On camera

The company website has been in sad shape for some time.  Out of date, incomplete, it marks the space for the company rather than excites people about the great things we are attempting and accomplishing.  As our product moves towards market, there’s no question that it deserves a better home (frame).

Our COO brought in an inbound marketing team, unusual for the medtech space, but a different approach might be the right one.  We spent time recounting what we do, describing our characteristics and aspirations, and gathered the assorted sticky notes into a brand definition.

A new logo was one of the first outputs, then a redesigned website.  The graphics were livelier, the messaging sharper, and the company instantly became more professional.  We were telling our story more clearly and completely.  Curated content will be added soon using Passle, then a blog, newsletter, and an inbound program through Hubspot.  It will be exciting to see it all come alive.

Early on, we storyboarded a five-minute video that we could create around the campus and production facility at Colworth.  We set a date: I got a new dark shirt to stand out against the light backgrounds (get advice from a woman who’s taste you respect) and made sure that teeth, hair, and chin were sparkling.  We started at 8 am, meeting the cameraman, director, producer, illustrator, and getting  the campus shots done in low morning light.   The script arrived the night-before, but I was pretty relaxed about being on camera.  (I’d done Radio, back in the day, after all…).

Of course, that is nothing like actually *being* on camera.

  

We did most of my filming in the atrium, repeated takes in front of the crew and company, curious tenants and visitors wandering past.  Don’t close your eyes when you start talking, the director admonshed.  Don’t look to the side when you stop talking.  Keep your eyes here.  Obey punctuation: it’s there for a reason.  Use your hands to stimulate your voice.  Crank your emotions up a notch.

All very natural.

We did five story segments, and then a full voiceover (mostly cut in favour of a professional who could get more  excitement (and the right accent) into the intro).  I closeted with the illustrator, an Oxford-trained artist who tried to render the narrative of biofilm formation and disruption into a single graphic.  Our lead chemist peered into microscopes and donned his clean suit on cue.

We finished (wrapped) at six, they really put in a lot of effort on our behalf.  I’m looking forward to seeing how it all comes out in a week…

En dank je, wezen, voor mijn mooie overhemd.

Supplement: Here’s the link to the finished site: the finished video is at the bottom of the home page.