How many times have you said to yourself lately, "Wow, what crazy times we are living in!"
Like many in the freelance world of video and television production, once the quarantine hit, a lot of our work dried up pretty quickly. But luckily, it did not stay quiet for too long in self isolation. Pretty soon, the editing system was back on and we were tasked to create videos with not much video to work with. Corporate clients like Gallo winery tasked us with creating a couple of social media videos, without pulling the cameras out.
The topic? COVID-19 of course! I have to say, for such a large company, Gallo Winery does not shy away from helping the community when they need it the most. Once the pandemic hit and everybody ran to the stores to stock up on TP, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, those items became in short supply to the people that needed them the most, our first responders. So what does Gallo do? With some ingenuity, they were able to begin producing, bottling hand sanitizer and making it available to first responders across the state. Employees of the company stepped up in mask making as well as providing meals to doctors and nurses at local facilities.
The goal of the video was to highlight some of these efforts and do it in such a way that it didn't feel like one great big pat on the back. The result is a short, impactful video comprised some simple photos and employee videos shot on a smart phone. Once a good and simple "text look" was established, the video almost put itself together!
Another video we produced for Gallo was another unique challenge. In honor of Asian American Heritage month, the company wanted to feature their employees talking about their cultures, families and what it means to them. With the COVID quarantine in full effect, the Gallo team asked the employees to shoot the videos themselves on their phones and send it in. It was the first time Cineasta had to work with nothing but self shot smart phone content and after some color correction and sound design, it wasn't that bad! It actually was a fun, heartfelt video that displayed the best of what America is...diverse, culturally rich and prideful.
Two videos, one happy client, which is more than we can ask for!