Two weeks at a video production company

If you haven't been able to tell by my numerous social media posts, I've spent two weeks at Liquid Productions London Ltd, a video production company based in Leatherhead. Initially, I was meant to spend one week, but I was quickly asked back for a second week after they discovered my 'creative flair' and believed I was genuinely a really useful person to have on hand.

I can't talk in detail about a few of the projects I was involved in (sworn to secrecy!) But over my two weeks, I learned so many new skills alongside honing my older ones. Every day I was doing something completely different- so instead of a chronological summary that would have zero flow, I thought I'd sum up everything I did and my top moments in a blog post!

Research

I spent the first few days of my placement researching possible locations for a large shoot taking place the following month. They needed multiple public (usually very busy) locations that would require permission. I would research and ring up if I felt a location had potential. Similarly, I researched new potential clients for the company and analysed their branding, key members and general message and vibe to give allow the company to begin to brainstorm ideas. I was approached multiple times by team members to complete some further general admin for them, such as compiling lists of useful contacts and businesses.

And of course, I was always on hand to make a cup of tea or coffee if needed...after all, I was there on work experience!

Writing

As you all already are VERY aware...I'm a writer at heart. I explained to the company at the beginning that I have a keen interest in copywriting (for marketing), so was challenged to write a couple of blog-style posts for the company's LinkedIn and website. For someone who knows very little about animation, I was quite chuffed with my article about the benefits of smaller companies using animations on their website. It was lovely to be complimented by several of the team on my writing skills.

Additionally, I helped to edit and proofread pre-written documents- I have a very strange and specific talent for proofreading. I don't know if it's due to my keen eye for detail, or the fact that I'm an absolute grammar and spelling nazi...but it definitely comes in handy, and will be instrumental for completing my dissertation.

Design

I'm not very experienced in design and only taught myself to use Photoshop and Illustrator this year. But I've always been pretty good at drawing, and one of the clients required some doodle and text overlays on their video. I was tasked with designing some line images for the video, all related to nature.

Using a digital drawing pad, I spent two days writing out statistics in an accessible handwritten manner, and drawing overlay doodles for the client. Below is one of the very first llamas I drew...of many... (promise there was a reason for them...)

I also did some physical drawing and sketches on a larger scale (A1 paper) which were used as part of a title for a promotional video. I'll upload it when it's out in the open!

SHOOT DAY!

Most of my two weeks built up to a shoot day on my final Thursday- for a food company called Creative Nature. I produced the call sheet for this shoot, alongside a prop list and helped to write the script and shot list.

On the day, I helped out with all aspects of the shoot, from setup to photography using a Canon 5D with the most stunning wide lens (how dreamy!!!) and generally helping behind the scenes. Honestly, everything taken with this 5D looked better than real life. It's the dream to own a similar one myself one day. Here's me with both the cinematic camera, and the 5D.

It was a long day- 7am until 7:30pm, but so worth it and I learned so much. I sat in on the edit the following day, and as someone who knows little about editing, it was massively useful. Below is me as part of the (very small, but equally fierce) team. Left is Becky, who was assistant producer, sound, and also did the first cut, and right is Amanda (or Panda), the creative producer. This was 12 hours into shoot day...so we're looking exhausted (we were going a bit mental by this stage).

You can watch the final promotional video for Creative Nature here - which includes a few of my little doodles and text!

Overall, I really surprised myself with how genuinely helpful I felt I was as part the company, and how friendly and lovely everyone was. On the last day, the team insisted on a little picnic to thank me for all my work...it was all quite emotional!

Over the two weeks, I tried VR (note: horror VR experiences are TERRIFYING, but still awesome). Alex, one of the senior animators, is an absolute genius at what he does, and I was blown away by a few of his current virtual reality projects. I also had a go at the game 'Beat Saber', which is possibly one of the most fun games I've ever played... to the point where you don't realise how much you're exerting yourself.

Here's me with (about 2 thirds of) the team, on my last day.

I miss them!

It's by far the best work experience/internship I've done- I realised that even though I'm a radio/audio specialist, I still have transferable skills that can be used for other mediums, and my options aren't limited. Also, being in an office doesn't have to be mindlessly boring. There was always something going on- be it a brainstorm, or a nerf gun war...I'm serious...!

I really surprised myself with my positive mentality and attitude towards the whole thing, as I'm generally a quite anxious person. So if you're going to take anything from this slightly chaotic blog post- TRY NEW THINGS and DON'T DOUBT YOUR ABILITIES!

I want to thank Liquid Productions for how AMAZING they were, and I really hope I can work with them again with the future. I'll definitely be staying in contact with Liquid and fully recommend you check them out if you're looking for ANY kind of video- they can do anything from live action, to 2D and 3D animation, to VR. They're all so insanely talented and creative whilst being some of the loveliest people around.

For now, this was most of what I could recall of my internship - so much happened, and I learned so much I probably couldn't put it all into writing. I'm still on a high from it though, and it's been a definite highlight of my summer.

Thank you for reading!

El x