MEDIA SERVICES
Not Just A Talking Head
Feb 13, 2009 - 11:13:45 AM

The 121st Annual Dinner for The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce presented IBT Media with an assignment once again this year. This project included a significant challenge for their creativity with video.

They were faced with making the comments by "talking heads" of local civic and business leaders become as interesting visually as they were aurally. (To see samples of IBT Media's work, click here to view their video production portfolio).

The Chamber dinner was one of the two annual projects that IBT Media does for Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. The other is the Small Business Celebration, where the Chamber honors the Top Ten Small Businesses and names a Small Business of the Year with the "Mr. K" Award in honor of Kansas City entrepreneur Ewing Kauffman. IBT Media's involvement with Chamber video presentations spans more than five years.

The roster of commentators for the Chamber Annual Dinner was an impressive one that spanned the KC metro. And the comments of these knowledgeable individuals were finely focused and succinct.

Pam Whiting, Vice President of Communications for the Chamber, prompted the subjects with questions while Douglas Burton and John Naughton of IBT Media faithfully recorded the exchanges on tape. Throughout the editing process, the interview questions ended up on the cutting room floor and only the highlights of the responses remained in the video.

"The tricky part," John Naughton explains, "is doing something that engages the eye easily while the ear is following the comments. Even the most articulate talking head can benefit from this type of help. Because we had nine commentators, some of whom we used more than once, we wanted to really draw in the viewers."

The device Naughton chose was to fill in the background with Kansas City scenes, but not just any scene would do.

"The background was a pretty complex effect. We took a rather large quantity of B roll of local scenes, many of which were highways and traffic, and ran it in behind the subjects in soft focus. In addition to being blurred, it was also blown-out with light rays. The effect reminded me of the scene in Star Wars when the Millennium Falcon made the jump to light speed. I think that helps convey the idea that we are moving fast and forward."

By softening the focus and keeping the background moving, the video almost presented a visual puzzle to viewers: what is it and where is it? The puzzle idea was in keeping with the graphic theme for the dinner, which used jigsaw puzzle pieces and the theme "Come Together" to symbolize putting together all the diverse parts of the sprawling metro area. Some of the puzzle pieces even had cityscapes inside of them to help further signify the relationship.

The resulting video kept the audience of more than 1500 Chamber dinner attendees focused – and drew enthusiastic applause.

For more information about how IBT Media can engage your audience and dramatize your message, contact Gary Hense .