Tuesday, April 5, 2011

On Location and Behind the Scenes



In the photo above, our Colorado-based video crew gets one of the interviewees ready for our shoot last week at St. Anthony Hospital North near Denver. The day-long shoot will result in a series of videos that will serve as part of a campaign to celebrate the hospital’s 40-year anniversary.

What happens behind the scenes is so important, and makes the difference between a quality production and an average production.

Here, our make-up artist is putting the finishing make-up touches on before the camera rolls. A good make-up artist plays two roles—creating a natural, healthy on-camera look, and helping the interviewees start to feel comfortable before their shoot. We look for experience, good interpersonal skills (our artist in Colorado has worked on everyone from President Obama to models), and the ability to work without becoming intrusive.

At this shoot, our videographer attends to the details that ensure quality, while our producer conducts the interviews. Both have decades of experience at this, and know exactly the elements required to capture real people in ways that are compelling, believable, and professional.

Conducting the interview is one of the most important roles, as this person plays part psychologist and part producer. It’s an art to get ordinary people to be not only believable, but real and professional on camera. For this kind of interview, we want to capture what the people most care about—so while we invite them to think about some specific questions before hand, we never want them to come prepared with a memorized script. It’s just too hard for people who don’t do this for a living to make it heart-felt and real.

Our producer is not only mindful of the message and emotional tone as he interviews, but is also coaching them on phrasing and thinking about how all of the strands of the interview will come together in the final edited piece—all the while keeping the shoot on schedule.

It's important to us that our crew always is attentive to the demands of the location and the industry—quiet, professional, and able to represent our client well.

We love working in this medium, and have introduced some new methods of making this kind of production much more affordable for our clients. We anticipate much of our work in the future to be in video, and have developed the internal framework to make this a central part of the services we offer.

Stay tuned for more on this campaign that launches in May.

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