The Challenge
Rob Anthony, operations manager from CRSA East contacted us to create a video of their Easter works. This video would show multiple sections of their track renewal works occurring over the Easter period.
The works were large in scale, taking place across five different sites: Golborne and River Mersey in Liverpool, Northampton Gateway and Denbigh Hall in Northampton, and Kensall Green in London. Furthermore, they wanted some soundbites and interviews from their staff. These soundbites would break up the site footage and add context to the works happening in the video.
The main point Rob Antony wanted us to drive home through the video, was the sheer complexity and scale of the works.
The Approach
We settled on three filming shifts to capture footage from each site as well as having a dedicated fourth shift for staff interviews.
In our experience, projects of this size work better when we capture the interviews separately. This method usually makes for a higher quality image and cleaner sound.
We sent an operative to the CRSA Aston depot to record the interviews prior to the works taking place. Having a dedicated space means we can light the interviews consistently. In addition, having a separate, quiet space greatly reduces background noise. Once our operative had setup the interview space, they were able to record twelve interviews back to back in half a day. Generally, ten or more interviews provides a plethora of content to add narration and context to a video.
A few days before we were set to film the works in Liverpool, the CRSA cancelled our shift due to scheduling issues. We were now down to two shifts to capture works around Northampton and London.
An operative was dispatched to London and Northampton at the beginning of the Easter weekend. They utilised the Cannon R5 Mirrorless camera in a tripod configuration. A tripod creates stability for clean and professional video, making it simple to illustrate the complexities of the work. On top of that, the DJI mini 4 pro drone was employed to gather aerial footage of the two sites, showing the scope of the works.
We dispatched a second operative at the end of the weekend to repeat the footage capture process on the two sites. The time gap would hopefully show some good progression of the works.
The Result
Immediately after the Easter weekend, we began editing the footage together. The amount of interviews in tandem with two days of site b-roll would prove a challenging edit. However, we were more than up to the task.
We began chipping away at the interviews to form a strong underlying narrative. We cut any um’s, ah’s or stutter’s and cover any gaps with b-roll of the works. Rob Anthony requested to have a visual map of where the works took place in the country. This was of course something we were more than happy to create for him.
Once we had a strong enough draft, we sent it off to Rob and his team for review. They responded quickly with a few minor changes and the request to add name plates for the interviewee’s. We quickly made these amendments and sent the video back to Rob.
He was over the moon with the final rendition of the video and so were we.
“Yet another great experience working with Inside Out Group! Covering our renewal sites from the Northwest to London over Easter, Inside Out captured the sites perfectly, great end product that we can share with our stakeholders, many thanks.”
Rob Anthony – Head of Operations – North West, Central & West Coast South Region – Central Rail Systems Alliance