Here at Dream Engine we were approached by one of our long term clients MIPS (Medical Indemnity Protection Society), to create a series of four medical role play videos, about doctors dealing with unexpected problems with patients. As producer of this video, I oversaw the whole process from scripting to finished product. Here’s how it played out:
Pre-Production
MIPS contacted us with an idea to create four videos based on the theme of opiate prescriptions and the various challenges doctors face when prescribing them. They had a series of situations that were based on real life experiences of doctors and how MIPS responded to each individual case.
For the scripts, MIPS gave us a loose guideline of what had to be presented in each video with some basic dialogue. I worked with the MIPS script to increase the authenticity of the dialogue and get some natural sounding back and forth between doctor and patient.
There were 6 roles in all for the videos and the next step was to arrange casting for each role to meet the specifications of the scripts. The most important role to cast was that of the doctor, who is in every scene. We went through hundreds of applications and showreels to find a collection of actors that not only had great acting abilities, but fit the exact criteria provided by MIPS.
Casting took place over two weeks beforehand with a loose set of guidelines from the scripts from MIPS. The characters themselves were all loosely based on real-life examples where doctors were presented with challenging situations with their patients. We presented the actor’s showreels to MIPS to get their approval and we were given the green light. I created a call sheet with the schedule for filming and arranged separate call times for all our actors by scene and time.
Production
The filming took place on a Saturday as this would give us use of the MIPS office in Collins St Melbourne as we had access to consulting suites and a boardroom for the final scene. We shot with three cameras to give ourselves plenty of material to work with in the edit. The directing duties were mainly about getting the right emotive responses from the actors and to liaise with the MIPS staff about what would actually happen in a real life scenario. We did this to make sure the interactions would be authentic and not seem out of place for an audience of mostly doctors. The actors were all meeting each other for the first time on the day as rehearsal time was limited, so we ensured plenty of time for the actors to rehearse together and build up natural and realistic dialogue exchanges. The shoot went very smoothly thanks to some strong performances and the dedication of our actors.
Post Production
Upon the completion of shooting, we backed up all our footage and began an assembly edit, selecting the best takes and creating a rough draft. There was a lot of footage to go through, but with some diligent note taking throughout the day to mark the best takes, the process was made a lot simpler in the editing suite. With the rough drafts of each of the videos now with MIPS, we worked through their feedback to begin polishing the videos into their final shape. This involves colour grading, titles and sound mixing, adding things like sound effects and giving the videos an overall consistent look.
The videos are an excellent training resource for doctors and can provide them with situations they may have to deal with in their daily appointments.
If you’re looking to create training or role-play videos in Melbourne, get in touch with Dream Engine today.
Ryan Spanger is one of Melbourne’s most respected and sought-after video production professionals. Ryan founded Dream Engine in 2002, and specialises in helping medium to large corporates, government departments, and the non-profit sector to connect with their audience more effectively by using video.
