Proposal
St. John's Lutheran School
Fall 2020
INTRODUCTION
After speaking on the phone, it sounds like the best way to start would be by making a virtual tour with thirteen 360-degree photos spotlighting the best parts of the St. John’s Lutheran School campus. (the tour would look like this example for Lake Forest Country Day School) St. John’s could then utilize this along with live virtual tour capabilities (demo video) to explain and show prospective parents the facilities throughout the pandemic and upcoming enrollment season.
Then in the Spring of 2021, if special funds can be secured, we could explore the possibility of producing a short admissions video for the school to help boost enrollment for the next 3-5 years. We could also edit this footage into a short video series that could be added into the virtual tour to show the various spaces in action.
The rest of this web proposal will focus on the various video options and services.
INTRO VIDEO EXAMPLES
Intro Videos are like short 1-2 minute music videos with a spoken welcome message that introduces the community.
More General
We could produce something more broad like this intro video for the Diocese of Kalamazoo Catholic Schools that expresses their deeper mission and purpose. Just keep in mind that it was shot over the course of three days at eight different school buildings, so while yours could look similar, it would probably be scaled back a little bit.
Speak to COVID-19
“Never let a severe crisis go to waste.”~ Rahm Emanuel
We will (hopefully) never see a pandemic like this again in our lifetimes, which means you’ll never have an inspiring story like this again about how your school innovated to keep everyone connected and engaged. Or if we can’t avoid seeing face masks and social distancing measures in the footage, then we can simply acknowledge the pandemic and tie it into a broader message or theme for the year like we did in this video for Cathedral High School.
MUSIC VIDEO
Lastly, we could produce a simpler music video like this one for Infant Jesus of Prague School in Flossmoor, IL. This is just like an intro video, only without a spoken message.
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! :) Check back in five years and I’m sure that map will be full.
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 12 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
Here is a two-column quote with the virtual tour on the left and an admissions video on the right.
Let me know if you’d like to adjust the line-items any further.
Virtual Tour
This would be for 14 360-pictures of 13 locations throughout the St. John’s campus, outlined here in our consultation sheet.
Admissions Video
The closed captions and pictures pack added on $750 (+ 15% fee) so the video alone came out to $4,887.50. And then if we wait to record this in the spring and you’d like to add on a half day at that time for a special event (e.g. field day, graduation, etc.), that would add on about $1,250 per half day. Otherwise, we can stick to one whole day for general campus coverage.
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