COVID-19 has forced us all to invent ways we can remain connected when we are asked to isolate. This is particularly true for us producers of video content about people. Organizations need video more than ever to connect and mobilize their now home-bound constituents, yet producing videos about people often means we need to be close to them. While that’s not possible at the moment, there are ways to use existing footage to tell a new story using voice over and/or animated text.
Shooting interviews in a studio can be an ideal scenario. You’ve got a nice large open space with background options, plenty of lighting and grip, and usually great acoustics and silence when you need it. However, none of that comes for free and without restrictions. Studio time can range from $200/hr to multiple thousands of dollars per day. And it’s not often possible to get all of your interview subjects into the same studio on the same day. So sometimes you have to bring the studio with you. How can you replicate a studio look without a studio? Here’s how we do it.
For this project, we needed to source and manage a locally based video team in Jakarta. Timeline and budget didn’t allow for sending a video team from the USA. We’ve managed international video teams remotely for a variety of projects, meaning we direct and produce from DC while the local team executes our production plan. We then edit all the material in-house to produce the finished video. Here’s some tips we’ve picked up along the way on how to efficiently and effectively work with remote video teams.
This summer we had the pleasure and honor of filming Barack and Michelle Obama for a Netflix special promoting American Factory, the latest documentary from Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar and first in a slate of films produced by the Obama’s Higher Ground production company.
There are no hard and fast rules to storytelling. This is especially true when using video as the medium. The opportunities, tools and platforms we as production companies have to tell visual stories rapidly change, especially in the last decade we’ve been doing this work.
We’ve produced a variety of animated explainers for our clients, most recently for JSI’s “My Village, My Home” project and their Dose Per Container Partnership. Both projects aim to increase vaccination rates in developing nations. Here’s three reasons why animated explainers can be a great tool for conveying complex ideas and topics in an engaging and creative way.
Our latest client project was produced for the YWCA, as part of their “YWCA Vote” initiative. The campaign’s tagline “Your Voice. Your Vote. Your Future.” drove our creative, pushing us to focus on finding authentic moments that highlight why YWCA constituents vote.
From teaching in Italy, to releasing The Guardians, to filming in West Africa, here’s some highlights of what we’ve been up to the last few months.
You’ve produced a video for your organization, and you’ve released it to the world. Now what? This may not be your first time at the rodeo, and it certainly won’t be your last. Each video project adds to your portfolio of communication tools and informs the production of the next. So take a moment to evaluate what was successful and what missed the mark. We explain how in part 3 of our 3-part series on working with a video production company.
The idea of assigning a “process” to creative work might seem limiting. But over the years we’ve honed a production process that liberates strong storytelling to the benefit of our clients. Below, we’ll share a little bit about our production process in part 2 of our 3-part series on working with a production company.
As time intensive as it can be, we love responding to inquiries for video production bids. We’re truly inspired by the work you do and want to help you advance your mission with our storytelling. But sometimes we receive bids that don’t include all the right information, making it difficult to gauge what the potential client wants to achieve. So we thought it might be helpful to outline what to include in a video production RFP or Inquiry.
This June, we had the unique opportunity to collaborate on the creation and instruction of an intensive documentary film course at Georgetown University’s Villa Le Balze in Florence, Italy. The Villa holds a special place for us as we were both students there almost 14 years ago. Now professional filmmakers, we teamed up with Georgetown Film & Media Studies Director and College Dean Bernie Cook to develop a program that would unite film theory and hands-on storytelling practice.