Flying a video crew and their equipment to another country can be very costly. Costlier still if they are travelling to multiple far-flung countries.

You might think multinational corporations with deep pockets are the only ones who take on such projects, but that’s not the case. Many universities, nonprofits and NGOs have the need to film globally as well.

When the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus approached us to produce oral history videos featuring 150 Sisters spread over 16 countries on six continents, we needed a way to do it economically without sacrificing quality.

Remote filming was the answer. In each location, we hire a local video crew and producer who conduct the interview in the Sister’s native language – English, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese. An Allied Pixel producer is in charge of the entire series. We connect our Pennsylvania-based producer via Zoom directly into the camera on set.

Our producer sees exactly what the camera is seeing and speaks in real time to the crew. This ensures we achieve the project’s goals for quality and consistency in the style and substance of the videos.

The efficiency of this remote process is a game-changer. We have shot as many as eight interviews in a day. We edit them to 20-30 minutes each, translate and caption them into three languages in addition to the Sister’s native language and produce 10-15 finished videos per month.

When the collection is complete, the videos will be available for younger Sisters, lay collaborators, and others to draw on the knowledge, experience, and wisdom of the older Sisters. To meet a few of them, watch our video announcing the oral history project. And to learn about getting involved with this wonderful organization, please visit here.