Earlier this summer, I was presented with the opportunity to promote the Woodson Art Museum in a new way. As the Museum’s marketing and communication manager, I am always on the hunt for different ways to reach our community and draw in visitors. On this occasion, that meant taking us to the “big screen.”
While I’ve had experience employing numerous different marketing and advertising strategies throughout the beginning of my professional career, producing a commercial was not yet on that list. I was excited for the Museum to have this opportunity, and eager to learn more about the process and add to my marketing toolkit.
An initial planning meeting with the video production team took place, during which we workshopped ideas for the message and overall feel of the commercial, the number of actors it would require, and the spaces within the Museum campus that would be featured. We created a detailed digital storyboard with our ideas, scripts, and shot angles, and continued to make edits on it right up to the day we planned to shoot.
Top: the digital storyboard we created to plan the commercial. Bottom: a scene from the commercial during the final editing process.
When the day of the shoot came, we spent an entire afternoon capturing each element from our storyboard. I was enthralled by the level of detail that went into each take. From the placement of lights to the settings on the camera, there were so many moving pieces to the production. We enlisted the help of several volunteer actors to be the faces and voices of our commercial—they were not only excellent on camera, but also so helpful moving the equipment from gallery to gallery. By the end of the day, we were functioning like a set crew you would find in the studios of Hollywood (okay, that might be a stretch…).
A look behind the scenes during the shoot.
Two of our volunteer actors playing in Art Park in between takes.
After a few weeks of editing, we arrived at a stunning final product. I am grateful to our production team and volunteer actors for taking the Museum’s mission statement and the vision I had for this commercial and making it come to life. This exciting project will be live in action through the beginning of March. Be on the lookout for some familiar faces and artworks on a TV near you!
