We know, we know—this pandemic is getting to us all.
And yet, business must go on: companies are cautiously opening up their brick-and-mortar locations, video agencies (like us) are booking filming locations, and we’re all starting to implement the many social distancing guidelines that form new public space norms. But the way we do business has been unavoidably changed, and those changes are sometimes leading to decreased business and a struggle to increase customer traffic.
These are lean times—so being resourceful is key.
Your creative marketing and video communications still resonate with customers right now, and your audience wants to see fresh, motivating content they can hold onto while the world fights a common enemy. Since we’re faced with the inability to gather in large groups, one powerful creative strategy is to continue creating amazing content with what you’ve got on hand—and once you’ve exhausted existing content, it’s important to capture new content by partnering with a production team dedicated to health and safety.
Let’s take a look at a recipe for video and creative success, even while obeying health guidelines and sheltering at home.
The feature ingredient: existing footage.
Do you have a content library gathered on pre-COVID photo and video shoots? Now is the time to dip into your past footage—all of it belongs to you, anyway!—and repurpose some favorites from the past. Here’s why:
- Great video footage, when captured professionally, has a long shelf life
- Expert editors can make the same piece of footage serve a variety of purposes
- You get more value out of the original costs to capture the footage in the first place!
Now is the time to dip into your past footage—all of it belongs to you, anyway!
The fresh-baked bread: animation.
If your message is more of a big statement, or if you need something more filling than soup, no fear! You can bake an effective story from scratch with the power of animated video.
Animation is a timeless video medium that’s highly effective and versatile, and it’s created by teams of talented artists able to work completely remotely. Just as baking can yield both sweet and savory results, animation yields more than just kids’ entertainment: it’s a powerful approach to marketing, PR, internal communications, and more.
Using seamless animation pipelines already in place could be the perfect way to get your custom-made creative without compromising anyone’s health.
The veggies: a new creative concept.
If you’re still intent on creating a flavorful soup of live-action video, don’t let your feature ingredient swim in the soup by itself—support it with a fresh twist on existing footage to completely reinvent what you have on hand. Even communicating an emotional story with newly recorded voiceover can transform a piece, and fortunately, voice acting is the one type of acting that can always be done remotely.
The spices: motion graphics and text on screen.
Supplement your live-action story with a clear message, communicated beautifully on-screen with eye-catching motion graphics and text to make old footage feel like a new recipe. As long as they’re brought to life by professionals, motion graphics and text can even stand alone in a video and command your audience’s attention more effectively than live-action footage.
The garnish: remote-captured footage.
If you need to communicate an entirely new message to your audience, and if it’s a message best communicated by a live human being, we have an alternative to sending your actor or executive to a film stage in person.
Modern technology allows us to use certain apps to adjust mobile device camera settings from afar and remotely capture footage of actors and clients. As amazing as this technology is, it still involves the use of client-owned, non-professional devices to capture professional footage ... so no matter how hard we try, video quality suffers. However, the emotional and relatable payoffs of using a real person for this type of footage can outweigh the sacrifices in pixels.
Like a real garnish, use the technique of remote-captured footage sparingly. It’s an exciting flourish, but it shouldn’t consistently be the main meal!
Like a real garnish, use the technique of remote-captured footage sparingly. It’s an exciting flourish, but it shouldn’t consistently be the main meal!
The broth: a safety-minded video partner.
This is the ingredient that brings your creative together and makes your video what it should be: a hearty team of professionals that knows how to navigate the different obstacles of pandemic production in the best way for your brand. It’s crucial now more than ever to select a team you can trust for genuine audience connection and strict safety guidelines on set.
Because let’s face it: as scrappy as we may become, existing footage won’t tide us over forever. Now may be the time to add some meat back into your recipes and venture out to capture brand-new video.
So let’s talk about safety guidelines on set.
If your story can’t be told using the creative mediums we mentioned above, we’re more than willing to “make it easier” and gather in person to film your masterpiece. Filming requests are already flowing in, so we want to assure our creative partners of our absolute commitment to safety on set. We’ve formulated a pandemic production plan with the help of our production manager and camera experts, which we plan to stick to on every set moving forward.
We minimize risk while filming by:
- Requiring crew members to wear masks and gloves
- Requiring crews of less than 10 people
- Observing strict social distancing between every cast and crew member, keeping all personnel at least 6 feet away from each other at all times
- Disinfecting sets and equipment before and after shoots
- Assigning equipment to single crew members, making sure only one person touches each piece of equipment throughout the day
- Minimizing personnel as much as possible
Our mission?
We plan to keep crews small yet powerful, equipment sanitized yet fully-functioning, and our creative ideas versatile yet just as impactful as the pre-pandemic days.
Our mission? We plan to keep crews small yet powerful, equipment sanitized yet fully-functioning, and our creative ideas versatile yet just as impactful as the pre-pandemic days.
The COVID-19 situation is a rapidly-evolving one, so we pledge to keep reevaluating and adjusting these guidelines as new information emerges. We’re dedicated to following CDC and expert guidelines in everything we do, just as we were at the beginning of this crisis. Our non-filming artists remain largely at home, teleworking safely and efficiently, and we’re keeping the conversation open between all of our on-set artists—their concerns and suggestions are being met with further precautions as we prepare to enter public spaces with our cameras at the ready.
We’re also proud to hear that there are some other artists in our industry taking similar precautions. Right now, enlisting the help of a conscientious team is just as essential as broth is to soup—it forms the foundation for everything you do in developing your creative responsibly. Continue to keep your team and talent as safe as possible, because that’s a true recipe for success.
For more COVID-19 video production advice, and to hear more about the creative solutions we can provide you during this time, fill out our form or give us a call at 404.873.6283 x120.