The COVID-19 Crisis Changed Everything a Year Ago. Here’s How Lime Crane Adapted to Change.
Friday, March 13, 2020. That date is etched into our collective memories as the day when everything changed. Only days before, the novel coronavirus affecting other countries had been upgraded to a pandemic, and we grew anxious.
But on the afternoon of March 13, 2020, it became clear that not even the United States would be spared of the rapidly spreading virus. No matter the size or the industry, every company, business and organization has a story about how the COVID-19 crisis affected them, and we would like to share ours and how we adapted to change.
Before COVID hit, Lime Crane Productions was a full-service video production company, and we enjoyed traveling all over the country interviewing and live streaming for our clients. Business was good.
But it all changed the afternoon of March 13th, 2020 when the lockdowns began. Lime Crane Director, Michael Hamilton remembers it clearly.
“In a single afternoon, our entire calendar of events, town halls, and video projects were cancelled,“ he says. “The entire production team was sitting around a table for a production lunch.
We sat there in a state of shock, unsure of what we would do next.”
We decided we would go “all in” on virtual events.
As stunning as the rapidly developing repercussions were, we decided as a group that we would not give up and pause production. We knew that companies would want to communicate their plans, so the appetite for a town hall would only increase as lockdown continued.
Having worked in this space for a while, we knew that the business world was up against a steep learning curve. We knew that organizations would be scrambling to get Zoom, WebEx, or Teams implemented and operational. We knew that virtual meetings would frustrate most employees as they transitioned to the new technology and would need professional support.
So, we decided to go “all in’ on virtual events.
A polished, fresh, new product that nobody else was offering.
As a team, we rapidly adapted and worked long hours to develop an entirely remote production workflow that we believed would offer the high production value our clients expected, and an experience that was beyond what the existing video platforms could offer.
Michael and our Technical Producer, Shane Higgins, underwent the “Herculean” task of figuring out how to create a production studio from our living rooms. Meanwhile our Executive Producer, Nate Haskell, and Lead Editor, Julie van Jaarsveld began contacting each of our clients with our polished, fresh, new product that nobody else was offering.
One year later.
It is hard to believe how far we have come and how we managed to survive what could have been a devastating year for our company. Until the CDC says otherwise, our business is exclusively virtual and we are privileged to work with more corporate clients than ever. Our success required constant innovation, and countless long nights, but we pulled through 2020 together as a team. We are happy to say that every member of our team is still with us.
We used to view our value as a business by the equipment we had, the ultra-reliable streaming technologies we use, and our ability to run a tight production. Now we have come to understand that people have to come first. We have been able to help our clients produce some of the most exciting and engaging live streams we have ever produced, and they were done with cheap webcams!
Great video is all about connection and heart. It can be done with a 20 thousand dollar camera, or with a tiny laptop. It’s all about taking the time to get to know the hosts and give them some one human to connect with when delivering their message. The rest is just a flourish.
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