Contemporary Elders Community Video

Being a London based videographer means working on a huge variety of community video projects.  None more meaningful than those that make a difference.  Enter our latest project for Focal Point Gallery that was for part of their Contemporary Elders project. 

A community video

Focal Point have been running a Contemporary Elders project for a while now.  It's aimed at anyone over the age of 60 and we were commissioned to film a video part for this project.  We filmed 3 different women over the age of 60.  We captured their experience of lockdown, how they used digital technology and the importance of it especially for people over 60.We took a trip out of London and back over to Essex to film this community video project over three days.  Each day we visited a separate community housing building where we would be interviewing one of our interviewees.  This was truly an enlightening experience, just hearing about each of their lives and their experiences.

The setup

This was a project with quite a few variables.  We were filming all interviews outside (dude to covid).  As a result, we had to compete with changing light, the wind and lots of difference background noise.  Nothing we aren't already used to but not always easy none the less.  Getting around these issues is mainly about positioning in the outside space.  I always look for areas where there will be the least wind noise or changes in light if the sun is coming in and out of cloud.  This always helps with getting the best result. We also managed to capture some b-roll material but this was limited to outside again.  I really focused on the buildings and surrounding nature to give us some extra material in addition to the interviewee based shots.

The final film

In conclusion we managed to create a great looking seven minute long video.  This was a project that was simply very special and an honour to work on.