Global pitch schedules do not adjust for timezones. EssenceMediaCom's Australian team had a strong contribution to make to a major pitch for Mars, but the session was running internationally at 2am -- and that was not a viable option. The decision was made to record the Australian segment in advance. The challenge was doing it in a single day, in an office that was not set up for production.

An office that was never meant to be a film set

Cureative flew from Sydney to Melbourne the evening before the shoot. At 8am the following morning, the team was on-site with the client, reviewing the space and working out what was possible. The office was constrained in size and natural light. The team reconfigured the room as much as the layout allowed, brought in additional lighting, rigged microphones on each speaker, and set up two cameras: one front-on, one at an angle for editing flexibility.

Eight speakers, edited as they were filmed

There were eight speakers, each filmed individually. Sessions ran approximately 15 to 20 minutes each. With that volume of footage to move through in a single day, Cureative ran production and post-production simultaneously. One person managed the camera. An editor was cutting footage on-site as each session completed, so that by the time the last speaker had finished, the edit was already progressing.

Ready for the 2am pitch, no all-nighter required

The local EssenceMediaCom team responded that they were extremely satisfied with the result and with the level of support provided given the conditions.