CooperVision 2021 Myopia Symposium Opening Video

Client: CooperVision

Project Title: Opening Video – Myopia Symposium 2021

BACKGROUND

CooperVision is the leading solution provider for people with eyesight problems, and has a long standing working relationship with Click2View. The content marketing agency has facilitated their webinars and has produced a wide range of their animated and live-action videos.

BRIEF

CooperVision commissioned us to produce an emotive 30 to 60 second video to open the 2021 Myopia Symposium. The video would focus on childhood myopia and the consequences of leaving the condition unmanaged in the long term. They wanted an evergreen, emotive video that would provide a strong call to action through tugging at heartstrings.

RESPONSE

Our team pitched concepts for the video which ranged from 2D and 3D animation to producing a video with stock visuals. Eventually the client agreed that live action visuals would be more realistic and better suited to provide emotional footage. 

Through tapping on our partner Artur Akhmetzyanov’s network in Russia, an opportunity to shoot the video in Russia presented itself. Although the team realised the considerable risks involved, Russia also had more lenient COVID-19 restrictions at the time, and so filming there became the obvious choice.

Our team storyboarded the concept and chose to give the video an arthouse feel and took inspiration from an award-winning Russian short film titled Solar Wind. Our concept focused on first-person shots to fully encapsulate the experience of insecurity and low self-esteem associated with poor vision.

Due to the comparatively more affordable rates of hiring crew and equipment in Russia, we had the luxury of having a full crew on hand to film the video. Video footage was also shot on Alexa cameras, and even though they would be blurred in the video to simulate myopia, they definitely lent a much higher picture quality to the shoot.

The video was shot on the cusp of winter in Russia, and so pre-production was a rushed affair with personnel having to quickly secure locations that would look more tropical and Singaporean than like a place in a temperate/subarctic country. Our partner Artur Akhmetzyanov acted as script supervisor on the shoot, remotely managing the production from Singapore across one 17-hour shoot day. 

When it came to writing the voiceover narration script, our client decided that they preferred an adult woman’s voice to a young child’s voice, in order to maximise the value of the video by keeping the treatment evergreen. 

OUTCOME

The client commended the production value of the video, and praised the quality of sound editing. The video was received very positively as the opening note to the 2021 CooperVision Myopia Symposium and has been posted on various social media platforms. 

On his thoughts about the project, Artur said that “We have come to a time where remote management of productions is possible. Since the best results come from creative collaborations, it’s really up to us to think out of the box and take creative risks to devise creative solutions for the new world. Safe bets are not always the best decision today.” 

Here’s the final product of this transnational project: