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Initial Consultation

We meet you; you meet us. The initial consultation is an opportunity to discuss the goals of your media campaign, and desires for your video. Depending on your needs, this can include a marketing review to help identify your target audience (customer segments) and needs (pain points), unique offerings (value proposition), key messages, and best platforms (YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) for delivery. After which we’ll develop a preliminary budget, timeline, and draft contract for completing the work. We offer individualized, customizable productions tailored to your specific needs. The initial consultation is free with no obligation to move onto the next level. You get to meet us, and we get to meet you– and that’s all you’re on the hook for.

We never charge for initial consultations and brainstorming sessions

 

Agreement

Getting expectations on paper is so important. After our initial consultation, we’ll send you an estimate for production and a contract to look over and customize if needed. The estimate will include a range of options you can tailor to fit your budget. Not everyone needs discovery, or script editing, storyboarding, or casting. But all of our contracts include pre-production time for planning, as well as two rounds of edits based on client review at no extra cost. Once the budget and contract are approved and signed, we’re golden. We require a 30% deposit at the time of signing.

Scheduling

Your project is of the utmost importance to us, and we want things to go as smoothly as possible. We accomplish this through an organized schedule. We will sit down with you (or correspond via the telephone/ email) to map out a timeline that works best for both parties. This makes expectations concrete, and ensures success.

What comes next depends on your customized video– the a la carte menu

Discovery

Once the contract is signed, we start the process of discovery. It’s our chance to ask questions and better understand your story, your audience, your goals, and needs. This phase can include research into your brand, your market, your products, and any inspirational material that made you say, “we need a video!” This is also the time for us to evaluate what your competition is doing, and to make sure that we differentiate you from them.

Concept Development

Armed with a strong sense of your brand, audience, and goals, we start to develop concepts that we feel would best tell your story. We identify:

• Goal: Project goals and how we want audiences to do and feel.
  • Audience: Target audience and their needs and values.
    • Information: What will get them excited and engaged
      • Medium: How will we reach them– through social media, website, or presentation.

We’ll write a draft “treatment” that loosely define our story and stylistic approach. We often accompany the treatment with relevant links to help see the idea more concretely. Treatments serve as conversation starters to really narrow in on the concept that will guide us through the rest of the process.

Budgeting

Whether you have a $500 or $50,000, we’ll work with you to make sure you get the best results for your money. We provide a detailed, item-by-item budget so you can see exactly what you’re getting, and if changes need to be made you’ll know how to make the best choices.

Scriptwriting

Winner of an International Larry Corse Prize, the John Golden Prize, and a San Francisco BOA Award, our scriptwriting services are unparalleled in the Bay Area. We work closely with clients to develop an outline that provides structure for your script. As we write, we bring together all that we’ve learned about your company, your story, and your product or service. This is where we generate the emotional investment that helps you to connect with your unique audience. The format can range from animated text, to scripted interviews with owners and customers, to short narrative story-telling with dialogue and action. We do content marketing, social marketing, branded content, tutorials, open-boxes, testimonials, short narrative films– anything you can imagine. Our goal is to create a script that conveys your message and is consistent with your brand.

Storyboarding

Not every project needs a storyboard, but some benefit enormously from them. A story board is a set of drawings that visually tell, shot by shot, the script. A storyboard allows you to see the video through our eyes before shooting even begins. For narrative pieces, story boards can be invaluable in planning for an efficient shoot. “Vision boarding” is another, similar tool. Rather than draw every camera angle in a scene, Vision-boarding uses existing images to show the overall basic shot. It’s a less time-consuming (and less expensive) way to communicate the story. Many productions don’t use a story board or visual board, choosing to work from a script that has the visual elements described alongside the text, a quick way to visualize story– and often the most appropriate when shooting in locations that can’t be scouted, or working on projects with simple visuals.

Casting

Will your video feature outside talent or highlight people from your company? With a 15 year history of stage productions in the San Francisco Bay Area, we’ve worked with literally hundreds of actors. Whether it’s finding real people for a documentary / testimonial piece or professional actors to create a particular look to your video, our staff has 27 years of directing and production experience to make sure that the talent will make your video the best it can be.

On-Camera Coaching

Often times, you are the most important communicator in your film. But many of us don’t feel all that comfortable in front of a camera. With more than 20 years of directing experience on more than 60 projects, we know how to bring out your best, most relaxed, and compelling performance. In addition to the coaching we do in the moment on set, we also offer pre-filming coaching for folks that want a little more practice without the glare of the lights. We’ll work with you to help you visualize, relax, find your pacing– and just the right amount of energy. Pre-coaching is just one of the many “a la carte” options available to you.

Location Scouting

We’re so lucky to be in the Bay Area, which has some of the most stunning locations on earth. Location scouting can be as simple as visiting your workplace and determining the best locations to set up, to canvassing this amazing and diverse region we live in. We know how important the backdrop of a film is to bring style and power of your message. Whether it’s capturing the energy of downtown, the lifestyle of the Marina, or the glorious landscapes of the North Bay, we’ll find just the right angle, location, and moment.

Filming

Attention to detail. Your message is in every prop that makes it into the frame, in every camera angle, and in every placement of every light. Whether it’s a documentary approach with real customers and partners, a tutorial, a product demonstration, a tour through your shop, or a narrative production with a large cast of actors, we have the experience to bring all of the pieces together. In addition to having some of the most talented scriptwriters, videographers, designers, and editors in the business, we have ongoing partnerships with costume designers, makeup artists, set designers and builders. Hurricane Images owns all of the equipment it uses, from a variety of 4K and HD digital cameras, to lighting instruments, sliders, and sound gear. Owning our equipment reduces the chance of cost over-runs when shooting schedules change. It also means we’re intimately familiar with the gear and its capabilities. The result is stunning, cinematic story-telling that is always on time and on budget.

Editing

The magic is in the cut: editing is where the story really comes together. Creative editing enhances the stylistic approaches we used during filming, bringing into focus your brand and message. As much as any other element, editing creates the tone and “identity” of your video. Our process includes professional color grading, music, and animated titles.

Music

Sound. Is. HUGE. It is the engine that drives the pace and emotion. Choosing great music can make or break a video. Choosing great sound enhancers can lift it to a new level. We guide you through the options that best fit your budget to give you the best bang for your video buck. There are countless music libraries that offer decent tracks that can accompany your video for a reasonable price. We’ve also worked with composers who can cater a track to fit perfectly with your visuals — this is a wonderful option that will cost more but is often well worth it. If budget allows, bringing a known popular song can give it more punch than anything else. It’s the most expensive option and, again, but can be worth it if you can manage it.

Titles & Animation

Once we have a rough edit that is when the motion graphics and animating phase usually begins. Because motion graphics and animation are costly to produce, it’s best to have the overall edit defined as much as possible. When we are compositing graphics into live-action footage, we ask for a cut to be nearly final before we begin the process of incorporating graphics. We can always develop assets and even animated separately from the cut and then composite as one of the last steps to be sure the scene will not be changed or removed. It is during this graphics phase that we begin to really hone the style and look of the video.

Rough Cut Review

Once we have a rough cut, we’ll sit down with you and review the video, make notes on changes, and look for ways to strengthen our message. The rough cut is a near-complete version of your video, with sound, music, transition, and titling.

Final Cut

When your final product is delivered, you’ll receive multiple versions tailored to meet the specifications of your distribution plan. This can be social-media ready files, Vimeo and YouTube optimized versions, as well as HD cinema for large projection.

Celebrate!

I think you know what to do here.

 

How Long Will it Take?

Every video is different. The amount of time is dependent on the complexity of the project, and the scheduling demands of both people and locations. Most projects take between three weeks and three months to complete.

 

Can you give me a ballpark estimate of what my video might cost?

 

In a word, no. But you can get a sense of what similar videos costs from our blog post, What Does a Corporate Video Cost? Our projects have ranged from as little as $750 for elegant company profiles to $15,000 for short narrative productions that highlight a program. It’s a big range because there are so many possibilities, and different clients choose different activities from our “a la carte” menu. With a little information like number of filming locations and length of video we can give you a quick ball park estimate, so drop us an email and tell us a little bit about your project!