Here’s a great success story I’d like to share and one I hope will give you a brief insight into the often unknown detail a video project can require.

It’s a story of a local company with a vision, who overcame restrictions and expanded into an international market.

Unable to reach her target audience due to the pandemic Allison knew she needed to think differently on how she was going to fulfil her contracts and deliver her training.

Allison Middlemas runs Lessons4Life based in Hull and teaches young people first aid.

Fun fact. Did you know First aid training became part of the school curriculum in September of last year. Which is a great thing. These lessons give the kids the opportunity to learn life-saving skills such as how to help someone suffering a cardiac arrest or when and how to correctly call for an ambulance which potential save a life.

So back to the project. Allison contacted me via Linkedin and told me she was looking for a professional who had the skill and capacity to capture all her training material on video.

She explained she’d secured financial support and there was a tender process to fulfil and would I be interested in submitting a proposal and price. The requirement was for 12 videos and to cut a long story short we won the pitch.

This presented an ideal opportunity to get Allison’s content in front of the kids. Her target audience was the same but the way they were taught had changed dramatically.

It wasn’t just about filming. We needed to think about how were we going to reach and engage with these kids and protect the learning material online.

Now Allison is more than comfortable teaching in front of a class although from the start she made it clear she didn’t want to appear in the videos herself and this presented our first issue.

The obvious choice was to find a kid to do it.

But that brings in the next issue. Allison is an ex-paramedic and definitely knows her stuff but how were we going to convey all her knowledge and expertise to a child, so they could in turn tell other young people.

How do you teach a child to present what is a complicated and detailed subject? The answer – appoint an actor.

So the transferring of Allison’s knowledge began and she wrote out in detail each one of her 12 lessons. The were pages of the stuff and way to many words.

The next step was to appoint a copywriter who could take this material and editing it down to form a short engaging script that retained the required detail of the subject but made it entertaining for a young audience.

The scripts went through various drafts and their contents and duration of each was agreed and signed off.

So back to finding an actor, or in this case actors. It had developed that the scripts would be best delivered by two kids. Because the videos were very hands-on and various procedures and methods needed to be demonstrated. So the search began.

Then we hit a problem. Covid. We couldn’t just find a boy and a girl and put them together. They needed to be from the same family.

I called a model agency in Leeds and we specified what we were looking for. A sixteen seventeen-year-old and a younger sibling about fourteen. They need to look cool, have a street appeal and be representative of the young audience and obviously be able to act and learn and deliver 12 scripts compiling of about 5 or 6 pages each. Not an easy task.

Various siblings were shortlisted and each submitted a short sample video reading a demo script.

We weren’t just looking for skill and the right look. We wanted sas, we wanted banter and to a point attitude.

Now in the end the successful pair weren’t brother and sister but cousins and they filled the bill and being in the same bubble answered the covid restriction issue.

They were given the scripts and 3 weeks to learn them. With me calling in now and again to check all was well.

We then booked a date to shoot the videos. In the initial proposal, we’d estimated two days to capture everything and that was still the case and our studio space in Huddersfield was ideal.

On the day of the shoot, we had a running order, a shot list and everyone knew their role. We previously discussed what we wanted the kids to wear, keeping it casual, none branded tops no fancy trainers etc

Its often not until you meet the actors on the day that you can discuss how you want them to perform. Their tone of voice, their pace and how I want them to come across on camera. Remember, we wanted sas and attitude and we definitely got that.

Note the young lady is on the phone while answering back. Part of the way these guys communicate these days.

All part of the look of the video and detail we put in. The detail you’re not really meant to notice until pointed out.

This styling was important. Kids these days are savvy and we needed to introduce humour and a little reality they could relate to.

Now its import to remember we’re still in lockdown at this point and covid is still a real threat. Safety procedures were in place and all those attending had been tested during the project for the virus.

With Allison overseeing the content and advising the crew and kids on how to correctly demonstrate various procedures, we captured all the content. Two long days and the kids were amazing.

The next stage of the process is then the editing. Where we start to form the content of the video from the multiple shots we’ve captured. Yes, there are fluffs and mistakes and that’s all part of the process.

A first draft video was presented to the client and Allison gave us her feedback. As a rule, the first draft is usually about 70% correct and amends are expected.

This is always an interesting part of a project where I exchange my vision of the project with the expectations of the client and we receive their first response Which is often wow. It looks great.

Tweaks were then made and a further two draft were seen before we obtained approval. Remember we’re producing 12 videos all at the same time. That’s a lot for the client to go through although that volume is fairly standard for us.

While all this is going on. We’re creating titles and motion graphics that will further enhance the video and give them an overall look and consistency. Again these designs are presented, tweaked and signed off.

So closing the project and probably the most important stage of the video process, getting the videos in front of their intended audience and working hard for their investment.

The 12 videos are now available online via a password-secured website. Visiting schools are first presented with a montage of all the available titles and can access a free full length watermarked demonstration video.

Interested schools can then pay an annual subscription fee to access the websites dashboard, pdf lesson planners, handouts and worksheets for the kids to fill out after they’ve watched the videos.

Giving Allison total control over who can watch and access her content. And with the videos being available online 24/7 They have unlimited national and international reach. A school in Korea being Allison’s furthest subscriber.

A great success story that was testing at times and called upon our experience and skills to overcome a few challenges on the way. A project I truly enjoyed working on and one well worth sharing.

Would you like to see the full behind the scenes video? Click here: https://videoproductionexplained.co.uk/projects/