Gyms reopening after Covid lockdown // Video Production Edinburgh

The 31st of August marked the date which saw gyms reopening in Scotland following the Covid lockdown. It had been a contentious point, that pubs etc could open yet establishments where hygiene systems were highly comprehensive long before any notion of Covid reared it's ugly head could not. As a company which frequently works with people in the health and fitness industry, we felt frustrated on their part, but actually they were all very measured and sanguine about the extended delay in opening. Certainly customers are biting their hands off now.So anticipating the release of gyms reopening, client CaveFit asked about doing a relaunch piece. We were given full rein to go in whatever direction we wanted, with the only request that it end with the words; "WE'RE BACK".I wrote the copy pretty quickly, basing it on my own experience of lockdown and trying to distil elements which were core to the brand, its instructors and its members experience. We covered everything from banana bread to Black Lives Matter, Cardio to Captain Tom.Then, when lockdown eased a bit, we filmed the piece to camera and recorded a clean voice over with Pete, the owner. Then this was laid down with a load of member sourced footage (including quite a lot of my own videos.)It's been really enjoyable creating content during lockdown in a way, because of the limitations. It has been a leveller, where even the highest level of commercial company has been forced to use mobile phones and video calls to film their content. No throwing huge crews and eye watering kit rental budgets at a half baked concept. It forces us to look at what is real, stripped back, storytelling. We did it a bit with the first CaveFit video we made during lockdown, and with the piece on Edinburgh nature and definitely want that spirit of story first to lead the direction of all future work.The response was intense, within the first 24hrs it had several thousand views on Instagram with an engagement rate in the high teens.https://vimeo.com/457343299