The making of the SpeedCell drone video
Who’d ever think that creating just a 1 minute video could take an entire day?
Thankfully the team at Solis Films knows exactly what’s needed to produce a great product and they were ready and up for the challenge. Each moment in the film is carefully orchestrated to not only convey the story of the SpeedCell Storage Solution, but also to show the inner workings of the system that is revolutionizing storage.
Filming took place at the Overton’s Warehouse in Greenville, North Carolina, a high-volume distribution center that has made SpeedCell a large part of their operations.
Warehouses are amazing entities, but one thing they are not known for flattering lighting. While efficient, fluorescent lighting is not exactly ideal for film. The Solis team brought all their tricks of the trade to turn Overton’s into a studio, working around hi-lows and pickers as the work day went on as usual around them.
One such trick, a hi-tech drone equipped with sonar so it can fly in tight spaces, brought amazing potential to the shoot. Director Nathaniel Glass was able to use the drone to get an incredible shot down the entire isle with SpeedCell which made it into the final cut of the video.
Sadly, the drone didn’t fare as well. On its second flight of the day it met with a malfunction and spun out of control, taking a chunk out of the ceiling before plummeting into a steel conveyer system. Luckily, no one was hurt in the crash and the drone only suffered minor, easily repairable damage.
That did, however, end its flights for the day.
Another asset to the shoot was Vlad, a driver from Overton’s, who graciously consented to be the model for the shoot. He’d never done anything like it before, but was up to the task, something definitely outside his normal, day-to-day duties.
J.J. Wallace, Director of Photography with Solis Films, also made his modeling debut in the SpeedCell video.
The video makes everything seem effortless. In reality, each shot requires time and talent to set up. Sometimes the shot also requires not a small amount of ingenuity to pull off.
The idea was to get a shot to show how effortlessly SpeedCell columns move side-to-side, without showing a person moving them! This proved to be quite the challenge as it meant someone would have to go on top of the rack to slide them from above. Nathaniel can tell you, lying on top of bare racking beams is not comfortable, but he got the shot!
More than 8 hours of filming, not counting editing, went into creating our video, and we think it turned out pretty well. See for yourself!