excited to share the first in a series of British Council videos that THE DECK’S Jon MOORE co-produced and directed with agency The Shape Creative.
The StudyUK and Trans-National Education series have so far taken us to Islamabad, Tashkent, Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Dundee.
A few things make these videos special for me. Firstly, that all production, directing and interviewing was done remotely. Each of the interviewees you see is lucky to be looking at my face on a laptop screen placed next to the camera.
Secondly, I engaged a different local crew in each of the seven countries across three continents. My decades-old-dog-eared address book was put squarely to the test.
But thirdly, despite all of this, we’ve successfully maintained a consistent and polished look across the series. There’s nothing particularly original about that look, or even the idea of remote production itself. But I hope you’ll agree that the quality speaks for itself.
For many of us, the idea of remote production was born out of the pandemic.
Now, with Covid behind us, I would have been free to travel to each destination, but we decided that we could achieve a high level of production by allocating budget instead, to carefully selected and well-briefed crews, and to spending more time in post, rather than blowing the cash on flights, hotels and per diems.
It was a challenge to recce locations, discuss angles, lighting and filming b-roll and I’ll always prefer to be there in person, but we all agree that this time it paid off.
I’ll always be thankful to Jacqueline Xu at The Shape Creative in London and Beijing for having me aboard. And in awe of Shape’s Creative Director Qi for his flawless production, coordination and editing.
Thanks also to Hamda Mohamed, Don Watson and the marketing team at British Council HQ in London for such valuable input along the way, and to all the British Council country heads and of course the students, graduates, deans, rectors and university staff who gave up their time for the shoots and online recces.
Above all though, a big shout out to our crews in each location, who willingly hooked up their cameras and microphones to Zoom and took direction from this guy sitting comfortably in his home office in a completely different timezone far, far away. It was a pleasure and fun to work with each of you. Thank you for having me there as virtual crew.
Overall, I can confidently say that these videos demonstrate that thorough preparation, trusted relationships, experience and a solid worldwide network of great people can achieve great results - all while helping to keep budgets in check.
Well done to everyone involved. I’m proud to have played my part in this, even if this time, I didn’t earn a single air-mile, wake up to a Himalayan skyline or get to expense a sundowner in an Ipanema beach bar.
If all this makes sense to you, let me know how my network and I can help with your next remote or in-person production.
Thanks to the crews and some of my favourite people:
Jean Wong and TJ in Kuala Lumpur
Aldrian, Catur, Taro, Adnan and Joe Yagi in Jakarta
Jason Yun for the intro to Sadiq Azeem in Karachi
Saurabh Vishwakarma in Mumbai
Ajay & Vijay Bedi in Delhi
Adam Docker for the Brazil intros
Lygia Barbosa, Paolo Maka Gambale and Rapha Scire in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janiero
Simon Hay in Dundee
and finally, Stephen Moro in Dubai, who nearly wound up flying to Turkmenistan rather than Uzbekistan (Moro, your cheque’s in the post).
Executive Producer: Jacqueline Xu at Shape Creative
Creative Director, Co-producer and editor: Qi at Shape
Director, co-producer and interviews: Jon Moore at The Deck
