Croft TV’s Summer, 2024
Croft TV's
SUMMER, 2024
'ALL-IN-ALL, IT’S A LOVELY FEELING TO BE A PART OF SUCH POSITIVE CHANGE'
As the daytime shortens and the days begin to cool, we’re taking a moment to look back at a season that was full of fantastic projects, inspiration and of course sunshine (well some sunshine, it is England after all).
We’ll start this blog with something we are extremely proud of, since 2021 we have been working closely with one of our clients to transform their HR processes. In that time we’ve made countless videos with them explaining the changes, the new process, and why they are even happening in the first place.
We are happy to say that the transformation is now complete after 3 years of hard work, and it was a success!
Off the back of it, we were even commissioned to create the results video, summarising the entire journey.
By that point we were so educated in the topic that we could’ve just filmed ourselves for the interviews 😂
All-in-all, it’s a lovely feeling to be a part of such positive change, and the benefit it has made to the company.
Speaking of proud moments, another project that springs to mind was a client that had a podcast filmed and were after a sting, but wasn’t sure on how it should look.
It’s hard when nothing comes to mind and we understand that, so one of our creators, Chris, created six different options of what he thought would fit the style, both visually and audibly, making sure it was aligned with their branding.
The client was very happy with this and said the following:
“Many thanks for your prompt follow up. I love these proposals!”
Chris then polished up the final version, also creating a graphic banner for its web page.
They were so happy that they began to give us new projects, which will keep us very busy for the rest of the year (but not too busy for other projects 😉).
The summer season saw us editing plenty of self-shot videos, 2 of note were event kick-off videos.
As one was 8 minutes and one 7 minutes long, the client wanted to make sure they held the attention of their audience, as the footage we received was purely piece to cameras.
We always pride ourselves on not just sticking to a set formula, but constantly improving things, keeping them fresh, and more engaging.
So, this was right in our wheelhouse!
We added plenty of flourish – music, captions, animation, whenever there was an opportunity to insert something that still fit the tone, we put it in.
We were later told that we succeeded in the goal and that the event went great, so we had one very happy client.
The summer also saw us commissioned to produce 4 medical videos for the pharmaceutical field, this was a very exciting project and involved a studio, casting, 50+ translations…
…you know what, we won’t be able to go into the detail we need to in a couple of sentences, this needs it’s own article.
So, keep your eyes peeled for a case study on this project coming soon!
Summer was packed to the brim, with frankly too many projects to mention, so for now we’ll leave it here and hope that you enjoyed summer just as much as us!
– The Croft TV Team
Croft TV’s Spring, 2024
Croft TV's
SPRING, 2024
THIS IS WHY WE ARCHIVE EVERY PROJECT WE PRODUCE!
As we look back on spring, we can’t help but see the similarities between our business and the season.
We had new professional relationships born like the first animals of the season, and the wide spectrum of projects reminded us of the varying hues of wildflowers.
It was a busy and interesting period for us, so read on to find out what we got up to!
Spring saw us shooting at ITN Studios, where they film a number of movies, productions and the Channel 4 news!
The video was extremely interesting and consisted of a 3 person panel discussing the constant transformation and future of the news – featuring the Director of Technology, Production & Innovation at ITN, BBC News’ Streaming Editor and was chaired by TVBEurope’s Editor Jenny Priestley.
If this sounds interesting to you, you can sign up to watch it for free here!
Another 3 person set-up we shot over spring was a conversational interview, with a client who had just hired a new director.
The video featured the two company owners diving into its history and growth, followed by the new director talking about their background and what they will be bringing to the role.
We love seeing this kind of thing, and as a whole, think it is quite under-utilised as a form of communicating the arrival of a new recruit.
What better way to inform the whole business than with a video that explains everything they need to know about a person!
We were heading into the archives in spring, creating a video for an event based on footage we shot in 2022!
Initially, we had shot a day of interviews for a client, which we had turned into 30 different videos; 2 years later they needed the footage re-cut to create a new video for an upcoming event.
This is why we archive every project we produce!
Using previously shot footage is a great way to keep costs down, making the initial filming costs go further, and in today’s economic climate this benefit cannot be understated.
Along the same lines, one of our clients had just gone through a rebrand and so, many of their videos were now outdated.
Does that mean they all needed a re-shoot?.. Of course not!
We watched the corporate training and learned the new brand guidelines, managed to go through our archives to find the original projects and updated the branding on every single video.
When we say we will make these tasks stress free for you, I hope you can see that we mean it!
We were off to Bracknell in the spring to film a presentation, including a Q&A about the implementation of AI in the workplace.
The fascinating presentation was about how the inclusion of AI was not there to take people’s jobs, but rather, to complete smaller tasks, freeing up employees’ time for bigger picture projects.
We edited 2 videos out of the footage from the day, one with the Q&A and one without, and the client was so happy we already have a new project lined up!
From futuristic, to things that will always be important – the spring months saw us creating a Health & Safety induction video for one of our long term blue-chip clients.
For this video our client wanted to increase engagement by adding some humour – a different approach to Health & Safety to say the least!
We have done this in the past, and the key to it is striking a delicate balance – as the humour can’t outweigh the serious nature of the message the induction needs to deliver.
The client was extremely happy with the induction and said the following:
“Thanks Chris, I really love it, and it’s nice to create something a bit different 😊“
Eagle eyed readers may remember from our last blog that we were in talks to produce a promo video for a cyber security company.
We’re happy to say that has all wrapped and we were very happy with how it came out.
It is such a great feeling to take a project from the inital meetings all the way through to the end like that – creating assets, finding and recording the voice over artist, to delivering the final video to a happy client – there’s nothing better!
Have a watch of the end result below.
As always, there were too many projects to mention, but needless to say, there were plenty more shoots, subtitling, localising, self-shot videos to edit, create animations for and generally make look their best, not to mention the projects in the pipeline, including a respirator video for a client from the ‘Emerald Isles’, but let’s leave it there…
We hope your spring was full of highs just like ours and we can’t wait to see what the summer brings.
Bring on the sun!
– The Croft TV Team
Croft TV’s Winter, 2023 – 2024
Croft TV's WINTER,
2023 - 2024
WE THINK THE MORE INFORMED OUR CLIENTS ARE, THE BETTER OUR PROJECTS WITH THEM BECOME.
Spring has finally arrived which means the darkest days are behind us (we wish we could say the same for the coldest days, but you never know in the UK), baby animals are everywhere, and bookings for the sunnier months are coming in thick and fast.
Usually winter is linked with hibernation, but that wasn’t the case for us or our clients, who kept us very busy with many exciting projects.
Let’s find out what they were.
A major theme for us over the winter months was global working, which saw us creating an explainer animation for a global conference in Barcelona, which demonstrated how to stay safe in the city, as attendees were coming in from all over the world…
…we were working early mornings and late nights to accommodate time zones and organise a project with an Australian client…
…and we created a promo video for a cyber security client based in Canada, to name a few.
To bring it back a bit more local we were off to a studio in Reading to shoot a 45 minute live webinar about the art of storytelling in live sports.
The panel was made up of a mix of representatives from the companies that make the technology, and leading industry professionals in the field, including a football director who is in charge of all 100+ cameras on many Premier League match days.
It was extremely interesting to hear their stories and what their predictions are for the future of the industry.
You can find the full webinar below.
In a related note, we created media for another client’s webinar – 16 individual videos all up, that would be played at different times throughout it.
They were so happy with what we delivered they had the following to say:
“A massive thank-you for your efforts and support last week in turning round so many videos and so quickly – we appreciate it!”
“I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU for supporting us last week with the video production. It was a pleasure to work with you. The webinar went really well and it wouldn’t have be possible without your help!”
We had a huge load of self-shot videos to edit over the winter months including a staff training video, which needed a super-fast 2 day turnaround…
…we put together an IT product launch, an end of year video from a clients’ HR directors, HR transformation videos, a 25 video staff retention suite, which was so successful they’ve already booked us in for another 5 videos, and an International Women’s Day celebration video, among many others.
On top of all the video work this winter, we’ve also been bolstering out our blog to make sure it is full to the brim with important video and photography information.
We think the more informed our clients are, the better our projects with them become.
Our latest post is about the autocue, where we dispel the myth that it always makes things easier.
If that sounds interesting you can read it by clicking HERE or on the image below.
On top of all that, we’ve been doing more work on our promo videos for brand new poster tech for the medical industry (you’ll be hearing more on this very soon!) and have many more projects in the pipeline, including a promo video for a global cyber security company.
We’ve had a fantastic winter and hope that you have too.
Here’s to a productive spring!
– The Croft TV Team
Croft TV’s Summer, 2023
Croft TV's
Summer, 2023
WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON THIS KIND OF TURNAROUND!
The outdoor furniture has been packed away, people are beginning to winterise their gardens and the first lot of ice has been scraped from our van’s windshield – that can only mean one thing, that summer has come and gone, but what a summer it was!
From global conferences, a Croft TV run masterclass and ground-breaking new presentation tech, this summer was full of interesting projects that we relished getting stuck into.
So, let’s dive in and see what we got up to…
First up, we are pleased to announce that we have a new addition to the Croft TV family, some of you may have met him already, please welcome Conn!
We ask that you complete one private single clap to mark the occasion.
After a short induction period, Conn was thrown in at the deep end with an editing project.
We had just finished filming training videos at an office of one of our international blue-chip clients, who have been building an online learning resource for their employees.
We had a great day filming a load of different interview style videos and the client was nice enough to give us the following feedback from the day:
“Just wanted to echo the thank you to the team, especially Carrie, Nick and Chris on the day. Had a great experience.”
Conn did an excellent job on the edits and received the following comment:
“Andrew is very happy with the final edit!”
Conn had his first live shoot shortly after, where he was filming a product demonstration video of water filters, for use in the hospitality industry.
Sometimes technical videos can come across slightly dry, so to make the video as engaging as possible we added animated elements, iconography and some fitting music. The client was extremely happy with the final video, so happy in fact that we’ve now been asked to create multiple language versions!
We were off to Cambridge this summer to shoot another client talk about the latest innovations in e-security and their latest e-security offering, which made us stop to think how far tech has come, and not just from an e-security stand point…
…but also how we shot the video. We filmed in the client’s main UK office in Cambridge, but the team who we were shooting for were based in Canada.
We had a comms link set up to the main video feed, so that they could talk and listen to us and see the literal video as it was being shot.
It was an excellent way of working and having live feedback from the Canadian office was really beneficial, helping to make the final video fantastic.
Speaking of international projects, one we had this summer had us pulling in a load of video content from multiple places to create a virtual town hall meeting to be seen all over the world, for one of our global clients.
We combined footage from two event days, one in Hull and one in Poland, to that we added self-shot piece to camera videos and finally, sprinkled throughout the video, and leading it, was footage of a self-shot host.
The possibilities for high-quality, affordable video content these days is incredible, and it makes us extremely proud that we get to help deliver it 🙂
We had many more live video and editing projects this summer, some of our favourites were shooting and editing an event day focusing on health and wellbeing in the construction industry, editing a HR based video podcast and editing an award film we made for a client’s up-and-coming awards night, focusing on celebrating diversity and specifically females within their business.
We received the brief Monday, they had their first edit Wednesday and the final for their event Friday (we pride ourselves on this kind of turnaround)!
Other favourites include something we recommend all of our clients do at some time – turning video footage we already shot for them into a completely new video. To make it fresh, we combined the footage with slides, animation, iconography and much more. This is a great way to give the footage a new life and make the live filming go a lot further.
We got to create a fun and engaging explainer video, designed to help the transition of workers coming to London from abroad.
We created a really interesting promotional video for new presentation tech in the pharmaceutical industry, but we’ll talk about this in the future 🤫
Finally, we held our first ever masterclass and taught best practices in self-shooting video, to one of our blue-chips.
Now this may sound strange to some, but the truth is people will be self-shooting regardless, so we may as well help them self-shoot the best video possible. This will make the end video the best it can be!
If you wanted to read our online version and improve your self-shot video, you can find it by clicking HERE; or download a PDF version by clicking the link below!
That’s it! Well not really, but there are too many projects to mention.
We hope you enjoyed our summer blog as much as we enjoyed the summer. Let’s begin the run-up to the holiday season!
– The Croft TV Team
Croft TV’s Spring, 2023
Croft TV's
Spring, 2023
TO SEE A ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE STANDING UP, CLAPPING AND SOME EVEN CRYING, REALLY MAKES THE JOB WORTH IT!
New life, longer days, warmer temperatures, and you guessed it, many video projects. Let’s have a look at what we got up to this spring at Croft TV!
To replenish the creative juices and stay on top of the latest tech, we were back at the Media Production & Technology Show (MPTS) this year and what a show it was, jam packed with innovation and inspiration.
Attending this, and events like this, helps us to deliver the best service possible for our clients, as not only do we get to inspect cutting-edge tech that may spark ideas for future projects, but the expert led, hands-on workshops offer valuable insights into video editing, sound design, and post-production; helping us to ‘sharpen the saw’.
We always leave with excitement, a head full of ideas and occasionally new gear!
We were off to Windsor this spring to shoot and photograph an event for one of our international, blue-chip clients.
150 members of their global team attended, and it would be the first time they were all in the same place (let alone country!) since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
For us, this job was multi-faceted, firstly we had created the introductory video that opened the event. We don’t often get to see our work being viewed by the client, but to see a room full of people standing up, clapping and some even crying, really makes the job worth it!
The client actually liked the video so much, they asked to have it re-edited so they could use it again.
Outside of that, we covered the event, filming presenters, interviewing people in the breaks and shooting group photographs; all-in-all it was a fantastic day and needless to say, the client was very happy 🙂
It is nice to see a video you made elicit such strong emotions like we saw at the Windsor event, but that wasn’t the only time one of our videos brought a client to tears (in a nice way!) this spring.
We created 2 videos for another client focusing on diversity, inclusion and allyship, which we got the following feedback:
“We have had a really positive response to both videos and people are actually feeling quite emotional when watching them, which is the reaction we wanted.”
We don’t want to make a habit of making people cry, but we love that our videos can stir up these kinds of emotions.
This spring saw a client come to us with changes to a video we made for them 7 years ago!
After going through a rebrand, the client had got in contact with us to update their logo, strap line and website in the video.
It’s great to know a client still loves and is getting value out of a video we made for them 7 years ago!
So, we went back to the archives to find the project, reinstalled it and seamlessly updated it, so hopefully now the client can keep using it for another 7 years.
Just to add a cheeky plug here, one thing we pride ourselves on at Croft TV, is just how meticulous we are with archiving old projects.
So when you work with us, you can rest assured we have stored your programme and project files somewhere safe, should you ever need to change anything, okay plug over!
The eagled eyed of you will remember from our last update that we mentioned we had just been commissioned to create contractor induction videos for a company’s two worksites and we are happy to say they’ve been completed with the client saying:
‘Really happy with the quality of the videos!’
The project involved taking pre-made scripts and PowerPoint presentations and converting them to video. We do this by adding animated elements such as iconography, text, etc., a professional voice over, music and a few other tricks we have up our sleeve.
The result is a visually appealing and engaging video that will hold the viewers’ attention, which is especially vital with such important information.
Once the video was signed off, we also converted it back to a PowerPoint slide deck featuring the new elements and added a professional voice over to that too, so that it can be used in their training.
We have written a case study on why we think more companies should be converting their PowerPoint slide decks to video. If you are interested you can read it HERE or click the image below!
We were back in the world of cyber security this spring, which is more important than ever, creating technical demo videos for new security software and videos on how the software integrates into clients’ systems.
These videos turned out really nice, featuring a mix of interviews and b-roll we shot, mixed with screen recordings of the software running.
This is a part of the job we don’t talk about often, but we are constantly amazed with what we learn on the job. In this instance, the innovation in cyber security, but we could be anywhere, such as a medical conference filming experts talking about break through medical procedures; it’s amazing the stuff you learn!
On top of all the other video projects we completed this spring from polishing up web casts and subtitling videos to creating an online learning resource for a client’s staff, we also were involved in a number of audio specific projects, one being a podcast.
For this we were provided self-recorded audio, which we fully mastered – cleaning it up, taking the breaths out and enhancing it; making it sound as professional as possible. All done for a next day delivery!
Okay, yes that was another plug 🙂
We are also in the process of improving our infrastructure, enhancing all of our platforms, so we can provide the best service for our customers, secure ourselves for the future, and offer our clients the best service.
We’ve had a busy spring with a multitude of projects, too many to mention them all, and we can’t wait to see what summer has in store for us!
– The Croft TV Team
Croft TV’s Winter, 2022 – 2023
Croft TV's WINTER,
2022 - 2023
WE HOPE YOU'VE HAD A LOVELY END OF YEAR AND WE HOPE THAT YOUR NEW YEAR, LIKE OURS, IS OFF TO A FLYING START
We love winter at Croft TV, not only does it bring a year to an end, it also kickstarts the next!
Over winter we had plenty of cold weather, plenty of celebrations and plenty of projects to be cracking on with – so, let’s get into them!
The ‘global’ theme continued in winter, as we were off to Cambridge to film interviews with UK employees, for a Canadian client, to be edited alongside interviews with employees all over the world.
They spoke about their experiences working for this company, which we partnered with nice b-roll we filmed around their office, and even made props, such as cards that the employees held up in the video.
At the end of the project, the client was very happy with the video we had provided!
Our new sketch animation style we mentioned last update increased in popularity, this time our sketch animation master Dan, was creating videos about filtration products for coffee and ice machines.
This client, based in France, was in London on business, so Dan went to meet them and get the brief.
We hate to continue the theme here (just kidding, we love it!), but these were also for global use and so, Dan ended up creating multiple subtitled versions, as well as a series of social media teaser videos to help promote them.
The client was so happy with the sketch animations that they have already requested another and similarly, was so happy with the results of the social media promos, that they have requested another two!
Interviews really seemed to be the ‘flavour of the season’ in winter, as we filmed many more than already mentioned, including a ‘get to know your senior leader’ video which featured an employee asking questions of their senior leader, to help the team know them on a more personal level.
Another two person conversation, this time a very topical and important subject, senior leaders discussing the company’s future sustainability goals.
As well as many more!
We also had plenty of self-shot interview videos to edit too, such as a video to promote one of our client’s mentor/mentee programme. Here we saw mentees discussing how beneficial it was to have a mentor, and likewise, mentors discussing how important it was to have a mentee, and how much both parties get out of it.
Sorry for this interruption, but…
If you are looking to improve your self-shot video and get them looking their best, we’ve created a free, easy to follow guide that will walk you through everything you need to know in getting your videos looking and sounding as good as they can. You can find it by clicking HERE; or download a PDF version by clicking the link below!
Now, back to the update…
We also had the privilege of creating an International Women’s Day video for a client, which was also created from self-shot footage, featuring many captions and hand draw style animations, all created by our editing superstar-cum-animator, Chris.
The client was so happy, they sent through these lovely words of appreciation:
“I just wanted to say a massive thank you for all your work on this. That’s the second time you have helped me out of a spot and I really appreciate it. Thank you. I’m really happy with the final version.”
All of our videos, both filmed by us or self-shot by our clients, are treated the same once we get them to the edit suite. They are all professionally edited, graded, audio is cleaned and mastered, and then whatever else the project requires is added, which might be music, slides, captions & graphics, animations and much more!
The winter months also saw us filming many different videos, for different clients, about new software they’ve adopted.
These projects usually involve shooting interviews (some were also self-shot), b-roll of the employees using the software and capturing the software on screen.
Once we have that we then edit the videos, blurring out any sensitive information, master the audio and add a nice grade, music, sound effects, animations and any other overlays required.
One of these videos was created for a Latin American client, featuring colleagues from markets in Thailand and Turkey and was presented to their (last time, we promise!) global workforce!
Looking forward to spring, we have many projects on the horizon, including a fire warden video for a company in the Health Care field, which we have already reccied and written the script for – we are just waiting on filming dates.
We have also been asked to create contractor induction videos for a company’s two worksites. In this project the company will be producing the script and PowerPoint, we then take the PowerPoint and turn it into video by adding animation, voice over and a few other tricks we have up our sleeve. We will also be creating them a PowerPoint slide deck with a voice over for them to use in training.
If you are interested in converting your PowerPoint decks to video, we have written a project case study on the subject, which also outlines why we think it is very important. You can read it HERE!
Outside of them, there are plenty other projects on the cards too! Too many to mention them all, so we’ll leave you with this…
We hope you’ve had a lovely end of year and we hope that your new year, like ours, is off to a flying start!
– The Croft TV Team
Croft TV’s Autumn, 2022
Croft TV's AUTUMN, 2022
THE END RESULT WAS A FANTASTIC VIDEO THAT THE CLIENT WAS VERY HAPPY WITH
The season of scares, celebration and fireworks has passed and as the colder months settle in, let’s look back at what was an amazing autumn here at Croft TV.
As the cost of living crisis worsens, even blue chip companies aren’t immune to financial difficulties and have been tightening their belts just like everyone else.
One of our clients has started a ‘spending initiative’, to improve the cost effectiveness of their organisation, ensuring what they spend gets a justified return and that they get the best price for the services they choose to utilise.
For this initiative we were firstly asked to create a logo, where we got to flex our graphic design muscles, and then we were asked to edit a self-shot video explaining the concept. Here we used our editing magic to add effects, animation, a colour grade, clean up the audio and add music – the end result was a fantastic video that the client was very happy with.
A different department of the same client had us creating Sustainability Training Videos, using a combination of footage we shot at the client’s offices and a video call the client provided to us, that allowed a busy manager to film themselves in their own time.
A medical client had us virtual directing a doctor in America, for a video that utilised our skills for animation (including creating molecule chains and dripping blood!), adding slides, captions, graphics and music.
We introduced a new art style for a set of 3 Sketch Animation Videos we created for one of our oldest clients, to show-off the features and benefits of their products that increase water quality.
We also had the honour for the 2nd year running, of creating a video for a very prestigious online awards ceremony for the same client. For this, one of our Directors, Dan, sat in on and recorded 9 video calls across 3 days, to ensure that the videos were of the highest possible quality. He used his years of experience to direct the videos, making sure the camera position, lighting and sound quality was the best it could be.
The recordings were then edited into different categories for the event and elevated using our favourite editing techniques, to make sure the event was a huge success.
One of our London clients has recently updated not just their branding, but also their way of working since the Covid lockdowns. This meant that their Health and Safety and Fire Warden Training Videos needed to be updated to reflect the changes.
Just like our other clients, they were trying to keep costs down, which is fine with us! To do this we managed to update the videos without shooting any new footage. Utilising the extensive footage we already had with some clever editing techniques, we managed to completely update the training videos, which the client loved!
For our other clients beyond the Atlantic, we spent the autumn creating 4 different language versions of one client’s supplied video, creating a Spanish, Japanese, German and French version. We also created a number of technical ‘How-To’ videos for one of our cyber security clients, which involved cleaning up supplied footage and blurring any sensitive information – and finally, we were also asked to create a series of brand new animation videos, but we’ll talk more about this in a future post!
The new style animation video did really drive home the world we live in these days, when Chris, one of our Directors, was directing a voice over online with one of our voice over artists, who was on the west coast of America for a client who was based in Canada!
While all this was all going on, back home in the UK, we were filming and editing videos with one of our local blue chip companies for use in one of their lead conferences, we were filming more internal comms videos which included animation, caption, graphics and music, and finally capturing lead executives while they had the time, which one client did with no video in mind, just because they know at some point they will want to use the footage and that particular employee is extremely busy!
Looking to the winter we have a lot on the horizon, including a new commission on a popular video we made in the past, which is comprised of 25 different versions of it in 8 different languages, one client has us lined up to create many cut-down social media versions of a popular sketch animation video we made for them, a set of lab tutorials are in the works and many other projects.
The winter months may be cold but the work sure is heating up – gone are the days when things used to wind down over the holiday period, it is looking to be a very busy time here at Croft TV!
– The Croft TV Team
Croft TV’s Summer, 2021
Croft TV's SUMMER, 2021
WOW, WHAT A BUSY SUMMER!
With the easing of restrictions came the increased number of shoots that we went on. This was great for our film crew as we’d invested in new equipment this year and they were itching to get out in the field and use it.
We were asked to film Town Hall events and then create same day edits so that our clients could share them with a wider audience the next day. We were filming nurses in the community for an NHS Recruitment video, filmed a ‘state-of-the-art’ factory to produce a promo video, carried out a studio shoot for a series of product demo videos and filmed countless ‘pieces-to-cameras’ in various locations.
Our photography skills were called upon too; we were asked to produce a series of posters that required us to film one of our models demonstrating a client’s products. We filmed the action at the same time and produced a series of videos to accompany them.
It was also really pleasing to see that the editing side of the business has held up too.
On top of the footage that we’d captured that needed editing, we were still being sent footage of Teams Meeting (and the like) which needed editing, grading, audio enhancements, captions & graphics and music added. We also had many requests to edit existing videos in order to bring them up-to-date and then to localise them into numerous languages. Added to all of this, we recorded a lot of voiceovers for various projects and in various languages and created humorous cartoons for one of our US based clients. There’s never a dull moment at Croft TV!
As we move into autumn the workload shows no sign of slowing down so hopefully this is an indication that the UK economy’s recovery is gathering pace.
We hope that business is good for all of our clients and we look forward to working with you all in the coming months and years!
– The Croft TV Team
Croft TV’s Spring, 2021
Croft TV's Spring, 2021
THE SUN IS WARMER, THE DAYS ARE LONGER - WHO DOESN'T LOVE SPRING?
With the lockdown restrictions relaxing even more, we saw a nice variety of work over the spring months, from shooting and photography to animations and voice overs; we were happy to be involved in so many exciting projects.
We continued to see plenty of clients taking advantage of translating and localising their videos. This allows them to be seen by a much greater audience. One in particular saw us taking a promo video, editing 3 additional social media cut down versions and translating it into 10 different languages.
It was a lot of videos and a perfect example of how we can help you get the most out of your video content. If you would like to discuss a similar project, click HERE and let’s have a chat 🙂
We are huge advocates of the NHS so being able to continue to work for them has been fantastic and something we are extremely proud of.
The vast majority of this work over the past few months has been recording and editing voice overs for use in their online staff training courses and we’ve just started another exciting project which is in the storyboarding phase, so more on that in upcoming blog posts.
Spring continued the trend of self-shot material, so we had plenty of editing to do. This has been an easily accessible and relatively low cost way for our clients to create engaging social media content, to really fill out their channels.
Once your video is shot send it through and let us take it to the next level. The addition of colour grading, audio mastering and animations, to name a few, really helps lift the production value.
A good example of this in practice was a self-shot medical project we produced recently. This project saw us creating a whole series of animated graphics to go over a 5 part company overview.
The animations did their job well and not only made the video look more professional but also took what could have been quite a dry video and made it a lot more engaging.
If you’d like a little bit of help shooting your own videos, we’ve created a free, easy to follow guide that will walk you through everything you need to know in getting your videos looking and sounding their best. You can find it by clicking HERE; or download a PDF version by clicking the link below!
Spring also gave us more live filming and photography opportunities, one such project that involved both took us to Reading where we filmed a product demonstration of a new piece of tech that was attached to a van.
Dan operated the camera in the back of the van (luckily he doesn’t get motion sickness), Chris operated the action camera attached to the windshield and Grant shot photos of the day and promotional photos of the product itself.
The shoot went great and the client was very happy with the output. So happy in fact that they asked us to create a further 3 cut down versions of the video.
On top of everything else, some of our clients have recently changed or updated their brand guidelines so over the past few months they’ve put on a number of brand webinars. We pride ourselves on how well we know our clients’ brand guidelines so we always make sure to attend these and really dive deep into the changes they’ve made.
That’s it! Thanks for reading. We’ve enjoyed spring immensely and hope you have too.
Now let’s see what summer brings!
– The Croft TV Team
Croft TV’s Winter, 2020 – 2021
Croft TV's Winter, 2020 - 2021
“IN TOTAL ABOUT 30 VIDEOS WERE FILMED IN JUST ONE DAY!”
As the days begin to warm and grow in length, let’s have a look back at what was a very busy winter for us at Croft TV.
The winter months continued the 2020 trend of an abundance of editing based work, but we did see an uptick in live filming opportunities.
One such opportunity saw us travelling to a well known food manufacturer to create a Health and Safety video. Dan took the reins on this one and worked with the client through every stage. He recce’d the location, wrote the script, put together the shot list, auditioned and prepped the actor, directed (with the help of Chris as camera operator) and edited the programme together.
The client was extremely happy with the video, so happy in fact that they did not change a single shot from the first edit!
Another live filming opportunity came in the form of product demonstrations. This shoot involved the client sending through a selection of their products to our studio where we had created a table top set-up inside our filming space.
The idea was to make a video per product, demonstrating how each one worked, whilst keeping the set-up consistent across every video so there was a nice synergy across the product line.
In total about 30 videos were filmed in just one day!
They were edited together by Chris, editor extraordinaire, where he once again kept a consistent tone by applying the same design across each video, which included opening and closing title cards, captions and similar music tracks.
Due to the success of these videos the client has already commissioned a new batch which are already under way.
If you are interested in learning more on how we conduct our shoots during the pandemic we have created a post that outlines the precautions we take to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees and our clients. You can read it HERE!
Webinars continued to be a valuable form of content for companies throughout winter and so, we had quite a lot to edit!
Webinars made the list in our ‘Top 5 Corporate Video Trends of 2021’ you can read more by clicking HERE!
A webinar that really stood out to us as being both a very inspiring video and a great use of the technology was STEM related, where professional engineers from all over the UK spoke about their experience in engineering as women in a predominately male industry and took questions from school students.
The client delivered us the raw video files recorded directly from Microsoft Teams. We cut out each individual speaker and arranged them on a bespoke background, specific to the client’s branding. We then cleaned and enhanced the audio and colour graded the footage.
The client was very pleased with the end result and we already have a number of similar videos in the works!
We began promoting new styles of video that we can produce if companies cannot get a professional crew in, such as our social media design.
These have been a real hit, as the graphical elements draw a lot of attention, the video quality doesn’t have to be perfect for the video to still look great.
See our promo video below and learn more!
Winter has also provided us with a nice variety of other work to keep us busy, including voice overs for the NHS’ online training resources, updating the branding on a company’s video output as they go through a brand refresh and furthering the reach of a client’s message by creating translated versions of their most popular videos, to name a few.
To top it all off, we’ve started promoting our website design service – where our highly skilled team will work closely with you to create a website that is a perfect fit for you or your business.
If this interests you, you can find out more by clicking HERE!
