Client

Project

Overview

OxSTar is the University of Oxford's purpose built state-of-the-art medical simulation teaching and research facility. They train medical staff at all levels and Podcats was invited to an event introducing young medics to the pre hospital care provided by the emergency services at the scene of an accident. The event was set up so that the medics could watch from a safe distance. The idea is to illustrate how the services interact to manage the casualty at the scene. Putting on an event like this is quite expensive and our video can be shown as an alternative to a live event. It can also be used in conjunction with a live scenario because the video captures the details at close quarters - far closer than the watching participants could get on the day. The casualty in this case was a highly sophisicated training dummy which breathes, has a pulse and can talk - all controlled remotely by the OxSTar team.

Shoot and edit

This shoot had plenty of potential dangers! Our camera team of two were carefully briefed to move in pre ordained areas so that we didn't get in the way of the action. We also used a GoPro camera on the dashboard of the car despite being warned by the fire service that their high powered cutting equipment would be working with a few centimetres of it's position and was a potential casualty. We decided to take the risk. 

We shot the interviews using the Podcats portable 'green screen' set up which allowed us to drop in the backgrounds at the edit stage.

Tech and spec

This was the first time we used the now ubiquitous GoPro and it really proved its worth by getting us in amongst the action.  

Two main participants (one from the ambulance service and one from the fire service) were recorded using radio mics and we had been warned that the scenario would be 'loud'. We had been prepared to use a lot of voiceover to describe what was going on as we knew there would be no opportunity for retakes or to stop the action. It was, in effect, a documentary shoot rather than a drama.  In the event the mix of the radio mics, ambient sound recorded independently and the audio from the GoPro did us proud and we were able to put together a dub that followed the story, for the most part, hearing the words of the participants.