Corporate video. Help!

Egg Born Son

Egg Born Son

Veteran
At work I've been poking fun at the quality of our internal video presentations ever since I started my video journey. So my manager has put me on the spot at short notice - two days. Our operations manager (second only to the CEO) is coming over to give a presentation and my manager put me forward to film it for internal distribution.

It will probably not lead anywhere but since we are in the middle of a major restructure (it's one of Australia's biggest companies) it could also be an opportunity for me to put myself in the mind of those that count. All my development to date has been to the end of narrative video but I would jump at the chance to move into the realm of corporate/training video. However, I know enough to know I could be a little out of my depth here if I want to impress. I need help!

I will get access to the room tomorrow to do a trial setup. It will take place in the training room and will consist of a couple of speakers presentating in front of projected content (powerpoint, charts etc) to a small audience of state and local managers (20-30 people). I expect to be able to set up in the middle behind the first or second row. I am also conscious of the fact that the keynote speaker is female, around 50 and in real life looks little like her professionally produced photo in her email headers.

I'm not sure how to tackle lighting. I don't think my fresnel 3-point lighting is going to be of any use here. I'd be okay in a talking heads interview situation but don't know what is conventional for a presentation. And I don't want to crowd the presentation with anything complicated. I have two four-bank biax lights (220W each) at my disposal.

I'm thinking the main shot will have to be a loose mid/full shot to capture the projected content and give the speakers freedom to move around. Would it be more professional to lock this shot off for the whole presentation or should I try and get some alternate shots such as tight mid/close up shots as well to make the edit more interesting? Or should I zoom and pan as necessary to capture what's important? From a narrative background I'd say no but I don't know what goes for corporate.

Thanks in advance guys.
 
Also, is there any value to bringing a mattebox or other gear to 'impress the impressionable'? I won't need one but many on this site (especially the DSLR crowd) advocate using one to impress clients. I'll be using an HVX200 myself, I could just throw a clear filter in there to complete the look.

And if anyone can link me to videos of similar presentations it would be very useful to me. Thanks.
 
I'd focus more on how it looks and sounds, and less on making your production look big.

The most important part of presentations is good audio. Getting individual lavs on each presenter is best. If they are using a house PA system, connect to that also. If you don't have someone mixing audio, you'll want to record each track separately. I use a Zoom H6. If you use two channels on your HVX200, you can record house PA to that and use your recorder for the rest.

A classic look for presentations is a wide shot from the center, a medium shot from the side of the room they are less likely to look at, and a close up shot from the side of the room they are more likely to look at. If you're not sure, most people tend to stare backward like morons at their own powerpoint slides, so the closeup camera should go on that side.

If they are using projections, you have to be careful about light spill. You don't want to wash out their presentation. It can be difficult to light a presentation space, especially if there is no defined stage. Your subjects may wander in and out of the light, making exposure pretty difficult. In some situations, I've resigned myself to available light on the speaker, but popped a light on the background wall for some separation and help with exposure.

Use long lenses and try to stay out of the way as much as possible. Your job in presentation is to capture the informative, not necessarily the evocative.

Remember to use the slides as an extra camera angle when editing, if possible. I've had great results when collaborating with the presenters, since it's possible to improve the design quality of the slides, making them much more watchable in video.
 
Thanks, very helpful. You've raised a couple of issues I hadn't thought of there.

I'm only counting on getting usable footage from a single cam. Reframing would require slam zooms which I would do during pauses and edit out. They would probably be amenable to giving me a few seconds of reverse angle of the audience (doing their best interested looks) to smooth edits if that would be a professional look. I do have a GH2 I can use as a B-cam but I haven't had it long enough to use it in anger yet. But I can't count on it. I know from experience everything goes out the window on the day. My Dad does have a pair of older Panasonic SD camcorders I could borrow (although I'm so over tape). I did think about it but multicam might be more of a production than they are after and I don't want to overcomplicate things. I can ask these questions tomorrow when my boss fills me in with the detail.

The close up of the slides is definitely doable. I can either use them directly when I edit or capture them before/after the presentation. I can go to them everytime she looks away like you say and just cut between the wide and the slide content. That should raise the bar without going crazy with the edit, just simple delivering the message. And if I do feel the need to zoom in and get a closer framing for a particular section being aware of potential edit points around the slides will give me some flexibility.

Should be okay on sound, the drop ceiling is acoustically treated so the room is reasonably dead. It will be just me. I was planning on using both lav and a SM58 on a stand to give me backup. Current internal videos use the camera mic so it can't be worse than that. The HVX can record two mics to separate synced tracks as well as the camera mic.

There won't be a PA, its a relatively small meeting rather the Tony Robbins style roadshow event the CEO does once or twice a year. It's essentially an internal brief from the head honchos to the state and local management but a big deal because of the restructure. Plus the executive doesn't visit here in person very often so all the local managers are getting excited.

My hope is that this will lead to being asked to produce the monthly video team briefs (babysteps) which will give me regular practice and a chance to develop. That should give me some visibility should they ever bring internal training videos and promotion back in-house. My new manager will push for it because he's like that. Busts a nut to get his staff where they want to go. It's a pleasant change.
 
Having shot a lot of what you're about to undertake, definitely try to get a copy of each presentation. You can then export each slide of the presentation as a jpg or other image flavor and edit them into the final product without having to rely on recording the screen. You might want to use your pop's older camera and point it at the screen to use only as a reference (depending on the amount and complexity of the slides in the presentation) or a screen-capture program if the presentation will be run off your system.

Definitely have each presenter mic'd, unless you know for certain they will not leave the podium (if there is one). If they stay at the podium, place a mic up there. I used to use a short shotgun mic for this on a small mic stand. Worked very well for our needs at the time. It was wired and had a long run up a conduit in the wall, above the drop ceiling, and down to the camera's position.

As for lighting, we actually used 2 x 300 peppers for fill and key and 1 x 100 pepper for a hair light. We used scissor clips to mount them to the drop ceiling and had temporarily run stingers above the drop ceiling to power the lights. We eventually had an electrician come in and wire outlets at each point where the peppers were so we didn't have fire-code violations. The electrician also wired the outlets into three dimmers so we could easily adjust the lighting.

During the presentation, we have only one camera, an HVX200, and we had it on a really cheap motorized Pan/Tilt head and had it mounted to a little shelf that we built onto a dry-walled support column in the middle of the room. This is the one we used. We also bought the extension cable and ran that above the drop ceiling back to our "Control Center" where we had the computer that ran the presentation. We controlled the zoom on the camera by using the HVX's remote. It wasn't perfect, but we were able to bring in a picture-in-picture of the speaker's head while editing. We never worried about getting audience reaction shots.

Finally, we had a wireless stick mic, a Shure SM58, on a Sennheiser transmitter with a sennheiser receiver on the HVX. This was used for any questions the audience had. Our audience was used to having to ask questions into the mic, so there was rarely an instance when we couldn't hear what was asked. In the event they didn't use the mic, we cut out the question in post.

Good luck with the presentation!
 
That's something I didn't consider, there probably will be a question and answers session. I will ask about that for sure. That insight is very helpful, thankyou.
 
I wouldn't do one of these without at LEAST two cameras. I would get a copy of the PowerPoint as suggested and export each slide as a JPEG at 2K resolution and use that as another 'camera' by cutting to full screen versions of the slide on occasion. I would also have a set mic for Q&A. Either have the presenter ask audience members with a question to step up to a mic on a stand (which you will have previously hooked to your sound mixer/camera and have an additional camera angle of) or use a wireless and have it passed in the crowd. The second option requires a 'wide shot' cam while you scramble to frame up the 'questioner' then when finished, cut to wide shot while you scramble to reframe up 'presenter with answer'.
 
alaskacameradude said:
I wouldn't do one of these without at LEAST two cameras. I would get a copy of the PowerPoint as suggested and export each slide as a JPEG at 2K resolution and use that as another 'camera' by cutting to full screen versions of the slide on occasion. I would also have a set mic for Q&A. Either have the presenter ask audience members with a question to step up to a mic on a stand (which you will have previously hooked to your sound mixer/camera and have an additional camera angle of) or use a wireless and have it passed in the crowd. The second option requires a 'wide shot' cam while you scramble to frame up the 'questioner' then when finished, cut to wide shot while you scramble to reframe up 'presenter with answer'.
Click to expand...

I agree with pretty much all of this. Here's what I'd do:

#1: At a minimum, I would try to get a 2nd camera... hopefully with an operator... but basically locked shooting the wide shot of the presenters. I would operate the closeup camera, picking up who speaks.
#2: I would get the PowerPoint as everyone suggested. Use it as cutaways. Bring a thumbdrive.
#3: If the Wide Shot Camera didn't include the screen, then everytime the PowerPoint advances, I would flash my hand in front of the lens. This will help you time the slide advances during the edit.
#4: My lighting would be a basic "wash". You want soft/diffused even light from left to right. You don't want to make iris adjustments. It doesn't should like you have enough instruments for backlighting.
#5: Good audio will make everything more professional. Make this clear to your presenters. They must repeat questions. Q&A must use microphones.
#6: Normally I would stay with the presenter during Q&A, who are facing the camera and is well light. However, I would widen if I can also include person's back of head asking question.
#7: Personally, I would hope for a THIRD camera and operator, facing the audience during Q&A... but I have no idea your budget restrictions
 
Thanks for all your help guys. It went very well and it generated a lot of buzz with middle managers all clamouring to take credit. I couldn't apply all the advice but it did let me be confident in asking questions and giving instruction to people well beyond my payscale. Got some professional kudos there. The gear definitely impressed, appears some of them have ever seen a camera as big as the HVX and using the lav in particular raised the bar psychologically. I am in talks about doing a trial product demonstration training video and will probably be getting the monthly video presentation too. I have to leave it there for now because I've got editing to do.
 
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