RIC Publications - The Maths Box
At the end of November 2016, we had just wrapped up a two-day shoot with RIC Publications at Sacred Heart Primary School in Thornlie. Over the two days we had shot a series of promotional videos which were to be used on RIC's website and social media platforms. With the videos starting to go live, we're now taking a look back at this project.
RIC Publications had approached us in mid-October with the vision of creating a promotional video for their product; The Maths Box. Originally they had wanted to create a 2-minute scripted promotional video, but as we discussed their project the scope was expanded to also include a series of interview testimonials from both adults who worked at the school and children who used the product. Together we believed that this expanded scope would help better meet RIC's aims of creating full marketing and advertising support for their product.
For background, The Maths Box is a teaching resource which engages children in math through a variety of paper-based exercises which are delivered by way of colourful cards. The resource itself helps teachers plan and deliver math education and for the kids it provides an engaging and interactive way of learning math in as in individual or group.
So let's take a look at what we delivered for RIC Publications. First up is their promotional video.
We also delivered a series of 9 testimonial videos from a range of positions in the school as well as the children who used them. (Noting this article will be updated as more videos go live from RIC)
Behind the Scenes
To provide some context to this project and the work required, we need to head behind the scenes. At first this may not seem like a complex project, and with planning prior to work taking place it was shot in a controlled manner. But here are some things which the viewer may not consider, so let's take a look at 3 of those.
Filming Permission - Every child in the video, including those in the background, needed to be cleared as a-ok to be filmed, and there were children who we couldn't film but they needed to continue their education. So we worked to ensure that filming was completed, but at the same time complied with any 'non-film' requirements.
Sound Recording - Shooting was completed inside an active school during school hours, but sound recording is always a consideration we need scripts to be presented. Script presentions and testimonials would ideally be organised to be recorded when the school was quiet so as to capture little background sound as possible. However the quiet times were actually when we need to be in classrooms capturing the children with the product, and it was also when the teachers were working so couldn't be removed for filming. So this left interviews and scripting to be captured when the school was at recess or lunchtime and whilst this generated background noise it actually adds to the school environment feel which actually sells the authenticity of the video and product.
Working with Children - we actually didn't act any of the scenes shown here mainly as we wanted a true and 'felt' reaction and engagement to the Maths Box product. This methodology meant that we very much had to predict the movement of the children and shoot a lot more footage than that's actually shown. Additionally, whilst only two children made the final cut for the testimonial videos we actually interviewed a total of 10 children. Basically, when working with unpredictability - be it the environment of a subject, often we have to shoot a lot more than what's shown.
It was great to work on this project as it provided such variety - there was the direction of those who presented the scripted parts of the video, the challenges of shooting b-roll/cutaways of an unplanned/uncontrollable nature and achieving the client's key communication points from the interviews - which required different methodologies for working with adults and children. And all this is something that the average viewer probably doesn't think about until its mentioned.
RIC Publications, while started in Australia, is actually a global company with a presence in the UK, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, Zimbabwe and New Zealand. So the material that we've delivered will actually end up with a global presence as it's used for marketing across a number of countries. And we can't wait to see more of it go live!
As ever, if your business is interested in how video can help market your product, brand or service then get in touch with us! We love to chat about how video can help!
