Often the unique challenges involved in
bringing together all of the elements of a video project can seem
overwhelming. With experience and the right tools, a good video
producer knows that the best solutions to the challenges of
logistics, budget and deadline can also provide the best
inspiration for the creative look and feel of a video presentation.
This has never been more true than with our promotional video work
for the Chicago American Marketing Association's (AMA) annual one-day
“Brandsmart” events.
"I'm Going to Brandsmart"
Our target list of potential
interviewees are from all over map – industry-wise, and physically.
So, the the biggest challenge for producing the series is
coordinating all of our busy subjects into separate interviews in a
timely and economical manner, scheduled into a tight window optimized
to have strongest impact on attendee registration. For the 3 series
we've done, we solved the problem in 3 very different ways and each
solution informed very different creative approaches for the finished
product.
For Brandsmart 2010, we realized that
most of the people on our interview target-list would be coming
together for a separate AMA gathering a few weeks before the
Brandsmart event. We made arrangements to pull each one aside during
that preceding event to discuss on video about why Brandsmart was
important to them professionally. As luck would have it, the only
space available adjacent to the gathering was very small, and not
really attractive enough to offer a suitable background for our
subjects. A white psyche backdrop, a fast paced interview style,
and close, intimate photography, answered all of these challenges and
created very effective series.
"Relevance"
Here's the rest of the series, including an and amusing spoof of the concept preformed by Megan Gaus who proved to be a very knowledgeable professional, and very funny too.
More recently we produced two short video promotional series for Brandsmart 2012. We wanted to spotlight some top executives that had previous organizational involvement with the event. For these we were able to coordinate a more traditional and sophisticated one-on-one conversations with AMA committee members using part of the Chicago skyline as our backdrop.
More recently we produced two short video promotional series for Brandsmart 2012. We wanted to spotlight some top executives that had previous organizational involvement with the event. For these we were able to coordinate a more traditional and sophisticated one-on-one conversations with AMA committee members using part of the Chicago skyline as our backdrop.
Ted Souder, Google:
The second series we did for 2012
required interviews of Brandsmart key-note speakers to tease their
topics and give an impression of their unique outlook on the
industry. The AMA invites speakers from all over the country, but
flying out or hiring local production crews for each 2 minute piece
just wasn't in the budget. To save time and money in the face of a
looming deadline, we suggested that we interview the speakers via
video conference over the internet. We experimented with several
on-line services and found Skype to be the most accessible for our
needs. This approach allowed an extremely flexible interview
schedule, and was conducted without the expense of fully-crewed video
shoot.
Because of the limitations of streaming
live video over the internet, video quality was pretty compromised in
the raw interview footage compared to what we have gotten from a
traditional shoot. After getting the messaging just right, we needed to “dress it up” a bit so we tracked the footage
into a 3d-modeled desktop computer (strategically including the
Brandsmart 2012 branding as a backdrop). As a result, we had
leverage the “streaming quality” of the footage to imply the
immediacy and power of social media in today's marketing space. We
turned the unique challenges of the interviews into an even stronger
statement about it's subject.
You
can learn more about the Chicago American Marketing Association by visiting: http://www.chicagoama.org/
