Complex Projects

A video is rarely just a video. It’s often part of a larger campaign, and can involve many shoots, in lots of countries, with different people, different equipment and different cultural sensitivities.

The Village specialises in long and complex projects. With backgrounds in long-form documentary series-making from the BBC, Discovery and Nat Geo (among others), we’re able to plan and execute anything from a single video in one location to a multi-country project involving large numbers of organisations, locations, languages and stakeholders.

As an example, for Mubadala Investment Company (Abu Dhabi’s Sovereign Wealth Fund) we recently undertook their largest ever video acquisition project, a year-long series visiting their various assets around the world to create a Cinematic Portrait of the company.

It involved making 18 bespoke documentaries at 11 companies in 11 countries, plus a large stills photography project, and making a range of 360 videos.

Large, complex projects like this require a variety of people and skills to be managed effectively:

• Specialist Production Managers who look after schedules, budgets, travel and accommodation, visa applications, location permits and permissions.
• Forward planning, including the story research and casting, not just focusing on the short term, but planning multiple shoots and locations months in advance.

• Specialist researchers, dedicated to finding relevant and current information, work to find the right story to tell.
• Liaising with our extensive network of fixers and experts in countries around the world.
• Work to develop a bespoke storytelling style and tone consistent throughout the project. Our experienced directors craft scripts, communicate ideas and develop shoot plans.

• Safety and security are a huge priority for us when often travelling in countries with risks of crime, terrorism or kidnapping, and where the British Foreign Office advises against non-essential travel. Preparation is key, developing risk assessments and mitigations whilst liaising with insurance and local security services.
• Handle all aspect of post production from editing and graphic design, through the review process, to the final delivery of the project.

The Village has all the skills needed to make large, complex, organisationally-difficult projects like this work.