Constraints aren’t always a bad thing to have. They often provide focus & creatively challenge people to come up with better and efficient ways to do things.
Constraints could show up in three forms:
- Input limitations
- Procedural restrictions
- Output specifications
The current times we live in, brought upon us by the Corona virus or Covid-19 pandemic, have inflicted a large bunch of constraints upon us in the way we do things at guch in comparison to the work we did as denture Capital.
- Input limitations: Humble budgets and limited to no access to professional production equipment.
- Procedural restrictions: Stunted mobility and access to a full production crew
- Output specifications: Inability to reproduce familiar formats and production quality
But the show must go on! Businesses need to stay afloat and grow; and the need to market themselves becomes even more relevant when you see a drop in numbers. And in such times, there is a need for us at guch need to rise to the occasion.
When we usually set to create an exceptional output as per a client brief, we like everything to be perfect. But limitations inspire us to think better and innovate to create something remarkable despite the obstacles. Here are a bunch of scenarios from the past when constraints gave our minds the impetus to leap higher and act more resourcefully.
1. No access to quality production equipment
The “tracking shot” is a kind of cinematic camera movement that is an integral part of any video. It helps either in showing off the richness of the setting, building a connection with the character or enhances the plot. It necessarily multiplies the effectiveness of a static shot.
How it works without constraints:
Tracking shots can be captured using any means of camera movement including 3-axis gimbals, vest stabilizers, drones, handheld, or any other tool used to physically move the camera body. A handsome budget allows hiring some of the best means to get a really good tracking shot.
This shot from the Eid Campaign film that we made for India’s fastest unicorn, B2B ecommerce company, Udaan that was shot on an elaborate track and trolley set up.
How we make it work with constraints:
We have been challenged to pull off a tracking shot many times even when the production budget didn’t allow for renting top end equipment.
We used cloth to track the camera moment on a table top surface for this shot from the explainer video we made for an AI based travel product.
2. No access to a film studio
A key benefit of shooting in a studio space is that the environment can be completely controlled – everything from the light to sound.
How it works without constraints:
Here’s an elaborate studio setup for the advertising campaign we made for the B2B ecommerce company, Udaan.
All the films in this campaign were shot in a green screen setup in a film studio in Bangalore with an extensive production framework
How we make it work with constraints:
Studio access comes at a cost and many a time, humble budgets do not allow for renting out a professional studio space.
We made some quick amends to the editing room in our office to turn it into a makeshift studio to produce this hub-hero-help strategy film that we made in order to share with our clients.
The final output turned out and was received quite well.
3. No access to an audio recording studio
Pro studios offer acoustic spaces optimized to record high quality sound – be it a voice over for your explainer video or vocal parts in a jingle for your ad film.
How it works without constraints:
This is an instance while dubbing the vocals from a product video shot we made for an online ed tech company, Hashlearn, in a state-of-the-art recording studio.
How we make it work with constraints:
This is how we converted a tiny room in our office into a makeshift recording studio by soundproofing it. We also put in required audio recording setup along with video monitoring.
Here is an instance of Rahul recording a voiceover for an explainer video in the makeshift studio with help from our in-house sound engineer Rogin.
4. No access to appropriate filming location
Shooting in a real world setting helps depict realism in the video. It is imperative to find the right location, environment, and setting—all critical to a film’s believability and success.
How it works without constraints:
This is an instance from a culture video we made for Indonesian unicorn Gojek, one of southeast Asia’s highest valued startup.
The majestic outdoor scenes with the sports bikes were filmed in the scenic Kolar area in the outskirts of Bangalore.
How we make it work with constraints:
While making a Kickstarter video for Napeazy, a travel product startup by Airbus alumni, we needed to film scenes inside an operational flight. Since we couldn’t get necessary permissions to shoot in a real life aircraft, we had to settle for an air hostess training facility.
There were no windows in the cabin area and we had to depend on VFX to recreate the look and feel of a real aircraft.
Looking back at these, it has only made us more adaptable and enabled us to think outside the box to overcome obstacles that come in the way of creating extraordinary videos.
Making Videos during the covid lockdown
Endless creativity and next-level problem solving abilities in the team have enabled our team to continue supporting our clients to produce high quality engaging video content even during the lockdown while adhering to all protocols of social distancing and remote working. Here are a few examples:
1. CRED Performance marketing campaign
8 advertising films and a total of 40 unique exports in varying aspect ratios were shot a day before the lockdown was announced and post production was efficiently done in the first week remotely to deliver kick-ass videos.
This is one such video from the campaign.
2. Vedantu #CoachingWontStop Campaign
A full-fledged campaign for IITJEE and NEET aspirants was designed and is being produced as I write this article – including graphic posters, GIFs and an ad campaign entirely shot on mobile with students from all across the country.
This is one of the posters created for the campaign.
3. Herbalife Mother’s Day Campaign
Mother’s Day is arriving soon and we have been busy cooking an interesting video for Herbalife Nutrition brand. This video features mothers with their kids of all age from across the country and has been completely produced remotely with detailed planning and powerful direction from the team.
Here’s the Mother’s day video on the Herbalife India Instagram channel.
4. Stop motion video (internal, unreleased)
We have been experimenting on multiple formats and styles of videos during the lockdown and have also been applying these insights to some of the client projects that have been /are being produced during these times. One such video where we tried something innovative using the stop motion technique.
Here is a behind the scene photograph of the same.
If you’d like us to help you create videos at speed and scale for your brand, you could Start Your Project right away or say hello@guch.me
This post first appeared on Linkedin