Above: The first tutorial I developed with the client.

I was approached by the pool to develop 10 small tutorials for the lifeguards and other staff to watch and abide by. The process was fairly simple and the client were quite hands off – as long as I made it clear what was going on in each shot.
The first meeting involved discussing ideas and establishing what the client wanted to achieve and how much I was going to be paid for this whole endeavour. We decided that the clients would write the scripts, hand them to me where I would come up with a plan for shooting and then we would meet to shoot it.
Shooting was often a straight forward process, I usually knew exactly what shots were required for the shoot, and if there were more complicated actions, I simply had the team walk me through it first so I could figure out the rest. After shooting, we then went into a quiet office, where I would record one of the staff members reading the script for the voice-over.
My favorite shots from this project are a little more complex from other projects, in that one video has a lot of shots that I simply just like; there doesn’t seem to be anything too special in terms of the technical side, I simply like the way the colours seem to pop out of the frame; especially in shots where you can see the pool and window. Another shot I particularly like is in the pool hoist video (above) when the T-hooks are being installed. I was simply satisfied with the focusing I did from one T-hook to another.
At first editing was a little complex, the client was bursting with ideas about how they wanted the films to look and feel, however, once we made the first video and we had established a style and aesthetic for the tutorials, editing was much simpler. I animated a small intro and outro animation to give the tutorials more of a beginning and end.
One aspect I will be taking into account for the next piece of commissioned work is revisions. I spent more time than I anticipated working on the videos and as a result, I decided to completely revise my pricing plan, which I proceeded to do so.
Over all, this was a fun project to participate in, and a great learning experience for me about how I deal with clients. Next time I will be a bit firmer, but still fair, when it comes to how much I will charge for each video.
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