Named after the common wayside tree seen around Singapore, Angsana Primary School is the result of two primary schools merging in 2015, the year Singapore celebrated its 50th anniversary. Inspired by the famous tree, the school aims to replicate the usefulness and beauty of the tree, providing shade and nurturing the citizens of the future.
This article is contributed by Faris Kamis, the Producer of this corporate video project.
Note: Some content in this article may be enhanced or paraphrased by using AI writer software.
The Vivid Snaps Team
Our team consists of media professional with expertise in video production from pre to post. Consisting of videographers, video editors, director, project coordinators and graphic designer. Our portfolio is focused on corporate clients. And our works ranges from internal communication videos, brand story videos, virtual & hybrid events and corporate photography.
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The Brief
On 6th June 2022, Angsana Primary School moved to a new campus. The new campus is designed and built much different to that of other primary schools in Singapore. The school wanted a video to be played during an event, focusing on the identity and the continued growth of the school.
After the recce session, we felt that featuring the new campus should be the key content of the video and how through the facilities of the new campus, the school is strengthening their unique identity and ambitions. Our client agreed to the a newer approach to feature the new campus and hear stories from both students and teachers on how the new campus has positively impacted their experience and continued growth in the school.
The Challenge
The main challenge of this project was the relatively tight timeline. From the kickoff meeting we only had 2 weeks to deliver the video. This left very little time for scripting and storyboarding as the school was focused on scheduling and ensuring we had access to as much activity and classes as possible to film.
The schedule as well is a difficult challenge to navigate. We only had one day – a Friday- to film the video. We couldn’t film any other day as the school was structured in such a way that Fridays tend to be the most active outside of classrooms.
The priority during pre-production was to make sure we planned for the content that’s needed to be shot. The school helped to schedule the classes and activities for filming while we focused on developing the narrative through the Q&A.
Our Concept
The concept takes inspiration from a day in the life of Angsana Primary School. We wanted to showcase how the school goes from its quiet slumber to waking up and welcoming the students and teachers every morning. We wanted to showcase how the school comes to life in the early hours of the morning and grow in energy as the day-to-day activities play out.
Through these visuals, we feature selected students and teachers as they share their experiences in Angsana Primary School. The stories are aimed to be narrative and inspirational as we wanted actual recounts of growing up in the school instead of bringing across cold information about the school and what it offers.
Site recce & Planning
The recce took place merely a few days before the actual shoot but it is through the recce that the concept and idea to highlight the new campus came to mind. Seeing the different facilities in a primary school is something unique as the school itself wasn’t designed to your typical school layout but almost to that of a small community.
The school had everything from its own garden, playground and multiple rooms that hold non-academic lessons to help grow the students into more than just academically strong students but students who are holistically developed and given opportunities to explore their individual strengths and interests.
We used the normal Friday school timetable as the schedule so that both the teachers and the crew know what comes before and after each activity.
Filming & Production
Considering the concept of the school coming to life, we needed to shoot the school in the early morning before the students arrived. This means we needed a very early call time and that was one of the biggest challenges we faced on the day of production.
We used our expertise and skill in event coverage – the ability to capture key moments – to film this video. Very few of the segments were planned shoots. We didn’t have time nor the opportunity to be able to set up each activity and rehearse with the teachers and students on what needed to be done. We otherwise went in with a roving camera while the producer briefs each teacher on how and what to do for each lesson so that the crew are able to capture relevant and strong footage.
However, the weather wasn’t kind to the team. It rained a couple of hours into the shoot and we could not shoot a lot of the establishing facilities that we wanted. Instead of vibrant colours, the corridors are encased in darkness, instead of the welcoming sunlight, we were met with torrential rain and thunder. The beautiful, vibrant and energetic corridors we saw during recce, is now replaced by dimly lit and wet pathways with barely a student in sight.
The Final Product
Producer/Writer: Faris Kamis | Director of Photography: Melvin Mak | Gaffer: Alden Thng | Grip/Camera Assist: Felicia Liu, Zhi Yanlin | Sound: Zhi Yanlin | Editor: Gwendolyn Koh
This led to a major reconceptualising of the script during production. After the shoot, we went back to the drawing board and redid the script. We were fortunate to have given more time during the interview to be able to take a different approach in the narrative. What was previously a sharing of experience of the new campus became a sharing of the benefits and new opportunities that comes with a new campus.
While the new concept could’ve derailed the team badly, we fell back on our fundamentals. We knew all we needed were key moments and emotive shots. Children smiling, laughing and looking encouraged to take on the day’s lessons and challenges while teachers interact with and push each student to do their best and have fun. It was through the fundamental techniques of videography – utilizing our basics and relying on nothing extraordinary – were we able to capture key moments that we build the visual storytelling in the video.
We didn’t have footage of the vibrant and energetic campus but we obtained much stronger emotive footage – connection between the members of Angsana Primary School. And that allowed us to build a strong narrative, sprinkled with emotive moments to truly feature Angsana Primary School’s identity strongly in this video.
Education Branding Photo Shoot
We provide media production service covering photography and videography. Our team of photographers will also support you in corporate and branding photo shoots.
Primary School Video Production Team
We hope this article has provided quick insights in the media production workflow for a school corporate video. Our team is ready to work with you. Leverage on our combined expertise for your media production. Our core expertise are in the following fields:
- Corporate video production
- Live streaming for virtual & hybrid events
- Corporate photography
- Event photography & videography
For a profile of our team, visit About us to learn more.
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