It’s easy enough to make a simple straight forward explainer video – some key lighting on your speaker, some B-roll footage, and all the standard bells and whistles that help sell your product. Great. But what if that’s just not enough?
In today’s media-centric world infused with followers, tweets, internet humor, and “meme culture” – you need to sell more than just a product, you need to sell an experience that gets people talking.
And dogs. You need dogs.
So, what did we do? Well, we did just that: cue the studio’s recent creative endeavor, that combines the fun of confetti, the culture of #winning, and nothing short of the pug life – an off-the cuff branded explainer titled: “Dog Talk? No, Video brochure”. (You’re probably wondering, what is it? It’s Dog Talk. Where a dog talks and you get it instantly.)
This production was treated as full blown narrative commercial, between scripting, casting, boards, production design, and directing – both talent and pug – taking that explainer video to the next level so that our clients can understand not only how video brochures work, but WHY it works, in a fun and unexpected way. The concept was inspired by the humor of Dollar Shave Club, mixed with the confidence of Old Spice, and the team developed a dynamic character duo of “Jared,” spokesperson for video brochure, and his sassy indignant pug-side kick, “Sparky” – both essential to the success and delivery of the script.
Casting was one of the most critical parts of this endeavor, and the team went through nearly 100 submissions, before we made our final decision. We had the pleasure and fun of working with Austin based actor Dan Janjigian cast as Jared, who is best known for his performance as Chris R in the “critically acclaimed” film “The Room” (2002), and Charlotte PugDog as “Sparky”, our producer’s, (and brain child behind Dog Talk), five-time academy treat winning female black pug. Yes, she’s a girl and trust me it’s important.
Okay, so castings in the bag, and we need to start thinking big picture. To ensure we could manage all the FX on set and wrangle our fur-talent, our team heavily invested time into the pre-production process, (developing detailed storyboards, shot lists, script breakdowns and held several meetings) bringing together not just production, but our post-production team as well to make sure that as we moved from one phase of production to the next we had our treats err- ducks in a row.
Because of all the preparation, prop-procurement (yes, we had drop down winning signs, with coordinated confetti, clocks falling, and a pug rolling on dolly tables in costume), rehearsal time and early set-up, our studio team was able to bring a 6-page script and a pug frenzied vision to life in only one and half days!
It amazes me the amount of challenges we faced and overcame as a studio: not knowing if Charlotte would run away during her outdoor scene, or if we would die in the Texas heat, or if we would be able to transform our sound stage into an all-white progressive-esque commercial space – we somehow did it, through persistence, effective problem solving, and fearlessly helping even if it meant standing on a ladder and throwing an alarm clock at talent 15 times over for that perfect catch.
In short, while the fun, pizazz, and glitz and glam is all there to take this explainer to new heights- it’s our unparalleled creativity and team effort that defined the backbone for success for Dog Talk and will elevate not only this narrative, but our ability to better serve and inspire our clients.
Stay tuned for Dan and Charlotte’s big debut coming this July!
#pug#dog#pets#DHDVideoBrochures#specialeffects#casting#talent#fullservicevideoproduction#videobrochure