Educational Video Production for Schools
Educational video production for schools answers the one question a prospectus can't, which is what the place feels like on an ordinary day. The facilities and results are already in the brochure. What a film can show is how the teachers talk to the students and what happens in the corridor between lessons, which is what families are really trying to judge.
We make films for schools and sixth forms, as well as colleges and universities, and the brief is usually recruitment of one kind or another.
What does a school film need to do?
It needs to show the culture rather than list it. Every school says it's warm and inclusive, and parents have read that sentence on every website they've visited. A film that shows one unscripted moment of a teacher and a student laughing about a piece of work makes the claim without anyone having to say it.
It also needs real voices. A current student talking honestly about their week carries more weight with a prospective family than any voiceover, and so does a parent explaining why they chose the school. Families researching schools are good at spotting a film that's been tidied of everything real, and they discount it.
The films schools ask us for
Open day and recruitment films are the most common. They go on the website and play at open events, and the best ones get shared by current parents with friends who are looking. Shorter promotional videos for schools are cut from the same footage for social media and admissions emails.
Some schools and universities want a longer brand film that explains what they stand for, for partnership bids or staff recruitment. Sixth form and university films speak to the students themselves rather than their parents. They need a different tone, because a seventeen year old will switch off at the first hint of being sold to. We also make e-learning and curriculum films for education providers, where clarity matters more than atmosphere.
How we film in a school
We spend time at the school before planning the shoot. That usually means a day sitting in on lessons and talking to staff and students, looking for the specific things that make this school different from the one down the road. The film is planned around what we find, so it's never a tour of the buildings.
Safeguarding comes first on every school shoot. We work to the school's own policies on consent and photography and agree in advance which students can appear. A member of staff is with us whenever we're filming young people. The crew is small, often just two people, which keeps lessons running normally and means students stop noticing the camera quickly.
Young people need different direction from adults in an office. Students who've been told what to say produce footage that parents can read as arranged at a glance. So we talk with them first about what they actually think of the place, and then film the honest versions of those conversations. It takes patience and a bit more time on the day, and it's the reason the films work.
Culford School
Our work for Culford School, an independent school just outside Bury St Edmunds, is the clearest example of this approach. The main film, Who We Are, covers the breadth of school life rather than touring the buildings, so a family gets a feel for the place as well as the facilities.
We've also made open day films for the prep school and the senior school, and a virtual open day for families who couldn't visit. For International Women's Day we filmed a piece written by the young women who appear in it, and our International Women's Day video ideas come from that project.
More films of this kind are on the brand film production page.
Related work
Educational video production draws on two of our video production services most. We use brand film production for the longer films and promotional video production for open days and admissions deadlines. Schools with a charitable foundation or a fundraising campaign should also read video production for charities, and every sector we work in is on the industries page.
If you're planning an open day film or a recruitment campaign, tell us when your admissions season starts.
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