The Understanding: Adding drama to the scene, but not the subject.
We do our best to find the right balance of keeping it simple, yet interesting for video projects. We know our client’s messages have immense value, but viewers will not consume that information if the content does not look interesting enough to get them to start. So, we took the approach to add drama to the scene instead of the subject as that can be a bit much for corporate videos; a decision made possible by us understanding the end goal of the project first.
So how did our team achieve the right balance with this video!? In a nutshell, our experience! … The end. Kidding… For the detailed answer, read on.
It starts with the information gathered through our initial consultation with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). The video was commissioned to enhance awareness of the CDB’s development of a Recovery Duration Adjuster (RDA) with a 360-degree approach, by assessing the economic, social and environmental dimensions of vulnerability that better reflect the true state of affairs of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean. Therefore resulting in a more accurate consensus of the actual needs in recovery of our home islands and that of our friends and families in the region.
Through our consultation-first approach, we concluded that the target audience for this specific project would watch the video based on the merit of the information, alone. The CDB already had a clear channel to their audience, so this meant our first priority was not to attract viewers, but we could jump straight into how do we maintain the viewer, who in this case would be high-level decision-makers.
Video Grab of CDB’s Country Economist for Barbados, Jason Cotton
The Execution: How we approached it technically
During our location scouting session at the offices of the CDB, once we laid eyes on this little meeting room tucked away amidst some cubicles, we knew it was going to be the perfect location.
We turned off the room lights and placed a powerful daylight balanced light without a softbox outside of the room at the perfect angle from above spotting through the glass. This resulted in the light streaks projecting harshly (but perfectly) on the wall, without falling on the subjects. This artificially extended the “backdrop”, instead of having just a plain white wall.
The next step was to place another daylight balanced light on the inside, this time with a softbox to ensure the primary lighting on the subject was a soft key-light. We then used the spill of the outside light on the other side of the glass as both backlight and fill-light, This was made easier thanks to the white wall reflecting the light evenly.
The penultimate step was framing the shot in a way to enhance the scene by having the leading lines of the glass going from the middle of the shot straight off the left edge of the frame with the subject offset to the right but with enough room to not appear compressed into the space.
The final touch was finding a nearby plant and making it a prop to add a splash of colour in the background. It was key it was neutral and not red or yellow flowers for example as those would have been too loud for the scene.
For these kinds of projects, flashy edits just don’t cut it as they detract from the most important thing, the information. So with our experience and a gentle touch of class in our process we were able to make this content look interesting by adding drama to the scene, instead of the subject.
#nuvisualmedia #ideastoimages #barbados #caribbean #international #mediacompany
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