Asia
Actual

Asia Actual brought us in during their third annual summit in Hanoi, which also marked the company’s 11th anniversary. For the scope of the project, they wanted three distinct outputs: a brand video, a multi-camera roundtable podcast series, and individual interviews with members of their team.

They gave us a script and story guideline at the start, laying out what they wanted said and by whom, with each line already assigned to the person who would deliver it on camera. That gave us a brand video built together with their team from the outset, rather than something we were guessing our way through on the day.

Client-provided script & summit schedule

We shot the brand video across the hotel's convention floor, working between the gaps of the conference schedule with limited hours to work with. Across each conference room and the shared common space, we found different placements and positions for the employees and the camera, then built dynamic camera movement into the footage when we stitched the shots together in post.

The marketing team also wanted to make clear that Asia Actual is based in Asia. For that, we scheduled a shoot at the Temple of Literature near the hotel, whose classical Sino-Vietnamese architecture let us build in a subtle visual cue toward that message. I planned each day around the team’s schedule and around getting full coverage of everyone on it, adjusting for whatever issues came up along the way. I also organized the shot list by section of the script, so the sequences stayed varied without losing the coherence of the brand film’s overall look.

The company on the floor · shooting the lineup · brand lockup

Before we started recording, we tested a range of locations and lighting conditions for the interviews, weighing minimal disturbance to the summit against a natural, comfortable setting for each person on camera. Once we settled on the location, we worked out the timing around each person’s availability, calling every member of the team one by one.

We had also pre-selected a set of questions for each interview, so everyone had time to prepare their answers before we rolled. Right before each one, our audio and camera team mic'd up the interviewee and adjusted the frame to match our sizing, while I walked them through how the process would go. Once everything was set, we started recording.

Testing the location · on the monitor · the finished frame

We recorded three separate roundtable podcasts, using the same open space from the interview setup, each one covering different topics relevant to the industry. Four members took part in each discussion, with the panel changing between videos and topics.

For these, we ran a multi-camera setup, placing all four panelists at specific angles to cover close-ups on each person as well as a wide shot that alternated between them. We used the same process as the interviews: briefing each person on how the discussion would run and prepping them with the necessary equipment before we started.

Multi-camera setup for the roundtable

In the edit, I organized and managed the files by intended output, keeping the brand video, the interviews, and the roundtable podcasts on separate, clearly organized workflows. I also built custom animated scenes, covering Companies, Countries, and Products, as branded motion graphics to strengthen the visuals and add clarity across the material.

The whole project ran on a 1.5-week turnaround, timed to the client’s relaunch. Everything had to move from raw footage to finished, branded media fast, without losing the coherence we had built in on the shoot.

Custom branded motion graphics: Companies · Countries · Products