Collaboration within video production

Collaboration is King!

As a full-service video production company, we tend to work directly with our clients on the majority of our projects. However, in some cases (normally on wider digital campaigns) there are many different creative outputs beyond just video, and we’re quite often brought in to work alongside other digital/creative agencies to produce content that sits within a wider, existing brief. This, of course, can bring unique challenges and rewards; from communication barriers between multiple agencies, differing creative opinions and interpretations of the brief, managing contact with the client (and client expectations), even differing workflow processes and tools – there’s a lot to think about when cross-collaborating. 

But this preamble isn’t to set up an article where we have a bit of a moan… as we love working collaboratively! It’s genuinely refreshing to meet with other creatives, hear new ideas, different ways of thinking, new procedures and approaches to challenges, and I think for us it allows us to reflect on and review our own processes and methodology. For example, are we being fluid in our approach? Do we allow our collaborators the opportunity or space to work through and produce their ideas? Or are we creating barriers and limitations to the end goal? 

Hopefully not.

In this week’s article, we’d like to share our experiences of working in collaboration with Storyteller Bangkok, a creative agency and video production company based in Thailand, on a TV and cinema campaign for The King Power International Group, filmed in the UK and Thailand at the end of 2020.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

The creative brief from King Power was for the creation of a series of adverts that were designed to offer an uplifting message, referencing the current Covid-19 crisis, but offering a (literal) light at the end of the tunnel. The aim was to put a feel-good factor out there, to raise spirits and to share the message that Thailand (and through its proxy, King Power), was there with you through these difficult times.

With annual revenue of over $3 billion, King Power is Thailand’s leading operator of airport duty-free stores. A significant part of its revenue is generated by ‘Tourism into Thailand’ and these TV and cinema adverts were an important part of the company’s overarching `Thailand smiles with you campaign’ whose main objective was to promote international travel and tourism into the country after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Filming for the project was to take place primarily in Thailand with the Thai-based video production company Storyteller Bangkok, however, each advert also required UK based footage that would sit cohesively and seamlessly against the Thai-shot footage. Our role was to work alongside and liaise directly with Storyteller Bangkok, to understand their filming requirements and ensure that all UK based production was produced on time, on budget and with incredibly high production values.

Unique Challenges

Of course, working collaboratively with a video production company that was based on the other side of the world did provide some unique challenges. The creative team at Storyteller Bangkok were six hours ahead of us, so it meant that we had to be extremely structured and organised in our meetings and communications, and offer a high level of flexibility. There were some language barrier difficulties and the deadline was fairly sharp. In addition to this, we also faced some fairly stringent filming conditions due to working with a Premier League Football player during Covid-19 restrictions so our contact with the player had to be kept to an absolute minimum.

Our biggest challenge however was, due to other media and club related obligations, we were limited to just one hour of filming time with our Premier League footballer. So, to ensure that we were able to film all required shots, we had to work incredibly close with the Storyteller Bangkok creative team to come up with a working solution that would allow for the content and context of the campaign to remain effective. To that end, plenty of storyboards were sent back and forth between agencies to reduce unforeseen variables and ensure clarity on exactly what would be filmed on the day of production.

Sharing Best Practice

What was refreshing in all this was working alongside another video production company who were more than happy to share materials and their own best practices, and, as mentioned before, this allowed us to reflect and improve upon our own methodology and approaches to work.

Due to the challenges created by the language and time barriers, the project empowered us to streamline and focus our communications and how best to present ideas and creative concepts. As a production team, it allowed us to sink our teeth into many technical challenges; and from a creative perspective, it was great to look at concepts from an international agency and offer and contribute our ideas to their project. All in all, we found our collaboration with Storyteller Bangkok to be an extremely positive experience.

Check out the final film below, and if you’d like to get in touch about a project or idea you have, get in touch with us at info@slateandmortar.com

Credits

Director: B-Bhakpong – https://www.b1filmsbkk.com/ rel=”nofollow”

Creative Agency: Storyteller – http://www.storytellerbkk.com/ rel=”nofollow”

All UK footage produced by Slate and Mortar Ltd – https://www.slateandmortar.com/

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