On our initial conference call with the writer, we discussed the client and his mission. The writer promised to be in touch in a few days with brief outlines of three potential script ideas, or “treatments,” and then flesh out the one we selected. After we spoke a second time, we settled on his concept of “Don’t leave money on the table,” driving home the message that this platform is so simple, not taking advantage of it is like walking away from money you already have. To show this in video form, he wrote a script in which our protagonist, Tim, is seen going about his daily life, working at the office, lifting weights at the gym, and eating lunch at a restaurant, and leaving behind stacks of Benjamins in each scene.

Filming at The Upper Crust – East Kennedy in Lakewood, New Jersey

Strings Attached

A professionally written script like this one is extremely detailed, calling for specific shots and angles: “overhead tight shot of Tim drying his hands on a hundred-dollar bill,” and “wide shot of the gym.” This takes a lot of work off my shoulders because on the day of the shoot, I can pretty much just follow the script, making minor adjustments when necessary.

However, assuming everything is set without thinking it through myself can lead to some last-minute snags. On the morning of filming, I was skimming through the planned shots and noticed the line, “Money falls out of Tim’s pocket as he walks down the office hallway.” The money being left behind was the linchpin of every scene, but now that I was about to do the scene acting it out, I couldn’t figure out how to make it work! I challenge you to try this at home: put a few bills in your pocket and have them just “fall out” naturally while walking; it doesn’t work.

As action time drew closer, I grew pretty desperate. I found string in the office supply closet and tied it around the bills, with the thought that we’d pull them out that way. It was an inspired idea, but the string was quite visible in the shot. In panic mode, I called my wife to ask if she could find clear fishing line.

And then, I remembered this important video-production rule: The viewer only sees what the camera sees. Yes, getting the money to “fall out” was basically impossible, but it didn’t actually have to happen that way, it just had to give that impression. I told our cinematographer to shoot Tim’s legs as he walked down the hallway, and I instructed Tim to drop the money from his chest, in front, which was out of the frame and unseen by the camera — and the viewer. The resulting shot is money swirling around Tim’s legs as he strolls through the office, as if, well, it’s falling out of his pockets. (Or close enough, anyway.)

The iPad reflecting up onto a one-way mirror teleprompter

Feeding Lines

In addition to money-dropping Tim, who was played by a professional actor from a casting call website, the script called for a nattily dressed “mascot-like” character. He’d reprimand Tim for just leaving money on the table, and he’d also be Deal & Runner’s spokesperson, giving an entertaining and informative two-minute monologue about the revolutionary platform. For the mascot, we hired Jesse, an actor we’ve worked with, because he has great flair and comedic timing. (When I first met Jesse, he told me he was a corrections officer who could finally pursue acting in his semi-retired state. Interesting mix of professions, but apparently it’s never too late to live your dream!)

The script called for some very wordy pieces, making it tough to memorize. Enter the teleprompter. Using something called beamsplitter glass, the teleprompter is placed in front of the camera, but it is only visible from one side, similar to a one-way mirror. This allows text to be reflected onto the glass from an iPad positioned directly beneath it, which is seen only by the actor, not the camera. There are applications that will flip the text to compensate for the mirror image, and also autoscroll when it gets to the end of the screen.

Reading from a screen can come off stilted and unnatural, so we position the teleprompter directly in front of the camera; this way, the actor’s eyes and focus are in the right place. We also try to break up the lines into bite-sized pieces, so even if he needs the text as an aid, he’s still able to put some emotion into his delivery.

The Super Mario Scene

Special Effects

Once we had the footage, the next stop was the desk of one of our younger staff members, a creative genius named Jeremy Lewis. His job is to build effects and animations, turning a raw storyline into a fast-paced, exciting feature. It takes a strong technical background to create these effects, and, even more so, tremendous creativity to know what to build in the first place. After speaking with Deal & Runner’s CEO to understand his vision, Jeremy went through the footage to strategize about how to deliver the message not just through the dialogue, but also through accompanying visuals.

Our mascot, Jesse, talks for much of the video, but as they say in the writing world, “Show, don’t tell.” Jeremy wanted to paint a picture of the world of a “runner” — someone who will run after deals and be rewarded with a profit. He drew on his Gameboy-playing childhood to come up with the concept of a small video game character running along a 2D street, jumping over obstacles and being rewarded with coins when he ran “through” a sale item like a laptop or phone.

To bring this custom concept to life, Jeremy implemented a sprite animation effect. If you look closely at these vintage characters, they only have a few poses: right leg up, left leg up, jumping, etc. When you digitally construct a sequence of these poses, the simulation is one of a “sprite” moving and jumping — similar to a flipbook in which a stick figure slowly pulls a rabbit out of a hat as you rapidly turn the pages.

After that, Jeremy added coins, hearts, music, and sound effects. Voila! The Deal & Runner promo video had custom animation. Of course, that accounts for only about 15 seconds of the final video, but it really takes it to another level.

Jesse in the Deal & Runner airplane

Callback

For parts of the video, we wanted to see Jesse as he spoke, not just hear his voice. Even there, Jeremy varied the backgrounds to help keep things exciting. In one segment he placed Jesse, who wore a bright blue suit and white fedora the whole time, on a Deal & Runner airplane, and in another he put him in an astronaut suit orbiting the moon.

When a viewer watches a fairly short video — in this case, 150 seconds — they likely won’t catch every one of Jeremy’s masterful edits. A piece like this can take weeks to produce, but that isn’t obvious to most people. So why all the time and effort on these small details? Because even if the average viewer can’t put a finger on what makes a production a masterpiece, they will walk away saying, “Wow” — and that’s what our client hired us to do.

Informative video? Check. Fast-paced and entertaining? Check. Mission accomplished.

Moshe Shindler is the director of productions at Mint Media, a full service promotional video firm for corporate and non-profit clients, based in Lakewood, New Jersey.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 973)