Beautiful Killing Machines - Company Promo Video
Towards the end of Summer 2018 Owl Adventures asked us to produce another promotional video, this time for their 2019 season.
Owl Adventures provide birds of prey displays in Yorkshire for amazing flying shows and stimulating static displays. They asked if we could produce them a video in the style of a Theatre movie trailer; powerful, dramatic and ready to be used in their 2019 marketing campaign starting March 2019.
We met and discussed the ideas they had and arranged two shooting days – at one of their final performances of the season. After the shows; which enabled us to ensure we had footage with an audience present, we then filmed sequences that had elements from the new 2019 show.
Having worked for Owl Adventures before, they were happy for us to develop their initial brief by injecting our own creativity. I have over 30 years as a professional graphic designer, so clients often quickly trust me enough take their idea to the next level.
The next stage was to source a piece of music that had the right type of feel and duration. The chosen music, however ideal still needed some work, so we edited the initial few seconds to achieve one of the elements the client requested; short clip followed by a title, repeated three of four times. With the final duration and intro sequence finalised, the next stage was to select the best and most appropriate clips.
Next a layer of ‘Foley’ audio was introduced. This is sound that matches actions on screen. In film and TV shows, the sounds you hear are often 'added' after filming. This is done in 'Post' to enable it to be mixed in volume to any dialogue and adjusted to draw the viewer around the scene. We also added a selection of sounds that are not entirely natural Foley, but when added draw you in more. This included whoosh sounds of food being thrown up, or to imply the sound of a bird swooping. This is often louder in movie trailers as the aim is to draw you in and bombard you with immersive sound and vision.
The final part was to finish the visuals. We had colour corrected the clips to match (they had been filmed on separate days) and then applied a colour 'look'. It would have been totally wrong to make the ‘film look’ some kind of colour that was not in keeping with the subject. Whilst it was an epic styled movie trailer, it still needed to work for the intended audience – families and children.
When the trailer was presented to the client their response was an overwhelming, YES!. They loved it first time.
I really enjoyed this project for a few reasons. Being given the germ of a brief and left to ‘run with it’ is enjoyable. It shows the client trusts you and knows you will come though with the right solution. But on a personal level, the chance to really go all out with sounds was a challenge that does not come up often. I love the finished video and perhaps one of the best parts in the final few seconds. It provides an almost thriller aspect as it finishes with the final screen.