Finding the Angle

The feature would be played at the conference itself, so we knew we wanted it to be at least three or four minutes long, which meant we’d need a lot of footage of problems and solutions. The challenge was that we also wanted it to have a lot of variety, because the EDN attracts people from mosdos across the US, and we wanted everyone present to identify with the video. On the other hand, dedicating a week of filming to cover the dozens of institutions we needed would be extremely cost-prohibitive; in general, we spend only a day or two on B-roll for the average project.

Our first line of defense was to see what footage we could find from previous projects. The “solution shots” — a bustling yeshivah hallway, an auditorium packed with eager students — were fairly easy to find, but the challenge was finding “problem shots.” No mosad wants to feature those forlorn-looking images; in fact, one of the most common revision requests we get is, “Can you switch out that shot of the classroom, there are a few empty seats?”

Over the years, we’ve learned to capture angles that are most flattering to the institution. We did get lucky with a few shots we had where the cinematographer was experimenting with lighting in an empty classroom, but for the most part, we had to get a little creative to make nothing from something.

One idea was to use event footage; we had recently set up a time-lapse camera for a large event. A time-lapse camera captures hours and hours of footage (think setup through cleanup of an event), and we can speed up the footage in the editing stages. By only showing the first few moments we were able to show the whole empty venue.

Another shot I thought could be powerful was from a large Lakewood school where a drone shows a line of school buses snaking around the building from an overhead angle. Our VFX associate Jeremy Lewis edited the buses out of the shot so we have that cool transition moment for the video where the empty lot suddenly fills up.

What is a Time-lapse Camera?

The advent of video in the late 1800s created a lot of excitement, but in reality, it’s not really so different from a photograph, because by capturing an image several times in rapid succession, you have an action sequence, similar to a flip-book that lets you create the “video” by rapidly turning pages of slightly different images. The original name for video was actually “moving picture” for this reason!

In modern-day production, we typically capture images at the astonishing rate of 24 frames per second, with specialty cameras taking as many as ten times that amount. This allows for slowing down a shot naturally, so it’s not jumpy.

When you want to capture the hours of setup at an event, not only is it impractical to have a camera work so hard (overheating, battery drainage, etc.), it’s also not necessary. Since the whole purpose of the time-lapse footage is to show the flow of the evening, it will always be sped up significantly. We don’t want to see a specific table being unfolded, just the magic of a venue filling up. An event that took upwards of 12 hours from setup to cleanup might be sped up to play as fast as 15 seconds. Instead of 24 frames a second, a time-lapse camera will capture the scene at a rate of one or two frames a minute, giving you more than enough to work with to depict a time-lapse sequence of the setting.

Money Shots

We were able to put together a nice number of transitions, but to really make this feature pop, we wanted to film several specialty shots as well. Aside from spending a day filming the executive directors making calls, meeting donors, and conducting meetings, senior production manager Moshe Niehaus came up with a couple of dramatic scenes. His close friend, the executive director of a yeshivah high school, casually mentioned a periodic newsletter he puts out. Moshe asked to see an example, and when he noticed a section featuring a specific talmid, he had a brainstorm.

“Moshe, you see how there’s a picture of the talmid on the cover? What if we capture footage of him learning in the beis medrash, zoom in on his face, and then transition to the same image on the newsletter?”

I liked the idea, because the messaging was the same but the delivery was different.

Moshe also came up with a cool concept to film several school scenes — davening, classroom, and hallway — that we would place on a large screen in the office in editing, making it seem as if this was security camera footage the rosh hamosad was monitoring. Jeremy added little details like the iconic red REC. icon, the time stamp, and the battery levels, to make the whole thing look genuine.

Cutting through the Noise

We always prepare a second feature for the EDN conference to show the latest trends in video production, which helps guide the mosdos in their own video production processes.

“I’ve been thinking about that video, too,” I told Yitzchok. “What about a video highlighting different jobs we’ve done, explaining the strategy we used to help the videos connect with the viewer?”

“Strategy is always important,” he answered slowly, “but is a ‘strategy feature’ cliché? What about taking the angle of how to make sure your mosad’s video gets attention? We live in such a noisy video world, we’re bombarded with content on an hourly basis, I think everyone might appreciate tips on how to stand out.”

I liked the idea, and even incorporated it into the video’s title: “Cutting Through the Noise.”

Yitzchok came up with the opening scene as well.

“I’m picturing dozens of videos just popping up, some political, some yeshivah features, with the overlapping audios just overwhelming the viewer. This should really make the point about the noisy video world that a mosad faces every time they want to put out their own feature.”

The intro was perfect — attention-grabbing, on point, and leading straight into our messaging of how to stand out in such a climate.

It’s All about the Challenge

We chose to feature three of our previous jobs: a walking tour we had done for Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, a music video we had done for Yeshiva Nishmas Hatorah, and a B-roll based (no talking, just visuals) feature we had done for fertility organization Bonei Olam. Postproduction coordinator Usher Weldler did most of our in-office interviewing, so I asked him to build the videos as he knew the content best.

We had filmed on our green screen background, which gives us the flexibility to choose the background of our choice, and Usher took full advantage by creating a custom setup in which there would be a large video screen behind the interviewee. This would allow us to show sections of the videos we were discussing on that very screen while still “in the room” with the speaker instead of the usual method of having to cut back and forth between the interview and the footage.

I loved that idea, I told him, but I was a little concerned that the speaking content he chose focused mostly on our strategy without explaining the issue we were solving.

“Take the walking tour — true, we made an exciting video, but if people don’t realize there was ever a need, it’s hard to convince them of our solution,” I told Usher.

He called me over a few minutes later to review again. “It was hard to find lines about how stuck they were, as we really did spend the bulk of the interview discussing the video itself, but what do you think of this?”

Usher had found a clip of Rabbi Yitzchok Diamond, director of institutional advancement at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, explaining that while they wanted to show off their new construction, a video “just showing construction could be very boring.” Usher then cut the background music and played footage of a paint roller going back and forth. Slowly. Repeatedly.

With the right sound effect (paint squelching) and by leaving it on the screen a little longer than a viewer would expect, it drove home in a light and entertaining way the message that yes, it’s important to discuss growth, but in a way that a viewer will be excited to see it. No one wants to watch paint dry.

Callback

Both videos were played at the EDN conference. When other directors saw Rabbi Diamond, a well-known and respected figure in the field, on screen discussing the video we had made for him, he suddenly became a very visual reference for our company. He told us that several other executive directors at the conference approached him that day to hear more about his Mint Media experience!

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1027)