CASE STUDY

How We Helped the American Chemical Society Teach Undergrads About Lab Safety

The Challenge

The American Chemical Society approached us about creating a series of videos for college chemistry students about lab safety. The goal was to give vetted, up-to-date information on lab safety in a highly-engaging and entertaining manner.

The Client

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is one of the world’s largest scientific societies in chemistry, chemical engineering, and related fields. The society boasts over 155,000 members has chapters at every U.S. university.

The Solution

Working closely with the safety experts at the ACS we developed, produced, and edited a series of six educational videos optimized for YouTube and an additional video interview with the host of the series, actor and science communicator Michael Mills.

Execution

Development
In our initial consultation with the ACS we talked about desired length for the videos, where they would be distributed, and how they might integrate with lesson plans on the ACS website.
Pre-Production
Working with a dedicated team of safety experts, we helped craft six scripts based on highest quality information about chemical safety. Using these base scripts, we developed a plan for compelling visuals to complement the safety information.
Next we moved into the logistical part of pre-production. Having worked with actor and science communicator Michael Mills on a previous series for the ACS he was our natural pick for the role of host. Additionally, we hired crew and extras to complete our on-location team.
Production
Filming took place at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio over a period of six days. Although we had a lot of footage we needed to capture we managed finish a day early…and had a lot of fun along the way.
Behind the Scenes
Post-Production
Editing and finishing took place over a period of several months, involving a editors, motion designers and sound designers. Fortunately, because we had focused on capturing quality media and were diligent about keeping everything organized during production, our post-process went smoothly.
Distribution
The ACS marketing team handled distribution on YouTube. However, we consulted with their team about how best to position the videos, recommending a high-quality thumbnail and metadata to maximize engagement.