FSS Website videos

This was the final piece to the jigsaw that is the sleek FSS website. When the website goes live I will post a link for you to take a look at.

FSS had a company in to shoot and edit a few corporate videos.  Unfortunately that company wasn't Rewkachu, they were unaware at that point that we also shoot corporate videos. Unbeknown to the company that created them, the area on the website we had allocated for videos was a different size to what they had shot. This meant that when the web developer (non Rewkachu) placed them, a large portion of the edges were missing and thus cutting off some onscreen text. Apparently the company in question told my client they were too busy to amend them and the website needed to be up in a few days time. They then asked me if I could help, and help without having the original files.  I would have to use a bit of video magic!  I was delighted because it meant they had become aware of the collective Rewkachu skill-set.

The job itself was really simple. There were four two minute videos, and one ten minute video.  I went in to Adobe After Effects and created a composition the exact pixel dimensions that the website required. I then, in turn, took each video and sliced it into camera shots.  This allowed me to physically move each shot left or right depending on what was in the frame. The end result was five new videos which look like they were originally shot in the dimensions I created.  I also decided to replace the FSS logo with a much crisper, cleaner version to the one the original video company had used.  I don't know which company created the original videos, but I certainly wouldn't have passed them to the client in that state!

My client was impressed that I managed to edit and render all of these videos in one day.  To be fair, I thought it would take two days also. 

The most satisfying part came at the end.  When I supplied the newly rendered files to the web developer, despite working on my machine and my clients machine they would not work on the website.  After a little bit of liaising with the web developer we decided on a file format and off I went to re-render them.  He told my client that it would take me a day to get back to them. For your information, the web developer works in a company that also does video. So of course my client thought it was gospel.  Now, I'm not sure if it's something that's common in the industry where people give clients false time to rack up costs, or perhaps the web developer's video editing knowledge is not great.  It took me twenty minutes.  My client thought I was joking when I told him "I'm done, I'll send those over now".

To be fair, video editing is notoriously time consuming, more so that most people realise.  But re-saving five short videos as a different file format is nothing. We at Rewkachu pride ourselves on honesty and efficiency, and being very good looking of course.  I was pleased to make my clients day, and prove the above point. I guess some companies would indeed take a whole day to re-save five files, I personally wouldn't feel right about cheating the people that are giving us work.

FSS Trade Press Adverts

I was asked to create a trade press advert, or I should say three variants. The advert would be placed in three different publications and each one would be a completely different size.  This depended on how much magazine space FSS had bought.  One advert was a full page, one was a half page advert and the last one was a quarter page horizontal. I first created the full page advert and then once the client had seen it and approved, I adapted it to fit the other sizes.

If you are not familiar with the term "trade press" I'll explain. Trade press refers to publications (magazines or directories) that are read by executives at companies.  For instance, a Coke Cola executive would peruse the trade press for ways to save/make money for their brand. Whereas an everyday person would read the kind of magazine you'd buy in the news agent.

This difference is very important, and also for design.  A trade press advert must be clear, concise and free from nonsense.  Nonsense isn't the best word I admit, but you will see what I'm trying to say when you see the below advert. This advert is not the kind you would see in the pages of a news agent magazine.

FSS Fusion logo

FSS (Field Sales Solutions) have been beavering away with myself, my client and a web developer to get their new website completed.  It's on the horizon and should be up and running at the end of the month.  They wanted their logo updated also.  Their old logo was starting to look a little out of date, which is unfortunately the nature of logos.  So why not update your logo along with your website, this makes sense.  They wanted their new logo to reflect the swanky new software they have developed.  The software is called Fusion and it's one of the things that puts them in a better league than their rivals.

Below you can see their new logo, created by my client and I.

FSS Photograph retouching

With the FSS website construction well under way it was time to tweak some of the finer points.  One of these tweak jobs was to retouch the photographs of the staff.  Retouching photographs for the web is a much quicker process than for print.  With print retouching you have to really take your time and be precise, this is mainly because prints are ultimately viewed at a higher resolution.

Sadly, these staff photographs were taken by any of the Rewkachu photographers.  Much like the earlier FSS post where I mentioned about website building, the agency were not aware that Rewkachu has some very experienced photographers.  Again, this is my fault but something I am working on making common knowledge.

FSS Website design

For the last month I have been working on the new FSS Wesbite.  The creative director of the agency I've been working with has a very clear view of what he wants, this of course makes my job easy.  I have to create the imagery based on his ideas.  The look and feel we're going for is clean, simple and stylish.  Unfortunately Rewkachu is not building the website, another company has been booked to do this.  When they were booked the agency in question were not aware that Rewkachu also builds websites.  This is my fault, so I have to suck it up - they are now aware though and I will aim to get the next one the need built.

Below are a couple of visuals. I had fun creating the stylized map graphic.