Bedfordshire Police contacted me to create a video for their campaign that focused on tackling male violence against women and girls.
The Brief
To create a video with a number of women – police, public and partners – sharing a short snippet of the behaviour and challenges they have faced. We want to include real women and authentic voices.
They wanted the video to be simple, authentic and impactful.
To do this, we decided to let these voices speak directly to the camera, as well as asking questions that would allow the contributors to freely talk about their stories. Staying away from scripted statements and instead focusing on natural documentary-style questions. This keeps the video as natural as possible, avoiding the stiff-natured delivery that written statements often produce.
To get across the vision of the piece, I created a storyboard that would cover the different shots that we would need for the video. This included the interviews, as well as some cutaways that we may need.
Creating a storyboard can be very useful to help clients visualise certain ideas that you may come up with in the idea generation process. This particular storyboard was very useful in getting this across because clients can’t be expected to know what is in the director's head.
The next major hurdle was gathering the contributors to be involved with such a sensitive project.
This is where the client stepped in. Bedfordshire Police thought it best to keep the contributors within the force. Logistically this was good news, as it kept it easy to manage from the client's point of view, and it also meant that they had a pool of possible contributors already lined up.
If you are a business that needs a video that uses a number of contributors, it’s a good idea to already have potential people lined up. This makes the pre-production process much easier and quicker, saving time and money. Bedfordshire Police was fantastic in this regard.
They also chose the locations where we could film. Naturally, with a video like this, the locations were limited to the offices that Bedfordshire Police had access to. This meant that we were tied to their headquarters and the Luton station. How I choose to set up has to reflect this, meaning that I’ll have to film in a way that can make any location look good!
Equipment & Set Up
This was a simple set-up for a simple video. We had two Blackmagic Cinema Cameras, one 4k and the other 6k, a three-point lighting system and a wireless microphone for audio.
Final Video
Overall, the client was very happy with how the video turned out. The sensitive subject was handled well, and the contributors managed to tell their story the way that they wanted it told.
If you are a business and you need a video to tell your story, however delicate, email me at damien@ebanksmedia.co.uk and we can create something great together.