Everyone has a camera these days, everyone’s a photographer and with basic on-line free software just about anyone can make a simple video.
But when you’re building a windfarm in hostile waters, if you’re laying a subsea cable to move thousands of megawatts of power between nations or if you’re the drilling for oil and gas deep in the ocean… then if you want people to see what you’re doing, and how well you’re doing it, you need a specialist offshore video and photography company.
Why do you need an Offshore Video Company?
Well, let’s start the list…
Anyone can, but professionals do it better
That’s right. Professional video companies are just better at making videos. User Generated Content can be compelling. Getting your offshore teams to take photographs and video can provide a lot of content for websites and internal communications. But if you want stakeholders, opinion formers and potential customers to see exactly what you do and how well you do it, then professional video creatives bring that extra wow factor.
You wouldn’t trust a talented domestic electrician to lay your subsea cable and you wouldn’t let a talented dinghy sailor steer your cable laying vessel. That’s where the experience and expertise of a specialist offshore video company comes into its own. Not only are they experienced offshore workers but they’re also talented and creative camera operators and photographers.
Health and Safety First
A camera crew working offshore needs to be as experienced, as qualified and as accredited as every other member on board. That means they should have all 5 GWO accreditation badges to show they’re trained, experienced and competent. They all need to have HUET certificates for helicopter transfers. They all need the current Seamen’s Medical certificates. And, as most offshore projects have an onshore element, then your offshore specialists should all have relevant and industry standard onshore certification such as Achilles verification and Constructionline registration.
And only the best companies carry all the necessary Public Liability and Employee Liability insurance.
Experience counts for everything
Your offshore video and photography company should have a long list of successful offshore productions to its name. This not only showcases their work but means that more than one company has welcomed them offshore and that companies have welcomed them back time after time.
No subbies – drones included
You are either a specialist offshore video maker or you’re not so beware production companies who want to split out elements of the production to sub-contractors. The all-round offshore specialist video and video company should be able to add in 3D animation where cameras can’t go – such as at depth subsea cable laying; it should be able to film and take photographs; it should work with you from storyboard to final edit – all in-house; and these days it should have at least one camera operator with a fully accredited drone pilot licence and a fully serviced drone in-house.
Only when a video production company has all these elements in-house can you be sure that the accreditation and quality shown on paper counts right the way through the creative chain.
And, yes, ….
Offshore time-lapse
They said it couldn’t be done… but it can! Even with a camera on top of a windfarm with no power and no data feed it is possible to take even long term time-lapse footage of the operations going on in the sea. That’s right. BMS, a specialist offshore video and photography company based in Nottingham and London has developed and built its own cameras with their own power, computing and mobile technology which can operate perfectly as stand alone, unmanned time-lapse cameras in even the harshest of offshore conditions. Stunning images 24 hours a day, delivered straight to your inbox.
Mobile working
We all know that sometimes you can get offshore – but you can’t always get back! The weather plays some terrible tricks with schedules. But that’s no reason why your video production team and photographers just sit around. The best specialist offshore video companies have fully mobile edit and animation suites which means your production timeline continues whatever the weather. Most video companies would need to bring the footage home first. Find one which can shoot, animate and edit offshore so that if you want to get the video out in time for the annual conference, or for a sales convention or for that presentation for a big new contract, then it can be produced in time and on budget whatever the weather throws at the creative process.
So, there you have it. Anyone can take pictures, anyone can shoot video and, with a bit of practice, most people can knock together a basic video.
But offshore projects are huge enterprises, creating massive structures at sea, bringing power to nations, wealth to companies and secure energy to the world. Why would you want anything other than experienced offshore creatives bringing their expertise and their creative vision, to your offshore project.