Content creator
As an experienced freelance video production professional, my skill set includes working as a social media videographer for my clients. Using my extensive videography skills, I am adept at creating different styles of crafted content to help tell engaging stories for my clients’ social media channels.
I am proficient at filming single and multi-camera productions.
Workflow case study
I recently filmed four themed ‘Rat Park’ productions for Duckie in London. Each four-hour live event featured weekly artistic performances, discussions, readings, and interventions. It quickly sold out, with over 150 audience members for each week’s event.
Project deliverables
Duckie commissioned me to deliver a weekly set of 9:16 Instagram reels featuring artists and speakers from each week’s programme. I was also commissioned to produce a short film to help explain the project to a broader audience and potential future funders.
Filming, lighting and sound
Marty Langthorne designed the lighting for each of the four productions. The sound team included Mike Picknett. All speakers and performers used radio microphones; I recorded the sound via an XLR feed from the sound desk.
Each four-hour programme was recorded in 4K 4096×2160 resolution to give me the most flexibility in delivering the required 16:9 and 9:16 content. While filming, I prioritised my close-up framing for a 9:16 center cutout.
Avid Media Composer workflow
To manage this project’s 4K camera media, I created a master 1920×1080 16:9 project for Duckie, as I would be delivering the final film at this raster size. Once I had copied all the media from my camera cards onto my RAID 5 drives, I AMA linked each programme’s rushes and created a long timeline containing all the filmed footage.
Part of my Avid workflow is transcoding my camera media into an Avid-friendly DNxHD codec, which enables a smooth editing experience, especially with high-resolution 4K media. I set Avid to transcode the timeline overnight so it would be ready to start editing the next day, ensuring I selected ‘keeping source dimensions’, thus enabling a complete 4K transcode.
Once transcoded, my first job in week one was to sync the camera footage to the sound. For subsequent weeks, I also needed to sync up the different multi-camera angles before starting any video editing.
Editing Instagram reels
I created a new Avid Media Composer 1080×1920 9:16 ‘Duckie Insta’ project to edit the Instagram reels. This was a helpful way to manage the different aspect ratio sizes this project required. Using the FrameFlex effect, selecting 9:16, and various combinations of position and size, I optimised the 4K framing for 9:16 Instagram reels.
My client gave me complete creative freedom over the editing of this project, which was very exciting for me. Over the four-week project, working as a social media videographer, I delivered thirty-two Instagram reels of up to three minutes each.
Many of the Instagram reels comprised continuous, single-camera live-action showcasing highlights from the live performances. Later Insta reels included multicamera footage.
Some of the ‘Rat Park’ Instagram reel edits required different visual effects, some of which were used to ensure visual compliance, as some artistic performances included nudity.
Sign-off process
Once I edited each Instagram reel, I uploaded it to my Vimeo account. I then shared the password-protected Vimeo link with the producer, Simon Casson, via WhatsApp. Simon reviewed each edit and forwarded the Vimeo link to the featured artist so they could sign off.
Content delivery
Once I received notification that everyone was happy, I sent the final file to my producer via a downloadable link. They then uploaded each reel onto their Instagram channel and Facebook page. Each week, the edited reels quickly amassed many thousands of views.
Multi-Camera Instagram reels
I filmed with three cameras for week three, and for week four, I filmed with four cameras. Some of the Instagram reels I edited show multiple simultaneous angles of the live action, and some even have four different camera angles. These multi-camera edits helped convey the engaging visuals and emotion of the performances, production, staging and audience reactions.
Short film and trailer
After delivering the final production’s social media reels, I focused on editing the Rat Park documentary. Once the film had been edited and signed off, I edited a 60-second 16:9 short film trailer to share on my Instagram profile, tagging in Duckie so the trailer would also appear on their Instagram profile.
Subtitles were added to both the trailer and documentary edits. I used the trailer to help promote and direct traffic to the 14-minute mini-doc by using my website link in my bio.
I very much enjoyed working as a social media videographer for Duckie on the Rat Park project. It was a very exciting project to be involved with. If you need help creating your social media content, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
