NHS workshop video production
Recently, I was commissioned by the NHS to produce a workshop video production. Working as a London freelance videographer, I film and then edit seminars, presentations and training days. Any duration or style of film or video can be delivered from the filmed footage. In this case study, I explain the process that took place to create this workshop video production.
Communities of practice learning and training day
Some weeks ahead of the planned one-day event, I spoke with the event organiser Mark Cole to find out more details about the day’s programme and to understand what aspects he wished to demonstrate in a short film which I was to edit from the day’s filmed footage. During our conversation, I was able to suggest some possible ways of filming different elements of the day’s schedule that would enable me to edit them together into something suitable for this project. The aim of the video was to help communicate the concept of communities of practice to a wider audience.
Event at the Oval Conference Venue
The one-day event took place in a large room at the Oval Cricket Ground Conference Venue. I was supplied with a programme for the day along with details of a few of the presentations that were to be filmed. Mark wanted me to capture a flavour of the day and also to film some interviews in a separate break out room during the afternoon. Before the presentations began, everyone present was told I would be filming all day and that anyone who did not wish to be filmed should identify themselves to me. Of the 150 participants, only one person did not wish to be filmed which was easy for me to manage.
Sound recording
To ensure that I would have a good quality recording of the day’s sound, I spoke with the audio engineer who was mixing the microphones from the PA desk. He agreed to me wiring in my Tascam audio recorder into the aux out of the PA desk feed. With the right audio level set, I was able to leave this recording for the whole of the morning and afternoon sessions. This would enable me to sync up this master recording with the sound recording of the camera when I edited the footage together.
Filming cutaways and presentations
Using my tripod and different lenses enabled me to film a number of individuals as they were listening and writing notes along with many wider shots. During the morning the attendees were asked to form into small groups to discuss certain specific points. For these group sessions, I mounted my camera on a fig-rig so that I could quickly move around the room capturing handheld shots of group discussions as they took place. Several individual stage presentations also needed to be filmed. The stage area was quite wide and no extra lighting had been provided so I had to position myself to capture the speakers as best as I could.
Recording interviews
During the afternoon, I filmed a series of interviews in a breakout room located next door to the main conference room. To improve the lighting for these separate interviews, I set up my LED panel light and Dedo spotlight adjacent to the window in the room. I used a Sennheiser radio mic connected directly to my camera to record the sound. I had around 15 minutes with each contributor and conducted the interviews myself whilst filming using a list of questions I had been given to ask each person being interviewed.
Editing the workshop video production
I was given the creative freedom to edit together the best short film I could make from the day’s footage. All of the camera footage was first transcoded into Avid friendly media and then synced up to the external audio recording. I then watched through all of the interviews, editing down each one into its most relevant and succinct timeline. The best of the interview sync was then edited together with some of the presentations and cutaways which I used to paint the edits. I decided not to use any music for this edit as there was a great deal of information being communicated throughout and adding music would not help on this occasion. Once I had delivered the first edit, I was given some feedback on some detailed alterations. After the second set of changes, the film was signed off and posted onto YouTube and embedded into an NHS newsletter.
The day was organised by the Health Innovation Network together with the NHS London leadership Academy and NHS Kent, Surrey and Sussex Leadership Collaborative.
If you would like advice on how to create a film of your workshop or training day events, please get in touch with me.
