The Libin Cardiovascular Institute is helping save lives through research, education and clinical care, and we are thankful to be able to help them further their goals.
In late February they emailed us with the opportunity to film and photograph a fundraising event called Heart Health Day at Azuridge Estate Hotel in mid-March.
With little time to spare (about two weeks), we got on the phone to go through the How to Share Your Story process to create the script with the accompanying shot list.
Through that half-hour call (rushed, but we made it work), we discovered Libin’s objective for the video, who their audience was for the piece, what that audience’s problem was, their state of mind, the stakes if their problem wasn’t addressed, how Libin empathized with them and would guide them to a solution, and a clear call to action for viewers to take.
We were able to create a script and shot list after a few emails back and forth over the Google doc.
With that in hand, one shooter (me - Britton) was able to confidently film and photograph for several hours on the first night of the two-day event, and the following morning.
The original plan was to set up and shoot from about 3-7 p.m. the first night and 9 a.m.- 12 p.m. the following morning, but heavy snowfall and a room cancellation at the boutique hotel in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains southwest of Calgary made it advantageous to stay overnight. I’m not complaining!
Good food and a good night’s rest made for some great shooting.
The images were imported onto a hard drive, sent to my teammate, Joel, who culled it down (selected images) to about 10 per cent of what was shot. He did a stock-photo quality edit on the images, and we were able to deliver them within a week.
Next up for the video process, several voices were selected out of dozens listened to on VoiceJungle.com. We gave Libin the freedom to select from the top four. We delivered the script to the talent, and she did a bang up job, with one revision, and we were set. It was great to be able to give her a bit of direction and hear the script in our heads with her voice reading it with the direction from the shot list. We were able to give her the direction she needed to open the script with a serious tone, and transition to more hopeful and optimistic, with notes on where to do so.
Into the editing process, Britton was able to hand this script and shot list over to Gonzalo, who did an excellent job of selecting music that matched the mood and tone of the piece. Having the footage organized into scenes that corresponded with the compiled shot list gave him clear direction. Having the client’s assets (logos, fonts, colours) was also key.
Gonzalo took the creative freedom to slow the video’s pace being down. It was originally intended to be within one minute, but that rushed the script. The footage was shot at a higher frame rate that could be slowed down (as noted in the Frame rate/pace column of the chart below). In planning, we had an inkling that would fit better than real-time, fast-paced footage, but sometimes this becomes even more clear in the editing process than it was in planning.
A long version (1:50) and a short version (1:09, close to the 1-minute original goal) were presented to the client through Frame.io, an app where we can upload footage, collaborate and comment on revisions.
We opted to meet in the middle at 1:25 with the final product.
Several revisions back and forth, and we completed the project within three weeks of the shoot date, which was several weeks ahead of when they needed it. Score!
-Britton