Red carpet service for EE BAFTAs.

In 2020, for the fifth year running, creative content agency Formidable produced video content at the EE British Academy Film Awards on behalf of the title partner EE for distribution to global press and editorial media, as well as social content for EE’s channels.

Footage shot on the red carpet and backstage was edited immediately on site, while events were still happening, and required distribution with minimal turnaround time. Formidable produced almost 200 edits and clips over the course of the event and needed a platform that was able to hold this content, quickly generate previews, and allow access for self-serve distribution to hundreds of different users worldwide.

Solid, secure and fast

Time is of the essence when managing red carpet content from prestigious events like the EE BAFTAs. The world is watching to see how celebrities will look and sound. Social media activity around the event is extremely high but interest is at its peak during the event itself.

Is it is critical then for BAFTA, EE and other partner broadcasters, agencies and online content providers/publishers that they can share this premium content to viewers at the speed of breaking news.

“Content for the EE BAFTAs needs to be uploaded and available for preview and download on a central hub in as short a time as possible,” confirms Nik Selman, Managing Director at Formidable. “Also important to us is the ability for users to generate preview proxies of video and stills to further speed their turnaround times.”

The events covered by EE at the Royal Albert Hall included the Red Carpet, Winners’ Photo Area, and Winners’ Press Conference. Formidable were tasked with producing clips from those areas suitable for media to use as required, as well as packages appropriate for publishing directly online. News access highlights of the Ceremony was also made available.

The Results

”The overriding benefit for us is the speed at which the platform can turn around content combined with its ease of use,” says Selman. “Working with an excellent platform like this is very reassuring for our team working under high pressure on a very busy night producing hundreds of individual video edits.

Selman

The outcome

Thanks to base’s service, Formidable saw a significant increase in content downloads from the previous year’s event.

“The overriding benefit for us is the speed at which the platform can turn around content combined with its ease of use,” says Selman. “Working with an excellent platform like this is very reassuring for our team working under high pressure on a very busy night producing hundreds of individual video edits.”

He adds, “base even provided live support, with a dedicated Technical Account Executive at the event on the night to assist in platform use and to ensure the system ran smoothly. We experienced no hiccups at all.”

The solution has many options available to enrich future workflows.

Another option is to take advantage of AI processing for example to automatically tag images with a facial recognition algorithm to enhance the ability of clients to rapidly find the content they need. AI can also be used for logo recognition in order to provide brand measurement statistics such as how much exposure a particular brand receives from red carpet content.