AV News 177 - August 2009
Safe As Houses (Part Two)
M a u ric e D y b e c k ARPS
In most AV productions, we, as RPS members or AV supporters, are making
sequences that have grown out of a personal interest, experience, passion,
what-have-you. In these two articles I venture into the territory where we are
using our skills to interpret someone else's requirements. With our own
(personal) productions we generally have some vision of the end product
from the start. But working for a client, who may have little conception of what
AV can do, the first challenge is to understand what he wants and to explain
in a rough assembly of pictures and sound, how this can be achieved. To me,
this is just as exciting as making a personal sequence.
So here we are, a year later, at the start of a £180M city centre
development, and they want me to set the SAFETY scene for each and every
worker who clocks in on that site. The basic rules were much the same as
last time but I want to be clear that they are happy with the overall impression
that the film will give. So I begin by pressing them: “What impression of the
firm do you want to give to your workers?” We work our way through the
usual “bull” and end up with three pointers:
1. We are a good firm with a proud record
2. We will expect you to maintain that record
3. In return we shall do all we can to protect you
Not much scope for a competition AV there, you feel. Sounds more like the
start of a Powerpoint presentation! Which of course is where most of these
Corporate boys are coming from. The challenge now is to rise above the
boredom of "death by Powerpoint" and really enlist their interest in the way
AV can bring alive their formal statements.
So, having understood their needs, we open to stirring music with some
five second shots of recently completed company projects. Many of this
audience will probably have been involved in these projects. The next
challenge was to give them some overall picture of this new project so that
they could see how their individual contribution fits in. The snag for us was
that all we had on site was a sea of mud and half-demolished old buildings!
Fortunately the project promoters had built a wonderful model which had
served to raise support for the scheme and show the public what was afoot.
This model probably spent the
previous year on display and was now
a little the worse for wear. With a little
revamping, some colour spotlights
and a blue sheet backcloth (hand held
by long-suffering assistant) we were
able to merge a sequence of closeups
of this model with a few artist's
impressions and give a semblance of
what would become reality over the
next two years.
Page 6