Dream Image Club
Videographer
Making a school introduction video: what do you need to prepare?
Short answer
A school video needs four things prepared: its purpose — admissions, an open house or the school page; the real activities you want parents to see, with dates; parental consent before filming; and the language of the parents you are speaking to. Nothing needs staging, and children do not need to act. What parents trust most is the real learning atmosphere, which comes from filming on the school's own calendar and waiting for children's natural moments.
Start with the purpose — it decides what parents must see
- Admissions — parents want to see what their child will gain, what a day at school is like, how teachers care for children.
- Open house — played in a hall, so it can be longer, telling the overall picture and the school's strengths.
- School page — several short vertical clips, one subject each: one activity, one classroom.
- Presenting achievements or good practice — told through real activities and their effect on students, rather than reading a report on screen.
Film real activities, no staging
Young children cannot be directed, and the more you direct them the stiffer they get. So I film from a distance that does not intrude and wait for real moments during activities, without asking children to perform. The school film in Nan shows that kind of patience: children genuinely learning and playing, which parents recognise straight away as unstaged.
Because it means waiting for real activities, some jobs need several days on the calendar — sports day, performances, or specialist classes held only on certain days. For a kindergarten in Chiang Mai, I filmed over several days to cover all the activities.
What the school should prepare
- The activity calendar for the filming period, and which activities you want in the video.
- Parental consent before the shoot, and a list of children without permission so they can be kept out of frame.
- One teacher as coordinator who knows the timetable and can take us into classrooms.
- Leaders, teachers or parents willing to be interviewed, if you want voices in the video.
- Logo, school name and on-screen text — such as admission dates.
Who should speak in the video?
Leaders speak best about the school's ideas and direction, but if they are the only voice, parents feel they are hearing publicity. The voices parents trust tend to be teachers who care for the children every day, parents whose children already attend, and older students speaking in their own words.
Nobody needs to memorise lines. I send question themes in advance and ask the questions myself on the day; each person needs only a short time, scheduled so teaching is not disrupted.
Foreign parents — do we need subtitles?
If the school has parents or a target audience who are not Thai, subtitles help a great deal. I can add English or Chinese subtitles to suit the parents; the Chiang Mai kindergarten I filmed had Chinese subtitles for parents. Decide on language before filming, because it affects who speaks and what text goes on screen.
A limited school budget — what can be done?
Tell me the figure plainly and I will size the days and deliverables to fit. What raises the price is shooting days and subtitles, not the size of the school. My quotes include travel.
The economical approach is one shoot, many pieces: the main film for the open house, a set of vertical clips for the school page, and stills for the brochure — all on the same days. I have made a school clip set shot vertical and horizontal in a single pass.
If it is for admissions, count back from the date enrolment opens, allowing time to film real activities and for review, and get in touch before the activities you want to capture.
