Epsom and Ewell Borough Council chose APVideo to produce a professional quality instructional video for businesses, with an extremely fast turnaround.
How fast? 5 days from filming to delivery.
Client: Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, Environmental Health
Production: APVideo
Location: Unparalleled Hair and Bourne Hall
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council Environmental Health Team demonstrating correct face masks
Production Brief: Informative, conside and delivery of a clear message.
With many businesses such as hairdressers, barbers, nail bars and tattoo studios continuing to operate during the tiered lockdowns, it is extremely important for the Environmental Health team to ensure these businesses are operating safely.
It was our task to produce a video that the Environmental Health team can send to busineses and host on websites. This needed to be completed within a very short timeframe to ensure the content has maximum reach and impact.
Production Location & Setup
We were very lucky to have access to an empty hair salon which served as our filming location for the mostpart. Unparalleled Hair was spacious and provided lots of natural light. We ensured that minimal disturbance was caused to the salon, while cleaning down touch points and furniture upon wrapping.
To ensure a balanced exposure and colour temperature, we used the PiXAPRO LED200B as a soft key light, while the Manfrotto LYKOS LED panels provided additional fill and rim lighting.
The footage was captured in 4K on the Panasonic EVA-1 and Sony a7III to allow for down-scaling and cropping in post-production. This provided 10-bit 4:2:2 internal colour sampling in the EVA, which is wonferful for filming both people and details.
On the audio side of things, the Sennheiser AVX MKE-2 system was deployed for crystal clear audio both for the on location footage and the voice over recording.
Production and Voice Over Recording
The pre-production planning included clear shot lists while ensured that the filming would be fluid and efficient with regards to time and movement. Scene by scene we worked through the shots, starting with the main dialogue to camera as this required the most space.
We continued through the shot list capturing the required content; demonstrating the correct practices that businesses should be practicing to keep everyone safe. This invoved being strategic with camera positions to keep social distancing.
The voice over recording was conducted separately at Bourne Hall with a member of the Environmental Health team. The script was followed to allow for any additional voice over to be used, while recording with multiple microphones for the best quality.
Post-Production
Time was of the essence, so post-production begun immediately after the filming. This started with syncing the two cameras used for the dialogue and demonstrations, and then mastering the voice over audio which had been recorded separately.
Our detailed pre-production and production planning aided in the editing speed, as each shot and scene had a specific place in the timeline. We also captured some b-roll of the local area that was used during the introductory part of the video.
By filming in 4K and down-scaling to HD, we retained a fantastic image quality that can be seen throughout the video. Minimal colour correction and grading was required; colour adjustment to match both cameras, some contrast enhancement to enrich the details and dynamic range.
Additional motion graphics illustrated social distancing.
Social distancing is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19, so to illustrate this, along with core information, we also created animated graphics.
Delivery and Reception
We were able to complete and deliver the production within 5 days for Epsom and Ewell Borough Council. A timescale that allows the client to distribute the video across businesses and media channels before closing for Christmas. This was a key factor in choosing APVideo, as our background is turning around extremely high quality video content in a very short space of time.
The video was very positively received by the Environmental Health team and other members of the Council, which we are extremely pleased about.