Beautiful, isn’t it?
Lessons from the winning “Best Use of Video” UnAwards entry
by Ben Capper
Next time you’re planning a video production, you could do a lot worse than check out the winner of the Best Use of Video UnAward in 2023 for inspiration.
I was a judge on that particular category and in the process I watched around 40 individual videos from right around the public sector. What this told me is that video is a huge part of our world now.
It also told me that pretty good video is absolutely possible to produce with an up-to-date smartphone and without professional training.
However, it also showed me that producing truly great video involves a bit more thinking, technical expertise, and (sometimes but not always) a bit of budget.
The Top 5 I picked out were all potentially very worthy winners, but the actual winner was an obvious stand out. It was from Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. It’s a fantastic 4 minute or so piece featuring Michael Sheen, introducing the new (or rather old) name of the park – previously known beyond the Welsh-speaking world as “the Brecon Beacons”.
It’s a beautiful piece of work. It’s moving. It’s inspiring. It has a clear, powerful narrative. It made a real, measurable impact.
And it looks bloody gorgeous too.
There are some really important lessons from it to take from it for when you’re planning your next video project.
But first, let’s deal with some lessons definitely not to take from it:
1. A 4.5 minute long video fronted and voiced entirely by a middle-aged white man is always a good idea.
2. You need a classically trained Hollywood superstar for it to be any good.
3. The script needs to be written by a BAFTA nominated playwright and author it to be any good.
Now we have those out of the way, let’s look at the lessons you should take from it, whether you have a big budget (or access to Hollywood royalty) or not:
1. The power of narrative
This is a video that really gives you all the feels. It takes you on a real journey.
It does everything a persuasive piece of communication needs to do, and in a really clear narrative structure:
- It sets out the case for change in clear, stark, and tangible terms.
- It invites you to imagine, and indeed, shows what “better” might look like – again in tangible terms.
- It makes it feel like a realistic ambition to get there.
- It gives us all agency and makes us feel a part of the change.
The other thing I love in it is the beautiful poetic symmetry of the language used. There’s a lovely linguistic device that’s repeated throughout; that of what we’ll call the ‘positive contradiction’ evident in lines such as:
“An old name - for a new way to be”
“The beginning of something – not the end of everything”
“Small enough to dream big”
“A name from our past - to take us into the future”
This gives the narrative a rhythm and a poetic nature – and consistently applied in the way that it is; a sense of message reinforcement without the need to awkwardly crowbar a strapline in.
Here are some really important lessons to take for all your future video-graphical endeavours: a clear narrative structure, and a memorable, consistent use of language.
This is a great template to work from. To begin a theme I will return to again shortly, it’s great if you can get Owen Sheers to write you a script. But let’s be honest: that’s probably not happening. But it’s no reason you can’t follow this basic structure.
Above all – it’s a very confident story. It’s bold, and revels in its apparent radicalism. It’s not afraid of and, you sense, delights in ruffling feathers. (More of which later).
2. The power of the story-teller
To continue this theme: sorry, but you’re not getting Michael Sheen for your next video. (Even though he did do this free of charge).
However, let’s have a look at why he’s such a perfect story-teller in this particular instance.
OK yes, he’s a brilliant, award winning, household name. However, much of that is not super relevant here.
What does Sheen really bring to it?
He’s a good speaker (obviously). And just as importantly, he has authentic and well-known passion for the subject matter. His status of one of the World’s most high profile (highest profile?) advocates of Welsh culture is an important factor too.
And whilst his oeuvre is renowned for his chameleon-like transformations into former politicians, football managers, super-heroes, and everything in-between, his genuine passion for Wales, and all it represents shines through in abundance.
He is also not the Chief Executive of the National Park Authority. He isn’t the local MP. He isn’t the Director of Corporate Governance. You get the picture.
This is a conversation I find myself having a lot of the time on video productions, and something I’ve written about before.
If your video is dependent on having a narrator, a “face”, or a range of faces, it’s important to focus on the things that really matter to audiences. This means making sure:
- They’re articulate and engaging
- They have that authentic passion for the subject matter
- They represent the diversity of your community
…and not getting hung up on stuff that no-one (well no-one outside of your organisation) cares about, such as:
- Their job title or organisational status
- Whether they’re an important corporate partner
You will find people who embody all of these important traits in every organisation and community. The key is to look for them in less obvious places than the Boardroom or the Council Chamber.
3. Real people – doing real things
Another thing I really love about the production is a focus in the B-Roll on the people of the national park.
School children exploring. Rangers doing tree maintenance. Community groups together doing activities. People of all backgrounds, genders and ages enjoying and contributing towards life in the national park.
It demonstrates a community with ownership of and agency in the present and future of the park. It talks, both subtly and overtly, to the welcoming and somewhat rebellious spirit inherent in the narrative.
The production team have clearly worked hard to show the diversity of the park’s users and community. It’s clear that in the creative process, a lot of work will have gone on behind the scenes to line up the various people on their shoot days.
When you consider that they will all have signed consent forms, (and given that children appear in, parental consent forms – a whole other level of administration); it makes you think of the hard yards that would have been done behind the scenes to line the logistics up.
But the team clearly understood the importance of referencing this. And it was 100% worth the effort.
4. That extra bit of creative magic
All of the above so far, are things you could apply to any video production – even one shot on a smartphone and edited on CapCut for Zero budget.
However, it’s worth thinking about some of the elements that make this production such a feast for the senses:
- The perfectly pitched background music that complements and guides the script. It swells with emotion, and then hangs back in the periphery where it needs to.
- The sparse and appropriate use of third-party footage. There are some shots that weren’t shot specifically for the video. The thing is: you’d never know. It all looks completely cohesive and consistent.
- Inspiring drone footage. It helps of course if you have a breath-taking natural landscape to work with, but the use of sparse, appropriate drone footage here really lifts the production, and gives it that extra bit of “woah” factor.
- Timelapses. A simple device that most smartphones can do these days, but they really add to the visual tapestry on offer here – again, when used sparsely and appropriately.
- A vital aspect often overlooked, but pivotal here: the sound production. It’s guided by a single narrator that you can see on screen, standing on a hill on a cold windy day. But it’s as clear as a pin. Clearly a lot of hard work went into getting it just so.
There are some things in here that do require a bit of expertise, some specialist equipment, and therefore a bit of budget. But used wisely, as they are here, they can elevate something from competent-but-mundane, into something quite beautiful and transformational.
5. The context
The video wasn’t released in isolation. It was part of a much bigger fabric of communications, centred around the re-branding and reclaiming of the national park’s Welsh name.
It was really the icing on the cake of a much bigger initiative that involved public and stakeholder engagement, around a new park management plan and vision for the area.
From this came a frankly awesome approach to media engagement, which gained a phenomenal amount of coverage in the UK and oversees (wait, is that…..The New York Times?)
Sure, having Michael Sheen as the front-person for the whole thing was probably helpful. But so, I would argue, is the knowledge, and a deft exploitation, of the national media narrative at the time of release.
It was launched at a time when Britain’s right wing media eco-system was in the habit of working itself into a particular lather over “woke things”.
Isn’t it always? Well, quite. But at the time, it fed into a particular narrative that was getting Farage, Hartley-Brewer and co all hot under the collar.
At this time there was a particular focus on “woke institutions” like the National Trust, and on the official adoption of the traditional Welsh name of Yr Wyddfa for the mountain in North Wales (visible from my neighbourhood in South Liverpool on a clear day), previously known in in the English-speaking world as Mount Snowdon.
It was into this eco-system that this video was released. It knew what it was doing, and knew the likely reaction it was going to get; which it very much did:
“Peak Woke”, “Cultural Marxism” and other common Boilerplate Culture War phrases were thrown its way.
But not only were the delivery team un-deterred, they met it head on. They played the outrage-merchants at their own game, and came out swinging with an incredible level of coverage both at home and abroad.
I love that.
More public sector comms needs to be this confident. This unapologetic. This radical.
In my opinion (and I believe this example plays this out) The Great British public, for all our foibles, are generally a lot more accepting and embracing of change and new thinking than certain sections of the media outrage machine would have us believe.
As public sector communicators, we should expect to be held accountable and take our responsibilities to our public paymasters seriously.
But here’s the thing: people are on our side. We’re proud of our heritage and our natural landscapes. We want them safeguarded and made sustainable for future generations.
We value our public services, and want them to work for us; but in a way that is appropriate for the 21st century.
So we (as communicators) need to be far less reticent in our language. We need to be far more confident in the stories we tell. We need to invest (wisely) in creating beautiful, memorable content to tell them.
For all its creative brilliance, that’s the main takeaway from this production.
That’s why it’s a winner; and a brilliant representation of what public sector communications can be.
Ben Capper is owner of Grey Fox Communications and Marketing.
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Image via Bannau Brycheiniog National Park
