Lights, camera, action?

When it came to creating our new website, we wanted to practice what we preached when it came to its design. So it had to be responsive. It had to be simple and easy to navigate. And, it had to have a lot of video content.

Creating great video content isn't easy though. While your new mobile phone may shoot 1080p, it sadly doesn't have an app that turns you into Ridley Scott. Not yet anyway. So, we thought we'd quickly take you through the process we took to create our videos. Even though they're simple talking heads, we follow a similar process for all video content we create, whatever style, size or budget we have to play with.

/The scoping meeting

The most important question we ask in this meeting is 'what do you want the videos to achieve?' The answer will guide and define our thinking, and ultimately inform what kind of film we create for you. It will also affect our choice of production company and help us brief everyone involved from the art director to the actors.

So what did we want to achieve? We're a new company (or at least we were when this post was written), so it was important that we get across who we are, what we do & how we do it (something we feel sets us apart from our competitors). Most importantly to us though, was for the viewer to buy into the CA3 team. We pride ourselves on building long-lasting partnerships with our clients, so we wanted anyone watching the videos to begin to think 'I think I'd enjoy working with CA3'.

/The creative bit

By now we've got a good idea of what you want to achieve, as well as other factors such as budget, where the video will appear, and what information it needs to convey. It's now time to let the creatives loose on the brief and see what they can come up with. This should always be done, even if the ultimate requirement is a simple suite of profile videos, because you still want the end product to be unique and bespoke to you.

In the case of our videos, they started life as just that - a collection of profile videos. But after a little clever thinking by our creatives, they ended up as a quick-fire question and answer session with a huge range of weird and wonderful subjects designed to bring out the best in us (and sometimes the worst. You'll have to wait for the bloopers real for that though). They also suggested breaking the videos into individual short films that better suited different areas of the website. You can watch them all if you want, or simply choose the one most relevant to you. Simple.

/Lights, camera, action

So, we know what we want to achieve, and how we're going to achieve it. Now all we need are a group of consummate professionals to bring it to life.

Film Production companies come in all shapes and sizes as you'd expect. Some specialise in certain types or styles of video too, so it's important to choose a company who is going to do justice to your ideas, while working within your budget. It's worth pointing out here and now that film production isn't cheap. The saying 'You get what you pay for' really does hold true here though. Bad video and sound quality is easy to recognise, but just as easy to avoid. There's also plenty of ways to make your money go further than you think - that's where our experience comes in.

So, how did we fair on our shoot? The video above gives you a whirlwind account of the 6 hour shoot. Being in front of the camera is very different to being behind it and I know which I prefer. But, having chosen the perfect production company for a Friday afternoon film shoot (they brought beer), we were in very safe hands. Three weeks later the final edit was completed and our new website was launched. The only question to answer now is have we achieved what we wanted? Chances are, you're be in a better position to answer that than us.