Animation and Corporate Video
Corporations are now involved in video production on a scale greater than ever before. Where as in the past many large organizations may have had some filmmaking capabilities within the plant, they depended mainly on independent film companies for most of their important communication needs. Today the entire picture is changing. Corporations of various sizes now boast video equipment in greater amount than the average film studio may have had invested in 16mm paraphernalia.
Although there is still a demand for the talents and expertise of the independent film production house, the advent of video technology and the many ways this medium can be incorporated into the structure of large business firms has changed the face of the industrial film production field.
Each corporation uses the new technology in a manner suited to the nature and needs of their business and communication requirements. After looking over the facilities of a few representative organizations one thing became apparent. Though companies may be heavily equipped with all of the latest video or computer technology, they still find it necessary to go outside their own cozy halls when they need specialized talents.
A corporation may often use their own people as performers, but for best effect they turn to professional actors to deliver the important messages. It might be sufficient to point a video camera out the window of the 24th floor to get a passable aerial view of the city, but when they want the total effect they'll contact a firm that rents helicopters for the real thing, and when they find that no amount of electronic gadgetry can deliver lip-sync animation, they seek out a firm that can create the necessary components. Animators can take heart that there are still many times when their specific knowledge is in demand.
Recently I visited some of the corporate firms that have embraced the new technology and are actively producing programs for their organizations. I've chosen three of them as examples of the various ways that video is being used in industry today. One of the companies is a major oil corporation, the other a large publisher and the last a key New York banking institution, I will not refer to them by their names as it was explained to me more than once that certain powers that be, stockholders or whomever, may resent the fact that money is being spent on electronic materials at a time when the economy is depressed. Actually this fear may be unfounded, as all large businesses must use some means of communicating, informing or instructing its employees and affiliates and no matter which form this need takes, whether through print matter, film, video or just telephone calls, it all adds up to considerably cost with the only profit being better informed personnel.
The particular oil company that I visited has a great deal of capability in the production of video programs. They have a suitable stage for taping interviews or enactments of company related themes and of course they have all the necessary cassette machines for editing and making audio and video dupes as they require. The setup looked like an arrangement that one might encounter at a small well equipped video station complete with video camera, dollies, zoom lenses and mixing panel.
At the other extreme was the bank that had recently incorporated video as a tool to keep this institutions affiliates up to day with the goings on in their New York office. Working primarily with 3/4 " and 1/2" cassettes, this company produces informative material based on meetings and executive talks that can be duplicated in-house on the several cassette machines available. These cassettes, weighing a few ounces each can then be mailed or whizzed off by jet courier to may parts of the globe.
The publishing house, a firm that had always produced films as well as print materials now includes an increased number of video cassette programs for business and school instruction. Their new video facilities have now replaced all of their former film related equipment and they have a studio that can produce professional quality 1" tape programs for sale or for in-house communications.
The added advantage to each of these firms in the ready ability to create a video tape that can explain the intricacies of a new method or system or to increase employee morale through a personal message from the chief executive should not be underestimated.
For a filmmaker to encounter the diversity that now exists at these firms is sometimes a bit unsettling. The ease with which some of these organizations can knock out a meaningful cassette without the hassle of film production can cast a pall over any film producers' aspirations.
Actually there are many areas where the skilled filmmaker can assist these companies. There is still a need for films that are of professional quality for the times when the large corporation must appeal to the interests of the lay public who will be receiving their message in a theater, on network television or in a school auditorium.
For the animator the case is not so bleak. Their services are always in need no matter what the method of reproduction, film video or computer. The bank for instance commissioned a film last year, totally in animation, to explain the complexities of their newly installed telephone system to its vast array of employees.
The publishing house produced a film on sex education for junior high school students that included diagrammatic scenes that could only be accomplished with animated art. The oil company, used animation in a presentation to explain its employee benefits system, an assignment that could have been accomplished with live video but because the cassettes were to be sent to countries around the globe, animated characters softened the images of the personnel pictured for all of the various races and nationalities that would be viewing the finished product.
Animation cannot be dismissed as a medium for delivering information when it cannot be displayed in any other fashion. The very fact that it is drawn and delineated by not just one artist but many artists is a guarantee that it will generally look fresh and different. When the situations arise, and they do quite often, the corporate communicators must reach outside their own resources to gain the necessary elements that can only be accomplished by animation. Animators on the other hand now have to set their sights on the corporate areas that are heavily involved in producing their own films and graphics and show in the best way they can how the art that is made one frame at a time can solve special problems.
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