Video promo for Jessica Rose, Painter and Printmaker

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Case study – video promo for Jessica Rose, Painter and Printmaker

Jessica Rose is a painter and printmaker in Ealing, west London. She also runs watercolour classes, helping her students gain skills and confidence in the art of watercolour painting. She creates beautiful lino cuts and other types of prints.

Jessica’s USP

Jessica’s USP is that she uses her bike as a mobile painting studio, even in the snow. This last winter she was interviewed by the BBC about her work, whilst she was painting in that heavy snow we had.

Before the BBC filmed her, Jessica wanted a video promo that would showcase, not only her painting classes, but her work and her USP.

Writing the script

Being an ex journalist, Jessica was able to write the script herself, which was helpful. We then discussed what sort of scenes might support her story the best. We filmed over several days, to ensure I got the shots I needed.

Filming the bike scene

The main scene we filmed was of Jessica arriving in the ‘Bunny Park’ otherwise known as Brent Lodge Park. I filmed a variety of angles to cover the same scene – a front version, a rear version and a cutaway of the wheels going past the camera. I then filmed Jessica putting up her easel and various scenes of her drawing and painting the church.

Whilst we had written a script to give us the main scenes we needed, I hadn’t written a detailed shot list, so shot more freely to ensure I had what I needed.

Watercolour classes

The next scene that we filmed was one of Jessica’s classes. She got permission from her students to film them. Again I didn’t have a detailed shot list. Because it was quite difficult to shoot around a whole class, I shot a range of wide, medium and close up shots to give me a choice in the edit.

Remainder of the filming

One another day I went to Jessica’s studio again, this time to film establishing shots, her pieces to camera and shots of her products. I also filmed cutaways than I could use, such as brushes being washed, but these didn’t make the edit.

Testimonial

I also filmed a testimonial from one of Jessica’s watercolour class students, which I included in the final edit.

The closing shot

In my head I had a fab idea for a closing shot, of Jessica painting her initials on glass over the camera lens and the camera pulling away so that you could read them. We tried and tried to get this to work right, but couldn’t and ended up going with a static shot of her studio.

Instead I filmed Jessica adding her signature to the finished watercolour of the church, which she had started in the first lot of filming. We filmed the wide shots first, then set up for the close of of the signature. We practised the shot several times and when we were happy, we did the actual take.

The edit

They say that you make a film 3 times, once when you write it, once when you film it and once when you edit it. This was also true in this case. I created 1 draft, which we then edited down until it just under 2 and a half minutes.

I sourced suitable music and created titles to introduce each section of the promo, reflect the quirky nature of Jessica’s USP and the products she produces. Jessica really loved the video.

To see more of Jessica’s work, visit her website here.

Have you been thinking of filming your own video promo or Facebook Lives, but not sure what equipment to use? Check out my blog post The little guide to mobile phone filming here.

To discuss your video promo project needs call me on 0775 341 3005 or email info @ iconiccreative.co.uk