A vox pop is a short video made up of clips taken from interviews with members of the public. These video interviews investigate public opinion towards widely known topics, brands or products and are commonly used for market research. From Enquiry to final edit, Vox Pops International has streamlined the process to get you the best possible insight, opinion, and research. Read on and see just how we do it, as we took on an exciting enquiry from the Science Museum Group.
Enquiry
The Science Museum Group approached Vox Pops International to film content for their upcoming Cancer Revolution Exhibition. This is a gallery of stories featuring people affected by Cancer, with in depth looks at their past, present, and hopeful future. The Science Museum group wanted vox pop interviews and b-roll of people in attendance to advertise the event across digital platforms. Interviews were identified as being the best way to showcase how individuals have reacted to cancer, displaying their heartfelt courage, in a situation which is so personal to so many.
The aim was to capture 6-8 interviews from a mixed demographic of those attending the event at the Science Museum. The videos are to be used across social platforms from August to January 2022 to promote the exhibition throughout its existence. This is to ensure it stays in the mind’s eye of the public, in competition with many other exhibitions and events.
Questions
After an enquiry call the next step is to devise a questionnaire. This allows all involved to share what they want to find out and the type of responses they are looking for. For the Science Museum Group, they wanted to identify from participants what they loved about the exhibition and why they would recommend it to friends, family, and the general public. This was in addition to asking people to share their own stories. Given the highly personal and moving nature of the exhibition, it was important to approach talking of experiences with cancer in a respectful way, whilst allowing respondents to share their thoughts openly.
Location, Location, Location
It is extremely important to pick a location best suited to find the right respondents. With this particular project it is unsurprising that the location chose itself and we had a captive and importantly, engaged audience and pool of respondents. Identifying the right location for conducting intercept vox pops, a place where you will find the best respondents to answer the specific questions is something we are used to doing, be it on an International basis or just in the UK. It is also important to capture B-roll for added context and colour. If you are talking to people about a specific fast food chain for example, then you can capture footage of the environment and facia.
For projects such as this for the Science Museum, it was essential to have the extra footage, to set the scene. B-roll was used to capture the atmosphere and at the editing stage it is used alongside the audio of the interviews, to contextualise what they’re saying.
Why not test the waters?
Location is essential, and can often mean you need to expand your audience beyond the United Kingdom. From London to Beijing, read and watch more of Vox Pops International in action.
Recruiting
Recruitment looks to follow the questionnaire and guidelines previously mapped out in conversation and enquiry calls. Often a task which falls right into place after careful location consideration.
Of course sometimes things don’t run as smoothly as wanted! Just as with this shoot at the Science Museum. We found that traffic through the exhibit was primarily from one particular age demographic, but we were looking to speak to a broad mix of ages. To get around this we had to be more selective in our recruitment, and try to fish out a more exact target demographic with a bit more persuasion!
Interviews
At Vox Pops International, intercept and on-location interviews are second nature to us! Conversations flow and a broad range of personal stories and endearing insights are gathered. For this project we conducted 10 interviews, ranging from individuals to groups of 3. In this instance it was limited to groups of 3 as the final edit is for social media, so the 1×1 format does limit some screen space. Having open ended questions and an interviewer who encourages but doesn’t interrupt, are both key features of a vox pop shoot.
After interviews, further b-roll is conducted to make sure we match interviews with what the participants are talking about. Similarly on any other Vox Pops shoot it is important to gather the atmosphere of the location. For example here, we gathered content of individuals’ interaction with exhibition pieces and people strolling through the museum.
Editing
After filming is completed, the editing starts. Normally this happens the very next day. Again, deliverables would already have been created and reviewed at a much earlier stage, so this is another well-oiled process. Specifications for the Science Museum Group were for us to produce 4, 1 minute max, edits in a 1×1 ratio, specifically for social media production, with a focus on Instagram.
Final Tweaks and Edit
After editing has been completed, a first edit of key quotes and B roll is shared with the client. Here key clips are gathered and feedback gives clear direction to the final edit. This once again looks to maintain consistency throughout the project, and make sure we align with all desired messaging and brand guidelines, and results within the final video.
The final edit is then produced and ready for distribution. Below are some of the final videos for the Science Museum Group, perfectly highlighting their exhibition ‘Cancer Revolution’. Our videos capture a glimpse of how the exhibit delves into the personal stories of cancer sufferers, displaying the courage and fight so evident in those battling the disease, while also inspiring hope for the future.
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