These days there is practically no better way to show people what you do and what you offer than in the form of a short video. It has many clear advantages over other methods and is one of the best ways to combine an insight, a glimpse of all the various aspects of the subject and even to catch some of the atmosphere if done correctly. That’s where it gets difficult.

We had a great cameraman working with us at ECR 2011, who captured a whole catalogue of moments on video. Beside his good eye he also had some very nice equipment (a Canon 5D Mark II) and managed to catch some great shots that show the more emotional side of the meeting: people anxious about their lectures, cheering, a lot of laughing and excitement. Even some lovebirds enjoying a musical performance from one of our ‘ESR Meets’ countries.

Using a DSLR camera has pros and cons. As always, when used the right way you can create stunning results that are comparable with the work of great photographers because you are using the same tools. I have already mentioned that we got some really nice shots, so my first decision was to create a traditional video, using all those strong pictures and some fitting music. The result was a two-minute-long video, scored by some elegant classical music, which was nice to watch.

You can see it here:

But then again,”nice to watch” probably wouldn’t get so much attention so we changed the whole concept. Before and during the selection of the clips for the first version of the video I made a list of things that are typical for the ESR and especially the ECR, so that I wouldn’t forget something important. Rethinking the concept of the video was a rather long process, compared to the actual cutting work, which revolved around one question: how to pack all those things on my list into one exciting video, without making it too long?

The question crossed my mind many times until I finally realised that I could just turn that into a concept itself by adding some nice typographical animation and the right tune. Watch the result and tell us if you think it is better than a traditional promo video.

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