Pegasus Doors Film

The Pegasus Door Company

Suffolk Small Business Awards entry film

Pegasus Doors came to us to create a video with one clear purpose: win the Suffolk Small Business Awards. This video would form up to 75% of their entry so we had to get it right. In just a few weeks time I would be sitting knee to knee with the client’s team, all dressed up in black tie for the event, waiting anxiously to find out if we were successful. No pressure then.

Read on to see how we approached the shoot, take a peek behind the scenes and find out how Pegasus did when they announced the winners.

Client

The Pegasus Door Company

The Brief

The client was up for the Best Service Business Award and the video not only had to demonstrate why they should win, but it also had to tell the story of the company, present their values and showcase their ambitious plans for the future.

We also wanted to ensure the client got the best value from this project so it was essential to create something that could be used after the event to tell potential customers what Pegasus was all about. The challenge was that by the time we got the go ahead we only had two weeks to plan, film and edit it in time for the submission deadline.

Originally, we had an ambitious, fully scripted film in mind that took inspiration from the military background of Toby, the Managing Director. Think Michael Bay meets The Apprentice. We even hoped to film some scenes on a military base. However, the deadline shifted and we found ourselves with a lot less time than we thought so I had to quickly come up with a new plan.

Our Approach

We split the shoot into a half day filming with the engineers on-site and a full day of interviews and b-roll around the offices. I prepared a list of questions that I hoped would cover all the requirements of the awards entry and allow the interviewees to tell the story of Pegasus in an engaging way.

The budget only allowed for a single crew member on this first half day so I would be shooting solo. I made my way to the location on an unkempt Ipswich industrial estate and met the engineers. I think they would be the first to admit that the job was not going well. There were a few complications with the door install that they were working hard to overcome so I just had to film what I could and make the best of the situation.

When I got back and looked at the footage I was pleasantly surprised. The guys on site had been brilliant and handled a difficult job really well, especially with me sticking a camera in their faces while they were working! We now had some great b-roll for the video.

The main shoot day rolled around pretty soon after, and this time I would have an assistant with me. Handy, as I had packed A LOT of kit for this one. They would also handle the sound recording while I focused on getting the best out of our interviewees.

I always like to start by filming interviews, that way we know what has been mentioned and we can make sure we get footage later on to illustrate what they are talking about. Our location for these was a boardroom on the 1st floor of the offices. There were large windows on one side, but no real sunlight coming through. I knew I wanted to match the b-roll shot previously that featured lots of sunny flares so we rigged a Prolycht 675 on an avenger stand and raised it up to the 1st floor windows to give us a beautiful sunlit effect in the room.

To add a bit more atmosphere we added a haze machine, this would soften the background contrast and give us some stunning light rays from the light outside. Unfortunately, about halfway through the first interview the smoke alarms went off and the haze machine was sent away to think about what it had done.

When the interviews were finished we brought in the whole team to film them interacting with each other so we had b-roll of the office side of things. We were able to use a similar setup to the interviews so we could move quickly and get plenty of different shots and angles for the video.

The rest of the day was spent moving around the showroom, filming customers and another short interview. We finished off with a quick trip out with the van to show an engineer on the road.

The next day I immediately started on the edit as the deadline was looming fast. The initial cut came in at five minutes so I sent it to the client and we worked together to find areas where we could shave off a fifth of the footage. We use frame.io for this which is a brilliant service that allows everyone to comment at specific points on the video, so changes can be suggested and reviewed really easily. By the time we reached the deadline day I sent over the final version and the client submitted it just in time.

The awards night

Two weeks later I found myself wearing a rented tux, sat next to the client at the awards night. The entire purpose of this video was to help Pegasus win their category and I would be sat next to the client at the very moment they would find out. Needless to say I was a little tense.

Thankfully, their category was up first. We all sat in anxious anticipation as the nominees were read out. As they announced the winner, Pegasus Doors, there was a moment of shock before a massive cheer went up. We had done it, we had won!

But that wasn’t all. It turned out that all the individual category winners would compete for the overall title of Best Small Business in Suffolk. Maybe they could go all the way?

We would have to wait until the end of the evening to find out. Again, we sat silently as the compere built up to the finale. The video was 75% of the entry, was it enough to take home the title?

Yes it was! An almighty cheer, high fives and fist pumps all round, we had done it. Out of 4000 businesses who entered we had helped Pegasus win the overall title. What a success!