Video production companies, like the rest of the media industry, reported an initial dip in business when the pandemic hit.
But this was followed by a strong upswing, with employee numbers rising with demand.
“There was a huge drop in spending as everyone just put things on hold,” says Kate Hansen, who runs Swingtime Creative, a Sydney-based video and motion graphics production company, with her husband Nick.
“But then we were really, really busy after that because there was a game of catch up. People still had to try and hit deadlines and keep things running as closely to their previous plans as possible.
“We were able to hit the ground running last year when everything hit the fan. We were well placed when the pandemic hit in a lot of ways, because we have quite a small, agile, nimble little production company.
“We already work from our home studio. So that we can ride the wave of the creative industry, which you can run hot and cold at the best of times with minimal overheads. And we have a strong base of long term external suppliers and creative partners that mainly expand and contract as required depending on what jobs are on the books.”
Kate and Nick had a unique solution for working from home and looking after their four-year-old twins and a seven-year-old. One would work the mornings while the other looked after the children. In the afternoon, they would swap roles.
“Nick and I, our skill sets crossover a lot,” says Kate Hansen. “If he'd been working on an edit and then some changes came through and it was my turn in the office, I'd be able to make those changes on the job that he was working on. It was just a huge juggle. Every day was different and presented its own set of challenges."
The two met 15 years ago when working at MTV and they started their video production business 10 years ago.
“I think in general last year created an opportunity for smaller businesses and producers who are able to move quickly and be nimble without those massive overheads to pick up a few more opportunities and create some new ways of working with their clients,” she says. “And people are just more comfortable working with our type of business now instead of having the big agencies. “
During the lockdown in NSW, Nick Hansen collaborated with actor Duncan Fellows to produce a comedic therapy series Glen 20's Isotherapy which they pushed out on Facebook.
The business has benefited from 2020 in a lot of ways. “It's cemented our remote workflow, which meant that we could focus more on strong creative instead of things like unnecessary travel which can be costly as well as taking up a lot of time,” says Kate Hansen.
“And it's much more acceptable now to do a lot of things like casting or client meetings, voiceover sessions remotely, which again take a lot of time and cost.
“I'd like to think that in 2021, we'll keep a lot of the work practices we've established with our clients this year, especially the group video chats.
“It really has streamlined a lot of practices such as casting. We would maybe do a wide casting call and do a day. We'd hire out a space and then we'd shortlist from that and do another casting. Now we can get people to do video casting that everyone is much more okay with either just recording a video of themselves and following some instructions that we've given them. To get to that shortlisting and casting is a much quicker process for us now and much less costly.”
TVCs are on the rise
Visual Domain, Australia’s largest video production business, at first froze staff levels and cut hours when the pandemic hit.
But business increased. The company had 62 Staff in January 2020. By November this had increased by more than a quarter to 79 staff. The company expected to end the year with 10,000 videos, up from 7,500 the year prior.
At first there was some resistance with the unknown of COVID and larger clients cutting their marketing teams/spends in anticipation of a tougher year.
And some clients are bypassing creative agencies to work directly with Visual Domain’s video production team.
In the early days of COVID, demand was strong from clients looking to use video to replace face-to-face communication with staff and customers. These included instructional safety videos and video addresses from CEOs unable to meet their staff in person. Interviews were conducted via Zoom.
As restrictions have eased, clients have been seeking unique videos designed for one channel (often Instagram or Facebook) in order to connect deeply with customers but not overtly sell.
“Clients are less interested in producing one video that is repurposed across all channels, instead they’re looking for hyper tailored engaging content,” says CEO Renece Brewster.
“We’ve all spent a stack more time online and on social media in 2020 so we know, with weary audiences, we need to be producing video content that really stands out.”
Brewster says the company had to rethink some of the more traditional approaches to video.
“Much of our videos are shot in-field with real people,” says Brewster.
“We had to consider how we could use other creative treatments to continue telling our clients stories without this option back at the start of the pandemic.
“We put on more animators and found that was a great immediate solution. Moving graphics in place of people. Our animation output has really increased as a result.
“Also, with everyone moved to remote working we had to work out how we would support our editors in particular given the size of the files they are constantly working with all via home internet.
“With the rapid pace, clients needed to pivot their advertising plans quickly. This saw an increase in our edit only offerings and animation, the fast turnaround that we were already supplying our clients was tested as we pivoted to working from home while still providing this service.”
“Since our teams have been working from home and our need for staff has continued, our hiring approach has changed somewhat. Our cloud system has allowed us to open our doors to high quality animators and editors from all over Australia not only Melbourne and Sydney. This means we are able to hire based on quality and not be governed by location – we’ve definitely adapted our hiring methods this year also.”
Before COVID 70% of shoots were completed in Melbourne. The company redirected efforts to Sydney.
“We saw clients scrambling to keep their advertising and marketing continuing through lockdown and we were able to support them to do just that. High quality engaging video turned around quickly,” says Brewster.
“We’ve also invested heavily in technology that gives us access to the highest grade of cloud technology to support our shooters and editors throughout this lockdown. This meant we were able to shoot and edit footage with no contact which was extremely difficult with such large files.”
Brewster says the outlook for 2021 is strong.
“We have a new Client Hub coming that will give our clients the opportunity to check in on their projects at any stage and talk to the creative team in real time. We know this will be a real game changer.
“We’ve also done a few out of the box things this year we’d like to see continue into 2021. We’re conscious that not-for-profits have found it incredibly hard this year with normal fund raising options all cancelled. Earlier in the year, we got together to come up with a concept called One Day. This is one day per month that Visual Domain dedicates to offering production hours free of charge to a charity in need of video content.
“It’s been a great opportunity to combine the skills of our team members and come together for a good cause. We know how fortunate we’ve been in 2020. Video has thrived. We also know other businesses have done it tough so we’re keen to continue giving back in 2021.”
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