Case Study: Bill Rogers videos
Bill Rogers is an acclaimed authority on behaviour management and support systems for primary and secondary
school teachers. His lecture tours sell out immediately they are announced and his books have been best-sellers to
their target audience for the last three years. But Bill’s experience with video was very limited. As a result, our place
was to create a format that would do justice to the subject, to Bill’s presentation style and to provide assurance to Bill who
is used to keeping total control of the other mediums.
Approach
We were concerned that the video was only to be a carrier for Bill's inimitable presentation style. It must not impose undue pressures on him by over-production techniques that would result in a stilted presentation. We also wanted to include classroom scenarios to illustrate the spoken word, thereby utilising video's advantages over print and the lecture presentations.
So the two programmes combine material shot at a teaching workshop, Bill's pieces to camera and role play scenarios provided by a repertory of pupils from a London school. These re-enactments were key to the programmes' success or failure. If they worked they would add immeasurable depth to the programmes, but, if not well acted, they would be irritating and banal to any teaching audience familiar with just such real scenarios.
The scenes were not scripted. Bill explained the purpose of the role play and we shot everything that then happened on two cameras, repeating elements needed for editing. And they worked. All credit to the ‘actors' who created instant mayhem with worrying ease and accuracy.
The Media
The elements have been edited to two, 90 minute programmes on VHS and DVD for sell-through to teachers, schools and training authorities. All packaging and promotional material was produced in Pantechnicon's design studio.
Results
The early results have been very encouraging. Sales and teacher feedback are already surpassing expectations.
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