See how we helped Fighting Fish Studio with their integrated brand campaign for EMERES using videos, photos, and a giant LED video wall.
OVERVIEW
Integrated Brand Campaigns require a lot of planning and organization with teams on all sides of the marketing machine. Throw in an advertisement that requires filming on a virtual set with a 50 foot LED video wall and you really have your work cut out for you.
Emeres was preparing for the launch of their Cirrus Public Safety Platform in the US. They needed a website, field marketing materials, and a fully flushed out marketing campaign for social media, booth displays, and commercial advertising. Block Of Joy, in collaboration with Fighting Fish Studio, was able to use our technical expertise, experience, and robust production infrastructure to produce a set of custom brand videos and marketing material they could use throughout the year.
“There are so many people in the background doing all kinds of tasks…. much like in public safety where we all have unique roles that come together to achieve success in the mission.”
— Jarret Winkelman, Vice President, U.S. Market, EMERES, Inc.
THE CHALLENGE
Emeres came to Fighting Fish Studio looking to make an impact with the launch of their Cirrus Public Safety Platform. They needed a video that could wow people at conferences and be flexible enough to use across multiple advertising avenues. It was clear they needed an integrated branding campaign that included:
- Filming an epic video advertisement to put at the front and center of their presentations.
- Updating their website with new brand colors, fonts, graphics, and photos that work alongside the videos and photos we were about to shoot.
- Develop a series of brand videos to explain Cirrus and Emeres to prospective clients that aligned with their new branding and immediately caught people’s attention.
- Photos from the commercial to be used in brand material to create a cohesive look
In our discussions with Emeres it was clear that they wanted to model their advertisement after blockbuster films. However, it was also important to have something clear and concise that explains the platforms they’re selling.
One video could not do it all so the decision was made to allocate a small portion of their budget toward kinetic typography videos. These videos are quick to produce and excellent ways to get your message across.
The rest of the budget would be focused on their main advertisement. We pitched five concepts to help eventually land on one…Epic Build.
The idea was to model everything after a real life scenario, in this case a car crash, but play it out like an epic action movie. Seems simple enough, but here’s the kicker, to get the permits and location would have put us behind schedule. Also, the scene had to be filmed at night, which would have created several scheduling conflicts if done practically. Lastly, the client wanted to keep elements of the background adjustable, which means building a physical set on a stage was out of the question.
All of this really only left us with one option…Virtual Production using an LED Video Wall.
“LED walls are transforming the way that movies and shows are made by allowing producers to create custom environments that are unique to each production.”
— Jarret Winkelman, Vice President, U.S. Market, EMERES, Inc.
THE SOLUTION
We began by collaborating with Nightlight Studios in Los Angeles to develop a Volume workflow that allowed a virtual background created in Unreal Engine to be displayed on their LED Video Wall. This required synchronizing multiple systems:
- The Computer running the Unreal Engine virtual set needed to be synchronized with the Stype Motion Tracker so the set could move in relation to the camera position in real-time.
- The Virtual Set needed to be synchronized with the LED Video Wall so there could be near zero latency during live playback.
- The Physical Lighting on set had to be synchronized with the virtual lighting created in Unreal Engine to make the background, midground, and foreground objects all look seamless.
After multiple days of testing we finally got everything to work perfectly. Now it was time to build the 3D virtual background.
You might ask, why go through all this trouble with the camera tracking? Can’t you just put a stock image up on the LED wall and call it a day?
It all depends on how believable you want things to look. Having a static background works for some scenes, but for large sweeping cinematic movements having the background move is essential to selling the parallax effect. If your foreground and midground objects move, but your background doesn’t it’ll be a dead giveaway that you’re filming on a set.
Here is a great post on what the parallax effect is if you’re interested.
Our creative team spent several weeks building out the virtual background in Unreal Engine 5 working closely with Fighting Fish and Emeres. The end result was something incredible. Three unique set environments for their epic advertisement. The last pieces of the puzzle were to design the physical sets with our Production Designer so the actors could have something to interact with. Three weeks of work led to two days of shooting, which included the advertisement itself, photo shoots, and a Behind-the-Scenes interview with the Emeres Vice President, U.S. Market for additional content.
It wasn’t intentional, but the virtual production/volume workflow ended up giving us way more flexibility on set. The client was able to see the set live as opposed to waiting, like how it's usually done with a green screen. Lighting and set changes could be made on the fly in real-time and clients could approve of those changes immediately. This greatly reduced the amount of back and forth experienced in post-production.
The final phase of the process was post-production. There were only a few weeks left before their major launch so our teams had to work fast to complete Epic Build all while simultaneously working on three Kinetic Typography videos and sorting through hundreds of photos taken throughout the shoot.
It was all hands on deck, but the final results blew their minds along with everyone else who got to witness the launch later that month.
THE RESULTS
In the end we partnered with Fighting Fish Studio to provide Emeres with:
- 1 large scale video advertisement
- 3 short kinetic typography videos
- 100+ photos for use in promotional materials
- Behind-the-Scenes video for use in video promotion
Fighting Fish was able to interface with Emeres through each phase of production and relay their feedback to our team so the client’s needs could be met. The videos were delivered to Emeres earlier than scheduled allowing them plenty of time for review, QC, and for testing prior to the conference date.
Of course, the goal wasn’t only for the production process to go smoothly, but also to elevate Emeres’ brand marketing material in the most effective way possible.
Our work with Fighting Fish helped to create a strong impact with Emeres and led to a successful launch of their Cirrus Public Safety Platform.
In the end, we were able to work closely with all parties to elevate the EMERES brand and deliver spectacular results.
Check out the final result here!
If you're looking for expert assistance in bringing your videos to life, our video production services are at your disposal. We're here to help you craft compelling visuals that resonate and inspire. Get in touch with us today to explore the possibilities together!
