London craft week debate video filming and editing

Panel debate video production

My commission to film and edit this London craft week debate on behalf of PR Agency ANM was confirmed the week prior to the event. Their debate took place as part of the annual London Craft week’s 2018 programme of events celebrating the work of British and International craft makers.

In this case study, I outline some of the perspectives I offered to support my client in the production of their video and some details of the actual production process.

Pre-production

Working as a London videographer, I am always able to offer ideas of how to maximise the quality of any video production. Once onboard this project, I enquired for details about the location and set up arrangements that had already been organised in advance with the Corinthia Hotel. In order to be properly prepared with the most suitable kit, I was keen to determine the layout of the conference room which had been booked for the debate, the quality of lighting there and if any provision had been made for managing the quality of the soundtrack recording. As a result of my enquiries, I was able to ensure that a clean feed of the debate sound would be provided for me to record. I also received permission to hire additional lighting for the event as the existing room lighting was found to be inadequate for filming purposes.

Videography briefing

Prior to the event, my client sent me a videography brief. This brief included the afternoon’s scheduled timings, the objectives of the filming and a detailed brief of the shots I was required to capture. It’s always helpful to receive this detail as it helps me to ensure I deliver exactly to my client’s brief.

Filming at The Corinthia Hotel

Arriving early at The Corinthia Hotel, I passed through security and made my way to the event location. Once I could assess the layout of the conference room, I agreed with the client and location health and safety representative the best positions to set up my lights and camera. As per the brief, I set up my tripod position for the locked-off camera to record a continuous single wide shot of the debate which took place on a raised platform. As previously requested, an XLR cable with a clean feed direct from the sound desk was ready for me to plug into my Tascam digital audio recorder so I could record the highest quality sound for the debate participants.

London craft week debate

Although the commission brief was only booked for one camera, I decided to also set up a second camera for a wider variety of additional shots to make sure there would be adequate material in case of any possible future edit work. While the locked-off camera was filming a continuous wide shot, I also filmed close-ups of the presenters from different angles. The whole debate lasted one hour with some questions from the audience at the end of the session. In addition to filming the main debate, I also took the opportunity to film arrival shots of some of the guests and also visuals from the follow-on afternoon tea. This additional filming came in very useful when requested to provide an edit of the filming of the event.

Debate post-production

After the London craft week debate, I sent my client a link to view the video of the whole debate with burnt-in timecode so that they could feedback any specific timings. I then received a written brief of the discussion highlights and was asked to edit a short video that summarised the whole debate. The short highlights version required my skills as an experienced promotional trailer editor to me to select and finely edit a selection of the sound and images to creating a dynamic promotional video.