Interviews Archives - Demo Duck

Watch Party: An Educational Adventure for McGraw Hill

Jarrett Hothan — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 14:57:10 +0000

Watch Party is a Q&A style interview series where we discuss a recent Demo Duck video production with the team that brought it to life.

The project team of Marissa Davis, Chris Reynolds and Aimé DeLattre sat down to chat about their approach to creating a delightful teaser video for McGraw Hill's curriculum-based math learning game ALEKS Adventure. Let's learn how it all added up...

It's a unique challenge to make a teaser video that emulates gameplay, but still feels elevated to intrigue a wider audience.

Chris: As a huge video gaming nerd, there's an art to the game teaser video. Actual gameplay has to be designed, animated and programmed in a very specific way to ensure it functions properly, while a teaser trailer is meant to emulate the experience and feeling you want players to actually have. The latter was something we really wanted to capture, and that meant it would require some recreation of the ALEKS Adventure world within our production process.

Aimé: At the start of the project, Chris made a great comparison of Bob's Burgers the TV show versus The Bob's Burgers Movie when it comes to design and motion differences.

Chris: Or Hey Arnold! The Movie.

Marissa: Or Rugrats in Paris. We could go all day here.

Aimé: I know. But the idea of this comparison is that there's a certain use of shadows, depth, movement and perspective that allow the movies to feel a little more elevated—while still not detracting from how much you like the show. This was our mindset when thinking about how to draw from actual gameplay and figure out the right way to depict it visually.

"Digit" the dog blasting off to a new learning adventure.

How did you approach bringing the in-game elements into the video?

Marissa: Well, it started at the very beginning when we were still brainstorming. The client allowed us an opportunity to pitch different concepts, and we needed to make sure that each of them would still give us an opportunity to be true to the game. For example, we need concepts that would allow us to seamlessly show the different "worlds" from the game. Some of our concept ideas in the brainstorm included a fake movie trailer, even a fun car racing video with art direction inspired by flat colorful vintage F1 posters. The winning idea stemmed from exploring a new way to learn—transcending the feeling of being cooped up in a classroom and instead blasting off to learn in a new way. Each concept idea included ways we would visually interpret gameplay, so once they selected the winning concept we were set up well to go into production.

Aimé: McGraw Hill provided us with a working file folder for game designs for each grade level's curriculum. Different backgrounds, different characters. We knew that they wanted a teaser video that mainly showed math, so we needed to find visuals that were math-focused and then create a story that weaved those together. We were then able to use those assets as a reference, and then add flourishes to designs. Adding additional shadows and highlights helped level up the depth and design of our characters and environments. For example, there was a specific scene where we have our character standing there while "the user" goes through clothing options. This scene in the game is more static, so we added an idle animation to our character and and secondary motion to their ears and tail. To further breathe life into this character, we also added some reaction expressions as their outfit selection changes.

Our team added some extra life and elevation to certain gambeplay scenes with secondary motion.

Marissa: It's all about finding those moments that give it that "Similar, but different" elevation we were looking for.

Chris: Oh, and I had to do some secondary research on my own to learn about how math is now taught. Which isn't usually on my to-do list at work. I learned what base10 blocks are, and how they are used to ensure that viewers recognized the lesson at the core of these fun visuals.

Marissa: Exactly. Students often see how teachers follow a flow of a problem being solved and then internalize that. We wanted the math sequences to feel consistent and not an abrupt departure.

Chris: We knew teachers would appreciate that effort and detail, so we wanted to put in that extra work.

Our team made sure key sequences represented the visual formatting and flow of certain lessons.

What about using the sounds from the game?

Marissa: This was probably the part that required the most creative solves. Typically, the audio tracks that we use for projects have "stems," which give us the freedom to interact with the different elements of the track. Some of the music tracks provided for the project weren't designed with this customization in mind. The sound designer on the project Facundo (Capece) was able to lean into some of the fun action of the video to help overcome some of our sound limitations. For example, having sound effects carry a transition into a new scene—or sound design to make the music track sound like it's underwater once the gummy bears ride their roller coaster into the ocean.

Sound design, shadows, secondary motion and more helped bring to life the video's playful environments.

That brings me to perhaps my most important question. Are the gummy bears OK after they crash down into the water on their rainbow roller coaster?

Aimé: That's the cliffhanger.

Marissa: I mean, that's why they call it a teaser trailer, right?

Chris: Well, if it helps with reassuring you and our readers—remember this isn't earth. In the video, we're traveling accross the galaxy to various learning planets. And in this world, one can reasonably assume that it's a magic ocean. When the gummy bears break the surface of the water, I'm guessing that bubbles essentially envelop their heads—creating helmets that help them breathe comfortably under water.

Aimé: Gummy bears love the ocean.

The post Watch Party: An Educational Adventure for McGraw Hill appeared first on Demo Duck.

Bringing Video Creatives Together: A Keyframes & Kegs Debrief

Jarrett Hothan — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 14:20:21 +0000

Keyframes and Kegs is so back! Our networking series for Chicago-based video creatives returned in August at the Revolution Brewing Brewery + Taproom. It’s been a minute since we’ve had the last one—gestures at a giant sign that says ‘2020’—but it was well worth the wait. Great speakers, cold beers, hot pizza and excellent conversations amongst members of our industry. Two members of our K&K Party Planning Committee, Marissa Davis, Producer, and Jarrett Hothan, ACD, had a chat about their biggest takeaways from the event’s return.

The Chicago Video Community is Bigger and More Vibrant Than Ever.

Jarrett: The last time we hosted a Keyframes & Kegs was in 2019, so naturally there's some hopeful optimism that comes with relaunching an event series. Will people still want to come? Will they remember us? I was really excited about the turnout. It was probably the most people we've ever had at one of our events—and a ton of new faces too. Including you Marissa, who joined our team since then. What did you think about your first Keyframes & Kegs?

Marissa: One of my favorite things about Chicago is that it's a hotbed of creativity. Not only is there a ton of creative talent, but there's also an incredible amount of emerging artists, students and recent grads that are eager to get out there and network. Before I came to Demo Duck, I worked at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a big part of my role was planning special events for their development office. I got to know a lot of students as they prepared for their careers after art school, and was always inspired by their drive to really put themselves out there.

It was exciting to see so many people at Keyframes & Kegs that were looking to jump start their careers with the same level of enthusiasm. Folks in the video production industry love an opportunity to connect. I love that Keyframes & Kegs can continue to foster that sense of community for the foreseeable future.

Attendees watch presenters at our August Keyframes & Kegs event.

Mixed Media Projects are Everywhere.

Jarrett: I thought it was really interesting how many of our presenters shared projects that were a mixed media production style. Jake Mathew's end credits sequence for Ms. Marvel he shared was a great example—live action footage of Jersey City combined with bright and colorful animated mural moments.

Marissa: Agree. I think lots of creatives are very comfortable exploring outside their comfort zone of what may be there day-to-day discipline. Embracing this discomfort—and bringing their work to new styles or formats with new collaborators—ultimately leads to some great work and education too. When it comes to mixed media, it seems there's lots of animation meets live action projects out there these days. It's a fun way to inject some magic into everyday life, and to see the world slightly differently. We've certainly done a few projects like that recently, including one you presented at the event. How was speaking in front of everyone?

Jarrett: Well, I've had plenty of brewery visits where I don't stop talking. So this time, they just gave me a microphone. I really admire coming to these types of events as an attendee, and seeing how visual creatives both explore and deconstruct the idea of a professional presentation. Some jokes, behind-the-scenes shots, memes...things of that nature. It was cool to be a part of the night and share our recent LED Wall series for Hopewell Brewing Company.

Jake Mathew shares his experience collaborating with a large team for the Ms. Marvel credits sequence.

AI...friend, foe or collaborator? Mick Champayne explores using AI as a way to develop creative prompts.

Collaborators Come in AI-l Forms

Jarrett: What did you think of our friend Mick Champayne's presentation? There's lots of doom and gloom about the existential threat of AI regarding creative work, but I liked her spin on it by using it as a thought-starting collaborator when you're in a rut. I mean, it happens to everybody.

Marissa: Mick's approach to AI as a collaboration tool was certainly one of the more optimistic takes on it that I've heard from people in our industry. For that reason, I really appreciated her message...and her transcendent butt drawings. At the core of her presentation was that very relatable idea that we all do experience creative ruts. No 'butts' about it. Sometimes those ruts come at inopportune times, especially ones that can affect project deadlines and a flow of reliable income. AI could be the 'frenemy' we all need, if we think of it as a helpful tool that could spark some fresh ideas and pull us out of a pesky rut.

Jarrett: So, as the unofficial creative director and producer of Keyframes & Kegs—what would you use AI for when planning our next event?

Marissa: Hmmm. Well, humans have already proved our excellence over machines with the existence of beer and pizza. Maybe AI could just help us make a killer playlist for the event soundtrack? We'll handle the rest when it comes to planning. Speaking of, stay tuned for the next Keyframes & Kegs event hopefully coming early in 2024!

Round of applause for everyone who came out to the event! We'll see you in 2024.

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Watch Party: Making a Futuristic Cyberpunk Thriller for Bitdefender

Jarrett Hothan — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 19:21:49 +0000

Watch Party is a Q&A style interview series where we discuss a recent Demo Duck video production with the team that brought it to life.

Grab your popcorn, because this video is a darn trip to the movies.

Tinbit Asfaw was the producer, Chris Reynolds developed the script and visual story, and Ossian Mendoza set the art direction and designed the visual style. We gathered 'round to watch the animated video they made for Bitdefender's GravityZone cybersecurity solution, and discussed how they approached creating this futuristic, immersive world. The piece recently won a 2023 Telly Award for Art Direction in a Non-Broadcast video.

Where did the inspiration for this video come from?

Chris: We wanted to create a grand, 1980s action movie trailer for Bitdefender. Major credit goes to Ossian on this one, I believe this was his concept.

Ossian: I was playing a lot of the video game Cyberpunk 2077 at the time. And of course, I love movies like Blade Runner. I thought developing a futuristic world with technology, danger and heroes everywhere would be a perfect way to tell a cybersecurity story.

Evolution of the Bitdefender cityscape.

Sometimes the tradeoff for a stylized approach means that their brand and product won't always be center stage. How was pitching this concept to the client and getting them on board?

Tinbit: We had previously produced another video for Bitdefender that used a unique storytelling narrative—a team of wolves patrolling and protecting a digital forest. As this next project was kicking off, the client told us that the first explainer video was being used as a pre-roll ad on YouTube and that a majority of viewers were watching it to the end—even though they had the option to skip it. They already were seeing the value of having a video that is eye-catching and entertaining. Not just overt brand messaging. They were eager more outside-the-box ideas and were receptive to this one.

Ossian's early concept art for the "Defender" characters.

The world you created is so immersive. How did you approach crafting these visuals?

Ossian: From the beginning, we knew there were some defining visual elements. We have characters who are defenders, and they are protecting a network—represented by the city—from these little cyber threats. I then took inspiration from some of those 80s pop culture touchstones, as well as Batman Beyond and anime to design those main elements. Once we designed the characters, cityscape and threats, we were then able to think about what the smaller, complimentary details would be and how they would look, and breathe life into the world. I also wanted to create an overall style that utilized the Bitdefender brand colors as a recurring visual theme.

Chris: Drawing inspiration from anime is also helpful from a production standpoint. In that style, sometimes it's more important for visuals to set a scene, introduce characters or show a unique perspective. And these types of moments in anime don't always rely on complex motion. Some "animation cheats" in a way. We thought about the types of visual moments we wanted to show when starting our production process, even before the script. I was then able to write the script to tee up some of the vital scenes Ossian was envisioning.

Ossian: Right. Focusing on secondary motion for the animation was important given the timeline and the budget. We thought of b-roll type moments featuring the characters and the city. A lot of anime like Ghost in the Shell and Akira use an expansive city as a character of its own. Showcasing these grand shots right away in the beginning of the video is key for world-building.

Tinbit: I was really impressed by how action-packed it felt, even with many scenes just featuring secondary motion. There aren't characters doing backflips, but it still felt very energetic. And then I love everything audio, so we were able to cast a really dramatic voiceover read and source cool music to really set the mood of the video and elevate the drama even more.

Sound design, shadows and secondary motion helped bring the video's playful environments to life.

Speaking of voiceover, what kind of direction did you give her to nail this cinematic style?

Chris: Cinematic is the perfect word. We mentioned the movie trailer feel, and asked for some gravitas and grandeur. We also told her it was important to add a little aggression and darkness. There are dark cybersecurity threats out there, and you need to be prepared accordingly. The recording session was really funny, because the voiceover artist (Jennifer Moule) is the sweetest person on the planet. She would go from the really dramatic "In a World..." movie trailer delivery style back to her normal voice. "Was that take okay?"

The video is pretty much a movie. With that said, what would you want to see the sequel be?

Chris: Well, in the first Bitdefender animation, we saw the wolves defending the forest. And in this video, we see the guardian characters defending the city. So for the next one, how about we bring those two together and have them team up. The defenders are riding the wolves into battle.

Ossian: Why not space next? I mean, the Fast and the Furious franchise went to space. Why not Bitdefender?

Tinbit: The natural progression.

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Watch Party: Capturing the Twisthink Team in Action

Jarrett Hothan — Tue, 09 May 2023 18:14:26 +0000

Watch Party is a Q&A style interview series where we discuss a recent Demo Duck video production with the team that brought it to life.

The project team of Katie Williamson, Kelsie Ozamiz and Jake Allen sat down to watch their latest work and discuss their approach to this corporate video production for Twisthink.

And how they found an airport bench at the 11th hour…

Where did the inspiration come from to show a behind-the-scenes look at the Twisthink process?

Kelsie: So, Twisthink helps companies solve big problems in interesting ways. Their whole thing is twisting the way we think about everyday issues. But it’s tough to explain that high-level process to a potential client. So we thought it’d be great to let our audience be a fly-on-the-wall and show how Twisthink’s team collaborates to solve problems. We then added some trademark DD energy by making it a timed challenge, filmed docu-style, almost like a branded video production instead of a company testimonial. Some would say it’s like a tech sprint, I say it’s like Project Runway.

What did it take to get Twisthink on board with a concept that not only utilized staff as on-screen talent, but gave them a homework assignment?

Katie: We knew this type of documentary-style video would be a really good fit with them based on how enthusiastic they are about what they do. And they were ready and excited to be a part of it from the jump. Our direct client helped pick team members who they knew would be comfortable on camera and motivated to participate, which was a great help and just the sort of creative collaboration we love to do with clients.

Twisthink's process has so many components to it. How did you approach trying to capture all these moments?

Kelsie: There’s a focus that comes with knowing you can’t capture everything—and that maybe you shouldn’t. There’s parts of the process—like someone pushing pixels around on a laptop screen—that just aren’t as visually interesting for video. We worked with their team to determine what would be valuable for a potential client to see, but would also be engaging for any viewer.

Katie: Setting those expectations in advance was super helpful, because it lets us craft a shot list of everything we wanted to capture. Then, it was about getting in the mix during the actual shoot and seeing where the energy and inspiration was taking the Twisthink team. Our two cameramen (Ryan Luciani and Jon Hamblin) pursued a lot of cool, spontaneous ideas, and it felt really seamless.

“Hey, I’m going to ask this person to share what he just said direct-to-camera.” “What if we captured this for b-roll?”

Everyone had a lot of fun shooting because they were allowed that agency.

Tell me the story of the airport bench.

Katie: Ok, so once we decided that the “challenge” was going to be “twisting” how to make airport seating more comfortable and functional, we knew we needed an airport bench as a prop. The physical element would add some stakes and immerse their team in the process even more—and look great on camera. We found the bench on a certain online furniture retailer who we won’t name. You get where this is going. The price was right, the shipping timing was right…and then a few days before the shoot the client asked us “Hey, where is the seat?”

Kelsie: Ruh roh.

Katie: Turns out the delivery was delayed by two weeks. We had a small team of “Ducks” Googling airport seats and where to find them on short notice in the Midwest. Lots of good finds on Etsy and eBay but none of them were within budget or close enough to pick up. Fortunately, the client works with Herman Miller and was able to do some leg work and procure a high quality seat easily and quickly. We always try to handle tasks like this for our client, but we appreciate them using their connection.

Kelsie: For what it’s worth, it would have been fun to keep the roadtrip going to the Antique Mall in Sawyer, Michigan.

There's a slick shot of a sketch with a shifting perspective. Why did you choose to add that moment and how was it created?

Jake: Stylistically, the live action stuff was all really well put together and had a lot of dynamic energy to it. So, cutting to a close-up static image of a sketch seemed a little jarring within the context of this particular edit. So we hacked it!

We all thought it would be cool to use 3D to recreate their office environment and add some motion to these stills. A lot of the tables within the Twisthink office were bare wood, so I snagged a matching wood material from a 3D reference library. I then built the shot to look like someone was capturing it on camera. A slight angle…light coming through a theoretical window…and a shallow depth of field that indicates a zoom. Then animating the camera to move around it and rotating the lights slowly provided that nice timelapse effect.

We did this a few times in the video and it really helps keep the pace and energy we were shooting for.

How did you approach the edit?

Katie: Even with Kelsie creating a structure and shot list, we still had two cameras filming and hours and hours of footage by the end of the day. Going into post, we knew we wanted to work with an editor who was comfortable handling that much footage and the openness of the storyline. That editor was Anthony Casanova. He was able to take Kelsie’s notes on the overall structure of the story and really turn around a very solid first draft quickly. It gave us a really strong start to post production.

Kelsie: Obviously, it helps to have great footage. And pre-production helps too! But the edit is where the story comes together. He was able to process all of our guidance and put it into the edit—while also adding emotion and pacing, which was his expertise.

Any final thoughts on how everything came together?

Jake: It was cool to take something that is very “everyday” for Twistthink and make it really punchy, energetic and interesting. It kinda felt like we got to twist their own view of the process with the video!

Kelsie: Even with all the preparation, it still felt like a huge leap of faith. Which was exciting. We didn’t know what exactly we were going to capture, but we knew the client was aligned with the creative vision and down to help make it work. Also, shouts out to Katie. Having such an amazing producer is always a great help. She really pulled it all together. She even gave me a ride to Holland, Michigan. She was my spiritual chauffeur throughout the entire process.

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Watch Party: How Memes Inspired a Newsela Campaign for Teachers

Kelsie Ozamiz — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 15:38:07 +0000

Watch Party is a Q&A style interview series where we discuss a recent Demo Duck video production with the team that brought it to life.

Meet the Team

Cody Benefiel is a Senior Producer, Chris Reynolds is a Senior Writer, Ossian Mendoza is a Senior Art Director and Nick Roth is an Editor/Director here at Demo Duck. We gathered 'round to watch the Newsela video series, and chat about how it all came together.

Let's begin.

Is it true that this concept was born out of some super relatable internet-famous memes?

Cody: Our client, Newsela, wanted to create a digital video production series for the start of the school year. They came to us with the idea of using existing internet-famous memes that communicate the overwhelming feeling of being a teacher. We knew licensing those memes would be outside the budget, but we immediately loved the idea, and thought, okay, we can do this same kind of expressiveness with custom work of our own, using these memes as inspiration.

Ossian: Yeah, so the concept we came back to them with was called Doodle Characters. I was thinking about some kind of way that we could translate these memes into our medium. And obviously, doodle animations was one of the first things that came to mind. They're pretty popular on social media. There’s a whole subreddit called r/reallifedoodles. I'm sure we’ve all seen those cute little clips of buildings falling apart with animated eyes and arms added to them. There's tons of them. Production-wise, it was also a practical idea: Easy to do, funny, super relatable. It was a no-brainer.

What challenges did you come across when mapping the broad appeal of memes onto an educational video production?

Chris: Memes in general are all about tapping into a singular emotion. And so for all of these scenes we ended up creating for this campaign, we tried to tap into a singular emotion.

However, there’s the universal feeling of being overwhelmed, and then there’s the more specific feeling of being overwhelmed by 30 students, when last year there were 25. We had to figure out how to resonate with that teacher in Poughkeepsie who's feeling that.

The one that does that best is the coffee cup. The voiceover set up and the art direction styling of the shot puts the audience in a classroom setting, but anyone anywhere can relate to the feeling of literally feeling like you’re overflowing with too much responsibility at work.

Take me behind the scenes. How did you make some of these inanimate objects—like the pencils—move in the frame?

Nick: It was strings and compositing for everything. We got fishing wire and Cody and Bailey pulled the strings down for the magnet scene. Initially we had discussed camera movements in some of these, but then we started thinking about the logistics like compositing. Keeping the shot locked off was the right call. Then we could take a still frame or a plate of the scenario and use that to paint out the string. Our Gaffer, Jonathan Lopez, lit the scene so well and so evenly, which is so important in commercial video production, that we were able to take the plate and then create a mask around the string and then voilà! Movie magic.

Ossian: We also thought, for a very quick second about doing stop-motion, but obviously that would’ve been extremely challenging and also not really in line with the doodle style we pitched, which uses live footage. That's one of the reasons we used a lot of wiring and practical effects.

Nick: The pencil one was the most difficult, actually. We had two people on either side pulling a pencil. There was natural window light in the back, which we didn't really think about, but that shifted over time. So then the plate was a little messed up, and required key framing and color correction to fix.

Ossian: Yeah, the globe was also kind of tricky because we needed to stop the spinning at a very specific point and we didn't want it to spin too fast or too slow. Chris did a good job with that one. He was the puppet master on that one.

Chris: Yes, I love being the puppet master and I enjoyed working on set.

Then what? You added the doodles in post-production?

Ossian: Yeah, we actually had a live feed on set where Rohan, our animator, could be there with us remotely to make sure he could actually animate on top of the objects and the movement of the objects. For the one with the globe, we wanted to figure out where to place the books so he could figure out where the arms would be reaching when the globe was spinning. There were a couple little details like that. We just wanted to make sure the footage we got would work well with the doodle animations. I think having him remote-in to the shoot day made post-production go really smoothly.

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Watch Party: How Logitech got the 3D treatment

Kelsie Ozamiz — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 15:43:54 +0000

Watch Party is a Q&A style interview series where we discuss a recent Demo Duck video production with the team that brought it to life.

Karen Schmitz is a Senior Producer, Jarrett Hothan is an Associate Creative Director and Jeffery Lawson is a Jr. Art Director here at Demo Duck. We all gathered 'round to watch the animated video they made for Logitech , and chat about how they approached this corporate video production.

Let's begin.

How was it creating a video about a physical product vs. a technology product or educational content?

Jarrett: The interesting thing about that is we actually use Logitech mice every day at Demo Duck. Not only is the product something that we were already familiar with — all of its attributes and features — but we've seen how certain Logitech mice apply to our own experience of working in these hybrid settings. We were able to take our own learned experience and apply it to the video’s different creative components.

Karen: When we were brainstorming, one visual that came to my mind was Rachel, our Operations Lead, struggling with the office reopening and creating these helpful kits with keyboards and cords for people to return to the office and how much of a headache that was for Demo Duck, a small company. Now, imagine an enterprise-sized company. Logitech for Business develops these systems so everything is easy, streamlined and ergonomic. It’s all the things you could want for a big business with all the different ways people are working.

Jarrett: Exactly, so our concept ended up being an optimistic spin on some of the pain points related to how the workplace has changed. Even though our audience for this is a product that lends itself more to a straightforwad business video, we still wanted to take a commercial video production approach to soften the messaging.

What was is like to work with a well-known brand like Logitech?

Karen: This was a great example on how big, bold and playful visuals can work with serious, ergonomic, sleek products. Logitech’s branding is filled with bright colors that you might not expect, so we took their established look and ran with it. It shows how that juxtaposition between playful and serious can be really complementary and engaging.

What made you decide to go with the 2D/3D animation style?

Jarrett: We had guessed that the client might have 3D CAD files of the mouse itself, but the concept we pitched them wasn’t totally dependent on having access to those files. More so, ‘Hey, if you have 3D files, here’s how we could elevate this product animation even more!”

Spoiler alert: We were, in fact, able to access their CAD files.

When we pitched our concept, “Every workspace, Every worker,” Jeffery created a bespoke style frame to show how we could build a 2D world wherein their 3D Logitech devices could live. Interesting to note is that the mouse in that style frame isn’t actually 3D, but it served the purpose of getting the client to visualize how the style could look.

An early styleframe we used to pitch the concept

What advice do you have for other brands who want to turn their 3D assets into a cool video?

Karen: It can be a lot of back and forth between departments to make sure we are getting the right files. Ultimately, we needed to establish a line of communication from our animator to our client’s product designer, and depending on the size of the organization, there can be a lot of middle men in between those two people. Our partners over at Logitech were very accommodating at getting us the assets we needed.

Jeffery: Of course, it’s also important to have a creative team that’s skilled and seasoned in 3D animation. We had the pleasure of working with one of our trusted freelance creatives who brought a lot of expertise to this style. Plus, the versatility of the Logitech brand allowed us to create with flexibility and to play around and have a little fun with the products and visual concept—which isn't always the case in corporate video production.

What are some visual moments that stand out to you all as the creative team?

Karen: I like the opening and having the featured product highlighted, especially way it swoops in front of you. We did that with the idea in mind that this video could be one in a series of videos about different products in the Logitech for Business offering. We were thinking big picture there!

I also like the flying USB and the way it launches into the computer. That's one of those utility features that could be boring to show, but instead it’s one of the most exciting parts of the video.

Have you ever seen a USB look this good?

Jarrett: Also, in the final moments, when the character is in the coffee shop and then the frame becomes divided into fourths with some additional characters appearing. That moment adds this closing feeling of character warmth where we get to see all the different ways people work. Which is a good reminder about the product being in service of a workforce of human beings.

Office work isn't just for the office anymore.

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A Conversation About Digital Video Production & Promotion

Chris Reynolds — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 20:15:31 +0000

Earlier this year, Demo Duck teamed up with Digital Third Coast on a Video RFP. They impressed us with how they engaged with their clients in the paid media space, especially when it comes to online video ads. With more than 12 years of experience in SEO and paid media marketing, we knew their perspective on our digital video world be invaluable. So we thought, why not pay them a visit to learn more about digital video ad production and promotion? And we did. Check out the highlights of our conversation with Lyndsey Maddox, DTC’s Director of Business Development.

COLIN HOGAN: At Demo Duck, we focus on video production. Digital Third Coast helps businesses after production has wrapped. First thing we want to know—once a company has their finished video, how do they decide the best promo channel?

LYNDSEY MADDOX: The most important thing to consider is your goals for the video. Who do you want to see it? What do you want them to do once they have? Are they just watching or do you want them to click through to your website and take some sort of action?

Once you’ve defined these goals, you can start thinking about platforms, finding the audience you want to target, and how you want them to interact with your content. Good news is, video works across any number of search or social display platforms.

CH: There are so many different video promotion platforms out there. Let’s start with the two most popular platforms and their differences.

LM: There’s two major players when it comes to video advertising—YouTube and Facebook. Surprise! But there are some key questions to think about when choosing the right one for your business. What’s considered a view and how do they charge you? How will ads appear to users? And of course, how you define and target those users?

YouTube operates on a pay-per-view model. When a user watches 30 seconds of your video or takes any type of action, whichever comes first, it’s considered a view. Your video may feel like more of an interruption but if users watching your video with sound on is important to you, it’s much more likely to happen on YouTube. Then with targeting, you have to choose from predefined segments. For instance, you can target ages 25-34 but not anything more specific.

On Facebook, a view can range from two to ten seconds, or the whole video depending on what you select. The video will then be optimized to meet your set criteria. Videos appear directly in users’ feeds along with their other content for a more organic experience. And when it comes to targeting your audience, Facebook will let you select specific age ranges. Overall, Facebook let’s you get much more granular in how you serve your ad.

CH: At Demo Duck, we work with budgets of all sizes. We believe getting the most out of a video production budget means thinking long term but executing on the short term. Start with one video, invest in proper resources, and provide clients the most bang for their buck. On the video promotion side, how can someone make the most of their budget?

LM: To maximize your video promo budget, you need well-defined success metrics with the proper tracking in place to see if you’re reaching them. As the old saying goes—measure twice, cut once. You don’t have to waste money experimenting on ads that are already live. You can always opt for an A/B split test that lets you serve different video ads, or different CTAs on the video, within the same budget. Let the audience show you which one is resonating with them more. Then, you can continue to make changes and iterate over time to maximize your spend.

CH: On the production side, we work to figure out the common characteristics of a client’s most successful corporate video productions. When we’re creating a new video series or continuing to create more episodes within a series, we can tailor them around what already works. Since tracking is fundamental to getting the most out of your promotion, do you have any recommendations for tracking success and optimizing your plan?

LM: Like I said before, always define what metrics are most important to you. That could be views, click-throughs to your site, taking some sort of action on site or video shares. Define those metrics first. My favorite tools to use are Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. They let you track all of these different events and actions and measure them over time.

CH: Say you’re unsure about whether promotion will work for you. Speaking from experience, what’s the right amount to invest—whether it’s time, resources or money— to get quality results. Basically, how can you avoid feeling like you didn’t do enough?

LM: That’s a great question. To get statistically significant data, you often need to spend so much time and money that unless you have a huge audience and a huge budget, it’s just not worth it. But if you use A/B testing, you can use a minimum viable data model, and look at basic metrics like impressions, views and clicks of two different video options, helping you quickly understand what’s working best. This will help you accelerate the testing time, conclude tests more quickly, and make decisions in a more iterative way.

CH: That’s one way to make the most of a limited budget. Do you have any other paid video marketing hacks?

LM: Tons! I will say, your best bet will always be focusing on making sure you’re targeting the right audience, using the tools we’ve discussed to learn as much as possible and then building your plan around that. That said, let’s look at how YouTube charges for video promotions. For example, there’s plenty of hack and tricks about how long your video should be. Some say you should create a video that times out early so people are forced to press skip—then you won’t have to pay for the view. There’s plenty you can test and play with. But more important than hacking the system is understanding the content you have and who you want to get it in front of.

CH: When The Daily Show was switching hosts, they created SEO, Google, and YouTube ads around key phrases people were searching for. So, if you searched “Trevor Noah girlfriend”, you’d get paid video of Trevor at his desk asking, “Why are you looking about my personal life? By the way, check out our show at 11 o’clock.” We loved how it injected a dose of personality into the intro to the new brand. Do you have a favorite paid digital campaign?

LM: My favorite paid video ads have to be the GEICO commercials from a few years ago on YouTube. They made videos where the action was done within seconds and the actors would freeze with a voice over of “You can’t skip this ad because it’s already over.” Not only is it hilarious, it’s spot on for the channel and the brand. As an audience member, you know you’re being disrupted with an ad and you’re ready to click skip. Playing with that and being self-aware presents a really positive, honest brand image for GEICO.

CH: That’s one of the things we enjoy most about paid ad production, you can have a lot of fun with it. You can be self-aware like some of the favorites we just mentioned. Or, going back to the time constraints of YouTube, leaning into those barriers and letting creativity run wild creates concepts that play to the specific audience or medium. Which in the end is much more memorable.

LM: It’s digital marketing, it should be fun!

The post A Conversation About Digital Video Production & Promotion appeared first on Demo Duck.

Boords’ James Chambers on Storyboards and Side Projects

Colin Hogan — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 15:00:26 +0000

Imagine that you made a beautiful cake. It’s two feet high, adorned with intricate icing patterns, and sprinkled meticulously with flakes of caramel. It took you quite a bit of time, but it looks fantastic.

Now you have to carefully carry that large, heavy cake from the kitchen, across the living room (watch out for the ottoman!), through the foyer, and place it gently on your dining table. Wow, nicely done! Hold on. You just found out that your guests can’t eat caramel, so you have to take it back through the gauntlet into your kitchen so that you can make the proper revisions to the cake

While it’s not a perfect metaphor, that experience is familiar to many of our illustrators who have run into similar issues during storyboarding for an animated promo video. They work hard to create a wonderful set of storyboards in Adobe and work laboriously to get the files into a specific, client-ready template…only to be asked to make adjustments to them and repeat the process again. This doesn’t even touch on the client-side of storyboarding troubles.

Given all the above, when Demo Duck first heard about Boords we knew we had to give it a shot. After using it on a few explainer video projects, we felt inspired to reach out to the people behind the curtain and learn more about how Boords came to be. Below is our recent interview with Boords Co-Founder James Chambers where he regaled us about how they got Boords up and running, why they felt like it would resonate with creatives, and what the next few years may look like. Shout out to the Boords team for providing the images and illustrations below too. Enjoy!

The Boords team, including James Chambers (fifth from left), poses for a picture in their London office.

When did you realize that storyboarding was such a pain, and that in true explainer video fashion, there’s got to be a better way?

We had a big project come in that required at least a couple weeks worth of storyboarding. The system we used at the time worked fine. Well, until you needed to change something—then nobody knows what the latest version is! We thought that if we could make something quickly that could help with storyboarding, that would be great. We created a prototype and it saved us days of production time.

In undertaking the pivot to Boords, there must have been a lot of development, design, and various other efforts going on. How did you get connected with the right people to get Boords off the ground?

I put the program together, (Boords co-founder) Tom Judd gave input on the graphic design side, and our web designer weighed in on the UI and branding. It was an all hands on deck scenario.

Since the project was so small at the time, it was easy to carve out half a day here, half a day there, to actually make the thing. It becomes more challenging once you decide that you’re going to dedicate resources or weave it around client projects.

What were the early discussions like about taking Boords to market? How did you get the platform in front of people?

By using our contacts in the industry. We originally built Boords for ourselves, which is a double-edged sword. It’s easy to make something that is only useful to you. Having good relationships with the other local animation studios meant that we could reach out to them and get their input on what we should do too.

Once we made something that we were proud of, we pushed it out through the Animade channels. We’re lucky that there’s an audience overlap between potential Boords customers and people who follow Animade. We were fortunate to get in front of a large amount of people early on.

We also had a waiting list signup at the start, partly because we weren’t 100 percent convinced that the platform would hold up if we instantly had a large group of users on it. The waiting list might have helped generate buzz around Boords.

From the start, Boords has helped so many in the explainer video space. Was there a moment where you thought, “Holy smokes, this has legs!”

Honestly, the moment we felt that was the first time we used Boords. There was clearly a pain point there. What we didn’t know was how big the market was for it. It’s rewarding to know that we made people’s lives a bit easier, and that a drudge task is a little less challenging.

What did you learn from your now-defunct project FeedHop, and how did it inform your approach to Boords?

The biggest takeaway was to know what to do if things went well. It sounds a little trite, but I started FeedHop because I wanted it for myself. Suddenly, it’s costing money and time to run. I needed to think strategically. If this thing has legs, then what happens? Anything providing service ultimately involves some kind of investment on your end.

Soon after that experience, I started Boords. We knew that we weren’t just one day going to pull the plug and that we needed to have some financial plan of how we were going to maintain it long term. The last thing we wanted to do was to take it away.

We’re always evolving our approach to making animated video for business, which has led us to experiment with new ventures (RIP Healthy Films). We’ve wondered if they failed because we didn’t put enough resources into the projects. How did you allocate resources accordingly to Boords?

We try to put a lot of thrust into our side projects. We really believe in their value, so we set a schedule and we treat them like a client. They get a brief and a budget manager. We certainly take that approach with Boords. When we pull in Animade resources, we brief them, give them a deadline and tell them the deliverables. It’s not just, “oh, you have some time.” This is a project, this is what we’re putting into it, and off we go. We segment work that way, instead having it be an amorphous thing that never gets done.

When did you bring on people full-time for Boords? Was it planned ahead or reactionary?

We’ve never taken any outside funding, and it’s key that we didn’t and don’t do that. We reached a point where expenses were covered and we could bring people on. So now we have two people working on Boords full-time. At first, we probably didn’t anticipate the level of extra work that running two businesses would bring because you have all of the admin overhead of just running a business. It’s something we kind of figured out as we went along.

What would your advice be for a creative thinker who wants to get a project off the ground?

Get something in front of people as fast as possible. It doesn’t even have to be fully functional. Here’s an idea, would this be something you want? We spent so much time building features that we thought were the bee’s knees, and nobody really cared about them. Instead, they cared about about the little things that took us ten minutes to create.

What’s next for Boords?

We’re working on an animatic tool, which is close to being finished. Our audience has been very vocal about it and how useful it would be. We’re super psyched about that. We’re also working on some integrations with After Effects, Photoshop and Slack. We’re trying to integrate with people’s everyday workflows. We’ve found that Boords, or any software like that, is most useful when it becomes part of the fabric of your everyday life.

The post Boords’ James Chambers on Storyboards and Side Projects appeared first on Demo Duck.

Focusing on the Audience and the Message

Andrew Follett — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 16:08:24 +0000

We sat down with Eric Siu of Single Grain to chat about video marketing, YouTube Pre-roll ads, and why going viral isn’t always the best for business.

Video marketing can seem like a daunting topic, especially for companies that are brand new to the game. Where should they start?

A big reason why video marketing seems so daunting to most people is that they think about all effort that goes into it. People think you need fancy video equipment, the perfect audio quality, or a studio of some kind. The reality is, your buyers only care about one thing: the message. If your message is on point, people won’t care if you filmed a selfie video in your kitchen or produced it in a high-quality studio. That’s where they should start.

What is the latest “low-hanging fruit” video marketing tactic that you’ve tried?

Doing live demos and showing what works for us on camera. It’s human nature to want to peek “behind the curtain.” For example, since we run a marketing agency, we give people glimpses of our internal processes and/or data as it relates to some marketing strategy we’re testing out. People love that.

Do pre-roll ads on YouTube really work and how much should a company expect to spend on a campaign?

You can start off with as small of a budget as you want. Ideally, you’d treat this like you treat Facebook ads — start off small, at $20 a day, and if you see results, scale up to $100 a day, $500 a day, and beyond. YouTube pre-roll ads have definitely worked wonders for a lot of businesses, but as always, it comes down to how good your ad is. If your ad isn’t targeted properly, your audience is going to see it as an interruption in their experience, and it will negatively impact your brand.

Can you tell us about a YouTube campaign that wasn’t so successful and the lessons learned (and vice versa)?

We haven’t run YouTube ads for Single Grain as an agency, but typically, ads are the most successful show some personality in the first few seconds. For example, Billy Gene Is Marketing ran a YouTube advertising campaign using YouTube pre-roll ads and added about $100,000 in monthly revenue from one ad alone. Their ad was filled with personality and humor. People go to YouTube usually with the goal of being entertained, so if your video is entertaining, they’ll be more likely to engage with you.

Everyone wants their video to go viral (“We want a video like Dollar Shave Club!”) but how should companies think about viral videos and set realistic expectations?

Contrary to what most people think, going viral is not the best for most businesses. Dollar Shave Club has a massive target audience (men who shave), so of course, going viral was huge for them. But there are plenty of other businesses out there that have had a piece of content go viral, only to receive practically no sales from it. Instead of trying to create content that appeals to everybody, create amazing content for your specific niche. You might not get tens of millions of views, but you’ll get hundreds or thousands of views from the people who matter. Those are the views that turn into massive sales.

…

Eric Siu is the CEO of digital marketing agency Single Grain. Single Grain has worked with Fortune 500 companies such as Uber, Amazon, and Salesforce. Eric also hosts two podcasts: Marketing School with Neil Patel and Growth Everywhere, an entrepreneurial podcast where he dissects growth levers that help businesses scale.

Check out our Demo Duck Interviews:

Video Marketing with SEO expert Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media Studios

Client Communication and Producing Teamwork with Rollo Wenlock of Wipster

Telling Stories and Making Connections with Video withPatrick Moreau of Stillmotion and Muse Storytelling Inc.

Starting an Agency and the Problem with Feedback with Uri Ratner of Nelson Cash

The post Focusing on the Audience and the Message appeared first on Demo Duck.

Video Marketing with SEO expert Andy Crestodina

Sarah Ramler-Olson — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 16:19:48 +0000

“Video testimonials are without a doubt one of the most powerful pieces of content you can put on any website.”

My name is Andy Crestodina and I’m the Co-Founder and the Strategic Director of Orbit Media Studios, which is the web design company here in Chicago.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it’s the art and science of ranking high in search and attracting visitors to your website.

How does video help SEO?

Google likes pages that when visitors click to visit them, the visitor doesn’t leave right away because that’s a sign of the page is good quality. So, one of our goals in search optimization is to make pages that have high dwell time. They call it the “short click” versus the “long click.”

Every time that I’ve published a page with video, the time on page is longer than the rest of the website’s content on average.

How does video help users?

Separate from search, it just has such a powerful force for building trust. It’s just a giant credibility builder because video shows tone of voice and body language and when you’re watching a video, you really feel like you’re talking to that person. The ultimate, of course, would be to be in the room with the person, but we can’t be in everybody’s room with everybody, so videos are way to be there when you’re not there much much more than text it’s the ultimate format for content. Text is the weakest format for content and video is the best.

What pages need video?

There’s two kinds of videos you can add to sites generally. There’s the conversion
focused videos which are specifically designed to build trust and make the case and to provide evidence and put you in the best light. Those go on sales and product pages, service pages, the brochure-ware parts of your website.

Those really should be high production value and I think that when people go to price it out, that they’re surprised at the cost and they weren’t ready at that time to make the investment. People need to consider going big on this and actually fixing that and budgeting for it because it’s valuable. it will make a difference. It’s worth the money.

The content marketing parts of your website, the blog posts, the educational content, the purely informative stuff, those are videos (like this video) where you’re just teaching, you’re just helping and in those cases it becomes the part of a content strategy.

Any video advice?

People have an emotional barrier. They think that it has to be “a plus there too.” If you turn on your webcam and just start teaching something and then share your screen and capture that as a video and post it, that’s not expensive. That doesn’t have to be a “plus like-you-know-super-polished video.”

I think there’s the financial side for conversion videos and there’s the emotional just perfectionist and people that stops them from producing content in general, but video specifically. Again get over it, it’s worth it. Just take the plunge.

Additional Resources

More SEO tips from Orbit Media
SEO Best Practices: On Page SEO Checklist

Video SEO tech tip from Demo Duck
Curious about the tech side of video SEO? Here is a quick and easy way to optimize your videos (for a full step-by-step guide, check out our 5 Steps to Video SEO Optimization blog post).

Find a keyword and be consistent with it. We recommend always having a focus keyword for a video and pairing it with a relevant content page. After you have that selected, upload it to YouTube and make sure the title, description, and tags all include that keyword. This is important because this is the data that Google’s search spiders crawl. They determine what information to catalog into Google’s index, which populates the Search Engine Results Page (a.k.a., what web pages are great matches for certain keywords).

Video sitemaps, what the heck are they?
Let’s just say that Google isn’t the one watching your video, they just help people find the videos that are the most relevant to their search. So, a video sitemap is a text file that Google reads to learn more about the video’s subject matter, which again influences how it will be indexed and displayed in search results. Connect with your webmaster to start adding your video content to your sitemap, or if you’re your own webmaster, check out Google’s help page to learn more.

Even MORE resources:

Interested in learning more about video SEO?
Check out part two of our Beginner’s Guide to Online Video: Video SEO.

Other great interviews with really awesome people:
Client Communication and Producing Teamwork with Rollo Wenlock of Wipster

Telling Stories and Making Connections with Video with Patrick Moreau of Stillmotionand Muse Storytelling.

Starting an Agency and the Problem with Feedback with Uri Ratner of Nelson Cash

Founder Stories: Chris Savage of Wistia

The Business of Video at Basecamp with Shaun Hildner of Basecamp

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