The Wonderful World of Illustration
Illustration is all around us – especially at Christmas! What better time to delve into the wonderful world of illustration and share some of our favourites?!
It came as a bit of a shock to us when we realised we hadn’t updated our blog in a couple of months! We usually bang on about ensuring your site doesn’t become too static by regularly posting new content, so why were we suddenly not keeping up with our own advice?!
Our fellow small business owners will understand the answer: we were simply too busy with paid clients to focus on ourselves (a very nice problem to have, to be fair…). There were the usual web design tasks to get on with, copywriting to be done and so on, but by far and away the biggest jobs we’ve had recently have been centred around video editing.
We’ve talked about the value of using video in your marketing plenty of times before – from improving accessibility for those who might not be able to physically visit your organisation in person, to creating scroll-stopping social media content that can be easily shared to spread the word about what you do – but we’re usually the ones behind the camera, as well as the ones doing the editing. In these latest instances, the footage was already “in the can.” It simply needed to be put together in a way that looked fabulous!
And that got us thinking…
We live in a world where technology is progressing so quickly, that it can almost make you dizzy. Many of us have mobile phones that are capable of astounding photography and high-quality video. Imagine having a whole creative studio in your back pocket and you’re not far wrong!
For this reason, more and more small businesses and organisations have taken to filming content themselves. It makes a lot of sense – you’re saving money and you can take your time shooting your epic, rather than feeling rushed and doing it all in one go. The issue comes when it’s time to edit your footage into something you’re ready to share with the world…
Video editing can be a complex beast. Trust us, we know! In the wrong hands, well-filmed footage can end up with jumpy cuts, strange transitions and unlicensed music that lands you in hot legal water. Editing is also a time-consuming task, which takes you away from running your business, or welcoming people to your organisation. So, once you’re happy with the footage you’ve got, why not send it to us to sprinkle some magic over it?!
This year, we’ve worked with the Royal Institute of British Architects, producing a series of documentary-style films on each of the nominees for 2023’s Stirling Prize. These films are now being used as “master classes” for architecture students and possible future prize winners. We’ve also recently worked with ArtUK, editing together one of the short videos for their “Superpower Of Looking” series (you can watch that here).
Over the years, we’ve also edited a documentary for a women’s chorus celebrating their tenth anniversary, promotional films for local events, virtual performance videos and even showreels for actors. So, it’s fair to say that if keyframe animation makes you anxious, or you don’t know your colour grade from your cross dissolve, your project is in safe hands with us!
We often think of video editing as being like putting together a puzzle, especially when we weren’t the ones on the shoot itself and have never seen the content! You take a look at all the pieces and then work out what goes where, before deciding how you can add that extra something to take it to the next level. Whether you’re looking for snazzy effects and animations, or to have someone make narrative sense of the film clips you’ve got ready to go, we are always happy to take on a new video editing challenge.
Of course, if you’d like us to come along and film as well as edit, we do that too!
Video gives people an all-important glance behind the scenes of your organisation and helps to spread the word about what you do, so it’s a brilliant tool when used correctly! If you’re looking to get creative with video, why not get in touch? Drop us a line and we’ll be happy to help.
Illustration is all around us – especially at Christmas! What better time to delve into the wonderful world of illustration and share some of our favourites?!
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