Market-Centered Journalism, “Vence”

Financial Times, 4½ Minutes

A couple of times a year we get to switch our cameras to the European PAL standard and shoot at 25 frames per second. This time it was for the Financial Times in London. We shot in Gustine, California, a small community in the Central Valley. The story is high-tech, about a virtual fence for cattle, called Vence (get it?). Basically, think of an invisible fence for your dog: the animal wears an electric collar and if it nears the designated perimeter of the yard or a pasture, it gets a mild electric shock. This technology can be used to move cattle optimally around the pasture which benefits the environment.

The Financial Times hires us to only shoot the raw footage and then upload it to them. We have a very robust Internet connection so it’s no problem to upload 100GB of data (or more) if need be. They do their own editing in London because our footage is combined with parts of the story shot elsewhere. In this case we only shot the interview with Frank Wooten, Vence CEO and Founder, plus some B-roll. Anything with snow in it was shot in South Dakota by another company, although we would have been delighted to take a field trip there.

Any project which deals with then environment has a special place in our hearts, even if we only get to shoot the raw footage.

Our Video Production Samples:

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