How we filmed a video for CMS
In 2014, we decided that we needed an advertising and image video for our DIAFAN.CMS site management system. We did not plan advertising on television, we were not going to move on YouTube, we didn’t want to animate the site, but the video turned out to be badly needed. It is necessary and that's it, you know how it happens, just "caught fire." The main need is “so that our CMS has a beautiful video”. Familiar guys (videoproject.ru), professionally involved in video shooting, at first frightened us that it was a few days of preparation, a whole shooting day and a couple of weeks of post-production to fake a dozen seconds of a decent movie. We were convinced that for CMS it is more expedient to order graphic animation, in other words, a cartoon ( something like this ) for a couple of tens of thousands of rubles. But the flywheel of our desire was not to stop, and we decided to shoot a full-fledged video.
First of all, we gathered to discuss what and how we will shoot. Initially, we wanted to get just a beautiful image movie within one minute, with a nice bright picture, camera bursts on laptops, with some close-ups of hands knocking on the keyboard, blurring the background, etc. People sit at home, at work, on vacation, and easily manage their sites, which can be said voiceover against the background of pleasant music. And at the end of the video to bring the logo "DIAFAN.CMS site management system." For this kind of shooting you need only rooms, people, accessories and a good camera to take it all off. However, in the process of calculating the efforts that are required to implement even such a simple scenario, it turned out that in any case the costs would be considerable. And since we decided not to skimp and shoot everything well, then why don't we still put some idea into the video. Then we began to complicate.
')
In order for the video to convey some idea to the viewer, the direction of the video should be more advertising than image. But how to advertise a site management system? This is not a mayonnaise, where you can show a salad and a satisfied full husband. This is not a car where you can remove the interior of the cabin and the road. And this is not washing powder with clean clothes in the frame. This specific software is quite narrow focus. Let's say right away, we discussed a lot of “creative” options, and site management from the inside, through the eyes of CMS, like in an electronic factory, and a mirror image of the browser, for the site visitor and administrator, and the real store versus online store, to show how to manage Internet -Shop is no more difficult than moving goods on the shelf of a real store. There were many ideas, but they all broke about the Hollywood budgets, which were required for a little bit of high-quality shooting of something large-scale. And we didn't want to make a cartoon. Therefore, we began to build on the original scenario and as a result an interesting idea was born. Different people in different situations easily and simply manage their sites, and in the end we somehow show that there is a lot of work behind a simple click of a button. After all, CMS is a management system, that is, the mechanism that serves the site. The administrator changes the price in the administrative part, and the price changes on the site, thanks to the CMS. Therefore, we decided to present the system as a super-hero who rules over the site and does everything with it that the owner tells.
Then we decided that we will shoot exactly three situations. A business woman who works in her office. The traveler, who sat down in a street cafe, put another article on his blog. And the girl at the resort, on the beach, who, from a deckchair, administers her website. A girl in the admin panel changes the price of a product, the camera pulls away to the side, the viewer sees the browser of the site, which shows the same product. The super-hero in the DIAFAN.CMS costume comes out of the frame, removes the old price from the site and puts a new one in its place. A curtain. In addition, we decided not to shoot people's faces, in order to depersonalize our heroes and additionally focus on the main thing - the computer screen and DIAFAN.CMS depicted on it.
Filming was scheduled for July 24, 2014, from 8 to 17. On one day of filming, we did, and after a few weeks of post-production, the video was ready! What happened, see for yourself.
And now about how we all filmed.
The magic of television is that the leader of strict news can sit in swimming trunks and slippers, the main thing is that only a jacket gets into the camera. Also arranged many studios, emulating different locations. Often, interiors and exteriors are recreated in the same room of the studio in different corners, and shooting at the right angle will create the necessary illusion. And you can also shoot the end of the film first, and then the string, and at the end mount it in the correct order, so we started with a traveler.
The most important thing when shooting in such studio locations is light. Different spotlights, spotlights, color filters can be in a room without windows and doors to create the effect of moonlight, the evening sun, a bright day. In our first location we wanted to create the illusion of a street cafe, the morning sun and a light breeze. The sun was a 1000W source, and Dmitry created the illusion of wind and waving leaves. :)
You can see that when shooting on the laptop screen nothing is shown, but only pasted 4 points in the corners. This is done because, firstly, the flickering of the screen is poorly removed, and secondly, the interfaces themselves in the actual size of the screen in the screen look too small and incomprehensible. Most often, all interfaces are superimposed on four labels already when mounting a clip.
The next location was the office of a business woman. We shot this episode much longer. At first we drove the actress from one side of the couch to the other, then the costume designer rejected the light blouse and dressed the heroine in a dark one, then we put the table under the laptop, but in the end pushed it away. We even moved the camera several times, “imperfectly” standing in the background.
But still decided and removed the double.
For a beautiful image on the screen, real relaxed poses of people are not suitable. We have to do a lot of duplicates in order to find the right angle to make the actor look good in the frame. Bend your back, one shoulder above the other, head forward and down, legs down and sideways. And every movement of the hero has to rehearse, both in sequence and in time.
Of course, one can’t do without blunders and spoiled duplicates, when someone has a phone ringing or something suddenly crashes.
For a very long time, one has to work in uncomfortable positions and the operator, for example, when the influx of the laptop screen had to go from behind the heroine’s shoulder from top to bottom. At the moment when the producer and the operator decide working questions, the actors distantly chatter on personal topics.
In the second location, we spent 70% of the time, and we had to move to another floor, to the "beach". Transfer the lights, cameras, clothes, and take a break for lunch. Therefore, I had to insure and on the spot extend the lease of the third location for another hour.
In the third location “Beach House” everyone felt like in a resort. While cameras, lighting and tripods were being installed, everyone took a selfie in the sand, in a lounge chair and with a surfboard. :) Started to shoot. The effect of the bright midday sun created a powerful searchlight. Wind swaying palm trees, served as an industrial fan. But the cocktail would be real, for him I had to buy both soda and limes and real mint and umbrellas and tubules. The dresser had two swimsuits, yellow and blue. After a few doubles, they decided to stop at blue, it looked more dynamic.
According to the scenario in this location, the camera runs into a laptop, the girl changes the price of the product, then the camera pulls up, and the browser with the site falls on top. It turns out the super-hero "DIAFAN.CMS", removes the old price and hangs in its place a new one. Of course, the browser is drawn during the installation of the video, but since its background is our actor, this place should be a green background. And for the actor to remove the old price from the site and hang a new one, for naturalness it is necessary for the actor to take something real and not just wave his hands. We cut out the cardboard and painted it green. On the reverse side of the cardboard, double sided tape was glued, and thus it could be hung on our background. However, this tablet did not want to hang longer than one minute and fell by itself at the most unexpected moment, spoiling us more than one take.
After the plate fell again, we stuck it not anyhow, but seriously crushing it from both sides. And they ruined another take, as the actor stupidly could not tear it away from the background.
In the end, after all, we won and several successful takes were removed.
Then we removed the lockable laptop screen, and began to minimize the equipment. The shooting day was over. Next came the video processing, editing, music selection, as well as the writing of voice-over text and recording of announcers.
While the video was mounted, we solved the issue with the voice acting. We needed three different voices suitable for our heroes in the image. Usually the announcer writes a sheet for a couple of minutes, where he repeats the text in this and that way, in a different way. And the producer then cuts out the pieces of the necessary intonations.
Business woman.mp3
Traveler.mp3
The girl at the resort.mp3
We bought background music on Invato (audiojungle.net) and its selection took a terrible amount of time, about two weeks. Thousands of options have been tried, no less. As a result, we stopped at the version that you heard. But there was another controversial option that strongly competed. Here he is. What is called, compare the mood :)
So far we have not advertised anywhere with this video, so it performs its original task: we just have it :) But no, we still used it in the design of the site CLOUD.DIAFAN.RU .
We hope that our experience will help those who decide to shoot a video for their IT project.
Scenario
First of all, we gathered to discuss what and how we will shoot. Initially, we wanted to get just a beautiful image movie within one minute, with a nice bright picture, camera bursts on laptops, with some close-ups of hands knocking on the keyboard, blurring the background, etc. People sit at home, at work, on vacation, and easily manage their sites, which can be said voiceover against the background of pleasant music. And at the end of the video to bring the logo "DIAFAN.CMS site management system." For this kind of shooting you need only rooms, people, accessories and a good camera to take it all off. However, in the process of calculating the efforts that are required to implement even such a simple scenario, it turned out that in any case the costs would be considerable. And since we decided not to skimp and shoot everything well, then why don't we still put some idea into the video. Then we began to complicate.
')
In order for the video to convey some idea to the viewer, the direction of the video should be more advertising than image. But how to advertise a site management system? This is not a mayonnaise, where you can show a salad and a satisfied full husband. This is not a car where you can remove the interior of the cabin and the road. And this is not washing powder with clean clothes in the frame. This specific software is quite narrow focus. Let's say right away, we discussed a lot of “creative” options, and site management from the inside, through the eyes of CMS, like in an electronic factory, and a mirror image of the browser, for the site visitor and administrator, and the real store versus online store, to show how to manage Internet -Shop is no more difficult than moving goods on the shelf of a real store. There were many ideas, but they all broke about the Hollywood budgets, which were required for a little bit of high-quality shooting of something large-scale. And we didn't want to make a cartoon. Therefore, we began to build on the original scenario and as a result an interesting idea was born. Different people in different situations easily and simply manage their sites, and in the end we somehow show that there is a lot of work behind a simple click of a button. After all, CMS is a management system, that is, the mechanism that serves the site. The administrator changes the price in the administrative part, and the price changes on the site, thanks to the CMS. Therefore, we decided to present the system as a super-hero who rules over the site and does everything with it that the owner tells.
Then we decided that we will shoot exactly three situations. A business woman who works in her office. The traveler, who sat down in a street cafe, put another article on his blog. And the girl at the resort, on the beach, who, from a deckchair, administers her website. A girl in the admin panel changes the price of a product, the camera pulls away to the side, the viewer sees the browser of the site, which shows the same product. The super-hero in the DIAFAN.CMS costume comes out of the frame, removes the old price from the site and puts a new one in its place. A curtain. In addition, we decided not to shoot people's faces, in order to depersonalize our heroes and additionally focus on the main thing - the computer screen and DIAFAN.CMS depicted on it.
What you need for shooting and budget
| what | how many | How much |
|---|---|---|
| Studio for shooting . First of all, we decided on the place where we will shoot everything. We went on the most budget option and decided to build on what Moscow photo studios can offer. In one of them we rented two rooms, in one there were two locations at once, an “street cafe” + a “business office”. In another room location "beach house". Yes, yes, to remove advertising "on the beach", it is not necessary to go to the sea. | 8 ocloc'k | 1,2t.r. / Hour - only 10.000r. |
| Light Searchlights, spotlights, light filters, tripods. We rented in the studio. | 3 sources | on 2t.r./day - only 6.000r. |
| Professional actors . On the actors can not save. Someone will say, well, oh well, you can withdraw yourself or call friends, but no. Behavior in the frame, posture, gestures, ease in front of the camera and other movements give out newcomers, and this is very well seen. We decided, since we do not shoot faces, we can get along with two actors, a man and a woman. In different locations and in different costumes, they will look like different heroes. | Man and girl | 15t.r. - only 30.000r. |
| Clothes The costume of the super-hero "DIAFAN.CMS" and clothing for the actors. If used clothes are used in the commercial, it will be seen very well in the frame. Therefore, for advertising shootings, new clothes are always bought, which then, if possible, are handed back to the store. This is a costume designer. | According to the script. | 30.000r (about 20.000 returns). |
| Dresser . He goes shopping, picks up the appropriate styles of clothing according to the size of the actors and buys it. At the time of filming is responsible for ensuring that the clothes sat on the heroes flawlessly, without folds and other problems. Moreover, for each location a few clothes are bought. After all, if in the process of shooting it turns out that only one blue bogie bought does not harmonize with the interior, or merges with the background, the whole shooting will be covered with a pelvis. | Arrangements for buying clothes, shooting day, returning clothes | 10.000r. |
| Operator Professional, able to handle the camera and all accessories for it. | Shooting day | 18.000 rub. |
| Producer The man who directs the entire shooting process. | Shooting day | 15.000r. |
| Rental of shooting equipment In our case, it was the Sony FS700 + Odyssey Recorder camera, two lenses Canon 24l / 1.4 and 50l / 1.2, rails and a crane. | Shooting day | 12.000r. |
| Postproduction and installation . Video processing, gluing frames, the imposition of music, voices and effects. As well as a sidebar of the sea, a falling browser and removing prices from the site. | According to the script | 30.000r. |
| Voices . Recorded in a professional recording studio. | Three voices | 3 * 1t.r. - only 3.000r. |
| Music Background | Small track | 2.000r. |
Consumables . Small things, waiter's tray, coffee cup, cocktail glass, fresh mint, limes, mineral water, cocktail umbrellas, etc.  | According to the script | 3.000.r. |
Power . Food for all. How so? All these people, actors, cameraman, costumer, producer need to be fed :) | Two meals | 10.000r. |
| Total: | 199.000r. |
Filming was scheduled for July 24, 2014, from 8 to 17. On one day of filming, we did, and after a few weeks of post-production, the video was ready! What happened, see for yourself.
And now about how we all filmed.
Shooting process
The magic of television is that the leader of strict news can sit in swimming trunks and slippers, the main thing is that only a jacket gets into the camera. Also arranged many studios, emulating different locations. Often, interiors and exteriors are recreated in the same room of the studio in different corners, and shooting at the right angle will create the necessary illusion. And you can also shoot the end of the film first, and then the string, and at the end mount it in the correct order, so we started with a traveler.
The most important thing when shooting in such studio locations is light. Different spotlights, spotlights, color filters can be in a room without windows and doors to create the effect of moonlight, the evening sun, a bright day. In our first location we wanted to create the illusion of a street cafe, the morning sun and a light breeze. The sun was a 1000W source, and Dmitry created the illusion of wind and waving leaves. :)
You can see that when shooting on the laptop screen nothing is shown, but only pasted 4 points in the corners. This is done because, firstly, the flickering of the screen is poorly removed, and secondly, the interfaces themselves in the actual size of the screen in the screen look too small and incomprehensible. Most often, all interfaces are superimposed on four labels already when mounting a clip.
The next location was the office of a business woman. We shot this episode much longer. At first we drove the actress from one side of the couch to the other, then the costume designer rejected the light blouse and dressed the heroine in a dark one, then we put the table under the laptop, but in the end pushed it away. We even moved the camera several times, “imperfectly” standing in the background.
But still decided and removed the double.
For a beautiful image on the screen, real relaxed poses of people are not suitable. We have to do a lot of duplicates in order to find the right angle to make the actor look good in the frame. Bend your back, one shoulder above the other, head forward and down, legs down and sideways. And every movement of the hero has to rehearse, both in sequence and in time.
Of course, one can’t do without blunders and spoiled duplicates, when someone has a phone ringing or something suddenly crashes.
For a very long time, one has to work in uncomfortable positions and the operator, for example, when the influx of the laptop screen had to go from behind the heroine’s shoulder from top to bottom. At the moment when the producer and the operator decide working questions, the actors distantly chatter on personal topics.
In the second location, we spent 70% of the time, and we had to move to another floor, to the "beach". Transfer the lights, cameras, clothes, and take a break for lunch. Therefore, I had to insure and on the spot extend the lease of the third location for another hour.
In the third location “Beach House” everyone felt like in a resort. While cameras, lighting and tripods were being installed, everyone took a selfie in the sand, in a lounge chair and with a surfboard. :) Started to shoot. The effect of the bright midday sun created a powerful searchlight. Wind swaying palm trees, served as an industrial fan. But the cocktail would be real, for him I had to buy both soda and limes and real mint and umbrellas and tubules. The dresser had two swimsuits, yellow and blue. After a few doubles, they decided to stop at blue, it looked more dynamic.
According to the scenario in this location, the camera runs into a laptop, the girl changes the price of the product, then the camera pulls up, and the browser with the site falls on top. It turns out the super-hero "DIAFAN.CMS", removes the old price and hangs in its place a new one. Of course, the browser is drawn during the installation of the video, but since its background is our actor, this place should be a green background. And for the actor to remove the old price from the site and hang a new one, for naturalness it is necessary for the actor to take something real and not just wave his hands. We cut out the cardboard and painted it green. On the reverse side of the cardboard, double sided tape was glued, and thus it could be hung on our background. However, this tablet did not want to hang longer than one minute and fell by itself at the most unexpected moment, spoiling us more than one take.
After the plate fell again, we stuck it not anyhow, but seriously crushing it from both sides. And they ruined another take, as the actor stupidly could not tear it away from the background.
In the end, after all, we won and several successful takes were removed.
Then we removed the lockable laptop screen, and began to minimize the equipment. The shooting day was over. Next came the video processing, editing, music selection, as well as the writing of voice-over text and recording of announcers.
While the video was mounted, we solved the issue with the voice acting. We needed three different voices suitable for our heroes in the image. Usually the announcer writes a sheet for a couple of minutes, where he repeats the text in this and that way, in a different way. And the producer then cuts out the pieces of the necessary intonations.
Business woman.mp3
Traveler.mp3
The girl at the resort.mp3
We bought background music on Invato (audiojungle.net) and its selection took a terrible amount of time, about two weeks. Thousands of options have been tried, no less. As a result, we stopped at the version that you heard. But there was another controversial option that strongly competed. Here he is. What is called, compare the mood :)
So far we have not advertised anywhere with this video, so it performs its original task: we just have it :) But no, we still used it in the design of the site CLOUD.DIAFAN.RU .
We hope that our experience will help those who decide to shoot a video for their IT project.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/289902/
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