5 steps to producing a social media promo from start to finish
Still from the Queenies at Kingston promotional video.
We have a lot of businesses contact us to produce promotional material, and, if they’re new to video marketing, have questions about the video production process from start to finish.
We were contacted by Queenies, a newly-opened bar in Kingston, ACT, to produce a short video for social media promotion. While they already have marketing experience from a series of different pubs and bars across Canberra, we thought we’d show off our shiny new video we produced for them, while taking you through our production process.
Step One: Bring us your ideas.
We love a client that comes to us with ideas. No idea is ever too crazy – it just depends on your budget, of course. Coming to us with video examples of other people doing content that you want to be doing is great! Coming to us with photos or images you’ve seen online that you like the colouring, textures of, is great!
Queenies, being a bar, was able to provide us with photos of the space and we conducted a site visit as well, which helped greatly with understanding the aesthetic we were going for.
Coming to us with even music tracks you like that all culminate to create the kind of energy and atmosphere you want to create, helps us greatly understand what you’re after.
Queenies website also helped enormously in understanding the aesthetic and energy associated with the bar.
Content taken from the Queenies website.
In saying this, we also love a client with no ideas, because our brainstorming is limitless, and we can come to you with what we think will look great and work effectively to reach your audiences. Which brings us to…
Step Two: We bring you our ideas.
Once we have your brief down on paper, we approach it as a team and discuss what we think will work best, both in terms of how it will look and sound, and how people viewing this content will interact with it. We work on both a visual script and a technical script, to show you what the vision is, and how we will accomplish it, whether we are using drones, camera stabilisers, specialised lenses, etc.
With this visual script, we understand our scope will be broader than you’re hoping, which leads us to…
Step Three: Stop, Collaborate and Listen
This is the part where we negotiate the final desired result. You tell us what you think of our concept – you can be brutal, we won’t mind! We want the best outcome for you, after all. Let’s look at this visual script and cut and paste and swap scenes and scale up and scale down and rejig.
We will also collect all your branding collateral at this point, including branding guidelines, to make sure everything we produce matches the rest of your outputs (print media, website, etc).
The Queenies logo
Step Four: Production
While this is the biggest step, it’s the shortest to talk about. You relax and let us get to work. We produce a comprehensive runsheet for all projects, to make sure everyone involved knows dates, timings, contacts, locations, and everything else that is necessary for your specific project.
We use a selection or combination of our high-end production cameras and gear, and shoot things in the highest quality possible – even if your project’s output is just for social, we love to shoot in 4K as it allows us a lot of room to work with the content, to make sure it’s sharp and beautiful.
Behind the Scenes, filming a cocktail being made using the Sony FX9 with key light to the right, and fill light from the left.
Step Five: Feedback and Finalisation
We send on the first version of the final product(s) to you through our own review system, which is as simple as watching the product back, clicking and adding your comments. We can do a number of reviews back and forth until you are happy with the final product.
Still from the video.
There is a final step in the post-production process which involves mastering the entire project – this involves precise colour grading, audio-mixing, placing in the rendered graphics and effects, and setting the project up for the correct export.
Then, it’s just a matter of providing you the outputs you’ve requested, suited to the platform you are working with. Done and dusted!
And here’s the final product we produced for Queenies – utilising their branding, the photos and materials they provided for inspiration, and having in-depth conversations around music, colour and mood, we were able to put together this Speakeasy-jazzy-high-energy-Great-Gatsby product.