The Richmond Steel video was a BCIT project that I produced with my video colleague Rob Zawistowski. Richmond Steel was interested in a promotional video that gave a brief overview of what their business was and to change people’s perceptions about a steel recycling yard. Rob and I thought we could combine our need for a school project with Richmond Steel’s need for a promotional video to each of the parties benefit. We first met with Richmond Steel to ascertain the objective of the video. It became clear to us that they believed that many people did not actually know what Richmond Steel was or that they were just an old junkyard with little value to the general public. Our goal was to outline what services they provided, the necessity of their services, they family values and atmosphere of the workplace, the focus on safety they implemented on site and the educational programs they provided about their industry to youth and the general public. After determining the the content they wanted to the video we then developed a story board for the project. We also asked two members of their team, Randy Jarry and James Botelho, to narrate the video, speaking about the points we had come up with earlier in or planning.
Using the main points of interest we had outlined earlier in our planning we went on site to shoot B-Roll footage for the video. As most of the company did their work outdoors and was not a controlled environment we had to plan our shooting around the weather and amount of daylight as well as what events pertinent to our video were scheduled on what days. After a number of shooting B-Roll we scheduled time to shoot video of our main actors and narrators. We decided to shoot them with an infinite white background to give the video a lighter feel. We used Lapel and Condenser microphones for sound and a Nikon D5200 DSRL camera for video. When all the video was taken we then cut the video using Adobe Premiere, added some effects and lower third graphics using Adobe After Effects and adjusted the sound in Adobe Audition.
Our video was evaluated by or instructor and fellow classmates positively at BCIT and was a great success academically. The video was also well received by Richmond Steel within the office itself. The video was then sent out to people at Simms Metal Management, Richmond Steel’s parent company, to get their input. There seemed to be a number of intricacies of the video that might have to be altered to conformed to some company policies. This is a common occurrence in dealings with bigger companies and found the experience to be extremely interesting to just the amount of detail larger companies look at their promotional material. I think the project as a whole was a great learning experience both to improve my skills and see how real-world businesses operate.
