This month’s Featured Client project is a commercial production for Crane’s Mill, northern NJ’s premier continuing care retirement community for adults. Crane’s Mill provides residents with an active, independent, and luxurious lifestyle, with the added security of quality healthcare for tomorrow.
Whether aired on television or online, a commercial is most effective if it achieves the following:
- It communicates a very clear message and identity.
- It is tailored to a well-understood target demographic.
- It is of high-production value, using professional skill and equipment.
This commercial focuses on the active lifestyle residents enjoy in Crane’s Mill communities. Read on to learn more about our commercial production process, and the professional details and techniques that drastically enhance the end product – delivering high production value that resonates with the Crane’s Mill target audience.
Pre-Production: The Game Plan for a Successful Shoot
A successful commercial production requires efficient planning in the pre-production part of the process. This is the stage where we review all of the production’s goals, craft shot lists and timelines, and outline a game plan for the day of filming as well as the editing process that follows filming.
We’ll start every production with pre-production meetings or calls and our producers, creatives, account and project managers will get to work dialing in everything that will need to be seamlessly executed upon production date. We always arrive on-set with a solid plan of execution and a ready-to-roll attitude!
Location-Scouting, Casting and Prop-Styling
Even the smallest details are important when filming a commercial production. Though many viewers may not realize it, they are affected by scenery, settings, actors or actresses and the level of quality or authenticity those elements provide. It’s important to try to get these details to feel authentic, and to help bring the viewer into the scene they are watching.
In the pre-production part of the overall process, we will also address these details to be sure we have what we need upon the day of filming. We offer location-scouting and rental, casting, prop design, set design and much more – all to create the visual world that will effectively resonate with your viewer.
Creative Direction, Lighting and Styling
Upon the day of production, it’s crucial to have a professional staff that can oversee the fine details of how everything truly looks on camera. First, our crew sets up all filming and lighting equipment with a discerning eye. To deliver a high-quality look that reflects positively upon your brand, the footage needs to be clean and bright, evenly lit, and people need to look their very best.
It’s crucial that participants, spokespeople, actors, or actresses look appropriate but also on-brand! So, we always recommend bringing in professional hair and makeup stylists as well as a professional wardrobe stylist.
For this commercial, we especially wanted to ensure that the people in the commercial were vibrant, youthful, but still realistic! Our team looked over every detail throughout production to ensure the visuals lived up to the quality of the brand and residents’ experience being represented.
Production: Filming and Editing
The project comes together as all essential assets are gathered – all scenes are filmed with professional camera equipment, musical tracks are selected and all of the best shots are brought together by an editor. Any final voiceover recording is also completed and inserted at the end of the spot along with the brand logo.
When all is complete, this is a 30-second spot that can be used in a great number of ways, including as a:
- Television commercial
- Online commercial
- YouTube video
- Social Media video
- A video to live on the website or specific landing page
- A presentation video for live visits, or in a waiting room or entertaining area within the community.
After all, one of the greatest things about video is that it can be multi-purposed and distributed in a variety of ways.
