Aug '17 | Corporate Video Production Company Starts Gaming

Last month we had a new, and incredibly fun, experience filming a product promo for Gaimglass, a precision tool for first person shooter video games.

As a corporate video production company in the Bay Area, we don’t often work in the realm of video games — our clients skew more in the direction of tech companies and startups — but when we got this project we were excited to widen our client base and branch into the intense (and rather violent) world of video games.

Though I have worked as a production assistant for a corporate video production company many times, being on set for this shoot was entirely different than anything I had encountered before. The bulk of our videos cover live events and interviews which, though they require a lot of planning and strategizing, have a organic, documentary-esque style: You capture the footage you capture on the day of the shoot and create the finished product from the soundbites you get.

This shoot was completely different. We had a very specific finished product in mind and, similar to scripted film and TV, filmed as many takes as we needed to get the shots we wanted for our final product.

In that sense, planning became the biggest key to success.

Pre-Production

As an experienced corporate video production company, we make sure we know what our clients need from our videos. We focus on creative strategy — scripting great interview questions to get those key soundbites, planning out what footage and b-roll we want to capture, and working with our clients to get them evergreen videos that will serve them long into the future.

But for Gaimglass, the planning process required a more specific outline than usual. We scripted the entire video ahead of time with the exact words, animation, music, and footage we needed create a solid promo. We then transcribed this script into a shot list of 18 specific shots we needed to capture in order to make the video we planned for.

To create this list, we shot a variety screen tests to figure out the perfect angles, lighting, background, and camera movement that would make the Gaimglass look as sexy as an inanimate object can possibly look.

Once that was set, it was time for production.

Production

With such a specific script, our production day for Gaimglass was rather different than our normal procedure. Rather than trying to find and capture great moments and soundbites, we spent a lot of time setting up our perfect shots.

This meant keeping the product clean and dust free for every shot, making sure it didn’t move on its axis and disrupt continuity, and doing multiple takes with a slate noting each one’s assigned number on our shot list.

Though I have worked at a corporate video production company for almost a year now, I had never been on set for such a scripted project before. I got to see what goes into producing scripted material and was exposed to a whole slew of jobs that are common place on larger productions.

While my time was predominantly focused on the production stage, everything we did was aimed toward the creation of the final video in the editing studio.

Post-Production

Once we captured all our footage, it was time to put together the video we envisioned — K’Dee and our editor, Dan, hunkered down to finally bring all this work to life.

We love our work and enjoy making all our videos, but it’s always nice to add some spice to life and create something wildly different once in a while.

This video is for a specific audience that is quite distinct from our usual audiences so the tone, style, look, verbiage, music, and emotional takeaway had to feel different. And, as we never shy away from the dramatic, we set out to make it as epic as possible.

I’d say we succeeded!