A year on and we could never have anticipated the impact that this pandemic has had on all of our lives. Although it’s brought with it a heavy dose of sadness and suffering for many of us, it has given us a once-in-a-lifetime chance to ‘down tools’ and take a good look at how we work. For a company that traditionally prides itself on international storytelling from the remotest parts of the world, it’s meant going back to the drawing-board. 

So here are five things we’ve learned making videos during lockdown, setting a precedent for times to come:

1. Prepare for the unexpected

As any filmmaker knows, when you get to a location to film, there are always last minute decisions to be made on the fly. Our instincts are to look out for those tell-tale signs and put together sequences in our heads on the spot, shaping a particular story as we go along. 

So when FIND came to us with an ambitious project to recreate an imaginary world where CV19 still exists AND yet we can still travel freely, to be shown to the WHO in a matter of weeks, there was a fair bit of head scratching.

Behind the Scenes of Normalise

Filming scenes in three countries (Kenya, Estonia and India) without the benefit of travel meant we had to plan down to the finest detail in advance. Storyboarding each shot in detail, sourcing local reliable crews, finding locations, actors, costumes, voiceover, set design; we even had to build props to recreate next generation technology that might exist to allow testing to be as normal as brushing your teeth.

The results…

Have been liberating! We’re now thinking bigger and bolder than ever before. Cutting out travel means we can shoot in more locations in a short space of time.  This increased preparation required has seen shoots go smoother and edits run faster with more impressive results than ever before.

2. Get Good People on the Ground

Deborah Mclaughlin (top left), Peruvian fixer

One benefit of the pandemic is it seems to have made the world a smaller place.

When we were approached by Health Action International to make a film about the lack of insulin access in low income countries to mark the centenary of the discovery of insulin, we were left wondering who we knew in Mali, Peru, Geneva and… The Wirral! Luckily an old BBC colleague Steve had worked with in Peru years ago proved to be the right woman for the job.

With a detailed brief and script in hand, Deborah wrestled with COVID19 lockdowns, escalating rates of infection (one of our main contributors had to drop out due to infection at the last minute – he’s ok!) and floods caused by La Niña. Against the odds, she still managed to help us get the most powerful story in Northern Peru we could have wished for.

Since the pandemic, we’ve been building on our established network and working with international and regional fixer companies to grow a pool of producers, filmmakers and local talent that we know we can count on.

The Results…

They’ve been amazing! Rather than sending in people from the outside, we’ve had locals making films about topics that relate to them. It’s created deeper, better access to lives that were otherwise off the grid for us.

3. Stay Firmly In Touch 

Zoom can be a curse or a cure for many. For us it’s provided a direct line into people’s lives that we could never have imagined before.

FICO wanted to create a “fireside chat” between two Digital Transformation experts that felt more personal, responsive and of higher quality than a regular zoom conversation. Not an easy thing with two contributors on opposite sides of the US.

Thanks to the ability to connect a broadcast camera to a zoom session, we’ve been able to proactively manage shoots from the other side of the world. We can interview subjects directly as if we were there in the room, or have them talk to each other! It might take a lot more planning, but using this technology means we’re having more live conversations rather than communicating on email.

The results…

We’re actually talking to our clients more. We’re able to chat to and see our local partners and there’s generally a much greater sense of collaboration at every stage of the video production cycle. Clients now attend remote film viewings on zoom – the only challenge is to remember they’re still in the room when we have a giggle at the outtakes.

4. Co-create

We’ve set up new systems that combine Zoom, document collaboration and regular catch ups, bringing our clients to the centre of the creation process, as we found with our latest project for FIND.

This film featuring a new test for schistosomiasis was not an easy story to tell. The complexities of explaining the life-cycle of a tiny water snail that wreaks untold damage on its unsuspecting victims is not a straightforward task in just over 2 minutes.

Working with leading expert Dr Sarah Nogaro, the local project manager in Kenya, Dr Sammy Ngenga and local cameraman George Muiruri, together we planned the best way to tell the story. Within 2 weeks of filming, rushes sent directly to our editor via FTP, we had a beautiful film that contained all the information and emotion we like in our stories.

The Results…

We’ve seen more collaboration and co-creativity than even before as our clients provide invaluable suggestions to briefs and shooting scripts. This is giving our clients a real chance to shine. They’re loving it, we’re loving it and our viewers are loving it!

5. Adapt

The logistical challenges of lockdowns have thrown up all sorts of roadblocks, so we’ve had to spend a lot of time with our problem solving hats on. This has been true for our clients too, and we’ve found often the best way around it is more collaboration with them throughout the whole planning process, with regular gentle reminders of next steps, as we all have a lot on our plates these days. 

World Courier have been working especially hard to deliver vital medicines around the world during the pandemic. They wanted to show what life is like on the ground for their couriers. Showing real human stories is at the heart of what we do, but it’s not practical to sit in delivery vans with lots of different people right now. 

Lights, camera, action! with our zoom packs.

Making use of high-quality video recording tools, such as Riverside.fm, sending out ‘Zoom packs’ with a ring-light and microphone, and briefing our contributors how to film themselves, we’ve managed to capture the passion that drives a company like World Courier to deliver against the odds.

The Results…

Capturing all strata of the organisation from the CEO right through to the delivery people on the ground, you could say the pandemic has democratised our storytelling!

What Next?

Covid has helped us rebuild our internal and external processes from the ground up. Now as the world starts to slowly open up, all of our sharpened skills in planning, collaborating and using new tech are poised ready to embrace a new era of productivity, creativity and understanding.

C9M team on a Pre-COVID shoot

We’ve been making films in Global Health for the past 12 Years, but Covid-19 has meant that suddenly everyone has first hand experience of what it’s like to live in the shadow of disease. 

The pandemic has highlighted our global connection and our busyness in the global health sector has reflected this. These sometimes difficult topics are suddenly much more relatable, and we’ve seen an increase in organisations seizing this opportunity of increased understanding and empathy as an ideal time to tell their stories.

Our core team hasn’t left London, but we’ve been so busy collaborating with talented crews and healthcare professionals all over the world to keep telling these fascinating stories. Here’s a bit more about what we’ve been up to….

HAI – Insulin Centenary

Out of the 420 million diabetics in the world,  80 million do not have access to the insulin they need. Right from the start we felt that this film for Health Action International was a perfect project for us – with Steve being diabetic, the subject is close to our hearts, plus it combines international storytelling, and in the 4 languages that we speak in-house. We worked with local crews in Mali, Peru, Geneva and Amsterdam, collaborating over Zoom meetings.

Having local people film local stories brings a greater authenticity and adds impact to the message. This film will be shown at the World Health Assembly this month to change mindsets and help let people know why insulin access is such a vitally important issue. 

See what Steve has to say about working on this project

Nasarawa State – Elimination and Beyond

This forms part of a wider suite of films used in different ways that have told the MDP story over the years. It looks at the success in overcoming onchocerciasis, a crippling disease that has afflicted Nigeria and large parts of Africa for decades.

Filming just before COVID-19 kicked in, we worked with a talented Nigerian crew to get right to the heart of the story. We edited back in the UK and created a bespoke soundtrack to help transport the viewer deeper into the world of neglected tropical diseases.

This year we were absolutely thrilled to be given two awards of recognition by the Accolade Film Festival for this project!

Telling human stories, highlighting the hugely important work of those in the Global Health sector, and promoting equality in healthcare is hugely important to us, so it feels wonderful to be recognised in this way. 

FIND – Diagnosis at Your Fingertips

This film tells the story of how FIND are working to transform schistosomiasis detection with a rapid test that will transform diagnosis in low income countries.

With travel restrictions in place we went to our trusted colleague and incredibly hardworking George Muiruri who followed a day in the life with the team running this prototype test for schistosomiasis in Kwale, Kenya.

Innovation is fundamental to achieving elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases and FIND wanted the drivers of this important project to tell their own story.

The outcome, is a locally shot film told by locals for the wider world.

ALMA – Malaria Councils

A planning meeting with the ALMA team

We’re currently working with ALMA (The African Leaders Malaria Alliance) to produce a film that will encourage businesses and organisations to form End Malaria Councils in their countries and districts, explain the ways in which EMCs can be beneficial to communities, and rally donor and partner support behind the incredible work that’s already being done across the continent.

True partnership is the way ahead – government, international donors, local business and community all have to work together to see malaria eliminated from Africa.

Working with local crews in four different countries, this project has been a fantastic way to hone our organisational skills and produce a film that really captures the importance of these incredible groups.

Coming up soon for C9M…

GLIDE 

UAE-based GLIDE is on somewhat of a global health crusade. Their mission is to advance global thinking and accelerate progress towards disease elimination, particularly around neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) such as polio, lymphatic filariasis, river blindness & malaria. It’s a huge task that requires uniting stakeholders at every level from sponsors to inspiring a new generation of scientists to join the effort; all the more of a challenge at a time when the western world’s commitment to overseas aid has changed for the worse over the last 12 months.

As part of an awareness drive, we’ve been commissioned by them to make 4x 6min ‘webisodes’ for social media that tell the story of disease elimination programmes and the efforts of ridding the world of the ones that still remain.

It’s a project we’ve been hoping to get off the ground for a while and will include interviews from some of the world’s eminent experts on these diseases, as well as local projects in Pakistan, Cameroon and Hispaniola highlighting how close we are (globally) to elimination. 

We’re in the process of speaking to contributors to get their side of the story as well as co-ordinating with NGOs on logistics of shooting.

Taken on our last shoot in Cameroon

The films we make in the Arts & Culture always capture our imaginations, and so far 2021 has been no different! We love working with creative, inspiring and innovative people, and the projects we’ve worked on so far this year have definitely ticked those boxes. From brand new approaches to workspace and childcare, to setting up arts projects on the International Space Station, we may have been in lockdown, but we haven’t been bored! Here are the highlights of what we’ve been up to… 

Walking Slowly to Space

This film tells the inspiring story of Dr. Niamh Shaw. Her mission is to go to space not as an astronaut, but as an artist and a science communicator.

Our goal for the film is to tell her journey in her words, following her early love of space and exploration all the way to where she is now, living at the Space University in Strasbourg. The project itself has been a really great learning experience for us. With the exception of the interview filmed back in October 2020, the vast majority of the edit has been using archival footage to illustrate Niamh’s journey. We’ve also dipped into remote audio recording to supplement the edit and really tie the whole story together.

Niamh’s story is a beautiful, inspiring one, and we are so excited to be along for the ride with her!

Grenfell Memorial Film 

The feelings about the Grenfell tragedy still remain strong – as evident in the graffiti under the Westway flyover near the site. This simple but effective drone piece shows the Grenfell Memorial which is located near the Cloud9 offices in West London. Born out of a collaboration with Hope Gardens and Portobello Radio, we wanted to show the positive community spirit that has been born out of such a tragic event.

International Women’s Day

One of our favourite events of the year is always International Women’s Day because it gives us the opportunity to dive into the archives and revisit some of our favourite stories told by the most inspiring of women.

This year’s theme was #ChoosetoChallenge, so we wanted to highlight women who were resilient and determined in the face of adversity. It gave us a chance to look back at some of our favourite projects with long-term clients, such as the Michelle Obama book launch with Penguin and last year’s International Women’s Day celebrations with Marriott.

We love the opportunity to reflect on how grateful we are to be able to meet incredible women such as these and be able to tell their stories, and how much we are looking forward to getting back out there!

Playhood

Filmed in lockdown in two sittings (not too far apart before the kids grow) we made this film to capture a brilliant new concept in combining a top-class Montessori nursery with a professional workspace, which allows parents and children to be their whole selves. We all need a chance to develop as rounded people whether we’re kids or adults!

What’s next?
As a taste of what’s to come, soon we’ll be heading to West London to do our first live streamed concert with the Gustav Holst Ensemble. Stay tuned for a full breakdown of how that went, and why we’re so excited to work with artists and musicians on projects such as this!

Like many agencies, we started the year thinking when will work return to normal? A year on into the pandemic and, as a company that prides itself on travelling far and wide to capture the human perspective, we have had to rethink how we work.

Lack of travel has forced us to develop new ways of doing things remotely and with great success – accessibility and speed have given rise to a whole new way of delivering content, redefining the way we communicate going forward.

We’ve spent a lot of time in Zoom-land!

When we spend most of our time locked on our screens in zoom-land, it’s important to make sure this is time not wasted. So we’ve been helping our clients use this opportunity to drive engagement even deeper.

Which brings us on to FICO. We’re currently working with them on a series of films that provide their audience with high value industry insights. We’re working on ‘Fireside chats’ between two individuals, recording the conversations through an online video conference interface, converting their iphones to HD cameras, and then turning around edits fast. The video quality is really impressive and given the turnaround needs to be rapid, this is a great way of adapting to the tools and global situation in hand.

Scott Zoldi, FICO Chief Analytics Officer

Another new project we have for FICO is around stories showing how their customers use their products to make their day to day lives better. Corporate stories are getting more personal. Filming people at their homes encourages us to delve deeper in to their personal connection with the story, capturing how their purpose in work chimes with what they do outside in the real world

If there’s one thing we’ve noticed in business communications since the beginning of the year, it’s the ‘p word.’ No, not passwords – purpose!  We’re currently working with logistics company World Courier, to create a film that highlights the ways in which they have facilitated their clients in doing life-saving work in the midst of a global pandemic.  What’s different for us is that we are empowering their staff to do the filming themselves, using their own home or office set-up.

Working with World Courier (in Singapore)

We’ve created office streaming rooms for pristine webinar presentations, ordered in, assembled and trained up by local camera experts. Consistency is key, ensuring that everyone follows the same format (that means no filming in portrait!).  We’ve shared with them a how-to guide so they capture themselves in the best way possible. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more about self shooting, or watch our tips for filming from home guide here

Our filming from home guide

The upshot is that what seemed like constraints at the start of year are now opportunities to get closer to our clients’ needs, providing new ways of engaging customers and their thirst for content.

In March this year, Steve was invited by our friends at ISNTD Festival to speak on a panel and present on the topic of How COVID-19 has changed the way we communicate about public health. It was a really fascinating conversation, and as ever we loved being part of this event. You can see the full panel discussion here, or watch Steve’s presentation below.

If you’d like to watch the final film FIND – Diagnosis At Your Fingertips, that Steve refers to throughout the presentation, you can watch it here. 

We are very proud to announce that we have been given two Awards of Recognition by the Accolade Global Film Competition, for our film Nasarawa State: Elimination and Beyond, in the categories Documentary Short, and Educational / Instructional / Training. 

This film looks at the success of overcoming and eliminating a crippling disease that has besieged Nigeria for decades – River Blindness. Thanks to the dedication of Nasarawa State Coordinator for Neglected Tropical Diseases Jacob Danboyi Righain, the support of NGO partners The Carter Center and donation of the treating drug Mectizan by Merck & Co., local communities have been empowered to break transmission of river blindness. 

With elimination of the disease in sight, they are now being retrained to treat other conditions like malaria and schistosomiasis, so that the infrastructure, knowledge and skills this valuable commodity at the heart of the community are  not laid to waste.

The film also features a bespoke soundtrack, to complement the human story and really transport the viewer. Read more about this here. 

The Accolade recognizes film, television, videography and new media professionals who demonstrate exceptional achievement in craft and creativity, and those who produce standout entertainment or contribute to profound social change. Entries are judged by highly qualified professionals in the film and television industry. Information about the Accolade and a list of recent winners can be found at www.accoladecompetition.org

Telling human stories, highlighting the hugely important work of those in the Global Health sector, and promoting equality in healthcare is hugely important to us, so it feels wonderful to be recognised in this way. 

Watch the film in full here.