Filming with AVS Fencing at BBC Countryfile Live, at Blenheim Palace
AVS Fencing Supplies couldn’t have approached us about increasing their organic social media engagement at a better time. They were all set to deliver materials for the Famous Five Garden at Blenheim Palace at BBC Countryfile Live 2018 when we first met. Before long, we were planning and storyboarding a series of videos to document the project for AVS’ social media feeds and email newsletters!
Video #1: The Adventure Begins
We split the over-arcing narrative of the videos into two halves and four quarters: the 'journey' and the 'build' were the two halves, and the two videos within each half were the quarters. The first video was filmed at Stonescapes in Cranleigh, where the materials were delivered and where preparation work began. The video includes a JCB drone fly-through and a suave wipe transition tracked to the opening of a van door! We created an adventurous narrative throughout the series to reflect the exciting nature of the Famous Five books that inspired the garden build.
Video #2: Day One of Construction
Our second video documented the first day of the build, and featured the construction crew from BNE Landscapes. A spot of slow-mo sawing, low-angled focus shifts, rotary time-lapses, and (of course) ducks waddling through the frame made for a strong social-facing video. AVS requested text overlays to highlight each step of the construction process.
Video #3: Journey to Blenheim
This — the second ‘journey’ video — is our personal favourite from the series. When the drone shot of Blenheim Palace kicks in backed by an orchestral swell, it’s a powerful moment. ‘Journey to Blenheim’ captures the delivery of AVS’ materials from Stonescapes to BBC Countryfile Live. Scene-setting shots like the aerial view of Blenheim Palace and the close-up of our event wristbands were key, and the piece of wood saying ‘AVS was ‘ere’ was a fun touch!
Video #4: The Whole Project
We closed out the quartet of videos with a beginning-to-end story featuring footage from Stonescapes and both days of the Famous Five Garden build. There are interviews with Louise, the transport manager from AVS Fencing Supplies, and Adrian, the company’s marketing manager, and Ed from BNE Landscapes walks the viewer through how AVS’ materials were put to use. There’s a time-lapse from atop a mastpole, which we swiftly sourced after being unable to gain proper flight permissions from event organisers. Quickly finding solutions when flights are a no-go is the Solent Sky Services way!
To help us deliver this project, we hired freelancer Jeeves Williams of Jeeves Media, and spent a couple of weeks travelling between our office in Portsmouth and the Countryfile site at Blenheim Palace.
An anecdotal note: the only car we had access to on the dates we were shooting needed the hot air turned on to direct heat away from the engine. We were driving for several hours every day in the blistering sun, with the AC set to its highest temperature!
“We couldn’t have hoped for the project to have run better. Thank you very much.”
