Over the past few years, we’ve done a plethora of work for our pals at the Arts Council of Wales. Always embarking on ambitious projects to get the whole country artistically engaged, it can be hard to keep up with their latest successes and accomplishments.
Luckily, they’re aware of this. Every once in a while, they like to throw a big ol’ party; a week-long celebration, a bringing together of their most epic wins and proudest works from the year elapsed. Even though they already have plenty to shout about, the Arts Council, uninterested in throwing a ‘pat yourself on the back-athon’, instead opt to put on an interactive experience for members of the public.
Keen to get as many people involved in the event as possible, they approached us to put together some 30-second highlight films. These films would be shot, edited and uploaded on each day of the event itself, acting as adverts for the following day.
Even though we had only a few hours to edit and deliver each film, we wanted to make sure that we didn’t sacrifice quality, and so we knuckled down, did our homework, and made sure we were ready to hit the ground running. Pooling our company resources, we teamed up with our motion graphics squad to put together some preset title animations and animated transition presets. We also selected a custom colour LUT (essentially a modifier between two images, the original image and the displayed image, based on a mathematical formula), meaning we’d only have to subtly tweak the grade on the day, rather than fully grading each shot. Having these already mocked up before the shoots allowed us to get shots that we knew would work effectively.
For extra efficiency, we assigned one shooter and one editor for each day, so that while our shooter was out gathering clips, our editor could be prepping a sequence, trimming a song to length, like a coiled spring, ready to explode into action. Within just two hours our editor was able to put together an exciting teaser with animated titles, transitions, and a custom colour grade.
Repeated over five days, these films received a warm reception on social media channels, drawing the attention of potential event visitors, as well as those who attended the events who were keen to share their experiences and spot themselves in the films.
