What Goes Into Producing A Business Trailer

To kick things off, our team will meet with you and your team to get an understanding of what you are looking to achieve.

This meeting is incredibly important as it will set up the rest of the project.

While we listen to what you want, we will also get to know you and your business, digging to the roots of who you are, what you stand for and your story. We believe in telling a story in your business trailer, and gaining this knowledge early on allows us to bring the most out of your video.

We will work with you to arrange this meeting as soon as possible after receiving your enquiry.

After the meeting, our team will go away and start creating some concepts for your video. In doing this, we will pull out the key points that we think are important to get across in the video.

From this, you are likely to start to see the shape of a story form.

Additionally, we will start thinking about how we can visually encapture these messages, who might be interesting to interview, and where the best place to film the B-roll and interviews might be. We might also start thinking about whether animation is appropriate throughout the video.

An important part of this stage is the consideration of your brand representation; after all, this video wouldn’t be a very good business trailer if it didn’t visually represent your brand. We will make sure we have the assets needed from you, such as logos and brand guidelines, to start working them into our concepts.

Finally, this stage will include reaching out to various people who you would like to be involved in the project and enquiring if they will participate. This step is likely to be a joint effort, as you contact some people and we get in touch with others.

This process will include several versions of a concept as we work with you on your feedback and ideas to refine our work. Because of this, it can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks.

With an initial structure for the story in place and a plan of the points to cover, scriptwriting can begin.

Again, this will be a collaborative effort as we get your input on each version. In doing this, we ensure that you are happy with the story told and the wording used, as wording reflects your brand just as much as the visuals will.

Similarly to the conceptualisation, this could take anywhere from a day to a few weeks, depending on the length of the script and the feedback received.

As the script is written, we will also start creating a storyboard. This is a more detailed plan of the video. At this stage, we start ordering shot ideas to match the script and detailing locations.

While working on the storyboard, we will clarify how we intend to use your branding throughout the video, while also confirming the various video types we will use: interviews, animation, product and event video footage.

This stage is likely to take a little bit longer than previous stages as we go into detail about our plans. We must get this right so the rest of the process can progress without a problem.

The next step will be to check out the locations we want to film in. In doing this, we will confirm the exact spot we will film in, looking at natural lighting, backgrounds and space for equipment.

Timeframes for this will depend on how many locations we need to scout. This is something we will discuss with you as we go through the process so that you know when we can expect to move on.

As we head into the filming stage, we will need to make sure all preparation is completed. Creating various lists and schedules and getting permissions will create a smoother shooting process, keeping the set stress-free as everyone will know what they are doing and when.

Preparations will include:

• Shot lists
• Equipment list
• Talent release forms
• Filming schedules

Film preparations should be quick as we will have done the heavy lifting throughout the storyboarding. The most likely problem at this stage is getting people to complete their talent release forms.

Now the exciting bit – filming.

With all the leg work done in our preparations, this should be a hassle-free process as we work through the filming schedule.

Again, how long it takes us to film will be determined by the number of shots, their complexity and how well-prepared the talent is. Some shoots can be as short as a day, while others might need a week. This is something that we can start discussing at the early stages of concept development. If you have a deadline, it can impact what we create, so filming time will always be a consideration as we plan.

Heading back to our studio, we will review all the footage to make sure it is a standard good enough to represent your brand.

To put the importance of this stage into perspective, for every 15 minutes filmed, there is one minute of screen time. This stage simply sifts through all the footage to find that one minute.

A thorough review will take approximately a day.

If using music in the background of the video, we will search for options that work with the footage and send them to you for a pick.

Likely to be combined with the above stage, this will be swift compared to the preparations.

Once you have signed off on the music choice, we will start creating a rough cut of the video, editing together the B-roll, interviews and placeholders for any animation.

With this complete, we will send it over to you for feedback before continuing with any editing.

Editing can be one of the most time-consuming parts of a video project, so don’t expect to see this rough cut the day after filming.

Using feedback from you on our rough cuts, we will get our heads down to create a final edit, adding transitions, animations and motion graphics.

Once we have finished editing, we will send it to you for your sign-off. We will work on any feedback as soon as possible so that you can get your complete business trailer in your laps ready to use.

This stage is difficult to put a timeframe on as it will depend on the work needed. If the video includes a lot of animation and motion graphics, then it will take longer, whereas if we are simply editing in transitions and simple motion graphics for the names of interviewees, it could be a quicker editing process.

Whenever we communicate with you to receive feedback, we will always ensure that you are given an idea of how long it will take us to implement these changes and ideas so you always know when to expect the next draft or finished version.