When you’re creating video content, you’ve got to remain flexible.
Window washer set up shop on the other side of the glass just as you start your shoot on the 34th floor of a skyscraper? Get a ladder and hold a sign in front of their face asking them (politely) to move.*
Flew to Florida with a crew to get footage of a specific product, but they sold the last one that morning? Find a similar model and creatively shoot tight shots.*
Can’t travel to Rhode Island to shoot a case study at a fitness center because of a global pandemic? Flip the script and do something totally different.*
*Yes, we are in fact speaking from experience. 🙂
Background
Trane / Mitsubishi Electric VRF and ductless systems provide high levels of control over temperature — you can be heating in one room while cooling next door — and humidity. Because it uses small pipes instead of ductwork, you can save a lot of space, too…and it works really well in retrofits of old buildings because you don’t need to take destructive action to install ducts.
Zoned climate control and space-saving technology were two of the reasons why VRF was the perfect solution for CORE Cycle.Fitness.Lagree’s new buildout in an old Providence, Rhode Island brownstone. Their HVAC contractor, Coldmasters, knew Trane was the obvious choice because of their long working relationship and their previous experience with Trane’s VRF systems.
The Challenge
For us at Upswing, there really wasn’t a challenge…at first. We had a great story for a case study, complete with a contractor-as-hero and happy end user.
But, we were less than a month away from hoping on a plane to shoot interviews and b-roll when COVID forced us to change our best-laid plans. After waiting things out for several months, it was time to start over.
Our Solution
Even though we couldn’t travel, and CORE wasn’t doing any in-person classes, we were determined to deliver a visually-engaging video for this case study. We’d seen a lot of folks in our industry get really creative during the pandemic and we were excited to show we can do.
We took a look at what we did have — a great story, talented designers and animators, some great b-roll from the folks at CORE, and main characters who were willing to share their thoughts in a safe way.
After discussions with our friends at Trane, we decided on the concept of a multimedia collage — mixing CORE’s previously-shot footage, a playful “scrapbook” design, and interviews conducted from a distance via video calls. The end result is the video above!
