Staffbase
Staffbase is the fastest growing employee communications cloud, equipping many of the world’s leading companies with solutions to inspire every employee with motivating communication.
The Empty Town Hall
60 second ad spot.
Staffbase is a well established company in the European market already and wanted to supercharge their brand awareness in the North American Market with a new campaign.
We were tasked to work closely with the Staffbase team to help create all the video assets as a part of their larger campaign strategy.
The concept was a light humoured story centred around a CEO communicating his less than optimal ideas to the CCO. We see his dated ideas played out in real time and it all leads to the big town hall not being attended by his staff.
Pre-production
With a fast and furious timeline, my producer Denny and I began filling our calendar with our work back schedule. It was important to set key date milestones to keep us on track and accountable during our pre-production. This included: conceptualization, scripting, storyboarding, location scouting, set deck and casting.
Right off the bat we wanted this to be a very collaborative process by having our client be involved in the creative process. Working closely with the client, we created multiple concepts and ultimately landed on the concept of ‘The Empty Town Hall’. A humorous take on when communication goes wrong when a stubborn CEO speaks over his CCO and pushes his dated ways of communicating to his staff.
Scripting + Storyboarding
With the concept green lit, we moved onto scripting. Being a 60 second spot, we knew it needed to be simple and snappy. We decided to keep it a simple active dialogue taking place between the CEO and CCO, with the CEO overstepping and not letting the CCO get her words out. We see these terrible ideas play out in real time all while the CCO had the solution all long with using ‘Staffbase’.
A lot of inspiration for my story boarding came from Bong Joon Ho’s story boarding style. Sometimes I find myself getting too caught up in the details and I found Bong’s style a perfect balance of drawing out enough to get the idea across but still retaining a lot of detail and motion.
Locations + Casting
With the script and storyboard in place, we needed to really start creating the vision of this video. Location was a very important role as we wanted something that would fit our vision but also fit within our timeline and budget. With the help of our amazing Location Manager: Sam Buzza, we were able to lock in an office setting and an empty auditorium.
We had 4 scenes that would take place within an office setting. So we got creative and utilized that one location for all 4 scenes. With an amazing Art Department consisting of Delaney and Hannah, we were able to create 4 unique office scenes in one location. Minimizing complicated crew moves and travel costs.
Casting was done with the help of our Casting Manager. We needed to fill two primary speaking roles of the CEO and CCO. We sent out a casting call and got a lot of submissions and ultimately settled on a more senior look for our CEO and a more youthful CCO.
Production Days
We planned for two full days of production to capture all the necessary shots needed for the 60 second spot.
Before the big day, our Art Department got to work and spent the evening moving in furniture, art and set pieces. They got the space as prepared as they could before shoot day so the rest of the team can get in and begin lighting and camera set up for the first scene. We needed to make use of all the time that we had.
Post Production
After our two production days we jumped right into post production. Working on delivering the primary 60 second hero video as well as a 30 second alternate and 15 second and 6 second cut downs.
The first cut of the 60 second was to be delivered in a week from finishing production. So again we were working on a tight deadline to deliver everything on schedule and with quality.
After the client approved the edit. The final step was to apply the final colour grading and sound design to the project. This was the part of the post production process that I was most excited about, as it’s when the final polish gets applied and it begins to look like the final vision.
Only made possible with:
Client: Staffbase Solutions Inc @staffbase
Client Producer: Kyle Hay @slushoe
Client CD: Alvaro Carrillo @a2ct
Production Company: Velour Productions @velourproductions
Director + Editor: Victor Yuen @slicktor
Producer: Denny Dias @thedennydias
Production Coordinator: Alice Best @alicebestcreative
Location Manager: Sam Buzza @sambuzza
Casting Director: Maria Georgescu @gypstaa
DOP: Aaron Nathanson @aaronnathanson
1st AC: Nick Taillefer @niztalifa
Gaffer: Oliver Smith @seawolfollie
Grip: Alicia Snee @alicia.shebanova
Grip: Sam Neufeld @samneufeldvideo
Photographer: Dale Tidy @daletidy @pro.shooters
Sound Tech: Art Young @asisports
Production Designer: Delaney Konrad @delaneykonrad.creative
Art Director: Hannah Blessin @hannahmblessin
Wardrobe: Shauna Griffiths @sgriffths13
HMU: Bryana Koenning @bryanajomua
Colourist: So Young Park @soyoung_colorist
Sound Editor: Mike Southworth
Cast:
Robert Hakesley @bsidebobbi
Rachel Viccaji @rachelavanviccaji
Alinane Chikaonde @alinanesky
Bryna Kennedy @brynniejean
Jeff Laurin @jeffjlaurin