Content creation - Videography and Photography

Wsiolek · March 5, 2019, 10:21am

Hi Guys,

I thought that I will share with you methods of content creating that I use since this is something that I deal with on a daily basis. Hopefully someone will find it useful.

I am sure that quite a few points that I am making here will be obvious, but there are still people out there who can’t organise themselves well enough.

A little background at the beginning:

I work for a marketing agency that specialise in bespoke, story driven video and photo content. I mainly deal with brands and individuals in sport, nutrition and clothing industries that are trying to soften up their image, explore new customer segments and territories, PR stunts, sponsored videos, large events, rarely pure advertising (in fact, everyone who ask for it is usually turned back or converted into our way of thinking).

Tasks involved in content creation:

Campaign time frame (depends on your client needs, if I approach a brand, it’s usually one year long campaign, divided by monthly stories, each one of them ties up a brand to events within their industry/territory in that particular month)
Copy writing (Writing a story that can positively resonate with the brand followers and put the brand in a better light. My stories are always based on challenges/healthy tips etc. in between two people. When you write this campaign right, you can then adopt it to practically any industry by changing the product and type of challenges. On the top of what I agree with the company to shoot, I always produce a little freebie which wrap up a whole campaign and starts the next one by asking the audience questions what would they like to see next. Then I produce a 10 sec clip out of it and up sell it to the brand, then make sure it performs. By commenting on this little video, the followers of the brand force them to pay for the second series.)
Casting (Quite a few brand have got their own signed up athletes that they want me to work with. Often the problem is that they represent the current values of the brand, but are useless when the brand is looking for a new segment of the customers or territory. In example a brand that the main segment of customers is in their 20ties and so are their athletes is trying to get into over 40 market using their own, the same people. Trust me this happens more than you think. In this case I have always a few people on the retainer which can suggest to them. In this case I score a point with the brand because I found a model, my own “influencer” is happy because he got a gig, and I take a cut from their salary for the same reason. Everybody wins.)
Athletes/Personalities/Influencers (I always have a few of those signed up with us, just in case the brand have a problem as above. All you need to do is to find a few people that would fit in the industry that you are in, are not exclusively signed with anyone and are “upcoming”. Prepare a bulletproof NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) and you are done. Make sure to send them an email every now and then to let them know how are things going and they can even turn to you as their “agent” when someone else approach them.
Location of the shoot (I usually let the brand to deal with the location, but supervise it. Before they book the place, I send someone to find out if it would work from the video, photo and sound perspective. You need to visit the place at the exactly same time of the day when the shoot supposed to happen. All the angles and frames are usually picked on that day, but we are flexible and adopt as it goes. Even the smallest things like if there is a space to park or plugs in the walls matters. Then the brand gets green light.)
Communication (Once the place is booked, I take over the communication in between the brand, our crew, location and the athletes or their agent. Everyone gets a brief with the time frame of the shoot, what to wear, what to bring, what is not allowed plus a script of the story. I triple check with everyone before proceed.)
Logistics (This is far too obvious point, but you need to know your equipment inside out, make sure everything is charged, there is a backup of everything that can break down etc. The main shoot is not a place to test a new mic or a lens. Get there early and setup.)
The shoot ( I always try to squeeze as much as possible in one day because we are often working with people who you might not be able to see for a few months. The team of 3 (cameraman, second cameraman, sound guy/photographer/director ->me) can easily shoot enough content for one story within 1-2 hours with our setup, but it will depend on many variables: acting skills, complexity of the story, location, weather etc. The person who directs also takes the photographs in between.)
Final Outcome (Under 60 sec clips processed in Adobe software and exported to match Instagram and Facebook frames. I don’t deal with posting, just deliver the final product to the brands. If the photographs are involved, they are usually processed in Adobe Lightroom and delivered together with the videos. I can put branding on them, but it is usually not part of my job.)
Additional content (If the photographs are not paid by the brand and the cast are mine, I still take them for three reasons: the brand can change their mind (I show them one or two “just in case”), I can sell them on stock photo website (NDA is signed, I won their souls), to keep the model happy (by giving them 2-3 photographs from the shoot)

The other methods of getting content that I use:

Sponsored Videos (I am always looking for events in my area that I can go to, video and then get them sponsored. These are usually tournaments and outdoor festivals without a main sponsor that I can later tie to a brand. In example religious open air event, International Women’s Day etc. I approach the organisers, get the exclusive signed, video it and then try to sell it. The worst case scenario, I get a good publicity and a case study to show to the next client.)
Stock Base (Even with my background in food photography I still prefer to pay a monthly subscription and get food images from there rather than create them by myself. The whole setups are too time consuming for me so I go for what’s already available).

Hope someone find this useful.

Please let me know if you have got any questions. I am also interested how do you guys handle content creation.

Grummel1 · March 5, 2019, 11:00am

Looks like a really interesting contribution! Will read everything when I get the chance

Wsiolek · March 5, 2019, 11:02am

Let me know if you have any further questions. I will try to answer them to the best of my knowledge

InterNEDA · March 6, 2019, 5:32am

Sounds easy BUT this is the hardest part in my opinion. Once you’ve got this down, the rest flows like water!

Do you interview the brands you’re working with yourself? I’m wondering how you approach the topic to get information from the client as to what they want to say or what message they want to put out. Some of the smaller budget clients I work with, it takes a couple of conversations to get it out of them. I think often it is becuase they haven’t really thought it through, but sometimes I think I’m not asking the right questions. Thank you for this thread!

Wsiolek · March 6, 2019, 8:59am

That’s true, writing a story is the hardest part (at least for me) and it takes a little bit of research and thinking outside the box.

Before I approach a big brand, I usually do quite an extensive research about what they have done so far (campaigns, PR stuff, social media, articles in the press and media) to have a broad understanding where they are at the moment.

Then after the initial calls I organise a meeting. I use the beginning of it to find out everything about their way of thinking, how they marketing team is working, where do they get a content from and whatever wasn’t published online, but still may be interesting. Then I present my idea: briefly and in bullet points, just enough to make them interested. If I can sum up the process it would go like this:

Ask everyone at the meeting to introduce themselves and what exactly are their responsibilities. If someone from their creative team is present, he may oppose to what you’re saying, undermine it or steal your idea.
Ask them what they did so far, what they think about it and the whole logistic process of getting a creative done. You can always find out something interesting here, even how to improve your own content production (or later on point their flaws).
Ask them where they would like to be, what could be improved in a current content, what performs the best, which personalities that they work with got a highest engagement etc. (I usually know that anyway from my research, but it’s good to know their point of view. Creative team or social media manager, if present, will be very protective over what they have done before.)
Sum up what they said, throw in a few bits that you found out but they didn’t mention so they know that you did your homework.
If their creative team isn’t on your side, ask about worst performing campaigns, posts, videos, articles, offers (which you identified during your research) in a polite way just to undermine their position during the meeting and get their bosses more interested in what you are saying. This should shut them up (I do that a lot if they aren’t on my side)
Then it’s your turn. At this point I usually have enough info to compare their content to what I have to offer. I always present it in a short document or power point presentation. I found out that if it is too flashy, the brand team loves it, but directors hate it. It is almost like it looks suspicious So short brief, bullet points and tables works for me.
The next step is some form of agreement on the paper to make sure that they won’t steal your idea before you go into details.

What I found out from working with big brands is that they like to use their own athletes/influencers which is absolutely fine, but you need to make sure that they fit your campaign. If the company have a massive marketing budget, they won’t hesitate to sign someone you suggested for the exclusive rather than go through other channels. It is easier for me as they have more pulling power than we do.

Another thing is that these guys got time, they are never in rush so you need to be patient. It is frustrating, but beneficial if you get the gig.

To give you an example of how we, as the agency, got a contract and exclusive with one of the big brands I am currently working with.

They move to the office opposite to ours.
My director started to talk to one of them on the corridor leading to the common area
We organise the casual get together meeting in our games room (playing FIFA)
Turns out their creative team in based in South Africa (we are from Birmingham, UK)
They have seen some of our previous stuff on the mobile phone.
We got a meeting next day.
Their content team has been replaced by us.
I am working on taking over their social media

Weird things can happen, I am telling you

What I found out from working with smaller brands is that they often treat you not only as a content creator, but also as a marketing strategist, because they usually haven’t got anyone who can do that at their end and need to squeeze out as much as possible from every £/$.

The process is kind of the same, but you need to take a lead, because smaller brands can hesitate from spending money (depends on the vision of the owner of course). They need to be presented with successful case studies from what you have done in the past. I found it harder to work with them actually, but maybe it’s my luck.

To save the costs, I use their workers as actors/models when on the set or websites like StarNOW or TFP (Trade for Print) Facebook pages. It is quite easy to find start up models willing to work for minimum national wage or just for access to content. Your model social pages often acts as an additional exposure. I always have an NDA signed with the model so in the worst case scenario I end up with a content that I can use somewhere else or re-sell.