Attachment_1_-_Performance_Work_Statement.pdf

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS)

VT NRCS Conservation Farmer Vignettes

Revision 0

February 7, 2018

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Mission

1.2 Background

1.3 Scope

2 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

2.1 Non-Personal Services

2.2 Business Relations

2.3 Contract Administration and Management

2.4 Subcontract Management

2.5 Contractor Personnel, Disciplines, and Specialties

2.6 Location and Hours of Work

2.7 Travel / Temporary Duty (TDY)

2.8 Invoicing

2.9 Government Quality Assurance

3 PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

3.1 Provide Videographer and Distribution Services

4 SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

4.1 Restrictions against Disclosure

1. INTRODUCTION

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) requires professional media specialist/videographer services to script, film, edit, produce, and distribute a short, chaptered video that will educate, inform, and inspire a general audience of viewers about the conservation efforts of Vermont farmers and the resulting benefits of their stewardship.

1.1 Mission

The NRCS is committed to “helping people help the land” – our mission is to provide America’s farmers and ranchers with financial and technical assistance to voluntarily put conservation on the ground, not only helping the environment but agricultural operations, too. For more information regarding the agency and its programs visit http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/.

1.2 Background

This video production is intended to communicate the mission, goals, and benefits of conservation in Vermont, as told through the voices of the farmers, agencies, and partner agencies that have succeeded in protecting soil and water resources. VT NRCS has identified video communication as a very effective and measurable outreach strategy which can be utilized for maximum exposure on social media, in public places such as movie theaters to reach the general population, and also via state supported educational television.

1.3 Scope

The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Colchester, Vermont is seeking a professional media specialist/videographer to script, film, edit, produce, and distribute a short (10 minutes) chaptered video that will educate, inform, and inspire a general audience of viewers about the conservation efforts of Vermont farmers and the resulting benefits of their stewardship. The video will consist of an opening and closing video with shorter (in duration) vignettes in between. The finished piece can be shown in full, from start to finish, or as individual, stand-alone vignettes. The video series will be aired on Vermont public television station(s) as well as on ad rolls prior to the showing of motion pictures in local Vermont movie theaters. The film is intended for both farming and non-farming audiences to increase awareness of the efforts of farmers who utilize conservation practices, and the resulting benefits of those practices on soil and water health. The production will inspire other farmers to follow the lead of these outstanding stewards and understand that assistance, both technical and financial, is available to them which can also help them meet the VT Required Agricultural Practices (RAPs).

2 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

Requires possession of and command of professional quality video production equipment and editing tools.

Should also have a general knowledge of natural resources issues in the state of Vermont, as well as some background in the field of environmental issues/conservation.

2.1 Non-Personal Services

The Government shall neither supervise Contractor employees nor control the method by which the Contractor performs the required tasks. Under no circumstances shall the Government assign tasks to, or prepare work schedules for, individual Contractor employees. It shall be the responsibility of the Contractor to manage its employees and to guard against any actions that are of the nature of personal services, or give the perception of personal services. If the Contractor believes that any actions constitute, or are perceived to constitute personal services, it shall be the Contractor’s responsibility to notify the Contracting Officer (CO) immediately.

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/

2.2 Business Relations

The Contractor shall successfully integrate and coordinate all activity needed to execute the requirement.

The Contractor shall manage the timeliness, completeness, and quality of problem identification. The Contractor shall provide corrective action plans, proposal submittals, timely identification of issues, and effective management of subcontractors. The Contractor shall seek to ensure customer satisfaction and professional and ethical behavior of all Contractor personnel.

2.3 Contract Administration and Management

The following subsections specify requirements for contract, management, and personnel administration.

2.3.1 Contract Management

The Contractor shall establish clear organizational lines of authority and responsibility to ensure effective management of the resources assigned to performance of the contract. The Contractor must maintain continuity between the support operations at various locations within the NRCS and the Contractor’s corporate offices.

2.3.2 Contract Administration

The Contractor shall establish processes and assign appropriate resources to effectively administer the contract. The Contractor shall respond to Government requests for contractual actions in a timely fashion.

The Contractor shall have a single point of contact between the Government and Contractor personnel assigned to support contracts or task orders. The Contractor shall assign work effort and maintaining proper and accurate time keeping records of personnel assigned to work on the requirement. All equipment necessary for completion of the contract will be provided by the contractor.

2.4 Subcontract Management

The Contractor shall be responsible for any subcontract management necessary to integrate work performed on this requirement and shall be responsible and accountable for subcontractor performance on this requirement. The prime Contractor will manage work distribution to ensure there are no Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) considerations.

2.5 Contractor Personnel, Disciplines, and Specialties

The Contractor shall accomplish the assigned work by employing and utilizing qualified personnel with appropriate combinations of education, training, and experience. The Contractor shall match personnel skills to the work or task with a minimum of under/over employment of resources.

The Contractor’s minimum staff qualifications must be as follows:

1. Knowledge of NRCS programs and services

2. Familiarity with water quality/TMDL/Required Ag Practices (RAP’s) in State of Vermont.

3. Video Production experience in the field of natural resources/environmental issues.

4. Experience and knowledge in the use of professional video equipment and editing software including drones.

2.6 Location and Hours of Work

Accomplishment of the results contained in this PWS requires work primarily at the Contractor facilities, as well as various farm locations throughout the State of Vermont. Farm locations will be identified during performance of this contract. Normal NRCS workdays are Monday through Friday except US Federal Holidays. NRCS employees typically work eight (8) hours per day, 40 hours per week. Flextime workers start not earlier than 6:00 AM and not later than 9:00 AM. Core hours of work are from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM daily.

The Contractor shall be responsible for establishing their work hours under this contract, except when access to a Federal facility is required, in which case the Government may limit the Contractors access based availability of NRCS employees. However, Contractor employees in possession of a valid HPDS- 12 PIV-II Compliant Credential (e.g., LincPass) can work unaccompanied at government locations upon Government approval. See Section 4.1 for additional information.

Weather and security closures by their nature usually arise without advance notice. As such, the Government will notify the Contractor as soon as possible once any closures have been announced. At times the Contractor’s employees may need to work in excess of 40 hours per week to support surge requirements. The Contractor must ensure this contingency can be met.

2.7 Travel / Temporary Duty (TDY)

Travel to NRCS field offices and farm locations will be limited to mileage reimbursement at the GSA rate only. No overnight lodging, MI&E or other expenses will be authorized.

2.8 Invoicing

Invoices shall be submitted after each milestone. Invoices must be submitted electronically through the Invoice Processing Platform (IPP) system. In addition to the information required by FAR 52.212-4(g) each invoice must contain a breakdown of the total amount, to include the following sections:

Pre-Production $ Production $ Editing $ Distribution (DVD) $ Distribution (Theater) $ Travel (mileage only) $

2.9 Government Quality Assurance

The CO (or representative) reserves the right to review all work products required under the contract for acceptability as needed. The Government shall notify the Contractor whenever revisions to reports/deliverables are required in order for the deliverables to be deemed acceptable.

3 PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

This section describes the desired outcomes and specific performance objectives that must be performed.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) develops and distributes outreach materials to educate and inform farmers, private landowners and the general public about the programs and services available to protect natural resources, soil health and water quality. NRCS requires professional media specialist/videographer services to script, film, edit, produce, and distribute a short, chaptered video conveying a message about the conservation efforts of Vermont farmers and the resulting benefits of their stewardship. The production will also illustrate the technical and financial assistance available to help farmers meet the State of Vermont Required Agricultural Practices (RAPs).

The video will include 8 to 10 segments including a beginning and ending segment as well as six to eight individual farmer profiles (not to exceed 60 seconds each) for a total length of 10 minutes. The final product can be viewed in whole, or the individual segments can be viewed and distributed as singular public service announcements. An additional segment will be developed as a 60-second video teaser to be used as promotion of the full-length production at local movie theaters for a total of 9-11 individual video segments. All video segments will include closed captioning.

The Contractor will provide the following for completion of the contract:

1. 9 to 11 individual video segments (with closed captioning) in each of the following formats:

a. Non-Compressed (ProRes) files for each individual segment (archival)

b. .MOV files for each individual segment (social media and presentations)

c. .MP4 files for each individual segment (social media and presentations)

d. .WMV4 files for each individual segment (movie theater presentation)

2. 50 DVD copies of full length final video with designed and printed sleeves

3. Coordinate and secure placement (including payment of advertising fee) of 60-second videos at the Majestic 10 Theater (Williston, VT), Palace 9 Theater (South Burlington, VT) and Merrill’s Roxy Theater (Burlington, VT) for a minimum of three months beginning in September 2018.

The period of performance for this contract will commence upon award with completion of deliverables due by September 1st, 2018.

3.1 Provide Videographer and Distribution Services

The specific performance objectives required include the following:

Performance Objectives/Tasks

Performance Standards, Acceptable Quality Levels and Deliverables

Expected Completion Date

3.1.1 Meet with NRCS Public

Affairs Specialist (PAS) to discuss the project performance, intended message, objectives and timeline

Timely / performed within the timeframe required by policy 95% of the time.

Two weeks after award date

3.1.2 The Contractor shall submit a

production schedule, including site selections and draft script for a minimum of six (6) and not more than eight (8) farm locations/farmer interviews and identify three (3) to four (4) subject matter experts to be interviewed and included.

Timely / performed within the timeframe required by policy 95% of the time.

Review of production schedule and script for adherence to message. Shooting locations will be secured in coordination with State Public Affairs Specialist and NRCS District Conservationist, and will not include any locations that require more than an 8-hour day of work (no overnight travel).

May 15, 2018

3.1.3 Conduct interviews and capture

video footage, including B-Roll which will be used by the videographer as cut-away shots, and landscape shots via

Timely / performed within the timeframe required by policy 95% of the time.

Weekly status reports to PAS

June 15th – July 15th, drone.

3.1.4 First-Cut Draft and In-Person

Feedback Session

Timely / performed within the timeframe required by policy 95% of the time.

In person meeting and viewing session of video(s) for content and accuracy

August 1st, 2018

3.1.5 Final Draft of video series

submitted for approval

Timely / performed within the timeframe required by policy 95% of the time.

Submittal of final video products in the specified formats via electronic transfer;

Delivery of DVDs in printed sleeves

August 15th, 2018

3.1.6 Coordinate and secure

placement (including payment of advertising fee) of 60-second videos

Timely / performed within the timeframe required by policy 95% of the time.

Confirmation from ad placement vendor showing dates of placement; Invoice from ad placement vendor

Dec. 1, 2018

4 SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

This section describes the special requirements that apply to this contract. The following sub-sections provide additional detail for each requirement.

4.1 Restrictions against Disclosure

The Contractor agrees, in the performance of this contract, to keep all information contained in source documents or other media furnished by the Government in the strictest confidence. The Contractor also agrees not to publish or otherwise divulge such information in whole or in part, in any manner or form, nor to authorize or permit others to do so, taking such reasonable measures as are necessary to restrict access to such information while in the Contractor’s possession, to those employees needing such information to perform the work provided herein, i.e., on a "need to know" basis. The Contractor agrees to immediately notify the Contracting Officer, in writing, in the event that the Contractor determines or has reason to suspect a breach of this requirement.

The Contractor agrees not to disclose any information concerning work under this contract to any persons or individual unless prior written approval is obtained from the Contracting Officer. The Contractor agrees to insert the substance of this clause in any consultant agreement or subcontract hereunder.