developing the concept

Novak Hair Studios is a Luxury Solo Artist Salon in Fort Worth. We partnered with Novak and their PR/Marketing firm, HOLLAND collective, to create a brand video to be launched during Earth Week. The concept was developed during several discovery meetings. We dove deep into the brand of Novak to discover who they are and what message they wanted to tell the world. Through the process of tossing many ideas around between Novak and HOLLAND, we landed on a concept that included several key elements:

Introducing a spokeswoman to drive the narrative in a quirky and funny way.
Giving a tour of the salon and introduce the viewer to the salon’s amenities.
Touching base on luxury, affordable, modern and sustainable.
Highlighting the diversity of the stylists and services.

the pre-production process

After the concept was established, we worked with a scriptwriter to incorporate all of these elements. This essentially kicked off the process of pre-production. Through many drafts and revisions, we landed on a script that made us all laugh. Inspired by the character, Samantha Jones from Sex and the City, we began the casting process.

The casting process is exciting. We love seeing how actors and actresses add their own spin and bring a character to life. When we received Gina Hughes’ audition for the role, it was a no brainer. She was perfect.

After Gina was casted, she helped developed the character further. Naming the spokeswoman “Margaret” and adding little quirks, her character came to life. If you’ve ever worked on a scripted narrative commercial or film before, you know that a lot goes into pre-production. From props to wardrobe, to casting the extras (which were all employees or stylists at Novak), there are many things to prepare for. There’s scheduling, walkthroughs with crew, rehearsals with talent, rentals that need to be picked up and shot lists that need to be created. You get the picture. It’s an extensive process but a very important one. The pre-production process can help make or break a video. If all goes well in pre-pro (as we like to call it) then production should be a breeze.

Production and post

Production, or Principle Photography (as some like to call it), started early. We had an ambitious schedule, aimed to be shot all in one 12 hour day. Shot on a Red Helium, we all worked closely together as a team to make sure we stayed on schedule. You never know what kind of last minute issues need to be solved on set, i.e, what kind of decor can we add to a wall to spruce it up, how to match lighting, finding the source to a random noise, etc. Having a solid crew with experience and creativity, helps solve issues before they become problems. We like to think of it as, on-the-spot-problem-solvers. We also worked closely with Novak’s team, who are also great on-the-spot-problem-solvers. Call it the dream team, if you will.

After wrapping on production, the post-production (post) process begins. Our Post-Production Manager, Abby, takes the footage and audio from the shoot to begin editing.

Edited on adobe premiere pro and after effects, we utilized some of our favorite databases for music and sound effects. Artlist.io, Envato Elements, and Soundstripe are just some of the databases we like to use. After collaborating with Novak and HOLLAND, we created the final deliverables: one 60 second social teaser and the full brand video. In the first few days, the video received over 10k views and over 100 shares on FB alone. A lot of support and positive comments flooded in from the community. We’ll take this as a win.