And I thought producing a :15 second ad was tough.
We had some fun when Hunter Fans asked us to make a few Vine videos for them. Vine is Twitter’s video format, and allows users from around the globe to upload videos with one catch: they have to be less than six seconds long.
We realized we had a few challenges to overcome.
First: how do you tell a story in six seconds? Just like we would on a long-form documentary, we figured out what story elements needed to be included to get the point across. Luckily, Hunter only needed to promote their “Five Minute Fan,” or at least that you can put a fan up quickly. The rest was an open book. We bounced ideas around and then gathered up our best 6-second stories to present to the client. Of course, it’s hard to know what will work once the spots are done, so we decided to make four in the hope that two would work for the client.
Second: how do you shoot it? Because vine is a platform for mobile phone cameras, we heard all types of scary warnings about Vine editors deleting videos that didn’t look like they were shot on a phone. Hunter also wanted a :15 second version of one of the ads for a “pre-roll” (the ad you see at the beginning of an online video). We chose our best idea for it and then shot it on a broadcast quality HD cam with a traditional lighting and audio setup. At the same time, we shot it with an actual iPhone, too. That way, we would match the quality level of other videos on Vine and not risk being booted off.
Third: how do you get it on Vine? Being a mobile-based platform, Vine doesn’t take submissions from a computer… only a phone. There were all types of possible solutions. We could shoot it “in-app” like most Vines are, but decided against that because of the lack of control and inability for the client to approve it. We needed to edit it in our traditional form. You can’t upload it to a phone and then port it to the VIne app…it won’t do that. You could play it on a computer and shoot it off a screen, but that would look crappy. The solution, from our crack tech team, was simple: an app for uploading to Vine from a computer.
“Well SURE: if you want to do it the EASY way.”
The shoot went well. Gabe DeCarlo, Greg Massey and Savannah Bearden knocked the production out of the park. And while we originally hoped two would work, we ended up with three 6-second stories that the client loved.
Check them out on Hunter’s Vine page.
Got a question about it or need help making your own? Email me at dsmith@runningpony.com
