Visit Milwaukee, a tourism organization, approached Plum last summer with a unique challenge of covering twelve individual festivals over the course of several months. They wanted to showcase the very best that these festivals had to offer, but also plant the seed that when thinking festivals, people are thinking Milwaukee.
Logistical Challenges
To shoot every event in a cost-effective manner, we developed a recording schedule to cover all of the different festivals, but allowed flexibility for both weather and timing. And there are so many festivals in Milwaukee! We had to find right number of festivals to showcase over the summer that was in line with the budget.
With a project like this, teamwork is crucial. I had my hand in this as producer and director of photography, but collaborated with several other Plum videographers as well. To ensure consistency and quality across the board, we utilized the same digital cinema camera package and shooting styles throughout the entire festival season. Our collective vision provided the high-energy footage and quick cuts that we would need during post production.
“Summer in My Heart"
After the weather cleared, the music died down, and the last firework had gone off, it was time to translate roughly 20 hours of footage into a one to two-minute music video.
When editing a video based on a music track, that track becomes the backbone of the whole video. The music has to be right the first time, so I leveraged our premiere music library to find the perfect cut. This library brings high quality music at a fraction of the cost of licensed popular tracks. In the end, it was a little indie ballad called, “Summer In My Heart” that won the day. So much so, I was blasting it all over the office yelling, “This is it! This is it!” It was bucking a trend too because it had lyrics that actually fit the message of the festivals and had the pounding pulse to showcase twelve festivals in two minutes’ time.
Repurposing Content
With a large collection of stock footage now in its back pocket, Visit Milwaukee has the tools to promote each individual festival for years to come. They are currently re-purposing and utilizing this library to create b-roll packages for promotional material on broadcast TV and the Internet.
LEARN MORE:
- Video Production Services
- Download a video budgeting and planning guide.
- Download a creative brief template.
- Visit Milwaukee
