we got what was needed in the end – but what was it Robert Burns said in his poem.. “The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry”.
Our final location on Friday was the roof system at Trinity House. If you don’t know where Trinity House is there’s no prizes for guessing from the photo below that its located opposite the Tower of London. The view was as impressive as I was hoping for and it enabled us to get some footage of the guys working and testing the walkway and latch-way system. I think our appearance was a little shocking though for the chap who was standing in his hotel bedroom opposite the roof with nothing more than a smile on his face!
Overlooking the Tower of London
Fingers crossed that we are now heading into a better spell of weather. The list of remaining locations includes Oxford, Bristol, Bishops Stortford and at least another day’s worth in Central London. I do love a client who keeps adding to the task at hand – especially when it is this interesting.
I’m off to Cardiff on Wednesday to shoot the opening of a new depot for Beaver84 – a leading supplier of scaffolding, fencing and groundworks products both for hire and sale. I’m doing this one in conjunction with my associates at N2 Visual Communications who do Beaver84’s design, website, SEO, branding and print work (and now video production – through your’s truly!).
Beaver84 website - another great website from N2 Visual Communications
It’s not a massive job at the moment – a few GVs, shots of their stock and facilities plus interviews with staff and customers. A full day shoot – plus the post to get it all in shape for their website. We’re all hopeful that it’s going to lead on to something more involved – and lots of it!
Also had a great meeting this week with the guys at N2 about other projects in the pipeline. I’ve worked with this company for about 17-years as they were the printers we used for the IOV’s Focus magazine and provide an otherwise unknown level of customer care in the print and design industry (to me anyway). I’ve done a fair bit of freelance writing for them on websites and brochures in the past – and also got involved in various video projects with them over the years.
N2 Visual Communications - brand development and augmentation
I’m going to be starting production on a short teaser video for them in a couple of weeks – and once this is done they’ll be pumping video production services out to their extensive client base.
PS. Brilliant N2 logo by the way. What mastermind came up with that concept??? : )
If you are reading this you probably already know – but I completed my Video Artisan website refurbishment this week – moving away from my stark grey html preliminary site to something a little more colourful. I did say “a little more colourful”!!!
A fresh look for Video Artisan
OK – not an earth shattering change but a bit more eye catching and logical me thinks – certainly for someone involved in a visual medium such as video production. Its also mobile device-friendly which is ever so important these days. It should also be a bit more search-engine friendly (I hope).
Enjoy – and let me know if you spot any Cookerisms!
