...it's all about the videos!

I must say - this latest project I've worked on has to be one of the most enjoyable tasks I've endeavoured to date! I'm really proud of the entire process.

I'll start by showing you the end result - here's is one of the videos we produced for our most recent stage two event - Field Service Management 2010. We conducted various Vox Pop interviews with delegates, speakers, and sponsors to get a broad opinion on three topic areas.

How are field Service Technologies affecting the industry? Click below to play...

The idea to bring the video production in house stemmed from a recent fascination of mine with putting together my own videos at home on my new Mac, as well as our growing frustration with our former video production supplier. Thus, Caitriona O'Mahony (Acting Marketing Director AUS), and I decided to commit to purchasing a HD video camera and all the equipment, and doing the video's ourselves.

Risky, of course - not only have I no real post-production experience, and sure, I've done a television journalism class at uni, but I'm far from professional. Based on my experience with iMovie, and our expectations of the kind of videos we wanted to produce, I was confident that I could achieve our desired outcome - and I must say, from the feedback I've received on these videos, we've done it!

So the process began with a fairly thorough research phase into types of video cameras etc - which fortunately for us in Australia, only one brand of camera supports an external microphone output (necessary for interviews etc - better sound quality), so we committed to a HD Canon video-camera. We also acquired a Manfrotto tripod, Luxman lighting kit, Rode stereo mic, camera case, spare battery, and good quality headphones.

Armed with the equipment, we went to the FSM 2010 conference with a schedule of questions, and an interview to conduct, and promptly got to work. Thanks also to my Online Communications Intern, Lauren Kelleher, for her assistance on the day!

At all times behind the camera I considered the sound quality (adjustable on the LCD screen and monitored on my headphones), the framing (to ensure the picture was full, with movement in the background if possible from various angles and locations), the lighting (less shadow and ample light is best), as well as the content (ultimately we wanted our participants to answer questions which provided value), so keeping our end goal in mind was paramount.

In addition, consider getting good quality crowd/network shots (and I must admit, I didn't get enough of these shots in my first attempt), in order to bring you videos to life and give the event the look of busyness and grandeur, you need these 'cut aways' or 'pick ups' for use over the top of your footage.

Post production was done in iMovie - a very simple to use Mac program which comes standard on any MacBook. After simply uploading all the footage to your library, you can simply cut and paste the snapshots from the footage, dissolve between each transition, apply a super (name and company), with logo's at top and tail of the video.

Now that sounds simple enough, but it actually took hours in post-production - probably due to my experience using the program, but I really enjoyed this process, and to be honest, I wanted to deliver perfection - I hope I've come close.

Another consideration is the music I inserted at the top and tail of the videos. You need to source a royalty free track from a website like ProductionTrax.com - one which fits to the sound of a 'corporate' tone. Once purchased (price varies between $15US, and $99US), you can cut/splice this track for use in your video.

So, naturally there is much room for improvement, but for the purposes of generating useful content to the website, I think we've achieved our goal here - what do you think?

Here are the links to the other videos:

Interview with Tony Thornton, Rheem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBtN_DoerBk&feature=related

The Impact of technologies on the industry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6h3_uH__xE&feature=related

Top tips for gaining Staff Buy-In: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S7_b71LMIc&feature=related

Until next time,

Chris Archer

IQPC Australia

Online Communications Manager