Julie, we saw the final cut of the video today and it is absolutely beautiful. We have a pretty large crew (for us) at the sr4 offices this week getting ready for the meetings next week, and people kept hearing about the video and coming into the conference room to see it. Each time we showed it for someone new, everyone who had already seen it watched it again. I’m thinking we’re going to want to do this again somewhere down the line, and I can’t imagine doing it without you. If you have already decided that you NEVER want to do that again, please let me know so I can let myself down easily.
–Bill Seyle, founding partner at sr4 Partners in Chicago
They love me in Chicago.
A couple of weeks ago I was in Chicago. In a chilly room. In an old brick building converted into a loft studio used for filming.
With me were 4-5 guys who were part of a film crew including Paul Kotkovich, cameraman and Bill Seyle, creative director.
We had come together to film a 7-minute video similar to the RSA Animate videos that are all the rage right now.
How it all started.
Back in November I was contacted about this project. It was for a client I had done some large-scale, live visual content capture for a month earlier.
Sometime in mid-December I received the script… well, parts 1 and 2 of a 3-part script. I spent a day concepting the illustrations that would best show the storyline and drawing them in sequence while taking photos of each segment so my client would have some idea of how the video would go.
Revisions were made to the script. Revisions were made to the drawings. The last part of the script arrived the week between Christmas and New Years. I charged “double holiday overtime” for having to work during that week.
Finally it seemed we were all happy. The producer/videographer and I had a very short time frame in January in which our schedules overlapped for the filming. Two days in fact.
Eleven snowplows for a whole city.
Then the snow/ice storm hit Atlanta. I knew I’d be grounded for a week and wouldn’t be able to make it to Chicago. We have 11 snow plows total here. The last time I was at O’Hare, I counted at least 30 standing by just to plow the runways. I had a fun time explaining to my Chicago crew that yes, indeed, five inches of snow can shut a Southern city down.
When I finally got to Chicago a week later, Patrick, the producer/videographer who I had been working with solely for three months, was in Buenos Aires where “the weather doesn’t suck. Nor the steak or the wine” working with another client.
He left me in good hands with his colleague Paul. Neither one of us had done this kind of work before so we would learn together.
We were going to do several takes, the whole way through all of the illustrations and accompanying text and take the best one.
I had thought that we would do several takes and they could splice a good part from Take 1 with a good part from Take 3 and another part from Take 2 like they do in the movies. But no, we had to do it clean all the way through from start to finish. Um, no pressure.
The best leaves ever.
We did a test run of a few of the initial images. The video started with an oak tree and two falling leaves.
Because they would be laying an audio over it later we were able to talk while I was doing my thing.
We figured out it was helpful for me to give cues about what I was going to do next so Paul would know where to focus and zoom and move the shot. I could also slow down when I needed to think about the next thing or when we had to move the camera because that could be edited out.
After a few minutes we had the process down and decided to go for the real thing.
The first time all the way through which we called our Take 2 was perfect. It took about 30 minutes as best I could tell.
Feeling like we had a good one in the bag, we stopped for lunch.
At the start of Take 3 I felt a little out of sorts. While drawing the leaves I said, I think I forgot how to draw leaves. Two of the crew responded right away, “Those are the best leaves I’ve ever seen. Those are Oak Park quality leaves.” Ah, managing the talent are we?
We got three quarters of the way through Take 3–including this incredibly long, excruciating-to-write segment of text that Bill reads to me while I write after which he exhales because he’s nervous for me–and realized we had skipped a sequence.
Crap. Can’t use Take 3.
Well at least we had Take 2. That is until Bill pointed out one word was wrong in the vision statement. I wrote “transform” instead of “improve.” A big difference to this client’s mission.
Realizing we didn’t have a single clean take, I push back my plane. Patrick texts from Buenos Aires: “How’d it go?”
We’re still here I text back. “You’re going to miss your plane,” he texts, managing the situation from South America.
One more take for all the marbles.
We took our time. Everyone was focused. We talked through each segment. Finally, I got to the logo at the end and left out the little sideways triangle that was supposed to fit between two words as part of the logo for this whole project. Not just any triangle. The logo triangle.
#$%@. I forgot the triangle. I can go back and squeeze it in, I tell them. And I did. It was a little smushed but it looked fine and we were all happy and relieved.
I had a large ginger mojito at O’Hare that evening before catching my flight home.
Things I learned:
- This is a long process start to finish. At least the video I was involved with.
- This is an expensive process. Again, at least the one I was involved with (think mid-five figures).
- Like some of my colleagues who have been sharing their first time experiences of doing this kind of work—it’s tedious and not nearly as fun for me as working live.
- When I told Bill how I usually work—live and in real-time—he said, “That must be so hard.” No, it’s way easier than this.
- I’m tempermentally unsuited for the kind of work that requires lots of revisions. This would include acting, screenwriting, illustrating. I’m more of a one-take kind of girl.
- I would do it again with the right people and for the right price. The right price is probably not less than $5000.
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