Some people educate themselves because they are personally interested in the topic. For some, education is compulsory while others are just looking for a better qualification. The best way we can share our experience from selling Flowmon with you is through training and workshops. A video session of a few hours should be better fun to watch though and with this idea in mind we decided to create a whole new type of experience for you. This is how we made it.
The preps
It took 3 weeks for a team of 6 creative people to design the concept, the set up and the agenda.
The place
It took 2 months to find the right place for shooting the video. This involved filtering dozens of potential places over email and phone, and physically visiting the top 5 of them. Finally we came back to KYPO (Cyber Exercise & Research Platform) where we had previously hosted a few conferences and where Flowmon is used to train critical infrastructure security engineers from around Europe.
The content
Due to the specific resolution and screen ratio it took 2 weeks to create and tune the slide deck. A whole new layout created specifically for this event was finalised on version number 11 and had over 200 slides.
The gear
We were presenting on a matrix of 15 x 50inch full HD screens orchestrated by cutting-edge adaptive visualisation software. There were 3 different cameras - #1 static camera, #2 curved dolly track (rail), operated by two people, #3 manually operated camera jib crane.
The set up
Being minimalistic, it took only about two hours to prepare the whole stage and the set up - excluding lights. We adjusted the lights for almost 5 hours on the first day and spent about two extra hours on the second day, the day of shooting. This meant we were two hours short of making the actual video - so no pressure at all. Two main lamps hung on a truss, one contra light on a stative behind the speaker and 2 LED sources of blue background colour.
The shooting
The actual shooting took 6 hours (including technical breaks and lunch) and 9 shots. After editing we had 6 video blocks of 2 hours length in total.
The people
The whole team headcount was 14 - from Director and Executive director to people taking care of lights, cameras, the screen, building stage, facility managers, make-up artist, assistants and the speaker.
Where to check the results
With two full hours of video we could easily stand in for a cancelled prime time TV show. Two hours does not become boring when you are watching a superhero fighting the bad guys and saving the world, which rarely applies to educational videos. We at Flowmon think learning material can be just as enjoyable as your favourite movie. Here is the proof - a little sneak peek into the shooting is available here.You can check the results, get certified and see more content on elearning.flowmon.com and I hope you like it and stay tuned for more videos to come. So get some popcorn and coke, turn off your phone, sit down and enjoy the ride.
Artur Kane
Artur was a Progress employee.