Client - Silvernest
Project Proposal -
I met Wendi Burkhardt while filming another project and she asked if I could work on some projects for Silvernest. Quickly after that I had a meeting set up with the VP of Marketing, Emily Reynolds. Emily wanted to capture what is was like to use their service and add an intimate approach to telling the stories of the people using there service, we would called the series “Housemates”. During our conversation I realized they could use a lot of other video content to help build their brand. The start of our relationship would be with some How-To videos for their website.
Pre-Production Planning
We quickly found out that it would take some time to identify who would be featured in the Housemate series. So as Sarah, the community manager, began to reach out to potential volunteers we decided to start building the How to videos for their website. These videos would inform newcomers to their site on how to properly use their services as well as inform them of additional services. For this 12 video series we decided to go with four Silvernest staffers and build scripts to make the most out of our in-studio production day. After completing this project, Emily informed me of another series they were creating called “Experts in Aging” which was an interview series. They already had all the captured webcam interview content and asked if there was anyway I could “dress up” the content. We devised a plan to film a solid intro with Sarah and then add intro and outro graphics and re-release a more polish series. Right about as we were wrapping that series, we had our first Housemate candidates, Kathy and Sandy. The first part was to establish an email chain so that I could start to sculpt the story. I knew in order to really tell the story properly in one production day, I would need Sandy and Kathy to try and do as many activities as they could possibly do. With a three to five minute restriction on the edit I knew I would want to add as much variety as possible. I was fortunate this housemate pair was in Fort Collins because it allowed me to bring more equipment and spend more time with them. I brought my very capable and necessary assistant Marshall Rosales. He was pivotal to making sure we were able to capture multiple activities throughout the day and drive the Jeep during the bike riding scenes! On top of capturing all the video for these projects, the client also wanted stills/photos that they could use for promotion. This would have been very difficult for myself to pull off alone but with Marshall being such an amazing assistant he would just hand off the stills camera and take away the motion camera whenever I wanted to capture a scene in stills as well. As soon as we got our first housemate candidate we just as quickly got our second candidate, which happened to be four housemates living together in Morrison. So Marshall and I did a quick turnaround and filmed the next housemate group the very next day! I informed Marshall that it would be a long one too! After my email thread started to develop with Bren, the homeowner, I found out that they had a backyard fire-pit and I knew I had to get a scene back there! We arrived at 9am to a shy group and by the end of the night in the back of their house we were toasting to a great night and a fun shoot! I can’t wait to continue this series! Silvernest has a plan to film ten of these in 2019!
Technical Production
I knew that this would be a very run-n-gun shoot, capturing people in their natural habitats. I decided to take a very natural approach to most of the scenes by utilizing Marshall to bounce light where we could. There were a few scenes we knew we would have time to setup for example the interviews and staged scenes like card playing at a table or fire-pit scene outside. For these we used the Arri Skypanel s-60 as much possible since that is such an amazing light with a ton of features to take advantage of!
I knew the in-studio How-To series would be very controlled with the lighting and setup so I went with my Sony FS7 to capture that series. With the Housemate series I went with my Scarlet-W with Xeen Prime lenses knowing that I wanted/needed the flexibility with the rd3 codec. I also knew I wanted a very cinematic image to capture their stories. Most of lighting was natural with various bounces and where we could we would use a china ball with a Westcott Skylux daylight rated light and the Arri Skypanel S-60.
Video Samples
Post Production
Silvernest also hired me as an editor. As the cinematographer I had already visualized how the edit would go. This is a definite advantage I feel for the client as well. Emily and I worked very efficient in knowing what we needed to capture and how much of each scenario was required for the final product. It is always an honor to be able to edit my own footage as well. It gives me a chance to truly take advantage of all the dynamic footage I was able to capture. For the How To series we would use gDrive to send files back and forth and make very small edit notes of where Silvernest wanted to add graphics. When it came to the Housemate series, since I conducted all of the interviews, I had a great feeling of how I wanted the edit to go. Emily was very receptive to this and put her entire trust in me to get the message of their brand across in each video. The music selection was a collaborative effort. I would initially make the selection and then would present it to Emily and if we needed to make a change I would happily do that in order to make sure they felt confident about the product they would putting out! I feel music is one of the most important elements in an edit and I could spend hours locating the right track.
Once the final edit was agreed upon, the final export would be submitted so that Silvernest could carry on with their marketing strategy for releasing.
Promotional Images
Behind the scenes
Client Feedback
Working with Jarrod and Just Basl Productions has been so smooth and a great choice for Silvernest. He is incredibly responsive, organized and personal-able (which makes working and filming with him a joy). He is a gifted storyteller, and genius at drawing out the arch of a story into a short video. His personality makes it easy for others to trust and open up to him, allowing him to capture touching moments on film. We're thrilled to have him as part of our team.
Community Manager - Sarah Oswald
Jarrod has a unique talent for finding the story in a situation and extracting it beautifully on video. He is the kind of partner you can trust with your customers—he understands how to put people at ease and create an environment that allows their stories to come out. From a tactical perspective, he delivers projects quickly, is organized and thorough, is a pleasure to collaborate with, and does beautiful work. We are thrilled with the way our videos came out and look forward to working with Jarrod on more projects.
VP, Marketing - Emily Reynolds
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