We were commissioned by Edinburgh yoga studio, Calm on Canning Street to produce a short piece of film content for use on their social channels. The aim was to communicate the feel of being in the space and the sense of community.
Client:
Brief:
Calm on Canning Street is a yoga and wellbeing sanctuary nestled in Edinburgh’s West End. They aim for their studio to be a special place in which you can escape the fast-paced world and find tranquillity.
The Brief:
A video which encapsulates and brings to life the warmth and energy of the studio. I’d like something uplifting and inspiring yet gentle and not intimidatingI’d like it to convey Smiles, support, safety and inspirationI’d like people to see the video and think to themselves – I need to go there, I want to be part of that.I’d like shots of a class, people hugging and smiling, eyes closed in meditation, hands in prayer pose, the painting above where our hot water urn is, the big calm logo in receptionI’d like it to be in soft focus and slow motion where possible and really cultivate the sense of softness, warmth and love.I think that’s about it! I want to feel warmth and pride in our beautiful space when I watch it!
The Process:
After an initial meeting with the Edinburgh yoga studio, Calm on Canning Street, to determine their needs and get a general feeling for the space and the vibe they were going for, we put together a rough outline of the film we would make. The original plan was to have a timelapse at the start and end, one with traffic chaos and the other with the beach. In the end this didn’t really work as it was too strong an effect. The jarring nature of the busy traffic was so disquieting that it threw test viewers off for too long to come back to immersion in the actual vibe of the place. But we retained a small element of that in some subtle sound design at the start, and a wide beach and sea sound design at the end. It was the right idea, but it was the subtlety of the end result which was more powerful.
The first day involved a morning of shooting a staged class. Initially we were just going to let them go throw their own movements and we’d film re actively to what happened. But the need to get more vertical interest in quite a wide room meant that we determined that poses needed to be more upright. Once we had the ability to shoot through and past people, the shots became a lot more engaging.
The modest budget meant that this would be a one man, self shooting PD, operation, rather than bringing together a team of professionals as a larger production budget might necessitate.
We feel we met the brief in terms of the various elements outlined in the brief.
If you’d like to discuss making your own promotional film, then get in touch today.
Technical Specs:
Sony a7s ii (Cine4)
Canon 18-55 f2.8 EFS lens
Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS lens
Glidetrack SD-lite slider
RodeMic with a lav mic.
Two LED panel lights.