This is one of a matching series of videos I produced where SmartBear product owners each welcomed new users to their software trial with encouragement. Such little two-minute videos look deceptively simple but behind the curtain is much planning, budgeting, scripting, schedule coordination, cat herding—even T-shirt production :-)—and finally direction of talent and editing.

First, independent of the product owners, I developed a standard intro and outro with animation and audio. These quick video bookends were for ALL SmartBear videos so they would be consistently branded in an unobtrusive way.

In advance, scripts had to be written, read out loud, rewritten, and practiced out loud, until they fit the story in the 2-minute format.

Our very tight budget meant all videos needed to be shot in one day. Distributed players had to get to the studio (even fly in) for that day, and segments had to be recorded within the allotted timeframe. The talent (the product owners), remember, were not professional actors. We intentionally wanted customers to know that they have a direct connection to real people; approachability was part of our brand. That raised the degree of difficulty on getting the shots done as intended within the tight schedule. With kind direction, I got everyone through and captured everything we needed on time.

Finally we knitted appropriate product shots with the scripts. The result was a suite of consistent videos across product lines where potential customers got to see the faces of people who actually cared as they experienced our software for the first time.