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This post is a spotlight on Rami Santrisi from HIPURductions.com. Recently he completed a promotional video for Islamic Center of Maryland titled ICM: The Road Ahead.

The purpose of this post is to put the spotlight on someone who’s aspired higher and come through on a project. I didn’t work on this project at all. I’m simply providing an encouraging critique for the producer of the video and for those of you who aspire to produce something in the future.

We all measure success in different ways. For me success is having started a project, completed it, celebrated its completion, learned from its mistakes and knowing that I had fun during the journey and can’t wait to begin the next one.

There are many destinations in life, whats important is that we enjoy and cherish every moment of the journey to each of those destinations.

Background For ICM: The Road Ahead

Rami was assigned this project in the beginning of March and had a deadline of March 28th. He completed this project in the midst of balancing a fulltime job and a family, so as you can guess, this must have been a tight 4 weeks.

Rami had laid out that there were a number of technical issues related to this project and has laid out that there aren’t any plans to change them. My feedback in this section is simply on how I personally would address these issues on a future project.

Sound in a few of the “early” interviews was a bit bad, and in the outdoor one, wind was crazy.

There are three ways to deal with wind from my experience.

• One is to get a windscreen for the microphone.

• The other option is to have two people stretch out a large bed sheet next to the microphone to block the wind.

• Third option is to simply stand next to a structure where the wind isn’t approaching

It’s slightly longer than i’d hoped, but there was also a lot of information that we needed to convey, so we kept it long. It was actually much longer, but we cut it to 15 minutes while maintaining fluidity.

I’m not aware of how the development of this video was coordinated. From my experience the best way to crunch a promotional video is to do it with a script or outline. Even if one is shooting interviews, those interviews must be structured around a framework of how the video will be laid out.

A couple years ago I produced a project of a similar nature. I had three weeks to come through with a video who’s purpose was to raise funds from within the local community.

For more info: http://www.leechon.com/almishkat-promo-video-168.htm

I sat down with the commissioner of the project and had him lay out exactly what he wanted in the video, from that I geared my questions so that specific individuals would answer in a particular way for it to fit effectively into the framework of the video I had mind.

In my humble opinion, an informative promotional video shouldn’t go beyond 10 minutes. The way to effectively do that is to lay out the framework before a camera is even lifted and film in accordance to that timely structure.

The tighter the final product, the more effective it will be.

Some B-Roll (overlay photos and videos) were not the best choice, but that was a shortcoming of the Center itself since they do not have a person responsible for media; that takes photos and videos of events that they do, etc. That was addressed at one of the Board of Trustees meetings I went to. We did however try and get/take as many current photos and videos as we could as well.

For me, shooting B-Roll is the most fun part of production. This is where you get to REALLY be creative and have fun with different types of shots. Generally, when you try new things and experiment, you require more time. You either schedule it in, or you work with what you have.

When it comes to shooting interviews, I think the best B-Roll is shots of the individuals themselves. Something that pulls a specific emotion that you’re aiming for. Usually extreme closeup or composed shots make for the best B-Roll in my experience.

An example of simple, yet effective B-Roll is the following video I completed just recently:

Could B-Roll be shot more effectively? Sure, but one needs to start with the intention of capturing B-Roll or you’ll be left to work with what you have.

Two of the interviews were in the same spot and they were the most used interviews and I personally felt that shouldn’t have happened.

Personally, I think the background in the two most used interviews is quite nice. The use of the depth-of-field lens adapter certainly made it seem a bit surreal.

I would recommend applying the following for future works:

• Employ a dolly to add movement to the interview and make it seem more dynamic. Movement generates energy and causes the viewer’s eyes to move thus resulting in more attentiveness.

• Creative lighting makes all the difference. I would advise in purchasing a few work lights from Home Depot or Walmart and using them as a means of lighting the subjects on screen.

• When shooting the interview, spend at least five minutes before the interview and five minutes after the interivew getting B-Roll of the individual speaking

• I think it would be a good idea to frame the interviews like a photograph. This requires much more attention to detail, but that is something that is required when one gets into a creative craft such as this.Its a great idea to approach each shot composition as if you composing a poster that would be hung in Time Square. Of course it’s easier said than done, but when shooting, we should always aim for excellence.

The Producer

Some of you may remember Rami some of his past works. The following are some projects he’s produced or worked on in the past:

• Ummah Films: Tomorrow Never Comes
• LinkTV: An Average Moe

Currently he maintains HIPURductions.com

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

Overall, taking into context the time available and everything else, this project was a job well done. I extend my congratulations to Rami and I look forward to what he’s got coming up next inshaAllah.

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