Capturing ‘that’ hero shot

So many statistics are quoted about peoples attention span these days. I was told recently that our concentration limit in meetings, Zoom or otherwise, it is around the seven minute mark, or at least I think thats what they said. It’s interesting that articles now have the ‘5 minute read’ note on them to give you a guide of how long a blog or news piece will take out of your day.

So if a picture paints a thousand words then a video surely must be able to deliver an immediate encyclopedic burst of emotion and tell an engaging story about your business in under a minute? We have been delivering video content for clients for a number of years now and have been lucky enough to visit some weird & wonderful places across the UK to create that content as we have crafted the stories that sell our clients businesses.

So here is a statistic that I know is true. For our clients where there is video content autoplaying on the home page of their website it does two things… 

1. Time on the homepage with autoplay video increased – 123.17%
2. It reduces the bounce rate by 49.04%.

So that video needs a hero shot. To grab peoples attention and make them what to know more.

I’VE NEVER BEEN COLDER

Telling the story of how Scottish Trout that are harvested on a Monday in the beautiful surrounding of Loch Etive are then served in restaurants as far afield as New York and Dubai on the Thursday was a challenge of literally battling the elements. 

Within 10 minutes of being out on a barge in a blowing gale and a choppy loch, one of the camera screens had stopped working after getting sprayed with sea water, my hardhat had blown off and was now making its own getaway in the loch much like Wilson in Castaway and we were struggling to get a steady shot. But we persevered and as the weather settled we were able to achieve the hero shots that open this film.

Next slide please…

We also committed to a 5am start on day two to achieve a sunrise timelapse from the Connel Bridge out towards Loch Etive….of course that was after the challenge of discovering the Oban has an ‘airport’ that had a no-fly exclusion zone!

Hold onto your hats!

RUNNING & LOBSTERS – LINKS HOUSE @ ROYAL DORNOCH

The slow process of getting a 2 wheel drive hire car (not what I booked) to the top of a hill overlooking Dornoch and Loch Fleet was a challenge, but as we got to the top, we wanted to capture how the light was moving in and out of the clouds and get a drone shot of the Land Rover getting to the summit and doing a fly over. As the light was changing there was some running, a bit of shouting and a desire to not let this moment pass. I’m glad we ran.

We spent three days in Dornoch capturing everything from internal shots of Links House, interviews with the team, slow-mo captures of the beautiful rooms and even out on the Dornoch Firth and the North Sea with a local supplier catching lobsters.

It was such a fun and educational experience and we did our best to cover all the detail that makes a visit to Links House so special. The key thing was creating the long film as well as getting small, ‘snappier’ cuts which could be re-purposed for social media. This allowed us to have a strong, deep library of content to use, reuse and recut making the investment in this video a long term investment.

WHEELY BIN DAY – GP RECYCLING

Another film process we managed was for GP recycling, an educational and informative video that foretold the process that the facility undertakes. At the first meeting, I was impressed that essentially the ‘waste’ that I put in my garden wheely bin can be recycled, treated, repurposed and essentially bagged and sold again as compost that you can use in your garden. Who knew?

Aside from having to return home for a change of clothes after every visit to this ‘fragrant’ facility, we set about story telling the journey through the process by mixing interviews with voiceovers as well as drone images of the building and land around. 

The KPI around the motivation of our client appointing us to do the video was based on the number of phone calls / e-mails / comments and complaints they got regarding either the aroma from the facility or the large number to refuge trucks on the connecting roads. There was just a lack of understanding. This solved that.

HOME SWEET HOME – WESTPOINT HOMES

Having photographed show homes before they are sumptuously appointed and there is a place for everything and everything has its place. The golden rule is don’t touch anything. Luckily we had the run of this magnificent 5 bedroom show home in Bridge of Weir and we used that freedom to have a still photographer and two videographers working systematically through the property and not getting in each others way.

The challenge we had was having one day to achieve all this as there was a launch event the following day and also avoiding capturing the active building site that we were in and the team of workers still laying slabs, grass and chuckies in the garden as the launch deadline got closer.

The pace and style of the filming in this property was slower and softer to give the viewers time to take in the property and see the attention to detail and finish quality of a Westpoint Home.

“So if a picture paints a thousand words then a video surely must be able to deliver an immediate encyclopedic burst of emotion and tell an engaging story about your business in under a minute?”

Our next video adventure is going to take us back to the highlands hopefully in April to cover a staff engagement project, a castle and another hospitality project and a golf course. Fingers crossed for the weather!!