Control freak

How to save a hospital marketing video with b-roll footage

People always feel more relaxed and comfortable in their own setting. A teacher feels at home in a classroom, a lawyer in a courtroom, and a doctor or healthcare professional in a medical environment. While filming in a hospital certainly provides a comfort factor for the subject, and lends a degree of realism to the background, it’s not without drawbacks.

Filming medical professionals in a hospital allows the interviewee to feel “at home” – surrounded by fellow staff and familiar equipment; the person in the hot-seat feels more at ease, and results in a more dynamic and believable video.

Sounds great, right? Until the HVAC cycles up and obscures the audio, or the patient nearing the end of their pain medication cycle starts moaning (again clearly heard on the audio track), or the orthopedics patients keep rotating their walks closer and closer to the set to check out the filming – staring into the camera on every pass.

After battling all of the above, we’ve come to a workable solution. We shoot great, focused interviews in controlled settings (closed waiting rooms, libraries, etc.), then roam the hallways with the interviewee in tow, shooting subject-pertinent b-roll video without sound.

The result? A perfect balance of clearly audible content and realism. Here’s an example of a recent video interview with a radiation oncologist that we saved with strategic use of b-roll footage.