Meetings Matter Chatter
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Meetings Matter Chatter
Films
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A chat with Anson Mulville, Senior Content Producer with BCD's Production & Content Team, talking about Films. A new offering powered by BCD M&E’s filmmaking house within the NORAM Production & Content team, Films utilizes decades of storytelling experience, along with award-winning directors, editors, and cinematographers, to help tell bold, beautiful, and anthemic customer stories. In partnership with our clients, we develop, produce, and craft brand stories with a cinematic level of production and a higher touch level of service. From concept to delivery, we help bring our client's biggest and most impactful pieces of content to life. These are the stories that get noticed.
Welcome to the latest episode of Meetings Matter Chatter. I'm your host, Nikki McLean, account director for BCD's Meeting Solutions and Venue Search Department. And today we are chatting with Anson Mulville, the executive producer of BCD's production and content team. And he's got some exciting new offering that BCD is here to talk to us about today. So, Anson, I'm so glad to have you on the podcast. Thank you for joining me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00So I see some news kind of on social media today. What is going on? What is this new like release that you want to tell us about?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. It's it's really exciting. There's just been so much uh chatter, uh, if I may steal your title of your podcast, um, about uh this new film's offering. Um, it's it's super exciting. The team um has kind of been working over the last couple of years to kind of launch this offering. Um, and now it's just become so much more real, and everybody is just so amped to be a part of it. Work is already coming in. We're already starting to partner with some of the um internal BCD teams on some projects. So it's like it's so exciting to already kind of have things in motion, and we're like not even like fully launched yet. But um, yeah, it's just a really, really exciting time to be in production and content to be able to kind of release this film's offering um that we're so excited about.
SPEAKER_00So it's called BCD Films. That's the official kind of launch, the title of it.
SPEAKER_01Um, we are calling it films.
SPEAKER_00Films. Okay. And so how is films different than like a current offering that you might already offer from a production standpoint? Because you guys already do video work, like you do a ton of that for like large meetings, small meetings, you do a lot of like storytelling and things like that. So, what's the difference between films and normal production?
SPEAKER_01Sure. And that's a question that we've already kind of been responding to. It's it's something that we kind of talk to our clients about. Um, you know, it's in a simplistic way, it's just more dynamic storytelling with kind of larger budgets, more of a production timeline. So um where you might see a kind of a, I mean, there's no typical day in production and content, but if we could just say, you know, a typical project that we may see on average, um, you know, a client may come to us and say, hey, I have a couple of ideas, um, there's no script, but um I need to execute something and I need it in, you know, uh two weeks, three weeks, four weeks. Um, that's kind of our typical project, you know, uh a nice average budget, maybe there's a shoot day or two. Um, we're cranking out a script real quick, um, working with our client to deliver something on a pretty tight timeline. Now with films, it's more about kind of that uh what people may associate with like kind of a bigger agency work. You we may be ideating on an idea for a client for a couple of weeks, a couple of months um at most. The budgets are extremely large. There's just more discovery in kind of who the audience is, who the the storytellers are, what the brand is all about. And it's kind of really diving really deep in with our client on kind of what they're all about, the messagings they're trying to portray, and just being really, really specific and direct with what we're doing, um, and just being very thoughtful in the way that we execute, you know, building multiple proposals, multiple scripts, storyboarding every shot, you know, being purposeful in our location scouting, scouting different locations, scouting different talent that we're using in videos, um, you know, down to just the the type of imagery that's in the scene. And that's not to say that we don't put that same passion in what we do right now, um, with kind of our atypical kind of, you know, production and content work. I think it's just the the the kind of bare bones facts of it is it's just it it projects like these just take more time and the budgets associated with them just tend to be a little bit larger.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, it definitely sounds like, especially if somebody's like, hey, my, you know, my CFO wants to do a video about X, and we're a company headquartered in Houston, Texas, like, and we've got this amount of money to spend, like you kind of know what you're allowed to do within that framework, right? But if somebody's like, hey, I want to do this brand launch, or I don't know, we want to do this whole like mini story film, if you will, then that's a totally different take on how you would look at it or approach it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. And and we still do both. I mean, it we get the calls from, you know, yeah, our our CEO wants to talk tomorrow, you know, in in Texas or Louisiana. Like, can you guys get down here? Absolutely. We'll be on the first the net the next flight we can get out tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. We'll be there, set up some lights, set up the teleprompter, run through the script, and we'll have an edit out within like two or three days. This is, you know, this is like, hey, we're gonna go meet with your entire engineering team. Hey, we're gonna go meet with your entire product and marketing team, and we're gonna spend a couple of days with you talking through this product or this campaign or these ideas. Like we wanna be absolute experts in who you are. Whereas maybe in our current landscape, in our current landscape, you know, we grow to be experts of our clients, you know, over time. You do enough of these real quick turn projects or just projects that have shorter timelines, you're doing a lot more projects, a lot more videos, churning out a lot more scripts. Over time, you're becoming an expert in your client, um, you know, over a couple of weeks, a couple of months, a couple of years, depending on how consistent the work is. With something like this, it's you're becoming an expert in who they are or what the product is within a matter of a couple of weeks, and you're kind of expected to be just as knowledgeable as the engineer who is working on the project. Um, because we're developing these ideas, these ideas that are just so purposeful and so direct and have such larger audience bases that it's a necessity to be an expert.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, speaking of expertise, and I know you and I have talked about this a little bit before, even when I first started this podcast, like when I was looking for script and editing help and just ideating on how to even do this. What's the background and kind of talent or pedigree that you have within some of the talent that you have within both the team at films and then the team that you have that supports your production and content teams?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So we have a really extensive background. Um, all of us come from such diverse different workplaces. I mean, we have a couple of um uh DPs, directors of photography, camera operators um who have spent, you know, time with the NFL, with ESPN. Um, you know, we have creative directors on our team who worked for Apple for a number of years, who helped launch, you know, one of the first iPhones. We have creative directors who help launch, you know, the the Prius have worked on Super Bowl commercials. Oh, wow. Um yeah, oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, we have uh this super talented um editor who, you know, does a ton of work, you know, kind of on the side as a hobby with um various DJs that you probably have seen at like Coachella or Burning Man. Like, I mean, such talented, talented individuals on our team with, you know, some with big agency backgrounds, some with corporate backgrounds, some with sports backgrounds, um, some who have, you know, been nominated for Oscars, you know, for documentaries. I mean, it's yeah. No, it's super cool. It's such a unique, great team. And I think, you know, there's this stigma around um, oh, well, you know, I I'm used to this like big New York LA agency with folks who have just a laundry list of brand experience. And I'm not diminishing that. That's all great stuff. Um, but I think, you know, we also have we also have that. There are individuals on our team who have worked on bigger, large brands, Super Bowl commercials, regular commercial campaigns. I mean, the talent is there, and we're we're super excited to kind of bring some of that talent to both BCD existing clients and then also new clients as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I mean, I I think you and I get this. You live in Chicago, right? And I live in Minneapolis. And I think people think like, oh, you guys live in like flyover country. You're not in like New York or LA and you didn't work at like big agencies or whatever. But yeah, I mean, there's talent that's especially since the pandemic, people live all over, you know, big towns, small towns, whatever, and have brought their diverse backgrounds together. So I can't believe that you've got some like Oscar, you know, we're worthy people working on your team. That's amazing. So um, I think our clients would love to hear that. So I hope they're listening to this episode. And and, you know, we always get that like, oh, what's your references? Can you give us some case studies or like tell us what you've worked on? And I think that's so um incredible to be able to say that that's kind of the work that your team has produced before and that that's the caliber of talent that you can expect out of this films team and the video work that you guys would put out. So kudos to you for recruiting that type of talent for the team. I love it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Thanks.
SPEAKER_00So I um I'm gonna fully admit, I'm not a video person. I I have always been fascinated by kind of the films industry and stuff. But like if you had to describe this, and I know this isn't a visual podcast, but like how what does a film set look like? And like what can the listeners expect? Um, I know you've mentioned it's a lot of ideating. I'm assuming that that's happening both on-site and maybe in an office setting. Like, tell us a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. So um, you know, our as you kind of pointed out, like everybody kind of lives everywhere. Um, and so we the I would say the bulk of our films team is is largely in Chicago. We definitely have individuals that are not in Chicago. Um, so that gives us a great opportunity. So for when we are doing some really fun ideating, we're kind of in the office, we're, you know, in a boardroom, we're kind of painting different ideas, we're working through some things, we're looking at mood boards and and shot lists and whatnot, and kind of just, you know, or sometimes we'll just be like, hey, let's go take, let's go for a walk and just kind of be inspired by the environment that's out there, because we find that, you know, um, in this kind of virtual environment, um, you know, sometimes it can be hard to be inspired by what's around you when you're kind of stuck in front of a webcam for, you know, six, seven, eight hours a day, um, taking calls and working with clients. So um, you know, we try and just get out there to be inspired when we're ideating and working on things. And so that's kind of, you know, the pre-production process. I think for the production process, um, you know, a typical set could have anywhere between like eight and 30 individuals kind of working, you know, in tandem on a specific project. Like I know this project that I'm doing um next week in in Washington State. Um, I think there's about 10 folks on site, including myself, you know, a couple of camera operators, um, you know, audio boom tech. So if you've ever seen a behind the scenes of like somebody holding this massive audio boom, you know, with a microphone on the end there, there, uh, makeup artists, uh, various talent and actors and um uh we call them grips and gaffers. So essentially individuals who are kind of moving lights, building lights, putting up lights, shining lights in different directions, um, even down to um craft services. So if you've ever, again, seen the behind the scenes, there's always this really extensive, gorgeous kind of snack area um on a film set that's craft services and and everybody makes their own unique requests and and it's always just a fun place to be. Um it's like the it's like a a film's water cooler um kind of area where we kind of just hang out and and chit-chat in between takes. Um, and then um, yeah, you know, uh a typical, so like say you're a client, you know, who's experiencing the set for the first time. Generally you would probably hang out with somebody like myself. So on set, um, I'm kind of standing with the director in a place called Video Village. So imagine kind of looking at various different monitors of screens um with different camera angles and shots on it, depending on kind of what the scene entails. Maybe there's a shot on a car looking at the wheel, there's a shot on your talent, uh, a wider shot of the talent, and we're looking at all those angles. And the director is standing next to me, making all of these calls, telling, you know, coaching the talent and the individuals on what's about to happen. I'm standing with you, kind of explaining what we're doing, what vision we're capturing, and then you and I are kind of working together to make sure that, you know, to ensure that we're kind of capturing the vision of the entire project. Um, but it's just a really, it's a really fun place to be. It can be loud, it can be exciting, it can be quiet. It's it's very dependent on kind of what you're filming. I mean, there could be explosions, there could be cars. I mean, it's truly like, you know, it I think people have this idea that, oh, big commercial shoots have hundreds of people on them. And that can be the case, but sometimes commercial shoots can have four, five, six individuals, depending on the scene. If it's a quieter scene in a home, um, you know, it doesn't require as many individuals. So um, yeah, it's just it's a it's a really, really, really fun place to be. Um, I really enjoy it. It's just you get all this creative energy in a room or in a space, um, and it's just super exciting. And and it doesn't necessarily have to be outside, it doesn't necessarily have to be in a studio. We could be in a volume stage. So here in Chicago, there's a number of really great volume stages. So um a volume stage is if anybody has watched the behind the scenes of The Mandalorian, um, and um it's it's just a giant curved LED screen, and you can project anything you want, any environment that you want on this screen. Um, even the floor can be projected on. You can have you can replace the floor, replace the background, and you and we're working with this camera that every time you move the camera, the screen, the the image on the screen moves with the camera. So you're never the the the image in the background is never stationary. It's it's movement dependent on what the camera is doing, and it's just so fun and such unique technology. And we're utilizing that, you know, for the work that we're doing. So um, you know, we really try and be solution-based when it comes to, you know, the locations that we're selecting. I personally love to be as practical um as possible. And when we say practical, we mean like, well, if I want a car in a forest or in a mountain, um, you know, we're gonna go try and find a mountain or a forest and a car to actually be there that people can touch and we can film and we can see all the how the light hits it and everything else. But um, yeah, just a really, really fun place to be. I would say if you're working with us on a project, um, I encourage you to come to the location and come to the set. It's just uh, it's a fantastic place and really fun place to be. And we find that clients and really, really enjoy their time on set and even themselves like get inspired and and we love for them to be a part of it. It's a really great partnership when we have the clients on set kind of uh being in the environment with us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, that sounds amazing. And I think um I'm always curious too, like, who kind of makes the final decisions? Is it like a joint decision between like you as the creative director and then like the client kind of giving some feedback too? Or you know, I'm assuming if it's um they probably have maybe their marketing or creative team there too, like is it a joint effort or how do you guys kind of come to the final takes of things?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, usually before we film a films level type of work, I mean, we have we have discussed pretty much what needs to be in every single scene down to, you know, exactly what is in the background, what is the individual holding, how much are we seeing of the product, how is the product facing, you know, specifically for some of our medical clients, it's very, very specific. We need to be very direct on the time of day, you know, the the type of ambulance that is in the background, what uniforms they're wearing, um, you know, versus if we're kind of filming a a spot that you know is domestic versus international, or is both, you know, we need to be very thoughtful about kind of every, you know, if you if you imagine hitting record on a camera and and that is an image, you know, we're looking at every inch of the image and what is in the corners, the backgrounds, the walls. I mean, everything is very thought-provoking, and we try and get it to a point where it's called picture lock. And picture lock is like, okay, this is we are we are 100% certain on what the image is going to be. So then we're when we're hitting record, you know, there's not really a question of, you know, do we need to adjust? I mean, obviously, we have sets where there, you know, we just did a uh a shoot with one of our medical clients, and there was uh 12, 12 representatives um from the client side on set with us. Um, and they're there for various reasons. There was a there was a couple of engineers who were experts in the product. There was um an individual who um had a nursing background that was kind of the expert in how the talent was handling the product, the processes that they're going for. Um, you know, it's the same thing when you, you know, you film an action movie and there's, you know, either police officers or firefighters, like, you know, if they're all talent, you know, there's usually experts in that particular field on set kind of telling individuals like, well, no, you you you hold the hose this way, or you would stand here, or you would stack up next to this door like this. You know, there's you know, always experts in the room kind of making sure that we're, you know, the actors are working in a way that is is is actually 100%. 100% so um and yeah, and that there's people from marketing, and and that's not to say that we don't encourage people to speak up on set and make sure because you're at the end of the day, like these people and clients are paying a lot of money for us to be there. We want to make sure that we're executing properly. So, yeah, we absolutely encourage clients to make sure that we're, you know, following the ways that we need to. But yeah, it's it's um, you know, it can turn into a really, really full set um based on, you know, who from the client side kind of appears, you know, to support.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, that's really interesting. Thank you for kind of walking us through that. Um you kind of mentioned this earlier, but let's hit on it again. What type of media does film specialize in?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it's uh it's the full gamut of everything and anything you could possibly think of, which is a really crass answer. Um, I think if we can get into the specifics, I mean, it's you know, we work on everything from um experiential events. If anybody, you know, has ever been to an experiential event, um, it's just fully immersive 3D, 4D kind of walkthrough experience. You know, we can kind of be building content and ideating um, you know, with our clients on how to make a really great experiential event. Um, you know, I personally love um company documentaries, patient stories, you know, anything with a really great organic story that we're kind of going and, you know, discovering for ourselves, you know, through the process. Um, but that's not to say we also don't love writing stories, um, you know, like a really great product launch campaign or a broadcast commercial, um, any kind of marketing brand story, um, short form, long form. I mean, you know, we have even been asked to do a couple of, you know, specific like Instagram reels or short TikToks, you know, it's it's uh some of that stuff, even the social media content. I think that especially, you know, there are definitely companies and brands and and influencers that, you know, do it on a shoestring budget with their cell phones. But um, what a lot of those individuals have become experts in is this really high-end feel, but not making it look so high-end that it doesn't look like they could have done it with their phone. It's this really interesting niche where you know, if you ever actually like work with any of these influencers, they actually do have a crew of like eight or ten individuals filming them on a really high-end camera. Um, but they shoot it in a way that makes it look like they're still on their phones. Um, and it's it's so unique, and that's kind of what gives them this like really great executable look. But they're actually spending hours and hours and hours kind of building this content. Um, but they make it look like they're just doing it very, very easily. So even that, you know, we've been called to kind of you know ideate and work on. And so yeah, a full game, anything and everything we can accomplish, um, you know, uh there's really not a a limit to what we can or cannot, you know, work on in the film's offering.
SPEAKER_00Okay, cool. Um let's talk about any recent successes. I know you are heading out of town to go to this shoot next week. But is there any kind of recent business case or success that you'd want to share with the listeners that you worked on that you're excited about?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Um So I think so far one of my favorite uh projects that I've been able to work on, um, which has also been one of our favorite business cases uh for films um was this story that was brought to our attention. Um and it all started with a very simple sentence or two. Um a client came to me and said, We have a story about an individual. Uh and the sentence was he's an ex-Major League baseball player who really who couldn't throw the baseball with his son anymore. And I was like, wow, that's really sad.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, and then the second sentence was we helped to rebuild his shoulder so that he could throw with his son again. And I was like, How?
SPEAKER_00Like, yeah, like tell me how.
SPEAKER_01Epic, I'm here. Um and they were like, Do you want to tell this story? And I was like, absolutely. I mean, you have me at baseball because I'm a huge baseball fan. Um, but uh a hundred percent, like just so much imagery flooded into my mind. I mean, there's this whole, you know, father-son dynamic. There's a whole extra layer to that of, well, he's this ex-Major League Baseball star who can't share, you know, can obviously tell his son about, you know, these amazing stories and memories he has from playing baseball, but he can't share the game, the physical game with his son, because you know, his his shoulders just had so many different surgeries. And and uh, and to me that was just like heartbreaking. But then having this whole arc of, well, then he was able to kind of have his shoulder rebuilt through this really unique process um that our our client, you know, was working through um was just amazing. So we partnered um with our client, and I think the next question we all had on our minds was, well, can we partner with the the the team that he played for? Um, and so we started a conversation with one of the major league teams. Um, we worked with our client to kind of set up a contract where they would have the rights to utilize the major league logo and the major league team's logo for a period of two years. So we were kind of safe there. And this was all done in kind of the pre-production process. So we kind of started two different paths. We started this really creative path where we started walking through the story and the script, having this really unique outline, and then we had this alternate path that was kind of running in parallel where we were working on contracts to have the rights to utilize this logo because it was like, well, if we're gonna do all this work and talk about his history, let's make sure that we can do that from a legal standpoint um for a period of time that we believe this content will be, you know, really useful and value add for our client. Um and so then that turned into, well, why don't we go to the stadium? Can we film in the stadium? That turned into us working with so every major league team generally has a media department um that kind of is both filming, you know, things inside the stadium, little mini documentaries for their social media, um, and then also kind of aggregating all this content um from the past, you know, however long this major league team has kind of been in existence. So um with this team, they had just archives and archives full of content. So we were able to kind of get, you know, hours of game footage of this individual playing the game, and that kind of helped shape our story so that every kind of clip that we saw or recording about this individual actually pitching in a game kind of helped shape the story. And so before we before we even got to the location to film for the first couple of days, we had already interviewed the patient a couple of times over the phone, getting his story. We had already talked to the the surgeon that did, you know, the surgery. We were kind of, you know, had spoken to him a few times and understood his background. We had spoken to the engineers who had worked on the actual product and the procedure to kind of understand, you know, why this technology was so new and unique and how it was kind of just life-changing. Um, so before we even stepped foot inside the stadium, um, we had a full outline breakdown of exactly how we wanted to tell the story. And that's not to say we were stuck in it. It was more just, well, we had this really great guide and we were going to kind of let other things happen organically, whether, you know, through this three-hour interview that we had with this, you know, with the patient, um, you know, he said a few things that he hadn't said in his previous interviews that kind of spurned different ideas in our heads as we're going. And we were filming shots that, you know, were kind of just weren't we didn't really have planned, but they ended up in the edit. And it's just, you know, so we we come in with a very clear plan, but we also allow ourselves to have these organic, unique creative experiences as we're actually in the process that actually helped further shape the project. And I just remember um, you know, we were standing, you know, we got permission to be in the stadium at 5 or 5.30 in the morning in a it was a really, really hot July day, but it was the perfect day. The sun was coming up over the stands, and we were all just kind of standing, you know, in various parts of the stadium. And I remember being like in the upper deck, just watching the sun come up over like the the right field fence, and the the sunlight is hitting the stands in just the most perfect way. And we all kind of just sat there and just like looked and just kind of allowed ourselves to just like have that experience. Um, and we were just like, yeah, this is really awesome.
SPEAKER_00I hope somebody got that on video. That sounds amazing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I the the shots were fantastic. It was so well received by our client, um, by the patient, by the surgeon. Um, you know, uh the it had such a long, you know, had such a long use. And I think that's also something that we kind of talk to our clients about is like with this film's work, like before we actually go and film it, before we even commit to the dollar amount, you know, we want to educate our clients on like, well, sure, we're gonna do a 15-minute documentary or an eight-minute, you know, segment, but we're also gonna do here's our social media plan, here's uh uh how we could turn it into a series, here's something that's a little bit more patient focused, here's something that's a little bit more surgeon focused for this per se per specific um piece. Um, but we want to make sure that, you know, this content has longevity um and it was used for, you know, a while. Um, and it had just uh, you know, it ended up on social media. The surgeon used it in kind of a local um, you know, a local segment that the local news did on him. Um, you know, it just was um and just a really, really fun project to work on. It just um, you know, just really just was electrifying and fun and inspiring. And um yeah, just a really fun experience.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I can tell just just the way you're talking about it, how exciting it was for you. So thank you for sharing that. And you kind of took away my next question, which is can you walk me through a workflow of what a project would look like? And you kind of talked through some of this. So it's like discovery, concepting, pitching, scripting, storyboarding. So you went through a little bit of that. So then I'm gonna I'm gonna take us to what you described earlier as like picture lock approvals. So it sounds like you do a ton of legwork before you even get to the site. And, you know, you you talked obviously this with that example you just gave, you had the talent because you had the the ball player, you had the surgeon, you had the possibly the son was in it too. Like you had all the characters or talent, if you will. But what else, what else am I missing in the workflow that would would need to take place to get it from start to finish?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Um, I think, you know, our process is, and that's kind of going back to what makes films different, is it's it's it's this such a long process. And not long in like a bad way, but like it's a creative way, yeah. Yeah, it's it's thoughtful, it's purposeful. So yeah, there's there's discovery, there's concept and pitching, you know, where the concept and pitching, you could get it right on the first round. It could be four rounds of concept and pitching. Um, you know, we're storyboarding every shot, we're getting those picture lock approvals. Um, you know, we're looking at at your talent. We're we're acquiring talent based on, you know, the globally, where is this being aired? We want to be, you know, uh diverse in our selections. We want to be purposeful, you know, is it is it a is the child nine years old or 11 years old? Are they male or female? Like, you know, is is it there's all these things that are kind of thought about um, you know, about these individuals, you know, there's a whole world in which there's, you know, experts in talent acquisition in finding individuals who are not biologically related to each other but look like they are related to each other. So you that and that takes time. You have to find talent, and you may find five individuals that you love who are playing the parents, and then you find five children that you you you love their auditions, but then you have to look to see out of these individuals who actually looks like they could be, you know, related to each other when you're actually watching this commercial, and that takes time. Um, and then yeah, like production execution could be it could be a five-day shoot, it could be a month-long shoot, it could be a a series of shoots that are each three or four days. Um, and then the whole post-production process. Um, you know, depending on what the deliverables are, um, it could be a couple of weeks, uh couple of months if it's like some really heavy animation work. Um, you know, we have composers on our team who can sit there and compose a very specific thought-provoking song that is organic for you know this video. And, you know, they need to be able to kind of watch it and be inspired by something, or hey, I, you know, I want it to sound like what I heard in Oppenheimer, and it's like, okay, cool. Well, that's gonna take time, and they'll develop they'll develop something and it's really cool and it's awesome, but it it like to actually compose and build a song, you know, isn't like a you know, it's not like oh, I can do this tomorrow, you know, it takes it takes a couple days.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um and then it's the whole delivery process. Like, where is this going? I mean, is it going to social media? Is it in 16.9 or 9x16? You know, um, is this being you know played elsewhere? Like there's different resolutions and and you know, formats for where something is going. Like, is this being played in the giant Times Square rectangle? Like that's a specific format that needs to be, you know, thought about when we're delivering this content. So it's there's there's a ton that goes into it, but um, you know, we try and make it a really engaging but and simplistic uh and efficient process for our clients.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So um we keep talking about the word client. And I think, you know, in my department, we typically work with, you know, procurement people or you know, actual meeting bookers, meeting planners, people that are responsible for the execution of meetings. What is the type of client that you want to work with with films? So, like as people are listening to this and they're thinking, oh, I have an idea, like, or maybe one of my customers might want to work with films. What do you look for in that typical client? What are some things that we should listen for that are triggers that would make us maybe want to contact you guys about films?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think first and foremost, we'll work with anybody. I mean, I do want to make sure that's clear. Like, you don't have to have a certain title or certain whatever. Like we'll work with anybody who has a really amazing idea. They don't even have to have an amazing idea. It's you're coming to us with a need.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01I would like to do this. And it doesn't even need to be a video. Like, we've had clients come to us who say, I want to make the audience feel this about my brand or this product, or I'm trying to convey this feeling. Can you help me to execute that? Absolutely. Um, now if we take it another layer, I think you know, the the kind of atypical individual um that we're usually kind of working with and is generally somebody in the marketing and comms space who is generally managing um the marketing budget. Um, you know, we'll work with many different individuals within a marketing and comms department, but generally the the key stakeholders of the budget um are the ones who we are generally engaging with at the start. Um just because, you know, these projects are of a little bit higher budget number.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um so being to have, you know, that kind of sign-off um on that kind of, you know, brands will have commercial spend or marketing spend dollars kind of set aside usually. Um, so somebody who is in charge of that within a brand or a company is generally the person we want to kind of start with. Um and then from there, you know, it's it's a multitude of individuals based on kind of the project. But um yeah, you know, uh anybody who's looking to kind of create a buzz, I mean, uh, or just uh influence people or have them feel a certain way. I mean, it's um, you know, we can kind of develop ideas all around that. And um, you know, we're just looking for people who are excited about making an impact, um, essentially.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I love that. Um, and it sounds like, you know, you you determine you have a need, like you said, and then the next step would be that they would reach out and then you would set up what, like a discovery conversation? Is there some kind of questionnaire that they fill out or a survey, or like what are the next steps from there after they determine that they want to have a conversation?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I mean, generally um a great discovery call, um, you know, we'll get on a call and just have a chat and we'll kind of just kind of talk through the process. I mean, you know, sometimes we'll get individuals who um work for a brand and they they have, you know, they come from the agency world or so they kind of you know know the process a little bit. They kind of understand, you know, why they're reaching out to us, what they're looking for. They have some ideas. But we also work with clients who, you know, have zero video, you know, film production experience. And and that's great. We love that. We love to kind of, you know, take a few minutes to kind of explain the process a little bit. It's an exciting process to be a part of. And, you know, so there is a little bit of a learning curve sometimes when engaging with, you know, certain brands and certain clients because they, you know, may not be thinking of certain things that either may impact the budget or impact their timeline, and there's a certain level of education. But um, yeah, usually a great discovery call where we kind of are just talking about um usually audience is you know a core piece of information. We want to understand, you know.
SPEAKER_00Who is your audience? Like, yeah, what are you trying to accomplish? Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Who's your audience? Uh, what is what is the need or what is the idea that you're trying to convey? Like, what are you trying to, how do you want the audience to feel? You know, you know, and and that's kind of, you know, we kind of start there. And then from there, you know, sometimes ideas will pop in our heads as we're kind of having a discovery call and we'll kind of, you know, pepper the the client with a couple of things here and there to kind of gauge their their level of interest or you know, on certain things. And then usually after the discovery call, we say, Great, thank you. Um, and then we usually end with what's your budget? Um, which sometimes is uh, you know, I've never I don't think I've ever been able to get a client to give me a straight answer on what their budget is. They never can.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they never can.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So um usually we kind of just smile and say, okay, well, we'll, you know, we'll bring a couple of different, you know, ideas to the table with some some different, you know, resource amounts um, you know, for those ideas. And um, and then yeah, based on their timeline, um, we kind of go back and develop a proposal and then um, you know, we kind of come back to them, you know, and and we love to present in person, or um, if we can't present in person, you know, we'll kind of present virtually um and then kind of just gauge their level of interest on what we kind of proposed. And then from there, you know, we we look at you know executing a project with them. But yeah, it's it's really just you know, having a conversation, you know, and and it's it's super, it's super easy and carefree. And, you know, we love to just be inspired by other people's, you know, stories and brands, and we love challenges too. Like sometimes it's a challenge. Somebody's like, well, I I'm really trying to do X and I'm just I'm lost. And we're like, we're hey, well, we're we're here to find you, like we're here to help you find, you know, the solution. Um, so we love that. I I think we the discovery call is is probably the most essential and first part of kind of engaging with us in the process.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, and I heard in a meeting that I was in last week that, you know, oh, well, our events drive our revenue or our events drive our marketing strategy. And it's like, well, maybe it's a film, maybe it's a video, you know, those kind of things. So I think I I love that you said it's fulfilling that need and and that and that you're up for the challenge. I think that that's good for the listeners to hear. So I'm gonna put myself in a in the client's shoes for a minute because in account management, that's what I always have to do. But um, because you mentioned budget and I never, you know, they never know kind of what their budget is. But you know, do I need a big budget to do something? Like, do I need a million dollars to do a film? Or like, you know, what it to help, you know, bust this myth for me to to work with films.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I there's not really, I mean, I think internally we definitely have kind of a there's a dollar amount associated kind of with your average project in production and content, and then there is kind of a rough number where you know it's just it comes down to crew, you know, there's there's a certain dollar amount that is needed to have a crew of eight, 10, 20, 30 individuals on a set. Yeah. Um, but um, and and yeah, it's it's also like, you know, it takes time to develop a script, to develop, you know, creative ideation and discovery, and you know, there's some location scouting. So I I think when it comes to budget, we can definitely create ideas based on your specific need and kind of you know give you an idea of well, this, you know, this is a million-dollar idea, this is a half million dollar idea, this is a hundred thousand dollar idea.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, so do you need a million dollars? No. Would we take a million dollars? We would absolutely give you some some million dollar ideas. Um, absolutely, you know, a million dollars is a is a really large campaign. I mean, that's a large campaign with a couple of either broadcast commercial spots or you know, uh a documentary with a couple of commercial spots. I mean, you're talking about like, you know, there's you know, there's brands that partner with Netflix and Amazon Prime to get their content up on there, and you know, there's opportunities for that as well. There's there's needs for anything, and we can certainly be creative on you know what your long-term goal is. Um, but yeah, I generally say, you know, if if like I absolutely had to put a number to it, I think generally we're starting in like kind of the 70, 80 range is kind of generally the, you know, that's a couple of days of filming with a nice eight, 10 person crew, some ideation, you know, some storyboarding and scripting and whatnot. I mean, if I absolutely had to put a number to it, I would say that's probably where you're where you're kind of starting um on the uh uh respectfully the lower end of the film's kind of spectrum.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I think that's fair. Does my video or film have to go viral in order to feel like it was successful?
SPEAKER_01Uh no, no. I I although I do love the term viral, and if if you wanted to go viral, we can absolutely work with you on getting your video to go viral. There are some some algorithms and some math we can do to make sure your video goes viral. But um, no, I I think, and that's where we in the discovery call, we kind of talk about, you know, your audience, you know. Yeah, for certain products, uh, you know, the product is only used by a certain niche group of individuals. So we're targeting that group of individuals. So, you know, this thought that, oh, well, if I'm gonna spend half a million dollars, I need this to, you know, I need this to create a buzz on TikTok or Instagram and I need to like break the internet, like the Beyonce commercial last week.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like we can absolutely break the internet for you. You know, we can absolutely do a Super Bowl spot. We can, you know, it's more about where is that spot going? What is the placement for that spot? Like we can absolutely help you make that a broadcast commercial to to you know partner with you to, you know, get that on television or the internet. Like there are ways we can, you know, help you do that. Um, but yeah, we focus more on, you know, we want to make sh if your audience is everyone, great. We can absolutely help you build an idea that reaches everyone. But I think when we talk about, you know, making your content go viral, we want to make your content go viral with your audience. Like we want to have, you know, if you're looking through a high click-through rate, we can make sure it has a high click-through rate. Like, you know, we want to make sure that your specific targeted audience is feeling the feelings that you want them to feel. And that's where films really makes a difference is that getting in the discovery, being an expert in who you are, who your audience is, what you're trying to make them feel like that's the game changer for us that you're gonna feel is we're gonna help you go viral with your audience.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. Um, and then I'm a really busy person, I'm not very creative, I don't have a lot of time. Is that gonna be hard to work with someone like me? Like, what would you say to a customer that says kind of that during the discovery call?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I mean, uh no problem at all. I mean, we have we have clients who want to be a part of the process. They just have want to feel that creative itch. They want to be a part of the team, they want to, you know, have some of their own ideas be heard. We're here for it. We also have other people who are like, I don't have time, but this is my this is my problem, this is my obstacle, this is my audience, this is what I need. And we say, great, let us let us shoulder the burden of 99.9% of the process for you. Um, because that's what you're paying us for. We're paying us to make you look really good with your company. Um let us develop some really amazing ideas. I think the only caveat that that 0.01% where we do need you is just kind of looking at our ideas and making sure that we're on the right direction and and fill fulfilling the needs that you have with your audience and and how you want them to feel. Um, but yeah, let us do let us do that 99.99% of the work for you. And um absolutely all we really need is the occasional check-in call to make sure that we're headed in the right direction. But um, yeah, let us shoulder the burden for you um as we kind of go through this journey.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, that sounds awesome. Well, I am so glad that you were able to chat with me today, Anson. This is so exciting. I think, you know, I can tell that this is something that you're passionate about. And if it's any, if if your team is anything like you, then I'm excited to see what you guys come up with this year and beyond. So thank you for taking the time to chat with the listeners today. And we are excited to see what comes with films.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having us. And yeah, if if anybody wants to reach out, please, you know, reach out to the films team. We're more than happy to, you know, work with anybody internally in BCD to kind of just either educate them on what we do or how we could, you know, help service their clients. Or if any clients, you know, want to understand a little bit more, please reach out. And we're more than happy to to have a discovery call and kind of understand your needs and your audience and how we can tell your story.
SPEAKER_00All right. Sounds good. Well, thank you everyone for joining another episode of Meetings Matter Chatter. Talk soon.