A Video Team for the Fire Ground

BT Video Productions Ltd is a Vancouver-based two-person video team with extensive experience in producing educational videos for firefighters.

We are well acquainted with the terminology, operational procedures and special working conditions of firefighters from years of producing Lessons Learned mini documentaries for Fire & Rescue, Training Videos and Full Scale House Burns.

Between 2008 and 2015 we worked for the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB.se) in Sweden, which is one of the largest government Fire &Rescue & Civil Defense organizations in the world. We were responsible for producing video content for the educational video series ”90 Seconds”.

2015 - 2016 we were involved in From Knowledge to Practice (FKTP) , a large educational project led by Chief Peter McBride with Ottawa Fire Service, funded by Battelle Memorial Institute and the US DoD. The purpose of the project is to educate and promote Best Practices from around the world in one universal fire fighting course.

Between the various subjects we have touched upon and studied in our work, and the fine firefighters and instructors we have worked with from various parts of the world, we are familiar with Command & Control, various forms and traditions within Extinguishing Techniques, practical Fire Dynamics, PPV, Container Training, Full Scale Burns, small prop demonstrations, Extrication and more.

We are also aware of the history of modern firefighting, with it´s various origins within the North American and overseas traditions. We have made several mini docs on the topic of firefighting history and the development of modern firefighting techniques.

Our story telling technique is never based on a mold - we always make creative choices based on the story telling approach which best suites each particular story.

TRAINING VIDEOS FROM THE FIRE GROUND

A typical budget for a weekend of documenting training videos, with the intent of producing 5-10

minute final training videos from various topics on the fire ground could look like this:

Weekend Training - Sample Budget

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Filming:

Based on a weekend of whole day exercises at a fire training ground

Day 1

Briefing, Set Up & Take Down 1,0 hr

Filming & Interviewing Instructors 8,0 hrs

De-Brief, Video Ingest 1,0 hr

Day 2

Briefing, Set Up & Take Down 1,0 hr

Filming & Interviewing Instructors 8,0 hrs

De-Brief, Video Ingest & Data Back Up 1,0 hr

Camera Team Rates: (1 camera Person, + 1 Sound Boom Operator) $120.00 CDN / hr Team Rate

Travel & Lodging will be specified depending on location.

Subtotal A : Estimated Filming Cost: 20 hours X $120 = $2,400.00

Editing:

Editing, Scripting, Graphics & Voice Over Rates: $60.00 CDN per hour

Based on the intent of producing an arbitrary number of 6 short instructional videos, 5 -10 minutes per piece. Action B-Roll, Interviews with Instructors and/or student testimonials and Voice Over to explain specific teaching points not covered by instructor. Quotes include 2D-graphics.

Video Ingest & Organizing Video Footage: 2,0 hours

Video Design Consultation & Basic Scripting

for the various topics 4,0 hours for the total scope of project

Editing, First Cut: (Per 5 - 10 minute video) 8,0 hrs

Upload for Initial Critiquing & Making required changes: 2,0 hrs

Voice Over, Graphics & Branding, Final Delivery: 2,0 hrs

(Subtotal : Estimated Editing Cost per training video: $960.00)

Subtotal B: Estimated Editing Cost for 6 training videos: $5,760.00

Subtotal C: Ingest, Scripting & Video Design: $ 360.00

Hard Drive for Final Delivery: $ 100.00

Total Cost for 6 Training Videos: $ 8,620.00

LESSONS LEARNED - FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE

Most of our productions have been mini documentaries with Lessons Learned from

various operations within Fire & Rescue, from LODDs within routine house fires to tunnel fires, high-rise fires, HazMat incidents and more.

We are always about finding and presenting what has been learned from an incident, never about finding fault or investigating the cause.

Your story is your story, you were there and you know what happened!

For this reason, we stress that anyone who participates in a Lessons Learned interview, always has full control of what parts get published for their interview, and what parts do not - No questions asked!

Also, we don´t just report on operations gone wrong; sometimes the more interesting Lessons Learned are from when everything went better than expected, from deliberately trying new methods to from making a tough call that just happened to pan out positively.

A Lesson Learned is a story which needs to be told. Those who chose to share their story are brave men and women, especially when colleagues have paid the ultimate price for a bad day on the job.

Complex operations sometimes require advanced 3D computer graphics to recreate the building structure and the series of events as closely as possible. Computer graphics are time consuming to produce and always add a large portion of production cost. Therefore, we encourage you to draw the event and the building structure on the white board and let us film it - perhaps the story can be told with smaller means.

Pricing for Lessons Learned Mini-Docs:

Stories of Lessons Learned are always priced separately, with sensitivity to the complexity of the incident. Each story is always approached through a free consultation to determine the level of complexity, how many interviewees, existing news footage / helmet cam footage and whether there is a need for 3D-graphics to tell the story or not. A budget estimate is then crafted for each story to be approved before production start.