(Our presenter for the day - Charlotte Armitage | YAFTA)
Video Production Sheffield – On Location!
As followers of us will know, Whistle Video is very much a Sheffield video production company. We travel all over the country on video projects but we are based in the heart of the Peak District and are very proud of the fact. Sheffield offers great locations for video filming and videography and there is an abundance of amazing backdrops, both urban and rural. Recently we put our video production skills to the test whilst producing a promotional video about GDPR for Kinch Robinson, a skills based training company also based in Sheffield.
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is all change in 2018, but what exactly is the GDPR? Well, to put it very simply, it’s the regulation that keeps our personal data safe. Whenever you fill in a form online, tick the “I accept” boxes or even give someone a business card you are handing over your information. It’s how this information is stored, processed and used that is going to change in 2018.
To cut a long story short, there are going to be a lot more do’s and don’ts when dealing with people’s information. But unfortunately, the story isn’t that short and it’s also very complex. This is why Kinch Robinson are putting together an E-learning course that will go over things in a lot more detail in a digestible and interesting way. They approached Whistle Video to put together a promotional video trailer to promote the course that will be launching in the next couple of months.
Pre-production
There is no getting around the fact that GDPR is dull and complicated. This is why the main aspect of the brief was to make this video not only informative but also engaging. With this in mind we decided we wanted to have the video broken up into small sections to make sure it felt “snappy” and “pacey”; we definitely didn’t want to have our presenter in a studio.
Various locations would be needed to give the feel of movement and change. As we are big fans of Sheffield we decided that it would offer some ideal filming locations so got to work on the storyboard and script with Sheffield in the front of our minds.
(Office location in Sheffield with visual overlays to mock up CCTV)
(Graphic overlays were used to highlight where we allow access to our data)
Script
Kinch Robinson developed the script on this project and after a few tweaks from the Whistle Video team we had a script that we were all happy with. The script was then split up into manageable sections. We didn’t want to have the same shot on screen for more than a few seconds as we believed we would lose the viewers interest. After each section was chosen we started to work on locations.
Filming Locations
With Sheffield as our chosen filming location it was time to decide exactly where we would film. Our basic story involved a presenter leaving their home and visiting a mixture of locations including street scenes, city centre locations and general office areas. We wanted both indoor and outdoor spaces to keep the viewer interested as the video went on. After some consideration we chose locations in Fulwood, the Peace Gardens and areas around Sheffield University. Static shots were always planned but to keep the feeling of movement we wanted to integrate tracking shots and follow shots. This is why we decided to use a 3 axis stabaliser.
(Sheffield City Centre Filming Location - Peace Gardens)
The Zhiyun Crane V2
A camera stabaliser is a fantastic way to improve the production quality of any production. There are some amazing stabalisers out there now but on this occasion we chose the Zyiyun Crane V2. This gimbal is fantastic for dslr and mirrorless cameras. As we were shooting on our trusty Sony A7s the Zhiyun was our weapon of choice.
(Behind The Scenes Shot - Joe with the Zhiyun Crane Stabaliser and Sam on Sound)
The Promotional Video
The video was shot in one day at over 6 locations - needless to say it was a busy day but very enjoyable! We are currently on with the final edit and the completed trailer should be released in the next couple of weeks – watch this space!
Credits for this shoot
Writer – Peter Kinch
Director \ Camera – Joe Skillington
Sound – Sam Skillington
Producer – Kath Kinch
Presenter – Charlotte Armitage
