marketing, web development, graphic design blog

By Daniel Piercy

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been busy putting together a series of training videos and instructional DVD for a new client who manufactures single use surgical instruments. Our client came to us with a request to film on location, edit, add motion graphic titles and to then finally compile 8 different product videos into one DVD. The DVD would then be handed out to their European and North American distributors to provide more information about the products that they offer. 

The majority of the filming was done on location at a company called Brandon Medical who have a mock-up medical theatre studio (which is the same studio they have filmed an episode of Emmerdale in!). Whilst there, we used two cameras; the first being a Sony Z5E which we used to film the main ‘A roll’ footage with. The second being a Canon 550D DSLR which we used to record a series of ‘B roll’ clips.  B roll footage is generally used as extra footage for final edit, such as cut-away shots of products, close ups or any other angles that would add to the overall quality of the training video.

As most of the audio in the training videos comes from interviews, we used Sennheiser wireless Lavalier microphones which clip onto the interviewee’s clothes just underneath the mouth to provide crisp and clear sounding vocals – essential for interview situations! For the ‘B roll’ shots we used a Rode Video Mic Pro as it gives performance miles better than that of any camera’s built-in mic, especially on a DSLR.

The shoot also required portable lighting which was set up in a classic 3 point lightening configuration, but with the added benefits of being able to position the extra theatre lights onto certain key areas.

Once all the filming was complete, it was back to the office to start editing. As the audio was a huge part of this project I donned the headphones and became possibly, the most un-sociable person ever, glued to my screen, oblivious to everything happening around me. Syncing the audio with the video is super important; if they’re ever so slightly out of sync, it’s going to stand out like a sore thumb. Plus, watching a video with the audio of somebody talking out of sync is so damn annoying; as I’m sure you know.

After the audio was all done, the footage needed to be colour corrected. For all the editing, our weapon of choice is Adobe’s Master Collection, spending most of the time in either Premiere Pro CS5 or After Effects CS5; both powerhouses for video editing. Both of these contain a ‘3 Way Colour Corrector’ which is invaluable for making slight changes to the white balance and exposure, not to mention allowing us to grade the footage giving us the desirable clean ‘sterile’ look that we wanted for this project.
 
After prepping all the footage, it was time to compile it all into the 8 separate videos that were going to go onto the DVD. After a few days of editing and refining, along with constant Emails back and forth between us and the client to make alterations and amendments, it was almost complete. There were just a few small changes to be made; our client dropped in for a coffee and a creative chat and we finished the final clips there and then. Once all of the editing was done there was one last step to signing this project off; the DVD.
 
The training videos main menu and scene selection menus were all made in Photoshop CS5 and then compiled and authored in Encore CS5, along with the 8 edited videos to produce the final DVD. The icing on the cake was our bespoke printed DVDs with the client’s logo and design on, which we burned the final training videos onto, along with the title and the region for which the DVD was intended.

Testimonial;

“Studiowide helped us to produce our first company promotional and training video for overseas customers. We are really very pleased with the final cut and enjoyed working with Carl, as he really took the time to understand our company and our needs, and put together a bespoke solution. Studiowide are a highly organised and efficient team with tonnes of creative ideas and technical know-how. I wouldn't hesitate to use their services again. Thanks guys”. Kate Stoddard, Export Manager. Single Use Surgical Ltd, Barnsley.