Hello! During one of our recent presentations, we were asked an interesting question: "Why pay an agency when you can just hire a camera operator and editor?" At first glance, this may seem like a simple solution: go to a freelancing platform, find two professionals with a good portfolio, and your project is done.

However, it soon becomes apparent that for your video, you need several models who must dress appropriately and create different looks for different scenes. You will also need to prepare the location, and you may even decide to take photos. In the end, you may require around 200 photos and over 100 video clips. This is precisely the ambitious volume of content that our client, Les Art Resort, approached us with.

By the way, the client from the presentation actually only needs a camera operator to shoot a couple of expert reels for Instagram.

Task

Having a strong online presence is crucial for hotels, and Les Art Resort understood this well. To improve their online presence, they updated their website and decided to refresh their photo and video content. The project was massive, involving 290 photos and 162 video clips. Such a task required a special approach and professional execution, which they managed to achieve.

During the creative process, the goal was to showcase the different locations of Les Art Resort's park hotel and the guests who were staying there. To initiate the process, the client provided us with several references to work with.

Briefing

Our project spanned the entire summer and was divided into two phases, with 8 shooting days in total - one in June and the other in August. It was a challenging endeavor that required meticulous planning and non-stop effort.

The success of our project was largely due to the close collaboration with the Les Art Resort hotel team. They provided us with a detailed list of locations to capture and a cohesive creative vision for each of these locations.

Working together as a team made our task more structured and helped us to convey our message to the audience.

During our initial briefing, we immediately began discussing the timing aspect of our project, which was extremely important. Timing was the star of our project and received a lot of attention and care. We had to combine two critical components - the availability of all 30 locations (and that was just in the first part of the project) and coordinating the schedules of the hotel staff and the production team.

Another crucial element of proper organization was scouting. Before each phase of the project, the producer and director visited the hotel to inspect all the locations and plan the optimal shooting route with minimal delays between places.

However, it wasn't always possible to perfectly align the schedules of all participants. For this reason, we had to propose an alternative photographer at one point. At a certain moment, we also realized that shooting at the pool needed to be moved to the beginning of the shift, before it was opened to hotel guests.

Pre-Production

In the pre-production stage, we were busy preparing for the shoot. One important task during this phase was selecting the right actors for the roles. This process was done simultaneously with location scouting and coordinating the schedule. Working closely with the hotel's marketing team, we identified the necessary character types and age range for the shoot. Although our requirements were not overly complex, we had to consider specific nuances. For instance, it was crucial for the children playing the roles to visually match the actors playing their parents to ensure a cohesive look for the characters.

As you rightly pointed out, there are some similarities between working in an advertising agency and banking. Both fields involve working with spreadsheets. That's why, at this stage of the project, we provide our client with an important document - the director's scene plan. This document provides a detailed description of each scene, including the shot list, camera movements, actor movements, and required props.

Having this level of detail in the scene description ensures that the client and our team are on the same page and have a clear understanding of how each scene will be executed. This approach ensures a high degree of control and precision in the process of creating visual content. Each scene in our production is accompanied by a photograph taken during scouting, along with an approximate angle to ensure accuracy.

Shooting

The saying "fortune favors the bold" was proven true when the weather forecast suddenly predicted rain one day before our shooting schedule. Even though the chance of rain at our location was low, there was a storm predicted just a few kilometers away. We had already rented the necessary equipment, so rescheduling the shoot could have been a financial burden. After careful consideration, we decided to take the risk and proceed with the shoot. To our surprise, not a single drop of rain fell on our set during the shoot, except for perhaps the drops from the cocktails in the hands of our models.

Let's skip the boring part about how we worked tirelessly for days to capture a huge amount of content and talk about some unexpected incidents that happened during the shoot.

As per the client's casting requirements, the actors participating in the shoot were not supposed to have any tattoos. During the online casting, we thoroughly screened each applicant to ensure they met this requirement. In the past, we never had any issues with this as everything becomes apparent on set. However, in this specific case, one of the actors decided to deceive us.

As a result, the actor received a fine, and we had to do some additional post-production work to cover up the tattoos.

One of the adult actors had to learn to ride a bicycle on the day of the shoot. Despite only having 20 minutes of training, the actor did an excellent job and it would be difficult to tell who among the participants had never ridden a bike before based on the final video.

Overall, the shoot went smoothly and everyone enjoyed it, even with the minor unexpected challenges.

Post-production

During the post-production stage, we followed a structured process to ensure the best results:

1. Selection and removal of duplicates: We carefully sifted through all the raw material, removing any technical duplicates and damaged frames. This helped us to narrow down the choices to the shots and clips of the highest quality.

2. Client selection: The client was then presented with the highest quality shots and clips to choose from, selecting those that best matched their taste and project vision.

3. Testing and color correction: We conducted tests, experimenting with various color correction options, and processed photos and videos to achieve the desired effect. After final approval, color correction was applied to all the remaining content.

4. Deep retouching: Some photos required deeper retouching to create the perfect visual representation of the hotel's space.

We are pleased to report that everything went smoothly, and we are now ready to showcase our work!

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Client's Feedback

We received positive feedback from the client regarding the project. They were impressed with the professionalism and attention to detail displayed by the team throughout the project, from planning to post-production.

The team showed dedication to achieving the goals from the outset, and their organizational skills and planning, starting from the briefing and casting, were outstanding. They were able to adapt quickly to changes and unexpected circumstances, which allowed us to successfully overcome a series of challenges along the way. As a result, thanks to Lava Media, the project was a significant success, and the client is delighted that they chose this agency.

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