Educational videos delivered for the NHS
Recently, I was commissioned to film and edit three short educational videos. They were produced to help promote the seasonal ‘stop smoking’ online campaign ‘Stoptober’ via the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Trust website.
In addition, I was also commissioned to make a longer video for the NHS ‘Stop Smoking’ project. It was to be filmed at the same location to make the best use of my time. This fourth video was to be used throughout the local doctors’ surgeries.
Working with the NHS team
The NHS team that were managing the commissioning and production of these videos asked me to help them plan the filming. A series of interviews at a selected location were to be scheduled for me to conduct and film. In advance of the filming, I was sent the outline scripts to use in each of the different projects. This would help ensure that the correct content was captured from the interviewees and that suitable ‘sound bites’ were recorded on the day.
Filming in the best available space
On a recce with my client, before the filming was to take place, I had identified a suitable training room as the most suitable filming space at the chosen location. On the filming day, I arrived early to prepare the room and set up my kit. Two pop-up ‘stop smoking’ banners had been made available to use as a background for the interviews and also to conceal the training room equipment during filming. Fortunately, the room had lots of natural light that I added to with additional LED light panels so that the interviews would be well lit. Over the course of the day, I worked with the local Lambeth team to direct and film all the interviews they had arranged with participants in their scheme.
Editing the media
The following day, working as a post-production editor, I started to edit together the three 60 second videos. I need to start editing the project straightway to ensure that they would be delivered ahead of schedule for October release. I reviewed the content of all the interviews and then edited them down to select the interviewees’ most succinct contributions. I was also required to add subtitles to the edits so that the videos could be understood if they were being watched with or without volume and by a wider audience on any device or in any location. I had been provided with a set of brand guidelines for the ‘Stoptober’ campaign, which helped me edit the branded elements together and also to ensure that the formatting of the subtitles matched the branding for the videos.
NHS educational videos sign-off and delivery
The first edits were sent to my client for feedback on any edit changes they required. The second versions of the client’s amends were then sent on to their local hospitals NHS communications team who then requested some additional changes. Once the final alterations were completed, the three edits were signed off, and I then sent the three final videos for upload to the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust website.
If you have any questions or would like some help creating your promotional videos, please get in touch. For more perspective on my skills, please see my client testimonials and video production credits.
