OneXCare Promo Video
- Task
Produce an engaging product video that would hit the following goals:
- Capture the attention of our potential clients and partners at the biggest international HealthTech event HiMSS
- Showcase the functionality of our cancer care products and their role in the patient’s journey
- Present our mission for the company website and social media channels.
- Challenges
- Limited production budget (approx. $ 5000 for the whole project)
- The ongoing product localisation process
- Complex B2B/B2G products
- Result
- A high-quality video that combines the dramatic tension of a cinematic piece and the clarity of a product video, with all the main features listed
- Full-cycle production fit into the $ 5000 budget
- The impact of the video at the upcoming HiMSS22 expo is yet to be assessed
How I handled this project
Pre-production
As I am in charge of all branding and content for the MediXSpace Brand, I was given full credit to produce the company video the way I pictured it. The problem at that time was that I struggled to come up with a sound concept that would reflect our flagship product ecosystem clearly enough, and still would be easy to comprehend and engaging to watch. Eventually, I saw the video in my head and drafted it on paper. Once I showed the storyboard to the team, my idea was instantly approved.
The next step was to put my ideas into words, so it would be easier to communicate them to the production teams. I wrote down the script, prepared a list of locations and actors, and found references that were similar to the result I wanted to see. Some of the references were the commercials made by Microsoft as well as other companies with an unlimited marketing budget; I wasn’t being unrealistic – it was all about finding the balance between what we wanted and what we could afford (a usual startup dilemma, after all!).
I started contacting production companies and filmmakers for quotes. It was then that we discovered that what we wanted would cost at least twice as much as we could allocate for this project. Or so it seemed until I found Cyril – a young independent director who convinced us that he could do it within our budget. His portfolio had that cinematic look that I had in my mind for our piece, and his enthusiasm was contagious enough for me to take him on board.
I started contacting production companies and filmmakers for quotes. It was then that we discovered that what we wanted would cost at least twice as much as we could allocate for this project. Or so it seemed until I found Cyril – a young independent director who convinced us that he could do it within our budget. His portfolio had that cinematic look that I had in my mind for our piece, and his enthusiasm was contagious enough for me to take him on board.
Production
To save up on the production costs, we limited the production team to us two — Cyril and myself. I was in charge of everything there was to do behind the scenes: I was a project manager, a scriptwriter, a location hunter, a casting manager, a production coordinator, a producer, and occasionally even a lighting assistant. The rest was on Cyril: he was briefing the actors, arranging the lights, filming, editing, color-grading, producing the graphics and mixing the sound.
To really bring out the emotions of the main characters without overdoing it, I selected and hired four professional actors. The rest of the cast was gathered with the help of my friends and colleagues.
As we were filming in a real oncology center, we had limited timeslots for occupying the medical facilities that we needed for our shots. Because of that, we spent three days filming in the hospital (two full-day shifts and one late evening). The scenes in the main character´s apartment were filmed on another day. In total, it took us four days to film everything that I had on my mind. In the end we had far more footage than there was actually needed — however, it can still be used for our future projects.
To save up on the production costs, we limited the production team to us two — Cyril and myself. I was in charge of everything there was to do behind the scenes: I was a project manager, a scriptwriter, a location hunter, a casting manager, a production coordinator, a producer, and occasionally even a lighting assistant. The rest was on Cyril: he was briefing the actors, arranging the lights, filming, editing, color-grading, producing the graphics and mixing the sound.
To really bring out the emotions of the main characters without overdoing it, I selected and hired four professional actors. The rest of the cast was gathered with the help of my friends and colleagues.
As we were filming in a real oncology center, we had limited timeslots for occupying the medical facilities that we needed for our shots. Because of that, we spent three days filming in the hospital (two full-day shifts and one late evening). The scenes in the main character´s apartment were filmed on another day. In total, it took us four days to film everything that I had on my mind. In the end we had far more footage than there was actually needed — however, it can still be used for our future projects.
Post-Production
The post-production process took us a while, as we had to postpone it for a month due to other important assignments disrupting my schedule. However, once we started the editing, it took us only 5 rounds of reviews to finalise the project. Once again, Cyril did an amazing job by putting together a solid piece solely relying on my script, so it was much easier for me to make suggestions and remarks for further improvement.
What did hold us back is that the software we needed to showcase was undergoing changes along with the production process: the logo was changed, the colors of the system were swapped, and some bugs were being fixed. Together with Cyril, we worked out the ways to integrate the software images in our final video smoothly and naturally, minimising its presence in the shots and concentrating on the actual value that our products convey.
Having two strong creative professionals working on one project was not easy, as both Cyril and I had our own, sometimes fairly different opinions on how certain things should be done. However, with every compromise that we found, our video was getting better and better, making all the efforts totally worth it.
Having two strong creative professionals working on one project was not easy, as both Cyril and I had our own, sometimes fairly different opinions on how certain things should be done. However, with every compromise that we found, our video was getting better and better, making all the efforts totally worth it.
- Expenses
The whole production (including the equipment rental and actors) cost us under $ 4500. The remaining $ 500 was spent on miscellaneous aspects such as transportation, medical accessories, food for the crew, etc.
- Money earned/saved
On average, producing a product video of this kind costs over $ 10.000, so I have saved MediXSpace at least $ 5000. The impact of this video on our performance at the HiMSS Expo will be assessed in March 2022, after the event.