Citco is currently the world’s largest hedge fund management company who employs over 7500 people worldwide. The company was found in 1948 by the Smeets family who still runs it to this day. In the past 70 years, the company expanded from its original office in the British Virgin Islands to now having over 50 offices on 5 continents, who are collectively responsible for the management of over 1 trillion dollars of assets in administration.
From late 2018 to early 2019, two video projects took place where a video was produced on each occasion for the company.
The first video project took place in late 2018. The HR department in the Citco Cork Office requested a video that promoted all of the benefits and initiatives that were available to employees in the company. To help with the production of the video, an engagement committee was formed, consisting of a number of different staff members from a range of departments in the company. In addition to committee members’ different departments, there was also a diversity of age, nationality and seniority within the company.
Pre-production & Brainstorming
Before production began, two brainstorming meetings took place with the steering committee to help come up with an idea for a video storyline. In the first meeting, a Design Thinking workshop took place to help the team identify elements like core company values, desired shots and project logistics. After this initial meeting, a script and storyboard were drafted where it was present to the steering committee in the second meeting to receive approval and organise logistics.
Proposed Storyline
During the brainstorming process, the team identified that different types of benefits and initiatives interest the individual depending on where they are in life, both professionally and in maturity. So by taking this into account, the proposed storyline consisted of following 5 key staff members at different ages on their day-to-day in the company. Then while each staff member is being followed, his or her on-screen actions will also be accompanied by a voiceover from the actor on the key benefits and initiatives that are important to them.
To help tie everything together, additional shots will be recorded with noteworthy staff members identified by the committed and a voiceover from a professional voice actor will be recorded to provide the intro and outro for the start and the end respectively.
At the beginning of the project, the HR department shared a spreadsheet containing just over 50 different benefits and initiatives but after reviewing the list together, the number was reduced to 35 as the remaining number of benefits were heavily restricted by time, budgets, and logistics.
Production
Soon after production ended in late October, the production phase instantly started and lasted throughout the month of November. Filming and recording took place over a four-week period in November with the final fifth week being used for editing. Once edited, a draft cut was shown to management where it was approved to be completed and shown in time for Citco Cork’s Christmas Party on the 2nd of December.
Once the approval was given, final colour grading, tweaks and touches took place. Once finished, two versions were submitted to the Cork HR Department. One had an audio mix for tv, computers and mobile devices and the other contained an audio mix for the PA system at the Citco Christmas Party.
Editing
The final video timeline turned out to be around 2 minutes and 45 seconds with over 60 clips in the timeline. As mentioned in the proposed storyline, the video was broken down into 7 key segments, consisting of an introduction, five employee highlight sections and an ending/call-to-action. At the very last minute, permission was also granted to use the Citco logo so a quick motion graphic animation was also created and placed at the end of the video.
The song chosen and purchased for the video is called “New Achievements” by Indie Box. The song was chosen due to its fast BPM (beats per minute) which also complemented the fast-paced style of the editing. The prevent the final viewers from feeling unsettled, the video was edited with a 4/4 music beat in mind, meaning that the next clip would only change every 2, 4, 6, or 8 beats.
Second Video - Citco Ireland Project
After being impressed with the Citco Cork Video, Citco Dublin got in touch and made a request to adapt the Citco Cork Video into a Citco Ireland video. So in early 2019, additional filming took place in the Dublin office with their own small team of staff over a three week period
Following a very similar formula to the first video, filming took place by following two key members from the Dublin office, along with some additional footage and b-roll being recorded with extras Citco Dublin. Once completed, the two new sub-storylines replaced two of those from the original Cork video, along with replacing some footage unique to the Cork office in order to make it a Citco Ireland Video.
After some minor adjustments, the Citco Ireland video was approved by management in Dublin. Both videos were shared throughout the internal communications system in Citco Ireland and further use for social and public dissemination will be later reviewed by management.