As part of Tony Blair's "education, education, education" initiative, the National Strategies existed to raise teaching standards in state schools - from key stage 1 to GCSEs - with an array of books, videos, CD-ROMs, websites and events. And I got to ogle James Nesbitt in the shower for it.
The Nat Strats, as it was colloquially known, was ahead of its time in a lot of ways - latching onto the latest media to produce engaging content for busy teachers. I got to work on the literacy stream and inclusion, so developed a fully animated, interactive CD-ROM (yup, it was that long ago) to improve teaching standards in science. However, the most exciting part was developing a pack to help parents support their child's education at home.
The video was called I Can Explain and it was produced by Striker Productions in 2005. Filmed in the most amazing 60s house in Streatham, we worked with James Nesbitt to create a real-life family scenario.
I was an editor at the time, so didn't have anything to do with the script writing, that was done by an expert teacher who was now sharing her knowledge and experience with other teachers. But it didn't need my help, it was pretty good.
It was amazing, as it was my first time working on video and relished in dipping my toe into being a Creative Director.
There's nothing like the buzz of storyboarding, casting, production schedules and actually being on set to make sure everything is captured, stills are taken and ensuring any ticks, like copyright infringement, can be picked up so not to waste any time in the editing process.
You get a good idea with the playbacks on set whether it'll turn out ok in the end but it isn't until the disjointed filming is bought together in the editing suite to get a feel for the pace and story arc.
The video did really well. Not only did it get a buzz internally for working with the delectable Cold Feet star but also because it won Best Educational Short at a New York film festival.
My advice is to work with your production agency and to be clear with what you want to achieve before you start briefing. This goes for any creative but video is expensive and I've seen many videos produced that have been suboptimal and bombed as a result.
Work with content experts, they're not just good at writing, they're good at telling stories and have an instinctive knack of knowing what people want to know and keeps them interested.
