Proposal
Oelwein Community School District
Fall 2020
INTRODUCTION
After speaking on the phone, it sounds like we’re going to start by making more of a short overview-style video about the Vision of Happy Healthy Awesome there in Oelwein.Â
Then in the Spring of 2021, we might explore recycling a lot of the footage into a short series of vignettes on various topics tied to the first video (e.g. The Special Ed Coffee Shop, Construction Class, Music Department, etc.)Â Here’s the Long Term Video Strategy Page we started filling in on your Consultation Sheet Document for more details.
VIDEO PACKAGE
Here are the adjustments we made to the original plan outlined in your RFP.
Branding Video
Video Type:Â Overview
Length:Â 2.5 Minutes
Interviews:Â 7
Story:Â Show how Lakota Local Schools prepare students for the “4 E’s” after graduation:
- Enrolling in college
- Enlisting in the military
- Becoming Employed
- Pursuing Entrepreneurship
Diversity & Inclusion
Video Type:Â Â Vignette
Length:Â 2 Minutes
Interviews:Â 5
Story:Â This spot will be more emotional and tug at the heartstrings, expressing that no matter who you are, what your background is or what you look like – you are welcome here!
School Finance
Video Type:Â Vignette
Length:Â 1.5 Minutes
Interviews:Â 3
Story:Â Quickly explain school spending, millage and how the district is fiscally responsible to the general public, which tends to be more conservative and not have any ties to the Lakota Local Schools.
VIDEO STYLE
We decided that all the videos will be produced in more of an interview-based, documentary style like this overview video I made for Cold Spring School, an Indianapolis Public School. The only difference could be your school finance video, where one of the three “interviews” might be a narrator reading off of a teleprompter.
ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS
I don’t suspect we’ll pursue any of these, but they could be worth considering.
90-second Intro Video
One big advantage of making professional videos is that you should be able to use them for 3-5 years. However, no one is going to want to see face-masks and social distancing measures once this pandemic is over. So if we aim to make a shorter, scripted “philosophy statement” like this Intro Video I made for the Diocese of Kalamazoo Schools instead of a longer-form branding piece:
1) We could probably fill more time with general establishing shots (and less pandemic stuff) since it’d be a broader message.
2) It’ll be much shorter and cheaper to replace any shots you don’t like next year.
Flip the Narrative
“Never let a severe crisis go to waste.”~ Rahm Emanuel
We will (hopefully) never see something like this again in our lives. Which means you’ll never have inspiring stories again about how your district innovated to keep everyone connected and engaged. There will also never be a better time to celebrate essential workers or any special volunteer efforts in your community. So instead of a normal “Diversity & Inclusion” piece this year, perhaps there are some other COVID stories that show how much you embrace and support your minority members.
Ultimately, if we make a powerful, uplifting video about how your district “Overcame COVID-19”, you’re not going to care how many face-masks and social-distancing measures we see. And I bet you’ll be proud to share it for years to come.
Here’s an opening commencement video that a Wisconsin public school made. It’s not what I’d recommend for Lakota, but it’s a good example of time-sensitive content.
WHY ELEVATION POINT
School videos are what we do! If we’re not the best education content creator in the Midwest, then we’re not going to stop until we are! :)
Here is our Portfolio as well as all of our Client Testimonials to see the difference we’ve made so far.
Years Serving Education
Schools & Districts Served
School Videos Made
PRE-PRODUCTION
“Failing to plan is planning to fail.” ~ Ben Franklin
One of the hardest parts of video production is just setting yourself up for success.  Luckily, we’re OCD here and have a weird passion for building beautiful spreadsheets! :) We SYSTEMize everything to Save Yourself Stress Time Energy & Money.
 1) Consultation Sheet – We filled out yours already and started organizing & quantifying all the interviews, footage & production days we’ll need.
2) Interview Coverage – More than just who & how many, what story topics should each person speak to? How long will each interview take? And do we have at least two people speaking to each topic to ensure a great response? Those are the types of questions this sheet answers, which most overlook.
3) Production Schedule – Scheduling is highly collaborative and clients often need to book most of it themselves. So we need to work together through a simple interface and I think we’ve built the perfect solution! :)
YOUR UNIQUE STORY
We’re often asked how we’ll accurately capture and tell our prospect’s story. And while we put in a lot of time and effort behind the scenes, it’s a pretty simple process from your perspective.
The Outline
We’ll flesh out the story outline on our next phone call where you’ll elaborate on each topic and we’ll type out everything you want us to say.
The Interviews
We’ll also fill out the Interview Coverage chart where you’ll identify the best people to speak to each topic.
The Questions
I’ll go back through the story outline and reverse-engineer each paragraph into 3-5 questions that will get each person to establish, differentiate, justify, and personalize each point.
The Editing
We’ll cut up, organize and rank every sound-bite, and then stitch one great word/phrase after the next. There’s usually a seamless audio cut about once every 2-seconds in our videos to make everyone sound perfect & concise.
Ultimately, it’s no accident that all of our videos have a consistent level of quality. It’s because we take each project through a huge process that produces great results every time.
PRODUCTION
We show up and record like everyone else, but there are a few things that might set us apart.
Highly Physical
There’s a time and a place for stiff, boring tripod shots, but we love adding life and energy to the camera a lot more. :) Watch any of our videos and you’ll see how much we move!
Small Crews
We often work alone as a one-man band, which will save you a lot of money in extra travel and crew costs.
Long Days
When you hire us for a full production day, you’ll get us for up to 14 hours (and you’re welcome to hand us off to other colleagues over that time). The point is, the more we pack in, the less we’ll have to travel out, and the more money you’ll save.
Wireless Monitor
Our cameras can connect to a smartphone app via WiFi so you can sit around the corner and watch everything we record.
Radios
Additionally, we can both have earpieces so you can speak up in real time if you have any thoughts or suggestions.
POST PRODUCTION
Them
Most editors cut the whole video together, offer 2-3 rounds of revisions, and then charge for more. But…
1) Why should you pay extra if the editor is way off?
2) Reworking the whole video can easily blow past deadlines.
3) No editor will ever know your community as well as you do. And the more decisions they make on their own and the more bold and artistic they get, the greater the chance you’ll have more notes for them in the end. So it’s as if this whole workflow encourages safe, bland & generic editing.
vs. Us
Every editor goes through a process, so why not include the client along the way? That’s what we do. We edit “Cut 1.0” and then send it over for feedback. If there are any notes, then we edit “Cut 1.1″… “1.2”… done – and we move on. Each round takes about a week and we’re usually done in a month. No surprises and no additional costs.
And that way you’re involved and can help us make far more unique & specific decisions that reflect your community. That’s what our clients always tell us – “Oh my gosh, this feels so much like our school!” – and it’s because we collaborated the whole way through.
Cut 1.0 - Story
To start off, we just cut the interview sound-bites together and make everyone say what we want them to say. :)
Cut 2.0 - Music
We think music is one of the most important parts and that’s why we’ve already searched through over 15,000 songs. We then whittle the very best down to the top 3-7 for you to pick.
To hear our broad range of musical styles, check out our Music Types webpage.
Cut 3.0 - Footage
Here we insert all the visuals. Up until this point, we’ve just been listening to audio so this is where you’ll really start to see it all come together.
Cut 4.0 - Graphics & Sound
We’ll add sound effects, do a custom opening and closing animation of your name & logo, and then add other lower-third (nameplate) graphics for all the interview subjects.
Cut 5.0 - Color Correction
This is where we white-balance all the footage, remove any color casts, and boost the overall contrast and saturation. We rarely receive any notes at this point so after the first cut here, we’re usually done!
DELIVERABLES
(included)
Videos
We record in 4K (3840 x 2160) and deliver all final videos in Full HD (1920 x 1080). That way we can zoom in and reframe shots in post production, which always looks a lot better.
It’s also estimated that less than 5% of YouTube videos are watched in 4K and that you need at least a 42-inch monitor to even see the difference. (…so just saying… there’s a lot of hype :)
Marketing GuideÂ
We also give each of our clients a free video marketing guide with 24 ways to share their content each year. It’s like a checklist to help you develop your own marketing strategy and maximize your exposure.
& ADD-ONS
(extra cost)
Closed Captions
85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, so if you don’t have captions, you’re missing a lot of viewers. You can always make these yourself or we can create captions files for you to upload in 15-seconds or less!  ($100 per final minute of video)
Pictures Pack
We can pull 100-400 of the best stills from all of your original footage and then line them up in a Google Sheet for you to check off which ones you want processed. That way, you’re also getting a professional photographer at a fraction of the cost!  (starts at $400 for 40 pictures and then it’s $10/ea. after that)
Footage Logging
If anyone on your end would like to edit and work with the footage, then we can provide our organized and ranked work as well as apply basic color corrections to save a lot of time and trouble. ($300 per whole production day)
INVESTMENT
Based on our discussion and some of our possible options, here is a two-column quote with the differences highlighted in yellow.
Let me know if you’d like to adjust the line-items any further.
Low-End
This could be taken lower. For example, if we took out the pictures and if you created the captions on your own, that’d save $1,000. And if we took the main branding video from 2.5 down to 2-minutes, that’d save $600 and then we could probably make one song work for that piece instead of two, which would save another $400. So all of that would take $2,000 off.
High-End
I feel like we’ll probably need a third recording day, unless we can pack two of them completely full and schedule most, if not all of the interviews after the school day. That way we could go around to the schools and get coverage all day and then record all of the interviews at night. Otherwise, I feel like we won’t get enough great shots.
OUR FOCUS
More than a video, let’s make a difference.
We know professional videos can be expensive and we know what it’s like when budgets are tight, but more than the cheapest option here, we’re trying to be the best.
Because with all the content online today, it takes something pretty powerful to actually make a difference. We can speak from our own experience on this. We scroll past average-to-bad videos all the time. It’s the ones that really resonate or blow us away that make us want to share it or reach out to learn more.
Those are the kinds of videos that truly move people. They’re the ones that inspire real change. And while they take more time, effort and money to make, our clients always seem to think they’re worth it in the end.
– Kevin Domer
Partner & Producer
Elevation Point
OUR FOCUS
More than a video, let’s make a difference.
We know professional videos can be expensive and we know what it’s like when budgets are tight, but more than the cheapest option here, we’re trying to be the best.
Because with all the content online today, it takes something pretty powerful to actually make a difference. We can speak from our own experience on this. We scroll past average-to-bad videos all the time. It’s the ones that really resonate or blow us away that make us want to share it or reach out to learn more.
Those are the kinds of videos that truly move people. They’re the ones that inspire real change. And while they take more time, effort and money to make, our clients always seem to think they’re worth it in the end.
– Kevin Domer
Partner & Producer
Elevation Point