Promotional Video

Our storytelling approach for promotional films

Telling a story like this takes planning and careful thought. Nearly every aspect of the video production was constructed well before the shoot day. This case study will give you an insight to how we approach storytelling. The project started out over a coffee in a local pub. We had a casual conversation about all things related to fighting, training and Mixed Martial Arts. Over the course of the 30 minutes or so, it was clear where the story would go. The plot of the film seemed obvious. So I wrote down in my notebook:

Plot: To win at competition requires relentless pursuit of skill.

We needed to identify what it was that we were trying to say. This took a little more thought and another cup of coffee. This is what I wrote in my notebook:

Purpose: Developing skill only comes from hard work, sweat and commitment.

These messages are universal and could be applied to any story. In this film the message would be communicated in the backdrop of a Mixed Martial Arts fighter. The fight was still months away, so we proceeded to storyboard the various shots that we would need. It seemed to make sense to film the fight first. As much as I had confidence in Gareth, I didn’t know if he was going to win. The story might have changed depending on the outcome. So it was best to do the interview after the fight. The world of film is a lot more complex than most people realise. Every aspect of filmmaking affects how the final film will feel. Every setting in the camera, the composition, the colour, the camera movement, all affect how the film will be interpreted subconsciously. We use a set of keywords to help guide us through a maze of options. This was my set of guidelines for the fight night:

unpredictable, commitment, pushing limits, humble

It was unpredictable because we didn’t know if Gareth was going to win. His commitment to skill, training and learning is unquestionable. It was clear that Gareth always pushes the limits of his capability. And finally, he is very humble and we wanted this to come through in the film.

The fight scenes were filmed with a deliberate controlled movement to make the footage appear uncontrolled. A fight is unpredictable and this being one of our keywords, reminded us to film the scenes with a sense of unpredictability. We also made a series of adjustments to the standard camera settings to help provide the footage with a sense of energy. Utilising the pushing limits keyword. We had 5 cameras rolling for the fight, but used footage from 3 of them for the final edit. It was amazing to see Gareth win! It was a tough fight and soon afterwards, we organised a day to film the interview and to also capture the b-roll we wanted. Our keywords had changed after the fight because things were no longer unpredictable. So that keyword was dropped and replaced with never give up. At no point during the fight did Gareth give up! He continued despite having a broken nose and another injury incurred during the fight.

commitment, pushing limits, humble, never give up

The interview was hampered by the ten pin bowling alley on the floor above, so arrangements were made and we had 25 minutes of quiet to conduct the interview. The best way to look at the interview is that it is a casual conversation. It may seem daunting at first for the interviewee, but after the first couple of minutes, it settles down into a nice chat. Once that was over, it was on to recording specific scenes. Some choices had to be made early on about the film, one of those was colour. I decided that all the training elements of the film were going to be in a blue colour tone, representing hard work. And the fight scenes were going to be overly warm to represent the success, the pay off of all that hard work.

Let me explain some of the decisions we made during some scenes of the film below: