Over the summer break Myself, Andrew Reeve and Sotrios Albanis worked for the company 3m. we took on this project as part of our work experience. We were asked by the company to create viral videos in which to promote their cutting tools in which they produce. we arranged several meetings to discuss ideas in how we could do this. they suggested an idea of creating a series which every month will be released. We then came up with an idea for the program with the title ‘ We’ll Grind anything’.
The basis of the program was for the viewers or distributors to send in products in which they wish to be grinded. for example, the content of the message would be, ‘ Im getting too many emails, please help!’ the 3m solution would be to grind the laptop down to size, completely destroying it and therefore making sure he doesnt receive any more emails. So with the program there is an element of humor which is hard to create but it’s not in your face humor so it works well.
After agreeing on the basis of this program we decided that we needed something to promote the program before sending it out to the public. We then talked about making a teaser in which to promote ‘ We’ll Grind Anything’, we brainstormed ideas into how we could advertise it. we had some ideas, but couldn’t figure out how to finish it or relating it to the program. i then suggested a idea of a break in. i got this idea from recently watching a video from Marc Ecko with his vandalism on Air Force One. i suggested that we could do something similar and the content will be around breaking into the facility and using their tools to grind down a object into the 3m logo. the object we decided the use was car , the reason for this is because one of the 3m workers said that one of their tools can cut through a car. So going with this we decided to arrange a day to film the teaser using the car.
Below is the finished teaser which we created and as you can see the style was all shot using a standard camcorder. We used this because we felt that it made the video more real to the viewer and we wanted the audience to watch it and believe that they are witnessing a real break in to the facility.
This teaser video which was made turned out very successful and has had many hits within the first week reaching 400+. so we knew from this that we should continue into making the series of We’ll Grind anything.
Before we could start filming “we’ll grind anything” we needed to get two main actors to be the presenters, Henry ( worker for 3m ) suggested two people Les Alan and Theo Simon who work together in the demonstration room. Not knowing if they could act or not we decided anyway to give it a try as we didn’t have a large budget so couldn’t really afford actors plus we need people who know how to use the equipment. Our first episode we had to create was ‘ Too Many Emails’ this involved cutting up a laptop in order to solve a distributors problem with receiving too many emails, as suggested above. The filming process went well as it was our first time shoot with them but everything ran smoothly and we ended up creating a good first piece.
What made this video great for us is for a viral video to be succesfull we needed at least 1000 hits. so this is what we were aiming for. the video was then put up to youtube at the start of october and from then till today we have reached over 2000 hits so it was a good thing to say i have created along side, Andrew and Sotirios. we have now secured a 6 month contract with 3m which is good as it is something we can say we have got for our final piece showreel in which to come. So we have got 5 more episodes to film now in 6 months and the next episode should be up on November 2nd.
27/10/09 – Episode 2 filming
Today was the filming day for episode 2 for ‘The Dem Room’. we had been sent a script before of what we needed to include within the program, so we knew exactly before we got there what we were filming, set up etc. When we arrived we were greeted by the 3m workers who had recognised us before after traveling to Bracknell to premier our first episode. This felt good as we were being appreciated for our work. As it took a lot of our time during the summer editing the episodes, 3m have kindly arranged for them to handle the editing and we just do the filming. This is much better for us as we can focus more on university work but still gain the experience. so we filmed all the footage they wanted and then had to digitize it which took a long time but eventually got there. So after digitizing the footage we handed it over to the 3m guys who will now carry on with editing.
this is the final edit of the second episode of the dem room. overall i am happy with the outcome of this video as the quality looks much better. the audio is a big improvement as this time we were able to get hold of tie microphones which made the vocals more clear easier to understand. the 3m guys were also happy with the outcome of video which is a good sign for us as we are producing work now to a high standard and what we do turns out well, and hopefully it will become more succesful in the future and will interest other companies.
we will be filming the next episode in December for the christmas special. no date has been set yet but i am looking forward to filming.
