Ready for your close-up?

Once considered a luxury on the list of a school’s marketing tools, a film is fast becoming a must-have item, particularly with the importance of raising your profile not only nationally but internationally too, writes Felicity Warren

Traditionally, schools have commissioned linear programmes, usually 15-20 minutes long. Although this type of programming has its place, the advent of myriad delivery platforms – internet, YouTube, Facebook, exhibitions, email sign-offs, enewsletters – mean alternative attitudes to content need to be considered. One size does not fit all.

A key question is: where and when will this film be consumed? While current parents and grandparents might be happy to spend 20 minutes watching a DVD inserted with a prospectus, the chances are that your prospective parent or pupil will be searching the options over the internet.

The consumption of a moving image online is different. Online, people demand information quickly and efficiently. Typical online viewing extends to just 2-3 minutes, so your school needs to deliver film content in bite-size.

Consider an exhibition. Here, there is a transient audience looking for “tasters”. In this setting, a short, sharp snapshot of your school will draw far more interest than a linear programme hidden in the prospectus on the table. This same promotional edit could be used in enewsletters, email sign-offs and credentials presentations.

What’s my motivation?
For briefing a moving-image project, the questions to focus on are:
• who are you talking to?
• what do they think and feel?
• what do you want them to think and feel?
• what evidence do you have to support that message? and
• if you need to reach out to the international market, what about your school will attract them?

Think about what makes your school special and what might dazzle in a moving-image treatment. Is there an activity or aspect of the school that, caught on camera, would speak volumes: drama, music, sport, religion? You may have a head who would shine in front of the camera… or the reverse.

Consider the type of music that might best represent your school. Or you could include different styles across the various aspects of the school; what might work accompanying the head might not work for a pupil’s-eye view of the school.

It is worth jotting down a few chapter headings of how the film “book” of your school would run. For example:
• chapter 1: headteacher: vision, future, ethos;
• chapter 2: pastoral care;
• chapter 3: specialisations/renowned strengths (sports/drama/music/language/sciences);
• chapter 4: international students;
• chapter 5: physical setting;
• chapter 6: a day in the life;
• chapter 7: testimonials;
• chapter 8: governance;
• chapter 9: news and views; and
• chapter 10: alumni.

Having collated these aspects of the school, it is then relatively easy to edit these into a traditional, linear “story” which could be delivered as a full-length programme, providing a 360-degree overview of the school.

Walk-on parts
Your modular and linear films will feel like different animals because they need to be. They can, however, both be produced from the same footage.

Consider not just the content of your film, but where and how it will be consumed. Ensure that your programme is internet-friendly: an alternative modular edit, covering different aspects of the school, enables the viewer to hone in on the information they want and not waste time having to sit through precious minutes of extraneous information. Make sure that your online video works: a buffering video is worse than no video at all.

A film of your school: time-consuming, costly, frustrating and disruptive, yes, but its ability to capture hearts and minds is incontrovertible.

Felicity Warren is managing director of Toast TV. 

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