Filming Global Factory Tour Videos for Rochester Sensors
A recent project I completed was creating a series of factory videos for Rochester Sensors, a global leader in fuel level sensing solutions.
Factory video production is a powerful way for manufacturing companies to demonstrate their capabilities, production processes and the scale of their operations. These types of films are often used on company websites, in presentations to distributors and customers, and as part of wider marketing and communication strategies.
The first stage of the project was to create a factory tour video of Rochester’s manufacturing facility in Warwick. For this film I wanted to show the scale and capability of the site. I achieved this by using my drone to capture an orbiting shot of the factory before flying down towards the entrance and through the door to begin the tour of the manufacturing processes.
The camera then moves through the building, following each stage of production before finishing with a shot of the factory staff waving as the camera leaves the building.
Global Factory Video
Once filming had been completed across all of the locations, I created a global overview video bringing together footage from each manufacturing site.
You can watch the finished global factory video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnopxBo9mME
The success of the original Warwick video led to a request to create the same style of film for Rochester’s other manufacturing sites around the world.
My next visit was to the company’s facility in Shannon. For this location I wanted to recreate the same style of opening shot. However, I was unable to fly my drone due to the close proximity of Shannon Airport to the manufacturing site.
To overcome this I used a 360-degree camera mounted to an employee’s car to recreate the approach shot before continuing the factory tour inside the building.
The next location I visited was Dallas, where the headquarters of Rochester Sensors is located. This facility was much larger than the sites in Warwick and Ireland and was spread across a single level. The lighting conditions were also significantly better for filming.
There were still some restrictions on drone flying because the site sits within the outer restricted airspace surrounding Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. To fly legally I completed the checks required by the Federal Aviation Administration and used a DJI Mini 3 Pro drone. This drone was specifically purchased for this work because its lightweight classification and geozone compatibility make it suitable for operating within regulated airspace.
After visiting Dallas I travelled to Mexico City where I filmed three factories for Rochester’s Mexican operations. At each location I captured orbiting drone shots of the factory buildings as well as process videos of the production lines.
In some cases I was also able to fly the drone inside the factories themselves, allowing me to create moving tracking shots that I had previously needed to improvise using trolleys or other moving platforms at earlier locations.
The individual factory tour videos can be viewed on the official Rochester Sensors YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/@RochesterSensorsGlobal
This channel also includes a product explainer video that I filmed in my studio alongside the factory tour films.
The project was a continuation of work I have completed for Rochester Sensors producing product photography and product explainer videos.
Alongside video production, I also photograph products and manufacturing processes for industrial clients. You can see examples of that work on my product photography page here:
https://www.squire-squire.co.uk/product-photographer
This was an amazing project to be involved in and required a significant amount of planning and coordination to maintain a consistent filming style across multiple international locations.