marketing, web development, graphic design blog

The past few weeks have been spent working on a video project for our client, Energy Projects Plus on behalf of Wirral Council. Energy Projects Plus have a campaign at the moment to get homes in the Wirral fully insulated.

We were asked to complete a re-design of their website, produce direct mail pieces, take over their marketing and produce a series of videos that would inform and inspire their target market.

The first thing when it comes to shooting video is to understand what the client wants the video to do; the message it delivers and the emotions it makes the viewers feel. In this case the videos would be emphasising the fact that the scheme was free and that it was quick and easy to complete.

Before starting any filming it needs to be storyboarded; this is vital as you don’t want to be panicking at the last minute to make sure you get the right shots, only to get back to the office to discover you missed something important. After drawing up the storyboards and making sure they included everything we needed, it was time to start the filming.

We used a Sony Z5 HD camera on this shoot. There were a series of four videos that required filming, each showing the different steps involved when getting the free insulation fitted. The videos needed to show just how quick, easy and tidy the whole process was. All of the videos were shot on location, so we had to make sure the conditions were suitable for filming as the majority of it took place outdoors.

There were a few occasions where this obviously didn’t go to plan and in true British style it poured down, putting a stop to any shiny expensive camera equipment being outside. I did contemplate filming the whole thing from the warmth of the car; I didn’t see it as being lazy, but sitting in a very, very big camera dolly. Sorted!

As well as getting videos of the actual installation process we were filming testimonials of customers who have already had their home’s insulated through the Warmer Wirral scheme. We did this by approaching customers that have had the insulation for a few months and asking if they were ok to be filmed. We then asked them to tell us what they thought of the whole insulation process, using Sennheiser wireless mics to record their testimonials, which would be used in the final video.

Once all four videos were filmed it was time to get the narration down, so we headed over to the Energy Project Plus main office to record the script that would be laid over the video. We worked with the client to make sure the script was exactly what they were after and that it delivered all the right messages – backed up the visuals being presented in the video.

After the script was recorded it was time to head back to the nerd cave to begin editing everything together, creating motion graphics intros and title screens and adding background music. A few days later, voila! The videos were ready to be embedded into the new Warmer Wirral website (which I may point out, was also designed by your favourite media creatives here at Studiowide).  You’ll be able to watch the videos and check out our handy work in the next few days when the website goes live over at; www.warmerwirral.org.uk