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Behind the Scenes: Why We love Working with Other Digital Providers.
- Laurence Scott
- Jul 10, 2023
- 3 min read
As a Suffolk-based video production team, nothing makes us happier than helping local businesses, schools, and charities bring their stories to life through film. So, we were absolutely delighted when we got a call from our brilliant friend Matt Hasler over at Main Ambition (www.mainambition.co.uk).
Matt was working on a complete content refresh for one of his web design clients and needed some high-quality visuals. The brief was beautifully simple yet highly effective: create a series of striking video banners for each service page to showcase the client's incredible machinery and manufacturing capabilities.
Matt was incredibly thorough, planning out what video was required where, and building a site with spaces ready to be filled.
Here is a little look behind the curtain at how we tailored our video production process to fit the web design world perfectly.
1. Navigating the Tech Specs: The Art of the Ultra-Wide Crop
When you are creating video for a website header rather than a TV screen, standard filming rules change a bit.
Mastering the Aspect Ratio
Most of the promotional videos we shoot use the traditional TV and film aspect ratio of 16:9 (your standard widescreen). However, website banners need to be short, wide, and sleek. We teamed up with Matt and agreed that a full-width format would look best: 1920 pixels wide by 600 pixels high.
Rethinking How We Frame the Shot
Knowing the final shape of the video completely changed how our crew had to shoot on the day:
Shooting Wider: We had to frame everything much wider than usual because we knew the top and bottom halves of our normal camera view would be cropped out in the final edit.
Using Framing Guides: We used custom overlays on our camera monitors to ensure the vital action stayed perfectly inside that middle 600-pixel sweet spot.
2. Leaving Room for Big Ideas: The Power of Negative Space
Crafting Space for Text and Logos
When you are filming in such a wide aspect ratio, you get a wonderful creative opportunity to use negative space. This means intentionally leaving "empty" areas in the frame (like a clean background wall or a softly blurred out-of-focus section of the workshop).
By planning this out during the shoot, we ensured that when Matt built the website pages, there was plenty of perfect, clutter-free space to overlay text, titles, and company logos right on top of the video without making the page look messy.
3. Thinking Outside the Box: From Website Banner to Trade Show Star
After wrapping up the shoot, we headed back to the editing suite and delivered the final polished video banners. But the story didn't end there!
The Last-Minute Exhibition Opportunity
Shortly after we delivered the files, Matt reached out with some exciting news. The client was heading to a major industry exhibition the following week and wanted to know if they could use the footage to dress up their exhibition stand.
Because we already had all that gorgeous footage lined up, we quickly cut the individual website banners together into a seamless, high-impact compilation loop. The client played it on a big screen at their trade show stand, creating the perfect icebreaker to grab attention, start conversations, and convert passing foot traffic into potential customers.
How Can Video Work Harder for Your Business?
This project is the perfect example of why you should always think outside the box with your digital assets. Squeezing extra value out of your video content is an amazing way to boost your return on investment:
On Your Website: It makes your site visually stunning, increases dwell times, and gives your Google ranking a friendly boost.
On Social Media: Snippets can be repurposed to keep your feeds active and engaging.
At Live Events: It acts as a visual magnet to draw people in at networking events or trade shows.
Need Help Elevating Your Digital Presence?
As Suffolk based Video creators, we are always happy to help create impactful and inspiring video content - whatever the need.
But shout out the Matt Hasler and the team from Main Ambition if you have any need for website development or PPC advertising. They are a great team to work with.
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