Video Production Case Study with Cambridge University…
Our video production company here in Cambridge services a wide range of clients. Organisations big and small covering multiple sectors, so it’s rare that our creative team are twiddling their thumbs.
Our Cambridge production hub delivers a variety of creative treatments, from corporate video production, explainer video production, 2D and 3D animation services.
Front Foot Creative’s videography and editing teams like nothing better than a project which allows their creative juices to flow.
The challenge however, was effectively communicating the key benefits of their Royce-funded facilities.
The Department required a fresh approach to spark interest in the staggering capabilities the facilities have to offer and ultimately increase its use.
Out with the old powerpoints and PDFs – hello to high quality, high value, engaging video content!
Our key objective therefore became to arm DMSM with video collateral to attract the brightest scientific and academic minds.
The content needed to showcase the world-leading facilities and technology platforms available in Cambridge, to academics and for commercial use to business at the forefront of technological breakthrough.
As ever, one of the key ingredients to creating a successful corporate video is thorough pre-production.
This project faced plenty of logistical challenges to overcome, given the need to include figures from both academia and industry. Inevitably, navigating busy schedules to book shoot time was a challenge, but we offered a flexible approach to ensure all interviews could be captured.
Key Messages
Sounds simple, but grasping the required key messages for a corporate video can be a challenge with a significantly complex subject matter, rich with jargon like this project.
Getting to really know businesses and institutions, to understand how their organisations run, and really getting underneath the surface, can be one of the most interesting aspects of a video project.
This case was no exception. We spent multiple hours talking to stakeholders to understand the dynamics of the department, the key facilities and their benefit to both academia and industry. This enabled us to script relevant questions to ensure all key messages were delivered by each interviewee.
Recce Time
It can’t be overstated how imperative scheduled recce time was to this project. Showcasing the labs at their world-leading best (more on this later) was essential. But that presented its own challenges, with regards space, light and audio set-ups.
Several visits to the department prior to shooting ensured we had a feel for the facilities as well as a well managed plan for the equipment and set up that would be required to produce the very best content possible.
Spend all the time you need in Pre-Production to get your corporate video right! Often the pressure of deadlines can give you a false sense of haste. Rushing pre-production will only increase the risk of more timely or costly mistakes later on in a project. Or worse…result in a video you are not quite happy with!
Tech Spec
We opted for a wide screen aspect ratio in post-production, 2.5:1, to accentuate the cinematic feel of the feature. This accompanied our approach in production, where we filmed with a planned, slow, continuous action to produce smooth sequences that truly illustrated the story and facilities.
Talking Heads
To take advantage of all the pre-production work on key messages, an extra level of care was taken to ensure on-screen talent nailed their delivery, with focus on impact and developing an authenticity in each answer.
Second Camera
A second camera operator was enlisted for interviews and was essential in capturing b-roll in small windows on tight shoot schedules. For b-roll, camera A focused on wide and moving shots, supported by the camera B operator who gathered close ups. This maximised the footage captured with each member of on-screen talent, providing a wealth of footage for the edit.
Overcoming Production Challenges
It was imperative the real feel of the world leading facilities came across in all video deliverables. Talking heads were therefore filmed inside the labs, which presented production challenges for recording audio effectively, with filming taking place close to noisy machines that could not be switched off.
Microphones were therefore placed close to each interviewee’s throat, with gain set to a minimum -to minus 12 attenuation on lav mics.
And in post-production extra attention was applied to ensure audio was as clean as possible.
The Results
The style of the content look, feel and grade, as well as the animated graphics including beginning and end slates and lower thirds, produced in alignment with the Department’s brand guidelines, will ensure that future video assets are consistent and on brand.
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