Videography - A Short but Powerful Documentary

Brief:

A design agency had just completed development on a package rebranding campaign for a consumer goods corporation. Together, both the agency and their client were looking to tell a robust and emotionally engaging story that highlights this initiative as a solution to an issue experienced by a demographic that is historically overlooked and underserved in this product's category.

The video needed to reflect how the updated brand strategy needed to be empathetic, direct, and credible. The video also needed to demonstrate the collaborative approach amongst the agency, their client, their panel of creative consultants, and their consumers through a thorough process of creation, consultation, and iteration.

Process:

During pre-production, I collaborated with brand storytellers to select the best treatment for the video from a set of three strategies. Of the three, the story that resonated the most and suited the goals the best was about a father and son. As a documentarian, I knew I can create a production environment that can draw out an candid story. From there, the agency booked one of the creative consultants and his son to talk about about the product.

In Production, we had two phases: the interviews and the scenes. To keep production efficient in both productivity and costs, the agency offered to film in their studio, so we filmed the interviews in the conference room of the studio and the scene in the bathroom of the studio. The challenge was making the spaces look cozy and warm. Since I brought a lighting kit, I was able to create flattering lighting conditions and we were ready to film within an hour of my arrival. With the set production, the art directors, the creative consultant, and his son were able to have an organic conversation that led to a deep exploration of several stories. When it was time to film the scene, I let the creative consultant and his son hang out and almost forget I was there. It was important that I faded away so I can capture candid interactions with them so that the story truly comes from a place of sincerity, and I had the technical execution to not need to redo shots that simply "look good."

In post-production, I created a transcript of the entire interview for the team to review, and we were able to focus the story after a couple revisions. I added lower thirds, supers, and simple animations that match the brand identity. Using After Effects, I even recomposited footage of a Zoom interview from a stakeholder to soften its presentation and give it more cohesion. The video we completed featured an authentic yet painful story of an experience the father and the son experienced together, how the featured product can can solve a need in the category, and how the client's initiative for the rebranding campaign can empower a community.

When released, the video made its impact across the agency and their clients, and is still referenced amongst their teams to this day.