Simon Jones
Before school closes you *need* to do this (important)
I don't usually send out videos so closely to each other but we know these are strange times. Yesterday I spent five hours driving up to Yorkshire; I was supposed to be shooting there Tuesday and Wednesday (it's currently Tuesday 2pm) and now I'm driving back down the M1 for another five hours because Corona cancelled the shoot.
But all the way down I'm been talking to school marketing managers to see how I can help and there's one clear message I'm hearing from schools left right and centre. The biggest concern school marketing managers have right now is that when schools do close you won't be able to give tours to prospective parents. There's much you can do from home (like websites) but tours are something you can't do.
So there's one thing you need to do which is possibly more important than many other things on your plate right now and that's to find someone who gives school tours and have them give a tour today. To you. And you're going to hold a smartphone or tablet and video the tour being given. Follow them around and have them deliver the same tour as if you are a prospective parent. Or even better, as if the camera is the prospective parent. You can capture all the footage as if you are a parent seeing the school for the first time.
Now it's not going to be amazing BBC-standard quality but that's OK for two reasons:
1. Prospective parents won't be expecting top quality because you can tell them why you're doing the tour like this, they'll understand.
2. Most schools won't be doing this. So if you're the only school in the area giving a virtual tour then you'll be in a very strong position. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
You might also be thinking GDPR (so check that) and also that someone says something wrong (thinking of slightly stressy teachers right now) but don't worry, you can cut that out.
Don't worry if you don't know how to cut that out because I can help you. If you capture this footage then I will edit it for you. There's no money involved, I'm not doing it as a marketing ploy, it's purely because it's something I can do.
Don't overthink the shooting, don't worry about bad audio, just capture the footage and we can edit it, add music, add a logo top and tails and it won't cost you a thing.
Don't plan it too much because otherwise you'll find your school closes and then it's too late. Just do it.