We love it when new clients start a conversation using the webchat on our website. Using the chat means they can quickly find out what they want to know, and we start getting an idea of what their needs might be. Recently we started a conversation that led to us creating a vox pops film for the Pensions and Longterm Savings Association.
Every year the PSLA holds the definitive pensions conference and exhibition, where the industry comes together to discuss every aspect of pensions. This ranges from communications and engagement, to investment, to the geopolitical outlook, and the trustee agenda. The PSLA were looking for some vox pops to illustrate the way real people are feeling about pensions and their prospects for the future.
How to make a Vox Pops Film
Making a vox pops film requires quite a lot of determination.
First, you decide where to film, that will have good footfall of the kinds of people you want to interview. You then need to work out who needs to give you permission to be on the streets. In our case, it was the Liverpool Film Office. You have to show them that you’re fully insured, and pay a modest fee. They were extremely helpful when we were working out the best places to find a wide range of members of the public, in a place they might be able to give us a few minutes of their time.
The key to a great vox pops film is tenacity. You have to keep asking people if they’re give you a few minutes. And each one needs to have it explained to them what you’re doing it for, and reassure them about where it will be seen. All these permissions are critical to getting good contribution.
When you first ask the questions, you have to just let people talk. Then, you can ask the questions, or suggest ways to answer that aren’t putting words in people’s mouth, but making their contributions more usable in the edit.
Once you’re back in the edit, it’s a question of cutting all the usable answers into a long sequence. That’s when the fun begins, picking out the best bits. People often say similar things, so you’re looking at who said it best, and also making sure you get a wide range of faces in the mix.
For this job, we started with around 30 mins of material, and cut it down to just three minutes. We added subtitles burnt into the film to make sure the content was accessible in the auditorium.
PSLA is voice of workplace pensions and savings
The PSLA represents pension schemes that together provide a retirement income to more than 30 million savers in the UK and invest more than £1.3 trillion in the UK and abroad. Their members also include asset managers, consultants, law firms, fintechs, and others who play an influential role in people’s financial futures.
They’re committed to improving the retirement incomes of savers in the UK. That means making sure they save adequately through their working lives, investing their money responsibly, ensuring the schemes they belong to can meet the highest standards, improving regulation so it works in the interests of our members and their members, and helping people to understand their options when they come to retire.
