Spotlight on StudioNow Videos: Barre3

This week we shine the spotlight on the Barre3 business profile video done for Citysearch.

StudioNow Network Member John Morgan of Portland, OR. shot and edited Barre3 along with a number of other great looking and compelling business profile videos.  John has been in the tv/film industry for 15 years and just opened his own business, StereoEye Productions, a year ago. 

John has provided some great information regarding his own technique and process along with a lot of advice and suggestions that are dead-on:

SN:  We've noticed that in many of your videos you include several (more than the usual 1 or 2 that we see most of the time) customer testimonials.  Having multiple testimonials, even if only brief, is extremely effective at enhancing the message of the featured speaker as well as providing added authenticity and improving the overall pace of the piece.   How do you approach people about giving a brief testimonial so as to encourage their participation and also minimize the inconvenience to them?  Also, what do you do to put your speakers at ease?

JM:  The best way to acquire testimonials is to call ahead. Contact the client and suggest that they have some of their favorite customers drop by to appear on a "commercial". Sometimes clients will have scripts written out for their customers when you show up for the shoot. This is great for people who are experienced at working in front of a camera, but not so good for the average person. Have the customers deliver the lines given to them by your client, then have them answer questions you ask, or even better, have the customer say what ever they want. You will find out what method produces more natural testimonials as soon as you start logging. Stand next to your camera and have the customer look at you while they speak, make eye contact, and look relaxed. Of course, tell them they were great!

For Barre3, I have to confess, one of the speakers was a reporter for a local TV station, and another was a professional PR person. Sometimes you really hit the jackpot. For the other speakers, I asked them some standard questions like, "what do you think of the staff here?", and, "what is your favorite thing about Barre 3?" Then I asked them to tell me what they would tell one of their good friends about the business. I also edited the bites down to the word, eliminating quite a few repeated words, uhms, ahhs, and sentence fragments. I then used video to cover the jump cuts created by these edits.

SN:  In many of your business profile videos, including this one, you mix the music and the sound bytes, with the ambient/natural sound of what is going on in the room in a very effective way (ie. the portion of the video where you can hear her teaching her class).   This provides added energy and atmosphere to the overall piece.  Many pieces we see simply just use music and the soundbytes as the audio.  Can you talk about what you feel the live sound can bring to the piece overall, and how you incorporate it into your pieces?

JM:  For Barre3, I made sure the instructor/owner had a wireless mic on as she taught the classes. This does not always result in any useable audio, but it is always worth a try. She just happened to say some things to her class that she had mentioned in her interview, so I just spliced them together as tightly as I could. Sometimes, I will ask the owner to wear a wireless mic as they meet and greet customers, you can capture a lot of personality that way.

Keep an open mind as you log. Save sub clips of anything at all that could highlight any of the primary messages on your production checklist, as well as anything interesting. Be thorough. There might be 18 frames of gold in that 6 minute clip. If you log and label carefully, it will be easier to pair bites, video and nats. Nat pops, and music swells can also serve as an easy way to accomplish otherwise awkward transitions.

SN:  The lighting on this piece looks great and production value is high.  Please elaborate on any specific techniques (either on location or in post)  that you used on this or other shoots to help achieve this kind of look?  Of particular interest are the camera moves and techniques that you used on the exteriors and signage.

JM:  Use natural light when you can, and use a white card! If you don't have time to white balance, at least hold the card up for a second so you have a white reference to calibrate with in post. You might not have time to set a 3 or 4 point light scheme, so concentrate on the face. I use a 42" reflector disc for head shots. Bouncing a good tungsten Fresnel light off of that will give you a nice smooth light. If you are not good with scrims, use a dimmer. Sometimes the direct light from that fixture will sneak through the barn doors, there is your fill light!

When shooting exteriors, I use a tripod and get as many kinds of zooms, pans, and tilts in various speeds. Use a fast shutter speed if possible, this will improve the result if you use any slow motion, or motion smoothing effects. Once you have spent your precious 5 minutes shooting from the tri-pod, you can then go hand-held and try the fancy stuff. In this video I shot through the business front window, getting the city in the background and the logo (which was backwards to the camera). In post I flipped the image so the logo was readable, who was going to notice that the city was backwards?

SN:  What do you have in your standard kit of gear that you take for a Citysearch or business profile video?

JM:  I take the following with me:

• Canon XH-A1 HDV camera + spare battery!  (see Cnet review)
• Bogen 3233 sticks with a Bogen 3063 head (it is a tank, but it is one of the cheapest used fluid head set ups that you can find on eBay)
• Sennheiser EW100 G2 body-pack transmitter with Omni Lav mic, with EW100 G2 shoe mounted receiver
• Sennheiser ME66 shotgun mic.
• 2 Arri AFR 300 Fresnel light fixtures
• 2 AC dimmers
• 1 Impact 42" reflector disc
• Set of color temp correcting gels (learn how to use these!)
• Other various fixtures, clips and stands.
• Clip board with tons of release forms, and pens. (you would be surprised)

SN:  If you could offer one piece of advice to a fellow StudioNow filmmaker about creating a really awesome, compelling business profile video, what would that be?

JM: When you finish a project, you will likely have realized one or six things that you wish you had done during the shoot, or even in editing. Remember these things, write them down if you must. This might include things like how you relate to the client, including more close-ups for easier editing, asking more open ended questions, or using manual focus instead of auto. If you can make each video better than the one before it, you will be a pro before you know it.