University of Southampton

by Simon | Feb 29, 2016

University of Southampton

Overview

The Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute is an internationally recognised centre of excellence for research and innovation bringing together 350 academics across multiple university faculties. The breadth of research is vast and includes all aspects of the natural ocean environment and human uses of the sea. Examples of areas of expertise include ship design, marine robotics and underwater archaeology – to name but a few.

The brief

As a relatively new institute sitting outside the conventional faculty structure and sited across multiple campuses, SMMI needed to assert its identity both to academics as well as businesses at home and abroad.

There were multiple audiences with different interests and agendas. For the internal audience, SMMI hoped to excite academics intellectually to highlight the benefits of working with colleagues across different disciplines to unlock new solutions as well as tapping into cross-disciplinary funding sources.

For the external market – SMMI wanted to demonstrate the enormous success it has enjoyed innovating on behalf of businesses providing an external R&D function. We needed to create videos that would resonate with these distinct audiences providing clear calls to action.

Our Approach

Working with SMMI – we decided to make two short videos targeted at specific audiences. Although some of the filming would serve both videos – the story and the messages were very different with each video featuring success stories from each of the target markets.

The videos were enhanced by the fascinating case studies which demonstrated the breadth of SMMI interests. The internal video focused on a marine archaeologist investigating marine travel 50,000 years ago as well as an earth scientist involved in pioneering research to turn harmful CO2 into limestone.

The strength of the films came from the passion of the interviewees themselves on the cusp of really innovative research. The interviews were so engaging – we structured the videos without commentary. Graphics encapsulated the breadth of SMMI and reinforced key messages.

In order to make the most of the available budget we recut the material to make additional case studies videos for some of the individual segments of SMMI.

The Result

“Getting our message across to both our internal and external audiences is a major challenge. Simon and his team quickly understood this challenge and developed immediate solutions that worked as well as offering valuable insights for our longer term communication.

The production process was smooth and non-intrusive. The editing process was quick and they responded really positively to our feedback. Ultimately we got five videos for the price of one or two from other potential suppliers. Great value and an impressive product. We will be working with them again.”

Dr Simon Gerrard, Industrial Liaison Manager, Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI)

RCVS

by Simon | Dec 22, 2015

RCVS

Overview:

Established in 1944, The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS)aims to enhance society through improved animal health and welfare. They set, uphold and advance the educational, ethical and clinical standards of veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses. Tallboy has been working with The College for over eight years.

The brief:

The RCVS wanted to make a film to re-launch the Practice Standards Scheme to its membership. The Practice Standards Scheme (PSS) is a voluntary initiative to accredit veterinary practices in the UK. Through setting standards and carrying out regular assessments, the Scheme aims to promote and maintain the highest standards of veterinary care.

The approach:

Tallboy has an ongoing partnership relationship with the college going back several years. Our first discussions with the communications teams we offered different ideas and styles before deciding on character animation. We used a series of hand drawn vets, nurses and animals and a clearly spoken voice over to explain the re-launch. The idea the animated character style the viewer engage with the film and to get the message across effectively. The steady pace of delivery make the content digestible and easy to understand.

The results:

“We enlisted Tallboy’s help once again to produce a video to promote our new veterinary practice accreditation scheme to the veterinary profession. It’s a complicated subject, with an awful lot of variable information to get across. Tallboy suggested that animated infographics would be the most effective way to convey this in a short space of time, and we loved the idea. Because it was so complex, the project took a very long time, in fact it became one of Tallboy’s longest projects to date! But, they were very patient and stuck with us, and we’re delighted with the end result. The video also went down well at our launch event, and with the profession generally, and has certainly played its part in attracting new applications to join the scheme – over four times higher compared to the same time last year!”

Ian Holloway, Head of Communications, RCVS

You can see the video below or watch it on the RCVS website. Click here to view.

PAL

by Simon | Dec 21, 2015

Overview:

Predict Ability Limited (PAL) is the result of a two year collaboration between an award-winning Earth Scientist, a Chemical Engineer and a Financial IT Consultant. The company has developed an algorithm that cross references intricate insurance data to predict severe floods, droughts and hurricanes.

The brief:

PAL Ltd were looking for two video that would

Explain how they use their algorithm to predict natural disasters
Demonstrate the app and its key benefits

The software tools were targeted at insurance companies to assist in their disaster planning and mitigation.

Aimed at top level insurance industry CEOs, specialist journalists, and hedge fund managers the objectives of the video were threefold.

To bring attention to their research and the raise of climate change
Show how insurers can save money with their natural disaster predictions
To attract potential buyers for the company and its app

The videos were produced within a week as the founders wanted to launch their new website ion time for the climate change talks in Paris. You can watch them below or you can view them here

The approach:

The initial time was spent with the founders of the company to get their message right. Their research is complicated and to produce a 90 second video the message had to be simplified but not dumbed down. On camera presentation training was given to get their message across in a succinct way.

We decided to film the founders of PAL in a green screen studio. We combined footage of disasters such as floods, droughts and hurricanes with the interview clips. We recreated their analytics and data in the form of on-screen graphics to give gravitas to the message.

Music was added to build engagement and to heighten emotional appeal. The video content is very technical and it was important to use industry specific vocabulary, in the correct way for the film to have sufficient credibility. The script was written in stand-alone quotable sections and delivered to camera in sound bites for increased impact.

Royal College of Nursing

by Simon | Dec 21, 2015

The Royal College of Nursing

Overview:

The Royal College of Nursing is the world’s largest nursing union and professional body. They represent more than 435,000 nurses, student nurses, midwives and health care assistants in the UK and internationally.

The brief:

The RCN were looking for a case study film as part of their Small Changes – Big Differences campaign. The aim of the campaign was to encourage leaders of NHS Trusts to involve nursing staff in procurement decisions. The objective of the campaign was to inform stakeholders about the benefits of involving nursing staff and showcase how involving nursing staff can save money, increase staff productivity and improve patient care.

The client wanted a 3-4 minute case study led film to share online, use at events and at stakeholder meetings/presentations. They wanted the tone of the film to be ‘newsy’ in style and present the campaign messages in a factual and interesting way. Standalone 1 minute videos were also created from each interview, to be used alongside the campaign film.

The approach:

Tallboy decided to approach each interview as a case study, highlighting the interviewees experience with the procurement process, how it would and should work better, and to illustrate each with an example.
Interviews were filmed in situation at NHS Trust locations across the country. We used two cameras to give us an additional angle to use in the edit, the b-roll footage gave depth and integrity to each interview. We incorporated documentary style filming techniques with a small crew for minimal impact. Each interviewee was filmed unscripted, speaking naturally to camera and then edited in a sharp and snappy style.

The results:

The Small Changes film was launched internally on 10th December and was very well received. You can see the video on their website by clicking here.

Testimonial:

“Just to say thank you for our Small Changes film – we’re delighted, and have had lots of good feedback.”

Jane Hughes | Head of Campaigns and External Affairs – Royal College of Nursing

Storyboard Feature

by Simon | Nov 24, 2015

Storyboard Feature

The brief:

The client is a training company that uses video on the web to teach business techniques to its subscription audience of SMEs. We had already made two series for them, one on sales processes and one on HR – recruiting, motivating and retaining staff. The client then approached us to make a four part series on budgeting. While HR and Sales processes can be immediately visual, budgeting is a difficult topic to both illustrate and keep the audience engaged. The brief also wanted the series to be prescriptive and literally to ‘spoon feed’ the audience on how to create budgets that would help their businesses grow.

The approach:

The idea came from the fact the client wanted to use a business coach as the presenter. When we looked him up on LinkedIn, we found out he was American. That, coupled with a brief conversation with him, led us to think about approaching the topic with him as a detective with a puzzle to solve. We developed the idea and decided to shoot it in ‘film noir’ style to create drama and mystery.

As the series was to be prescriptive, the idea evolved into creating a beginning and ending for each episode in film noir style. We would keep the detective references in the main content, which would be shot ‘in conversation’ using a company that does already use this budgeting process.

As the business coach was flying in from America and also charged a daily rate, we took the decision to shoot the film noir sequences with a stand-in and just record a voice over with the coach. We used amateur actors to create the scenes and filmed late on Sunday night in an alleyway in West London.

Each scene, both in the film noir sequences and the main content, were storyboarded beforehand.

The main content was shot in a business in Portsmouth. The episodes had to be planned meticulously beforehand as time constraints meant we had to film out of sequence. The participants were not used to appearing on video, so there was a certain amount of agility required as they ad-libbed and wanted to add in further content. We used conversations with lots of different members of the company in order to keep the momentum up.

One of the more difficult challenges was ensuring we recorded every single permutation of voice-overs with our business coach before he flew back to the US after the two days of filming.

In order to complete the look, we built graphics that reflected the film noir style and used throughout. We added in music. Spreadsheets have never been so interesting!

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