The Waynesboro office of Tourism and Economic Development in Virginia was participating in a online press event put on by the VTC (Virginia Tourism Commission) to give travel writers and media a virtual experience in various locations throughout the state since most tourism offices are not offering formal press trips this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When they reached out, they had a limited time-frame, spring hasn’t fully arrived so filming outdoors was going to be tricky given the trees were still bare in many areas, and the goal was to give viewers a sense of what it’s like to actually drive to visit these areas without actually being able to do so. In a nutshell, we were filming a series of very specific outdoor centered b-roll when it was still less than ideal to film outdoors.
To achieve this, our team almost exclusive looked to scheduling our shoot around the “golden hours” of the day, sunrise to early morning light, then evening to sunset. It’s amazing how much bleakness you can hide when some amazing light to fill the voids of bare trees and budding shrubs.
As we like to do on any project we have the opportunity to be hired to work on, we wanted to really take the virtual tour experience to the next leave and make each video as immersive as possible. Capturing compelling footage does take some expertise, but to make it really come alive so it stands on its own takes a bit more creativity.
To accomplish this goal, A: we chose a soundtrack that really carried a inviting vibe, then B: we captured actual audio and sounds from the places we were filming at, then panned and EQ’d the audio to really create an immersive, audio and visual experience. This video is best experienced with a nice pair of headphones or studio speakers. This was incredibly satisfying to see it all come together so nicely and know our client got more than expected.
PROJECT TEAM
Director/Cinematographer: .........… Angel David Verde
Project Manager:………Jennifer Callison, Tourism Director, Waynesboro VA
Editor, Sound Design, Color:………… Angel David Verde
Production Assistant: ……………..…….…. Mary McComas
Waynesboro Virtual Tour - Directors Cut
Visit Waynesboro used two videos that took viewers on two separate trips either to the Blue Ridge Tunnel or along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We decided to make a directors cut that merged these two videos together into one seamless visual experience. Enjoy!
