Welcome back to the Exposed Wolf blog where we answer all of your questions to everything video production and photography related, not just in Sydney but around the world. For this blog though I wanted to take a deeper dive into a recent project to give you a better understanding of what goes into producing a successful video campaign.
Thanks to a mutual friend on Linkedin I connected with James Rose from Content Snare. James told me that he was looking to get a video produced that would tell viewers what his product was about and to get them to become subscribers. It was important to show the ease of use and to show the kinds of problems that Content Snare can fix. Some of the points, however, viewers may not have even noticed that they had a problem until they were shown. This is an important aspect that not a lot of people think about. Your product makes life easier for your customers. That’s why you created it in the first place. You need to explain the problem and how for this small amount you can improve their ROI, speed up a process or reach more customers etc.
James sent me a video from one of his competitors and said he wanted to do the complete opposite of it. The competitor’s video was slow, boring and quite frankly, hard to watch. It used run of the mill automated animations that you think look great but are actually cookie cutters and consumers will not engage with the video like they would with something original. So I sat down with James, on a zoom call. James is actually based in Brisbane and I’m in Sydney. We went over what James wanted to say in the video about his product and we ended with a skeleton script. This would now be the basis of the video. I went away and came up with a creative concept that would be fun and engaging and informative. We decided to inject humour into the video and to give it a walk and talk presenter. This keeps the viewer interested whilst they absorb the information that the presenter is giving.
I took the idea back to James and he loved it. He couldn’t believe that Exposed Wolf could pull off what we had storyboarded within his budget. Now the planning stages begin. I sent out a casting call for actors. The script needed at least 6 actors including the main presenter. I had over 200 applicants to work through. I shortlisted a number of them and sent to James for final approval. Once I had the actors locked in it was time to find locations. I needed an office space, a basement and a forest scene. My first approach is to turn to my connections. Luckily my video production and photography in Sydney has allowed me to explore a number of styles of locations and meet a lot of people from all walks of life. This can really save my client’s budget as my contacts will never charge me full fees, if anything at all!
The locations were locked in and all close to each other allowing us to bring our video shoot time down to just one day! The next item was to source props. This was probably the hardest part. I needed a baseball bat, skydiving goggles and a harp to name a few things. I scoured the internet and checked out local fancy dress stores. Again through my contacts, I managed to get my hands on a harp!!
With everything locked in it was time to shoot. The call sheet, shot list and run sheet were all in place. This allowed us to not skip a beat and to be confident that we had every shot needed. It was going to be a long day, especially for myself and my main presenter. I hired a production assistant to help with bumping gear in and out of locations which helped speed up the process and helped save my back!! The shoot ran like clockwork. The pre-production that had gone into planning the shoot made the whole experience much more enjoyable for everyone. We used a green screen setup and wind machine for the skydiving scene. We used an underground garage for the interrogation scene and a family kitchen for the clone scene.
Then, it was time to edit. There are a number of visual effects shots in the shoot which included, removal of green screen, cloning the presenter, light rays in the forest and smoke in the office. James also wanted the final video in a variety of lengths and formats. These would be used across varying social channels. Some would be used in paid advertising so the lengths would need to adhere to this.
The final output is something that we are extremely proud of. It has been shared thousands of times and has seen a huge increase in business. We exceeded our client’s expectations and came in on time and on budget. It has made Content Snare stand out above its competitors and made them a serious player in their industry. It was all about those initial discussions that have made the video such a success. We listened to our client’s needs and who their target audience was. We used our years of experience and industry knowledge to produce a video that will not become stale and outdated. It is evergreen content that will bring a smile to anyone who watches it.
We look forward to working with James and Content Snare in the future. That video is going to be a tough one to beat but we have a few ideas up our sleeve already. Check out the video for yourself.
Thanks for reading,
Gareth Carr
Cinematographer & Photographer based in Sydney, Australia
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Exposed Wolf is a video production & photography company based in Sydney, Australia. With over 20 years of industry experience, they can help you with planning, shooting and editing your projects to give you months of powerful content to raise your business and brand.