{"id":29534,"date":"2013-06-28T15:56:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philipbloom.net\/?p=29534"},"modified":"2015-07-17T00:41:32","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T00:41:32","slug":"facebookcorporate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philipbloom.net\/blog\/facebookcorporate\/","title":{"rendered":"The making of a corporate documentary for Facebook: Planning, Shoot & Edit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This post is a breakdown of making (in my opinion) a strong corporate documentary for a well-known brand, from the brief to pre-prod, production, post and delivery. What this covers can be applied to pretty much most shoots.<\/p>\n

Facebook approached me with a desire to make a film about their new pilot scheme to use Facebook as an educational platform in schools. The film would be shown at a large educational festival then put online (on Facebook of course!). It needed to be one film that would work across both platforms (although in the end I delivered a tighter cut for the web…more on that later).<\/p>\n

Before I agree to any job, naturally I need to know more about what they want. It’s essential to understand the brief before you can figure out the rest. What would be required to make it work, can it be done in the given timeline, what style and look is wanted, how much graphics work is needed (do I need to bring someone in?), and much more. Then there is the more personal stuff. Am I the right person to make this and do I have the time of course? I normally get booked up quite far in advance. Finally, is it something I want to make? This last point is a luxury to be honest. I don’t know anyone who just does jobs that they want to do. I talk about that point in depth in this blog post about succeeding in the business<\/a>. To do a paid gig that interests, excites and challenges is what I want.<\/p>\n

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THE BRIEF AND PRE-PRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

First off, I have to be honest. My initial reaction was, “Facebook in schools…how on earth could that work?” \u00a0So I needed to understand the concept firstly and ask them all the obvious burning questions…here are a handful…”Is this\u00a0our\u00a0<\/em>Facebook or a different version?”, “How are the kids not going to abuse it?”, “How can it enhance education?”…and of course many more.<\/p>\n

After having my questions answered, I understood the idea and how it would work. I hadn’t spoken to anyone who was actually using it yet, as in the teachers and students, but I was very interested. If you are going to produce a film for a company, you absolutely must 100% understand the story and their needs Otherwise at best you will have to do lots of edit revisions to make it what the client wants…at worst you won’t have the right interview grabs or shots! Understanding fully is key! When I’m shooting a personal documentary, I tend to learn the story throughout the filming. I love that discovery you get, the unfolding story.<\/p>\n

A few back and forths between myself and the agency, Blue Rubicon, plus Facebook of course, gave me a firmer understanding of the type of film they wanted: Something with the feel of a documentary showing Facebook’s education program and how it has performed in its pilot scheme. Naturally, this is a Facebook film so it needs to be a positive film that ticks their boxes. Remember, you are not making a film for yourself. This is for them.<\/p>\n

Facebook is the client. They want a corporate film to promote their initiative. Just because it’s in a documentary style it doesn’t mean you can make a film which presents both sides of the argument.<\/p>\n

Coud you imagine making a corporate for say BP about their clean up of the Gulf of Mexico and how amazing it was, then also cut in interviews from environmental organisations saying they are not doing enough? Of course that would be highly unlikely to be commissioned!<\/p>\n

So remember, even though you are the filmmaker, the client is the “Studio”. They are more important than your own artistic vision. Sure, try and make it how you want it and put your “artistic stamp” on it, but remember the client is paying you to make something. You are hopefully still shaping the film with your vision, so it’s still your film, just without the freedom to go crazy! After all, would you want the builder you hired to make your kitchen to be so artisticly free that he put a water fountain in the middle where your breakfast table was going to be? Of course not! They will make it how YOU want, and if they don’t, they fix it so it is. You are the client\/ customer paying the dish! I don’t care how “visionary” he is. It’s my kitchen. If he wants a fountain in do it in his own! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

When it comes to potentially controversial subjects, I would rather address the elephant in the room than ignore it. Sometimes you have to, but then you have people rant on about said elephant in the comments. If you don’t know that phrase it means, I would rather ask the questions that viewers obviously will have about the subject actually answered in the film than ignore them. Instead of glossing over them, let’s tackle them. This is again of course not always possible. It depends on the client. Facebook are a very progressive company and were very keen on this, which was great!<\/p>\n

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The film that I wanted to make is, like my docs, is a journey of understanding. The plan I had formulated was a structure built up with five sections.<\/p>\n

1: What is this and why is it being done?<\/strong><\/p>\n

2: How did the schools, teachers and students react to the idea?<\/strong><\/p>\n

3: How is it being used in lessons…why does Facebook help?<\/strong><\/p>\n

4: The reaction after using it from the schools etc<\/strong><\/p>\n

5: What next? What is the next step?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wanted to tackle the main questions within the film, so for me it’s a complete and well-rounded film…despite being a corporate. I wanted to make a non-corporate corporate if that makes sense? A film that feels like a doc, looks like a doc and if it wasn’t paid for by the main “character” in the film, a doc! This is also my first full gig for Facebook (I contributed to their film about going public with some pretty shots). I of course want the client to be 100% happy for obvious reasons!<\/p>\n

For me it was essential that the two schools we were going to film represented Britain as it is, a varied multi-cultural country of various socio-economic situations. That means I needed a cross section, two very different schools that ticked those boxes, and the ones we had definitely did. The London Nautical School and Wellington college.<\/p>\n

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We had a very tight turnaround on this. Although the gig was agreed quite a while ago, the actual filming dates were later than planned. Totally my fault. With other work hogging my time, I had to make it fit into my diary, and of course Facebook and the Schools needed to make sure those dates worked for them.<\/p>\n

With the shoot being later, we had to deliver the next week. Personally I like deadlines. Way more than no deadlines. You procrastinate. Deadlines make you work harder and faster! Although they are more stressy!<\/p>\n

So we had 2 hours or so in the first school, which included 3 teachers and 3 student interview PLUS lots of B-Roll, then the next day 2 Facebook interviews then the final day a similar schedule to the first day. So not a lot of time. The last day of filming was a Friday, the first pretty complete edit was to be delivered asap on Monday. So a tight turnaround.<\/p>\n

My pre-production was simply research, back and forth with the agency and the client, plus putting the crew together and figuring out how to make the schedule work.<\/p>\n

The C300 was the obvious choice for the main camera. It’s my main camera for work as it produces a terrific image, is easy to use and is HD broadcast approved. The B-Camera was the 1DC. Again an obvious choice for me as I have one. In HD super 35mm mode with the Canon Log setting, it damn well matches the C300 so well…it actually looks better at times! The B-Camera wasn’t going to be used much, but I always take a backup camera these days. This isn’t down to any concern about reliability. I just like to play safe when it comes to big gigs like this.<\/p>\n

The crew was small. I was acting as Producer, Director, DP, Cameraman and co-editor. Lots of hats but totally do-able. Why? I had Sarah Estela operating for all the interviews, which meant I could put on my director’s hat for all the important getting-the-info stuff after I had lit it. Sarah was also going to be the assembly editor, so great to have her on the shoot…and she is a great shooter too with a terrific eye and also a great person to bounce ideas off of. That is so valuable. Work as a team, not as a bunch of individuals with their own set roles that don’t deviate.<\/p>\n

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In addition I had two excellent interns. Jack Daniel Mills who has helped on my “Bitten by the frost” music video and the soon to be edited F55 short “Venus”. Yannick Hausler from Ravensbourne College came along too. Both were great to have on board!<\/p>\n

THE SHOOT<\/strong><\/p>\n

I decided on the shooting style before the shoot, and that is what I stuck to.<\/p>\n

All “actuality<\/a>” would be handheld…it would give it a less formal feel and it give me more of a chance to react to things. I was going to operate this part of the filming as, being the director too, it made things easy for me – rather than watching someone else operate and try and give direction without\u00a0interrupting\u00a0the flow. This would be the C300 handheld with the 24-105 F4 IS Canon lens. The IS of the lens makes hand held much better. Although the lens does not act like a true constant aperture as it gets a tiny bit darker at the end of the lens.<\/p>\n

I used a Sony UWP wireless on the two teachers with a RODE NTG-3 on the top of the C300. No handheld rig was used, as the C300 is damn ergonomic as it is and with an IS lens. I wanted to use my Deity Mira loupe (seen below), this fits onto the LCD screen and gives you an amazing viewfinder. Annoyingly, I\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0find the clip bracket for the screen so I had to go with the built in EVF.<\/p>\n

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