Pandemic Precautions
How we’re helping brands navigate Covid-19 and keeping production operating safely.
The disruption caused by Covid-19 will be lasting and is already forcing brands to look at production differently – both now and going forward.
Using huge crews, flying people around the world while negatively impacting the environment and face-to-face PPMs were looking dated before the crisis – and that has now accelerated.
In this new landscape, being able to produce content that is both locally authentic and efficiently created can give companies a clear advantage. Here are just some of the ways we’re helping brands navigate this new world of production.
Shooting in local markets
With 10 years of experience coordinating shoots across 100+ countries from a central location, Mofilm’s model is specifically designed to help brands run productions abroad remotely – from remote PPMs to live-streams on set.
Production doesn’t need to take place in your own country. While most countries are emerging from confinement, some are still better placed for productions than others. For example, our filmmaking community in Australia, New Zealand and many states in the US are now able to execute medium sized productions.
Flying across the world for shoots is both impractical and undesirable for most brands now. Using ‘on the ground’ directors and crews enables them to avoid this, while simultaneously saving money and creating content quicker than before.
What’s more, with the rules and regulations slightly different in each country, working with local filmmakers and producers means we have an intimate understanding of what needs to be adhered to at any one time in any market. Mofilm has created a virtual panel of filmmakers all over the world to keep up with local situations – get in touch if you want to know about a specific market.
Working with nimbler crews
Regardless of location, limited crew size has been one of the universal terms of returning to productions.
Working with nimble crews has long been one of Mofilm’s production principles – it makes for more efficient shoots, faster decisions on set and more a authentic output, particularly when it comes to filming ‘real’ people.
With agile crews likely to become the norm going forward, Mofilm filmmakers are perfectly placed to execute shoots under these new conditions. From self-shooting directors to DPs who also edit, the hybrid skill-sets of Mofilmers have never been so valuable.
Practicing social distancing on set
Another universal caveat to production in 2020 will be social distancing. Mofilm filmmakers have found a variety of creative ways to embrace this:
Remote controlled robots can be used to share monitors safely amongst crew and clients
Live-streamed approvals on set
Designated health and safety social distancing managers on set
Hybrid skill-sets to keep crew sizes down
Guidelines vary across countries, meaning work with local filmmakers and creators who understand local regulations is an important element of production.
High craft, smaller set-ups
During lockdown Mofilm’s community of creators have demonstrated how highly-crafted content can be shot in and around their surroundings with their own professional equipment and studio space.
As well as product / pack shots and ‘how to’ style films, our filmmakers have also been capturing ‘family reality’ stories and lifestyle imagery.
Since March we’ve helped our clients thank employees, support parents, celebrate key workers and launch new products – all using safe production methods with small set-ups that often require less investment in location, talent and equipment.
Regardless of the easing of lockdown restrictions, shooting at home will remain a safe and highly cost effective approach to production in 2020.
Virtual studios
We’ve been building bespoke ‘virtual studios’ for brands as a way to create diverse always-on content at scale – including videos, stills, gifs and stop-motion.
These bespoke studios are made up of a diverse mix of carefully selected filmmakers, animators, illustrators and photographers all working remotely across the world, each chosen for the studio based on their passions and interests as much as their skill-sets.
Each creator is inducted into the brand world before pitching proactive ideas on a rolling basis. It’s a highly efficient approach to social production that can generate enough high-quality content to fuel months of social media activity in a matter of weeks.
Bespoke stock libraries
There has never been a more important time for brands to focus on getting as much footage as possible from shoots.
A bespoke library footage shoot is a great way of delivering banks of brand-owned footage that can be used across a variety of brands, markets and purposes.
Shoots can be coordinated all over the world to cater for local nuance, all happening simultaneously to save time and budget (see ‘shooting in other markets’ for what this looks like at Mofilm)
Once compiled and uploaded, brands essentially have access to a bespoke ‘stock’ library that can be shared with in-house remote editors, motion graphics specialists and colourists to deliver any number of brand assets – a highly efficient approach to production that maximises the output of a single shoot
Time to look at production differently
There is an array of incredible creative talent out there for brands to tap into remotely – from filmmakers to animators, illustrators to photographers. What’s more, collaborating with creators all over the world helps you get to richer, more surprising and more locally authentic ideas.
Of course, this isn’t new to Mofilm – we’ve been connecting brands to a diverse community of more than 10,000 filmmakers for 10 years, operating nimbly, remotely and globally. If you’ve got any questions or need any assistance in navigating a new approach to production, then feel free to reach out here.