A series of productions were completely filmed by local teams in different areas of Brazil as a production, direction, editing and finalization took place at another point
Normally, making an audiovisual production presents a series of obstacles, because it needs a whole group of creation and coordination to lead the project in the best possible way. With the social isolation imposed by the pandemic of the new coronavirus, this operation encountered a great barrier, the stoppage of all filming and any type of live production. That's when, looking for solutions to continue their work, the audiovisual production company Prime Arte found the answer to this challenge in capturing videos with remote teams.
Having a large project in hand featuring employees from a Spanish multinational bank, who migrated from city or state to work in new open agencies across Brazil, seeking career growth and quality of life and unable to move the São Paulo team, capital, to shoot the nine videos in different locations in the country, the content company needed to adapt to the “new normal” and implement different remote management methods to work on the project. The first challenge was to find teams in each city without any previous contact. An intense search of the service sectors was necessary, internet production and direction, calling all local producers, requesting portfolios and closing budgets.
According to Fernanda Preste, Prime Arte producer, the biggest difficulty of remote capture is finding qualified teams that have the equipment required for filming. “Some cities in the countryside do not have the resources to shoot this type of video. It was an adaptation process, we were learning from the new situations that arose. Before all the filming, it was necessary to hold meetings with the teams and the interviewees to align the details. Then we received all the raw material and from there, I ran to do the editing. The whole procedure needed to be very quick, since our deadlines were short due to the steps until the final cut ”.
Detailed study and open communication have become the key to success
The use of remote capture can be produced at several levels, depending on the company's need, your available budget and the expected quality. For some specific projects it was necessary to readjust the workflow in internal work, reviewing platforms and teams, in addition to excellent communication with the project leaders by the multinational, so that all expectations were aligned. Study the climate of the cities chosen as location, adjusting the best times, the feasibility of running outdoors due to the heat, rain or wind, even choosing where to place the camera become essential factors in order to avoid any setbacks.
It was from tests, mistakes and successes that Prime Arte understood what they need to do, what is the best platform, what is the best solution, what were the needs. For Marcello Martins, Prime Arte's Content Director, the direction is a job in which you need to have a keen eye and on top of what is happening in the place. A lost moment can be what defines the entire video. “We sent all the recommendations to the local teams and made them understand that they were our main team. It was a giant responsibility to pass our success away. They were validating and checking Prime Arte quality at that time. We watched everything from afar and were looking forward to seeing if the material included everything we planned ”.
For the director, the relationship between management and client becomes very direct, because you need to translate your perspective, vision and desired sensation in images and sound. The challenge is to be able to transmit this vision without being present, be able to empower the remote team and make it absorb point by point. “It is a very big job to choose producers that think like us, that work the same way to make it work. All staff worked on alternatives so that the project did not lose quality, separating and using what they had in hand, reformulating production from that ”.
Readaptation made remote management a reality even in the post-pandemic
The greatest proof of adaptation was in the delivery of raw material for editing. Although the entire project has been discussed and aligned, more than once the result was different from what was requested. Hands tied, there were few options available to save the video: cut it off completely from the final edit, which is impracticable because it involves expenses and logistics; redo all content, also unfeasible for the time and period of execution or to untangle all the material, preserving the best parts and sending it to post-production, that will create the most satisfying result possible. “The final product proved that we have a very large capacity for adaptation and we know how to deal with differences in quality and time. It's too much work, but the ending is satisfactory. We learned that there are places and regions that local teams can trust. We managed to deliver all of our projects with the same quality as always ”, says Preste.
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Luciana Ogata, Prime Arte Service Leader, analyzes that all media in general are constantly changing, but with the pandemic's unprecedented, this process has been accelerated. Even so, the objective remains to meet customer demand by bringing the best solutions available. “Service is totally focused on serving the customer, so this adaptation happened organically, that is, if the customer needed to change quickly, we moved quickly with him. For remote steering, we structure squads by city, where we involve the set director, our production and external teams and with the challenge at hand, we were aligning until we reached the product we have today ”.
The executive also warns that remote management has become a reality that should continue to grow, since companies and producers have discovered, depending on the complexity of a project, the practicality, not only artistic but also in terms of costs, hiring outsourced teams.
About Prime Arte
The Prime Art is a Brazilian content producer with complete technology and video production solutions for marketing areas, endomarketing and internal communication of large companies. Focused on quality service and without bureaucracy and for over thirteen years in the market, Prime Arte brings together in its team great experts in technology consulting, commercial service and content production.