Filming in The Masked Era

We were commissioned to create a pre-Open House invitation film for Ma'ayanot High School.

This year it is especially challenging since for a while in the spring, we weren't able to get footage while school was closed.

Now that private schools have been open, we've been able to get footage, but when you can only see half of a student's face due to masks, it means that part of the emotional connection with the viewer can be lost.

A school is marketed through the people, and if the camera can't catch those emotions close up, that can be a problem visually. 

So, the question was: how can we overcome this, and produce a meaningful ad that reminds people what Ma'ayanot is beyond the pandemic, without negating that we are currently in a different situation? 

All this is why we wanted to strike a very specific tone in the Pre-Open House invitation film. Normally, we would go for upbeat and exciting, but we just feel like this moment calls for something a bit more thoughtful.

With this film we wanted to give a sneak peak at how the school has handled safety and remote learning in the pandemic era, but not by making it the main focal point. Any school is so much more than what is happening right now, so we dug into our archives and brought together years of our footage with this year's reality of mask wearing.

By seamlessly moving from unmasked to masked in this film, we want to convey that Ma'ayanot has also done it seamlessly, and that the ruach, the academics, the opportunities, and the excitement are still there in full force.