Waynesboro Tourism Virtual Tour - Bringing Landscapes To Life With Sound Design

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

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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!

Giving Back To Our Local Community: Waynesboro, VA

Our owner, David Verde, constantly aims to have our company give back in meaningful ways to the local community. We do this with video projects when appropriate, by advocating for the community and the nature we’re fortunate to have abundant access too, or by making donations locally that area residences benefit from.

This winter, even with the silver lining of the global COVID-19 Pandemic on the horizon, being safe and caring for others with social distancing and wearing masks when out in public spaces will continue to be the norm for months to come while vaccines get more wildly distributed in the US and here in Virginia and something we’ve been advocating both on and off set. With that, our team was happy to donate and place up a dozen “Play It Safe” signs to Waynesboro City Parks & Recreation.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GIVING BACK

Outdoor, nature, parks and other outdoor recreation and tourism destinations are a type of work we specialize in and our team by working in these spaces regularly, knows observing simple gestures by others can really improve a visitors experience. These signs are just a way to help encourage park visitors to continue to comply with COVID safety practices and think about others who you may briefly be in close proximity with while using the shared outdoor spaces. Our owner said the following. “ With our teams normal travel schedules for filming projects outside the area still mostly on hold, the South River and the area park systems have been central my new weekly habits and physical and mental health,” David stated. “This was just one small way we as a company could give back while also encouraging people to play it safe so more can feel comfortable visiting these pretty amazing park resources that not every community is fortunate to have.”

Although we’re based in Staunton, David and our team regularly venture over to our neighboring city, Waynesboro. We often utilize the close proximity to a small downtown main street, national forest, river access and diverse park amenities in Waynesboro to test out new video concepts or new equipment when preparing for upcoming film and video projects or just come over to have some fun in our down time!

ADVOCATING LOCALLY

You can learn about some of David’s advocacy and community engagement, promoting paddling along the South River water trail and standup paddle boarding through this stretch of river in Waynesboro. You can read more in a recent article on Blue Ridge Outdoor Magazine, or watch a interview below.

PROVING GROUNDS AND “OUTDOOR VIDEO TEST KITCHEN”

Our team also regularly tests out new video concepts and equipment in Waynesboro. We call these places our “Outdoor Video Test Kitchen.” Some of these videos we can release for public view which allows us to share our love for the area by bringing some welcomed attention to local attractions. You can watch the following video featuring several locations in Waynesboro that was apart of several creative concepts in the early stages of our outdoor adventure travel series, AWOL: Air Water Or Land.

Special thanks to Dwayne Jones, director of Waynesboro Parks & Rec for allow us to support their mission, the park system, and the city.

Have a great holiday season and remember, Play It Safe, even when you head outside to enjoy your local parks.