How We’re Coming Out of Quarantine Swinging
Who doesn’t love being on set? You’re surrounded by people who have the same interests as you and specialize in different roles that complement yours. You come together to create something that didn’t exist before, whether it’s a commercial, a film, a newscast, etc. Being on set with your team is a bonding experience, and there’s really nothing else quite like it.
But what happens when the world stops and our profession is shut down overnight? When our job is to assemble a large group of people in one location for hours on end to film something, social distancing seems pretty impossible. How could we adapt to this, considering there is no secure timeline for the return back to normal?
Months of booked production days suddenly cleared. Plans to travel with our families were instantly canceled. Leaving our homes and heading to the office was even off the table. We stayed working from home for six weeks catching up on editing projects with no new projects coming in. For a few of those weeks, it was difficult to see how we could turn it around with the world in its current state. But that kind of thinking just wasn’t sustainable long-term. So, after hours spent binge-watching movies and gaming until our eyes went crossed, we decided to brainstorm to figure out how we can continue offering our services during a pandemic.
Each member of our team ran in different directions. Tori focused hard on building up the Living Frames social media and our brand awareness. We wrote blogs, researched trends, and worked with graphic design to improve our presentation. We made lists of ways to update our reel and reach a wider audience when the world opened again. She also led the charge with our team’s COVID response - planning out how to take safety as seriously as “getting the shot” when this pandemic passes.
Dustin worked on finishing up some projects, and he took off running on developing creative outlets for our team to dive into and satisfy that itch. He wrote scripts, studied films, and started work on a new short film we could make as a team with full creative control (to learn more about the short film, visit A Monster in the House).
Josh researched what it would take to do video production remotely. He learned that there was a huge need for businesses and individuals to get information out to their followers, perhaps more now than ever considering everyone was stuck inside. Content was being viewed at much higher rates due to the isolation. After speaking with a few friends and colleagues, he started a push to develop a livestream service through Living Frames.
“But why can’t people just use Facebook Live or record it themselves?” Well, since you asked…
There are many benefits to partnering with a production company for high-quality livestreams. For instance, most people aren’t confident in front of a camera. By going through a production company, we can provide you with information and assistance in order to improve the overall look of the presentation. Not to mention we create graphics, transitions, and provide a whole remote team to help produce your live show — often times spanning across 5 or more states.
We learned that this method is very beneficial for health organizations who wish to get out new COVID information as quickly as possible. For most video production, it might take days to gather a crew and schedule a shoot, but with livestream technology, we could theoretically do it in mere hours. The learning curve for these new programs was taxing to say the least, but it’s resulted in some pretty incredible results that our clients have been raving about.
We’ve also dipped our toes in helping produce podcasts. With most people’s newfound free time, podcasting is something almost everyone has thought about, and more people than ever are trying it now. Using this same livestream software, it has become much easier to guide and direct these shows with a team behind you taking notes on what can be cut, what needs to be redone, and what is important to include, or not.
We’re proud of the way we’ve tackled our quarantine blues and got to work on different projects that can be beneficial to our company for the long haul. While the video games and Netflix binges were fun, we fought hard to remember that we’re human and humans are innovators. If we’re going to be given a new box to stay inside of (COVID), you better be ready for a fight because Team LF is busting out of every corner to show the world we’re not going anywhere.