How has production been affected during COVID-19?
Our talented production team has continued to collaborate with current and new clients, as well as enlisting help from interstate to complete shoots— and helping our freelance friends at the same time!
We asked Matt and Chavvah, our co-founder and executive producer, and senior creative producer respectively, how it’s been going working from home and keeping 1.5m away from everyone at shoots!
What challenges have you faced?
Matt: We have missed the face-to-face brainstorming with fellow staff and clients. Video conferencing has taken over in this period and has many positives, but nothing beats the energy of all collaborating in the same creative space.
Damian, our director, at a recent shoot.
How has social distancing impacted managing teams?
Matt: Like everywhere in society now, we're all required to be vigilant around social distancing rules, hand washing and sanitising but this has become the new normal. However, when we are conducting photo or video shoots we need to work in a team in the same space. So we have hired bigger studio spaces with lots of room to spread out to help maintain social distancing requirements or move to film in external spaces when possible. Clients have reduced their number of staff attending shoots to one or approving shots via video conferencing when their policy wouldn't allow staff on set. So we have been walking around with laptops at shoulder height where clients would usually be standing.
What has surprised you about shooting during this time?
Matt: At first, we were nervous that production work would be severely affected by the COVID-19 and iso situation. However, we have been happily surprised by the constant flow of new briefs. We always aim to maximise the amount of content that we can generate from any production, but we have definitely noticed the push from the client and internal teams to consider every opportunity to capture every piece of content possible, or as many options as we can, to reuse or recycle imagery in the future.
Videographer and editor, James on a recent shoot.
What is something you thought wouldn't work but did?
Matt: I think video conferencing has now been firmly entrenched as a positive business tool and will continue to be used extensively in the future. Also, a more flexible workplace that will allow a percentage of our week successfully working from home. I was worried about the effects of isolation on mental health, and I think working from home doesn't work for everyone, but I believe most people have adapted and will find a balance in the future. Businesses will continue to innovate and evolve technology and collaborative work tools and I'm sure we'll see positive advances on the work-life balance front.
Have there been any editing challenges?
Chavvah: We have certainly seen an increase of clients needing assets turned around much faster than usual, which can be challenging to respond to with tight lead times and organising our post schedule with multiple edits simultaneously. We believe that this may be due to people working from home with fewer distractions in their normal office environment, and understandably wanting to see results quicker to facilitate a quick response of their business to the current climate we are facing.
We have had to adapt to this and look at new ways in order to be able to navigate these requests, and while some deadlines presented are still physically impossible, we are continually working on innovative ways to stay ahead of the curve and be as nimble as possible with our production workflow. But hey, we do love being kept on our toes!