The North American Headquarters for Solvay Specialty Polymers in Alpharetta, decided to create a safety video about their “Behavioral Based Safety Observations Program”. Now wait, before you fall asleep or click on a talking cat video, realize that the Solvay team knew they had to create something that not only conveyed the importance of the safety message, but had to also be engaging and dare we say even entertaining to the viewer.
They had the idea to use internal employees as actors, and the desire to internally write a fun script. We reviewed the script and then met with the Solvay team onsite to determine how we could best bring their ideas to life. We toured their research, testing and manufacturing areas to block out scenes and collaboratively decided on “gags” that would facilitate viewer engagement.
Most importantly we suggested that we would provide a professional actor who had comic timing and improv skills.
When the shoot dates arrived, MJM provided our creative and technical expertise to direct the actors, light, shoot and provided audio capture in challenging environments, but just as importantly we brought a collaborative spirit to work with the internal Solvay creators and project managers. We were able to effectively work with each of the internal Solvay employee actors to coach them and make them feel comfortable with their roles. Another key element to the project’s success was our casting of actor/host, Mark Oliver. Mark not only embraced the role and played it to perfection, but he also added short comic improv bits to many scenes.
Interestingly, the Solvay creative team, was not from their marketing department or an agency, but instead were a group of chemists and technical folks who had volunteered for the initiative. MJM could not have been more fortunate to work with this team. They provided an initial fun script and had other great ideas and they fully embraced our ideas and production strategies.
We worked together in a mutually rewarding environment of respect and true collaboration, resulting in a production we were all proud of!
