August 1, 2024 • 20 mins
Welcome to this week's edition of the Content Combo Podcast, presented by Casual Films. Join host Thomas Elliott and our expert panel, including editors Ansh Grey and Joey Kan, along with filmmaker Richie Fowler, as they dive deep into the art of crafting authentic video stories.
In this episode, our team explores what it truly means to create video content that resonates with audiences on an emotional level. They discuss the importance of maintaining authenticity throughout the creative process, from pre-interviews and filming to editing and final delivery.
Discover the challenges and solutions in building genuine narratives, the significance of understanding a brand's unique voice, and how to foster trust and collaboration between brands and video partners. Tune in to learn how to make every story count and keep your audience engaged.
Don't miss out on insightful tips and real-world examples that can help elevate your content creation game. Follow us every Friday for more expert advice and engaging discussions on the Content Combo Podcast.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the Content Combo Podcast, presented by Casual Films.
Tune in every Friday, so you can hear from our team of experts about how to
deliver effective video content that drives results.
Every time, without fail. And now it's over to our hosts. Welcome to this week's
edition of the Content Combo Podcast.
I'm your host, Thomas Elliott, and joining me to make up the combo this week are editors Arch Gray.
(00:27):
Hello. Joey Kahn. Hey. and filmmaker Richie Fowler.
Hello. In today's podcast, we're going to be talking about crafting authentic video stories.
So let me start by asking the three of you, how would you define what an authentic
video story looks like for you in creating content?
What does that mean beyond the buzzword and what does it look like when it's done well?
(00:47):
We're crafting something, right? So we are creating, I guess like real and in
the moment, but then we're creating something else in terms of the product, the final vision of it.
So I guess for me, it would be more looking at it in the point of view of something
that's authentic in a way that you're telling the story in a way that's true
to whatever intention or meaning it is.
And then I guess something that feels real. So I guess when audiences watch
(01:10):
it, it feels like it's relatable, it resonates, I guess something along those lines.
If I wanna see something authentic, I'll know because I won't want to like turn
it off after two seconds.
So that's a good feeling for authenticity it's a good feeling for authenticity that's like the.
Idiot proof check or whatever you call it the idiot test for
(01:32):
authenticity for me yeah i think it's in the word right authentically
it has to be real it has to be something that connects with
the viewers and if it connects with them on an emotional level
where they want to just keep watching that means you've
hit the gold mine and that's where authentic video
story really comes to play for me like personally i
feel like an authentic story from a brand point of view is anything
(01:54):
that feels like it's authentic to that brand it doesn't necessarily have to
be a talking heads interview video it doesn't have to be it's just something
that feels like it's a genuine story like i'm not necessarily being sold i'm
being treated like an adult and i'm being kind of presented with a story that
feels like it is something that i would actually want to watch so even if you
think about content that can be authentic you know entertainment content like
(02:16):
things that entertain me can still be authentic because I'm watching it and
I'm entertained and I didn't turn it off because I just didn't feel like I was
being sold the whole time. Is that relevant in that conversation or?
I think so. Yeah. It's like a soft sell, not like a hard sell.
Yeah. I mean, I feel like in today's audiences, because there's so much like
visual culture or visual, like we access imagery and sort of videos in so many different ways.
(02:39):
So I think people are more subconsciously aware of when they're being hard sold
something And people, I feel like depending on the market, they're getting more and more aware of it.
So I feel like when you can craft that story that resonates,
feels authentic, it's just so much more stronger, you know?
So I feel like brands are trying to do that more often. You can definitely see
that in Asia where they're pivoting to more real human stories,
(02:59):
something that's relatable that the audience feels, oh, that could be me or,
you know, that could be my dad or my daughter or my son or whatever,
or my sister, you know, so. Like a relatable factor.
Yeah. Or even an emotional factor.
I mean, I think that's something that particularly in our marketplace,
a lot of content for a long time has not been particularly emotional or it's been hyper emotional,
which is again, the style often of the storytelling here can
(03:22):
be quite hyper emotional if you watch tvb yeah it's like
drama on television it's like hyper emotional it's not reality
oh my uncle suddenly landed in the hospital everyone
cry now and it's like yeah yeah and
i think part of that authentic movement is like pulling
it back to yeah oh no that's like
authentic emotion i'm actually touched by that story it resonates
(03:43):
with me i think as you were saying like it it's a story that is authentic to
my experience and maybe sometimes authentic to my experience with that brand
or that organization that's telling that story in the content space while we
do know that some brands and businesses are more human than others do you think
every brand can tell authentic stories yes definitely.
For the sake of this podcast yes no you're actually
(04:06):
it's true like you just have to find it you know they may
not even know it themselves but there's always something there
yeah oh i guess do do the research properly and
you'll be able to find something yeah well i guess inherently brands are
trying to connect with their market their consumers so i feel
like yes in a way like they can but i don't know because i feel like you know
sometimes people do really like very creative and out there kind of imagery
(04:28):
or visuals or storytelling and i think that could be part of the brand i mean
interestingly we were talking at our event that we had you know back in april
23rd april 23rd 2024 2024, future of content video marketing in Asia.
Very good plug. I think we were talking with Matt Booth from HSBC and I sort
of pointed the thing of like, well, how does a brand like a bank feel authentic?
(04:49):
Cause that's like a real challenge, right? Cause if I'm a consumer,
I don't tend to think of a bank as being particularly.
Human even though there are humans that work there and even
though there is human interaction it's not a brand that
you immediately doesn't have a touchy-feely vibe to it how do
you think brands like that can be okay you know a banking organization
i mean i think insurance is different insurance is quite easy to be human
banking is quite hard i think governments struggle with doing human
(05:12):
advertising sometimes what are our thoughts on that exactly i
mean that's exactly why they want to pivot to more human stories
because they understand they know that their perception is they
are like a body corporate they are a corporate organization
and with that comes a pre-perception of it but at
the end of the day you know these are humans running the company they're
selling products and services for humans you know
(05:33):
to consume and to use and i think that's part of the reason why we see a lot
of big corporations trying to tell stories of especially their employees and
the people behind the scenes you know when you break down the facade of what
is the company it is at the end of the day run by humans and run by people and
and that's why it's set up through however many years that the perception of
them has changed so much.
(05:53):
I think the other side of that, I mean, you're right, is that companies are
made of people. People have stories.
I think often one of the ways for brands that maybe struggle with that authenticity
lens is to actually look inward or to look at their customers and go,
how do we tell their stories? How do we tell their experience?
Make that experience our own without it feeling icky. The key part in that when
we do that as creators is to try and tell the story where really the brand gets
(06:15):
the benefit of the authenticity, but the story is about the story.
You try and almost, in a way, take the brand as much out of the equation as possible.
If we're talking about a customer story, let's make this story really that customer's
experience. Let's make it this employee's experience.
Because in the end, and I think that's a hard thing if you're a communications
manager or you're a brand manager or whatever, you're kind of sitting there
(06:36):
going, how do I sandwich brand into that story?
But in a way, I honestly feel like the less you talk about that and the more
that you just talk about the story and let the story run and just have your
logo at the end, the more people sit there and go, oh, I feel...
Really attached to that story because i was involved in that story you
know well if you think about like corporate sponsorship things
(06:58):
like for like example like rugby sevens like sponsored by
hsbc right i mean you'll just have
this thing like saying oh well we have this great
event blah blah oh but it's also sponsored by hsbc and
then people have this image that's like grown with them if you sponsor it every
year every year every year they'll be like oh hsbc supports like rugby you know
we support sports like blah blah it's not just a bank and you know They have
(07:21):
some sort of corporate responsibility going on there that they want to give back to the community.
And that makes them more human in that sense.
And that's already a story you could do. And that's a big picture thing.
But you could also do that with customer stories or their employees that work there and everything.
I guess there's that route where they can do events and stuff that connects
(07:45):
to people and sort of draws some publicity as well. But I mean,
I kind of agree with Thomas in the way that I feel like a lot of brands should
stop trying to hard sell too much.
Because, you know, especially when you're a big established brand,
people know your image, people know your brand, people kind of,
you know, they know what you're doing.
So I feel like that's why it would be a nice kind of thing to explore where
you have a story and then you have the brand at the end, you know,
(08:07):
and you connect that two together. It's quite a nice path.
From your experience around the table, what do you think are some of the best
ways to extract a truly authentic story on video?
So, from process through to tips on how to keep a story real,
often there is that thing when
a brief lands for us and a client comes and says, you know, I want this.
I mean, it's such a buzzword today. I want this to feel authentic.
(08:30):
I want it to feel genuine.
But obviously, you know, we go through a bunch of stages from creative development
to then shooting a story to then editing it.
How do we keep that kind of authenticity all the way through?
And what are the ways that we kind of work to develop that?
I think one of the ways that I feel like we're different from other companies
is that you actually have to be with the client every step of the way to kind
(08:54):
of like guide them through the process, because sometimes,
as you said just now, one of the content managers or brand managers might be
scared that they're not putting enough of their own branding in there,
but you just have to really get them to understand what the end goal is.
And if they are on board with that, then it is a lot easier to get the story out.
That really depends on your relationship with the brand manager or communications
(09:19):
manager or at that particular company if they believe in the vision that we've sold.
It's kind of like selling the vision, right? Like that's what you do at the
start, but then it's sort of like maintaining that vision.
Yeah, because sometimes they get scared halfway. They're like,
oh, no, is this what we want to be doing?
You know? I think like any filmmaker can relate to that because it's sort of
(09:40):
like in the way that, you know, even if you're doing a film,
like you have the intent of what that film is going to be and then
it's you got to kind of you know i know a lot of directors love
to talk about their vision i kind of avoid that
i get i get the sentiment of talking about your vision but you
know like please i think it is that sort of thing that
you get diluted along the way you can find that you start
(10:01):
out with this really great intent of telling an authentic story and then
by the time you get to the final cut you sit there and go wow we we
talked a lot about everything apart from that person's story
or you know i feel like uh i think as
joey mentioned like working with good brand managers and also
good like people in marketing communications like actually
as a creative you always want to do out there
(10:22):
more interesting creative stuff i feel like part i know
and part of that is communicating with the brand manager or the comms person
and and so i guess my point is like part of it is kind of educating and it is
kind of having that knowledge and understanding of the process and and i know
you don't like vision but the vision you know what's what's What's the intention
of it and what's the vision?
(10:43):
So it's not that I don't like it. I just feel the word is- It's dirty.
It's overused, you know? From your own point of view, Arch, how do you feel
like, you know, when you've done an edit, I mean, cause there's also that thing,
right? Like we don't make this content in a bubble.
You sort of make it and then you kind of get it to a point where you like it internally.
And it's almost like, here's my baby that I've just spent, you know,
(11:03):
nine months growing in the womb and I've just pushed it out to the client and the client's like.
That's what the baby looks like you know this is what i'm like really i
think it's important to have like a lot of like transparency as well
right especially with like any brands that you basically like are shooting for
like just letting them know how the story flow is going to actually happen and
how it's actually going to like structure is going to look like even during
(11:24):
the for example like interview shoot even during an interview shoot some key
things are going to be there because it has the sentimental value or like connection
to the story like emotional connection and that thing is quite critical because
i mean if you look at films that's what
almost all good films have. It's an emotional connection. They have emotion.
So it's bringing like that emotional value into like corporate shoots,
(11:44):
corporate videos, and especially customer videos. And that thing is a skill in itself.
So as creators, filmmakers, editors, storytellers, what are some of the challenges
that you all personally face?
And I'm going to narrow this down to just like the lens of say,
branded documentary narrative storytelling, just so we've got something easy to look at it with.
What are some of the challenges you face in creating authentic content?
(12:05):
Whether it is you know finding those moments whether
it is uh finding the story what what is it
that you find is the most challenging aspect of building an
authentic story one thing i had a personal experience with with a project recently
was that we had a interviewee i would say like or a talent as we like to call
it what what you guys do is usually we have like a pre-interview so we kind
(12:29):
of know the person's backstory and you kind of have an idea of what kind of questions to
ask and like in during the pre-interview questions like they were like totally
all good and like you know seemed like a normal person and very relaxed when
it came to like shooting the actual interview the person turned into like a
robot and all all the answers were like.
Like like not even forming a complete sentence and
(12:52):
so you then had to go in afterwards and recreate
all his sentences from the quarter or
half sentences that he spoke and that's
is a little bit challenging that can be a challenge i
mean it is when you're dealing with particularly in that that
lens of storytelling real people i think the challenge
i always face is how can you remove as much pressure from
(13:14):
that person and you know doing a pre-interview is a
great start because you can at least meet them it's no
pressure it's a chat it's hey how are you let me
ask you some of the questions i'm going to ask you become sort of interested
in them and then in a way you're asking
questions but what you're really doing is trying to build trust and build rapport
trying to suss out the situation yeah and i think
when that's done well you know sometimes there still can be surprises i know
(13:38):
the story you're talking about and you know that was surprising the pre-interview
was amazing but that could happen it can also go the other way like it'd be
really terrible in the pre-interview and then you can get get there and like
well actually everything's fine they're very eloquent they're very confident yeah,
So it can go both ways. From a filmmaking and shooting point of view,
what do you think are the key elements in building that authentic story?
(13:59):
Well, first of all, it's finding a good subject. I think that's very important.
So I think, as you guys have mentioned, I feel like pre-interviews,
pre-production, doing research, really honing in on your subject and making
sure they align to what you're crafting, what your intention is,
as a filmmaker, as a director, as whatever.
So finding a good subject, the act of filming it as well, I feel like part of
(14:22):
that's like if I'm working for directors if I'm working with Thomas like on
a on a project I think part of it is under or like,
you know doing a location scout a recce again Depending on the intention of
the story. Is it filming in their house?
You know we representing who they are or they are we trying to show them in
like a different light something That's more than that, you know having good communication,
you know finding a good subject, you know filming when
(14:45):
when you film it Try to make sure it's not forced
or anything that they you know that they feel comfortable in
front of camera because at the end of the day they a lot of people do
feel very vulnerable because it's quite an you know i'm
it's quite foreign you know you don't often have a
camera or whole film crew in your face or in your house you know and you're
like 10 people and you're like okay tell me about the time your cat exactly
(15:07):
and you're like oh no exactly i mean sometimes it's worse than the cat sometimes
you it's you know a more higher family member not that there is any Any lack
of emotion of a cat passing away,
by the way, just to be clear. We all like cats. We all like cats.
You know, I actually try and use that word authentic to really guide me through the process.
(15:29):
You know, I think I probably said this to all of you in this room at various points.
For me, I always believe if you're going to do these stories,
you have to really care about them.
And you have to research it like you're going to go undercover.
You're going to be like a cop. You're going to kind of like live that world.
So, you know if it's gonna be a story about somebody who lives in community
(15:49):
housing somewhere in another country You got to go you got to know what that
smells like you've got to know what it feels like You know how hot it is.
You've got to kind of go and experience that world like adapting yourself in
their shoes basically totally and I think and I think the other side of it is
you need to shoot that in a really
unconsidered way because I think one of the things that really feels inauthentic
to me is when you do one of those stories and it's all like beautiful landscape shots and
(16:13):
a magic hour of like perfectly manicured
stuff and you kind of sit there and go but we're telling a story about you
know somebody who lives in community housing and they don't see their world
that way like you know you've got to kind of take that into
the situation of the story and just try and follow that all the way through
like in the editing and everything else because often you know the art of editing
is condensing down that story to a 45 minute to one hour interview down to 90
(16:36):
seconds that's the craft in
itself you know we are we are making a product at the end of the day and.
It's not it's not like we're watching a live stream of someone's life right
so i think we have to make sure we hit all those beats all
those points all right so i'm going to ask one last question how important
do you think it is for brands to work with a video partner that understands not
(16:57):
just authenticity but that brand's particular
approach to authenticity i think very even if
it's like big brands sometimes they don't have the creative process yeah they
have an idea they want to shoot it but yeah is the idea actually
authentic no it's not most of the time it's not so that's
where like company like casual comes in we do creative as well we
basically nurture them put them in the right track based on
(17:17):
their branding based on their story and just put them in the
right direction and make amazing videos you know i won't disagree with that
you have to get the brands to trust you slowly over time yeah because they're
talking about like i don't know however many millions of dollars uh that of
their like marketing budget that they're risking like and this is like you know maybe it's putting.
(17:38):
Themselves out on like the public image and so
like a lot of people can be really stressed
about like well this is the wrong move for us and you know
how often do we see that i mean like when we first work with
the brand yeah we we can see that sort of like oh
god are we this is new oh no i don't
know if this is good yeah and then there's that usually that
(17:59):
sweet spot around edit two or three yeah when they sort of
like go oh no i'm i'm cool with this now i
get it and then you know they either become addicted to it
or they don't but but i mean i i think it's very important you
know i think we talked about i talked about this earlier where it's like
part of it is education it is the understanding and
and part of that's like these brands or brand managers or marketing people whoever
(18:22):
they they do really need to understand their own brand identity and what what
they're really trying to achieve so i think i mean that's a great question i
think that's what a lot of people should think about you know especially when
they're approaching agencies in production houses or storytellers?
Well, I think also from the agency or production partner thing,
it's caring enough about the relationship to be somebody who will challenge
(18:43):
and somebody who will ask questions.
And because that really, to me, is what creative collaboration is about.
It's about you can tell me what you're thinking. I can tell you what I'm thinking.
Neither of us is deeply going to be offended by that because at the end of the
day, what we're all working towards is having the best outcome for the story
and for the brand. And so I think we should be as caring about that as brands
(19:04):
should be. We see that a lot.
We also see brands that come and work with us because they've gone,
yeah, I've just done a video and it's not worked and I've not found the process to be this.
And I think a large part of that is, you know, how you engage with people and
how much time you spend investing in that relationship.
Any final thoughts on comments on authenticity before we close this off for
today? It would be really great to have like a fluffy animal video.
(19:27):
An authentic fluffy animal video? Yeah. Okay, so if there are any brands out
there looking to do a fluffy authentic animal video, we're here for you Yeah,
we understand those things a lot too. Anything else Richie, Ansh?
I guess really pressing home the point that we really care about the product we.
Music.
(20:08):
Thank you very much everybody thanks for joining us on this edition of the content
combo podcast as always i'm your host thomas elliott and thanks again to the
combo arch gray joey khan and filmmaker richie fowler for the contributions
to our show please do tune in every friday for more of the content combo and
don't forget to follow us on casual films website but i know.
Music.
Welcome to the Content Combo Podcast, presented by Casual Films.
Tune in every Friday, so you can hear from our team of experts about how to
deliver effective video content that drives results.
Every time, without fail. And now it's over to our hosts. Welcome to this week's
edition of the Content Combo Podcast.
I'm your host, Thomas Elliott, and joining me to make up the combo this week are editors Arch Gray.
(00:27):
Hello. Joey Kahn. Hey. and filmmaker Richie Fowler.
Hello. In today's podcast, we're going to be talking about crafting authentic video stories.
So let me start by asking the three of you, how would you define what an authentic
video story looks like for you in creating content?
What does that mean beyond the buzzword and what does it look like when it's done well?
(00:47):
We're crafting something, right? So we are creating, I guess like real and in
the moment, but then we're creating something else in terms of the product, the final vision of it.
So I guess for me, it would be more looking at it in the point of view of something
that's authentic in a way that you're telling the story in a way that's true
to whatever intention or meaning it is.
And then I guess something that feels real. So I guess when audiences watch
(01:10):
it, it feels like it's relatable, it resonates, I guess something along those lines.
If I wanna see something authentic, I'll know because I won't want to like turn
it off after two seconds.
So that's a good feeling for authenticity it's a good feeling for authenticity that's like the.
Idiot proof check or whatever you call it the idiot test for
(01:32):
authenticity for me yeah i think it's in the word right authentically
it has to be real it has to be something that connects with
the viewers and if it connects with them on an emotional level
where they want to just keep watching that means you've
hit the gold mine and that's where authentic video
story really comes to play for me like personally i
feel like an authentic story from a brand point of view is anything
(01:54):
that feels like it's authentic to that brand it doesn't necessarily have to
be a talking heads interview video it doesn't have to be it's just something
that feels like it's a genuine story like i'm not necessarily being sold i'm
being treated like an adult and i'm being kind of presented with a story that
feels like it is something that i would actually want to watch so even if you
think about content that can be authentic you know entertainment content like
(02:16):
things that entertain me can still be authentic because I'm watching it and
I'm entertained and I didn't turn it off because I just didn't feel like I was
being sold the whole time. Is that relevant in that conversation or?
I think so. Yeah. It's like a soft sell, not like a hard sell.
Yeah. I mean, I feel like in today's audiences, because there's so much like
visual culture or visual, like we access imagery and sort of videos in so many different ways.
(02:39):
So I think people are more subconsciously aware of when they're being hard sold
something And people, I feel like depending on the market, they're getting more and more aware of it.
So I feel like when you can craft that story that resonates,
feels authentic, it's just so much more stronger, you know?
So I feel like brands are trying to do that more often. You can definitely see
that in Asia where they're pivoting to more real human stories,
(02:59):
something that's relatable that the audience feels, oh, that could be me or,
you know, that could be my dad or my daughter or my son or whatever,
or my sister, you know, so. Like a relatable factor.
Yeah. Or even an emotional factor.
I mean, I think that's something that particularly in our marketplace,
a lot of content for a long time has not been particularly emotional or it's been hyper emotional,
which is again, the style often of the storytelling here can
(03:22):
be quite hyper emotional if you watch tvb yeah it's like
drama on television it's like hyper emotional it's not reality
oh my uncle suddenly landed in the hospital everyone
cry now and it's like yeah yeah and
i think part of that authentic movement is like pulling
it back to yeah oh no that's like
authentic emotion i'm actually touched by that story it resonates
(03:43):
with me i think as you were saying like it it's a story that is authentic to
my experience and maybe sometimes authentic to my experience with that brand
or that organization that's telling that story in the content space while we
do know that some brands and businesses are more human than others do you think
every brand can tell authentic stories yes definitely.
For the sake of this podcast yes no you're actually
(04:06):
it's true like you just have to find it you know they may
not even know it themselves but there's always something there
yeah oh i guess do do the research properly and
you'll be able to find something yeah well i guess inherently brands are
trying to connect with their market their consumers so i feel
like yes in a way like they can but i don't know because i feel like you know
sometimes people do really like very creative and out there kind of imagery
(04:28):
or visuals or storytelling and i think that could be part of the brand i mean
interestingly we were talking at our event that we had you know back in april
23rd april 23rd 2024 2024, future of content video marketing in Asia.
Very good plug. I think we were talking with Matt Booth from HSBC and I sort
of pointed the thing of like, well, how does a brand like a bank feel authentic?
(04:49):
Cause that's like a real challenge, right? Cause if I'm a consumer,
I don't tend to think of a bank as being particularly.
Human even though there are humans that work there and even
though there is human interaction it's not a brand that
you immediately doesn't have a touchy-feely vibe to it how do
you think brands like that can be okay you know a banking organization
i mean i think insurance is different insurance is quite easy to be human
banking is quite hard i think governments struggle with doing human
(05:12):
advertising sometimes what are our thoughts on that exactly i
mean that's exactly why they want to pivot to more human stories
because they understand they know that their perception is they
are like a body corporate they are a corporate organization
and with that comes a pre-perception of it but at
the end of the day you know these are humans running the company they're
selling products and services for humans you know
(05:33):
to consume and to use and i think that's part of the reason why we see a lot
of big corporations trying to tell stories of especially their employees and
the people behind the scenes you know when you break down the facade of what
is the company it is at the end of the day run by humans and run by people and
and that's why it's set up through however many years that the perception of
them has changed so much.
(05:53):
I think the other side of that, I mean, you're right, is that companies are
made of people. People have stories.
I think often one of the ways for brands that maybe struggle with that authenticity
lens is to actually look inward or to look at their customers and go,
how do we tell their stories? How do we tell their experience?
Make that experience our own without it feeling icky. The key part in that when
we do that as creators is to try and tell the story where really the brand gets
(06:15):
the benefit of the authenticity, but the story is about the story.
You try and almost, in a way, take the brand as much out of the equation as possible.
If we're talking about a customer story, let's make this story really that customer's
experience. Let's make it this employee's experience.
Because in the end, and I think that's a hard thing if you're a communications
manager or you're a brand manager or whatever, you're kind of sitting there
(06:36):
going, how do I sandwich brand into that story?
But in a way, I honestly feel like the less you talk about that and the more
that you just talk about the story and let the story run and just have your
logo at the end, the more people sit there and go, oh, I feel...
Really attached to that story because i was involved in that story you
know well if you think about like corporate sponsorship things
(06:58):
like for like example like rugby sevens like sponsored by
hsbc right i mean you'll just have
this thing like saying oh well we have this great
event blah blah oh but it's also sponsored by hsbc and
then people have this image that's like grown with them if you sponsor it every
year every year every year they'll be like oh hsbc supports like rugby you know
we support sports like blah blah it's not just a bank and you know They have
(07:21):
some sort of corporate responsibility going on there that they want to give back to the community.
And that makes them more human in that sense.
And that's already a story you could do. And that's a big picture thing.
But you could also do that with customer stories or their employees that work there and everything.
I guess there's that route where they can do events and stuff that connects
(07:45):
to people and sort of draws some publicity as well. But I mean,
I kind of agree with Thomas in the way that I feel like a lot of brands should
stop trying to hard sell too much.
Because, you know, especially when you're a big established brand,
people know your image, people know your brand, people kind of,
you know, they know what you're doing.
So I feel like that's why it would be a nice kind of thing to explore where
you have a story and then you have the brand at the end, you know,
(08:07):
and you connect that two together. It's quite a nice path.
From your experience around the table, what do you think are some of the best
ways to extract a truly authentic story on video?
So, from process through to tips on how to keep a story real,
often there is that thing when
a brief lands for us and a client comes and says, you know, I want this.
I mean, it's such a buzzword today. I want this to feel authentic.
(08:30):
I want it to feel genuine.
But obviously, you know, we go through a bunch of stages from creative development
to then shooting a story to then editing it.
How do we keep that kind of authenticity all the way through?
And what are the ways that we kind of work to develop that?
I think one of the ways that I feel like we're different from other companies
is that you actually have to be with the client every step of the way to kind
(08:54):
of like guide them through the process, because sometimes,
as you said just now, one of the content managers or brand managers might be
scared that they're not putting enough of their own branding in there,
but you just have to really get them to understand what the end goal is.
And if they are on board with that, then it is a lot easier to get the story out.
That really depends on your relationship with the brand manager or communications
(09:19):
manager or at that particular company if they believe in the vision that we've sold.
It's kind of like selling the vision, right? Like that's what you do at the
start, but then it's sort of like maintaining that vision.
Yeah, because sometimes they get scared halfway. They're like,
oh, no, is this what we want to be doing?
You know? I think like any filmmaker can relate to that because it's sort of
(09:40):
like in the way that, you know, even if you're doing a film,
like you have the intent of what that film is going to be and then
it's you got to kind of you know i know a lot of directors love
to talk about their vision i kind of avoid that
i get i get the sentiment of talking about your vision but you
know like please i think it is that sort of thing that
you get diluted along the way you can find that you start
(10:01):
out with this really great intent of telling an authentic story and then
by the time you get to the final cut you sit there and go wow we we
talked a lot about everything apart from that person's story
or you know i feel like uh i think as
joey mentioned like working with good brand managers and also
good like people in marketing communications like actually
as a creative you always want to do out there
(10:22):
more interesting creative stuff i feel like part i know
and part of that is communicating with the brand manager or the comms person
and and so i guess my point is like part of it is kind of educating and it is
kind of having that knowledge and understanding of the process and and i know
you don't like vision but the vision you know what's what's What's the intention
of it and what's the vision?
(10:43):
So it's not that I don't like it. I just feel the word is- It's dirty.
It's overused, you know? From your own point of view, Arch, how do you feel
like, you know, when you've done an edit, I mean, cause there's also that thing,
right? Like we don't make this content in a bubble.
You sort of make it and then you kind of get it to a point where you like it internally.
And it's almost like, here's my baby that I've just spent, you know,
(11:03):
nine months growing in the womb and I've just pushed it out to the client and the client's like.
That's what the baby looks like you know this is what i'm like really i
think it's important to have like a lot of like transparency as well
right especially with like any brands that you basically like are shooting for
like just letting them know how the story flow is going to actually happen and
how it's actually going to like structure is going to look like even during
(11:24):
the for example like interview shoot even during an interview shoot some key
things are going to be there because it has the sentimental value or like connection
to the story like emotional connection and that thing is quite critical because
i mean if you look at films that's what
almost all good films have. It's an emotional connection. They have emotion.
So it's bringing like that emotional value into like corporate shoots,
(11:44):
corporate videos, and especially customer videos. And that thing is a skill in itself.
So as creators, filmmakers, editors, storytellers, what are some of the challenges
that you all personally face?
And I'm going to narrow this down to just like the lens of say,
branded documentary narrative storytelling, just so we've got something easy to look at it with.
What are some of the challenges you face in creating authentic content?
(12:05):
Whether it is you know finding those moments whether
it is uh finding the story what what is it
that you find is the most challenging aspect of building an
authentic story one thing i had a personal experience with with a project recently
was that we had a interviewee i would say like or a talent as we like to call
it what what you guys do is usually we have like a pre-interview so we kind
(12:29):
of know the person's backstory and you kind of have an idea of what kind of questions to
ask and like in during the pre-interview questions like they were like totally
all good and like you know seemed like a normal person and very relaxed when
it came to like shooting the actual interview the person turned into like a
robot and all all the answers were like.
Like like not even forming a complete sentence and
(12:52):
so you then had to go in afterwards and recreate
all his sentences from the quarter or
half sentences that he spoke and that's
is a little bit challenging that can be a challenge i
mean it is when you're dealing with particularly in that that
lens of storytelling real people i think the challenge
i always face is how can you remove as much pressure from
(13:14):
that person and you know doing a pre-interview is a
great start because you can at least meet them it's no
pressure it's a chat it's hey how are you let me
ask you some of the questions i'm going to ask you become sort of interested
in them and then in a way you're asking
questions but what you're really doing is trying to build trust and build rapport
trying to suss out the situation yeah and i think
when that's done well you know sometimes there still can be surprises i know
(13:38):
the story you're talking about and you know that was surprising the pre-interview
was amazing but that could happen it can also go the other way like it'd be
really terrible in the pre-interview and then you can get get there and like
well actually everything's fine they're very eloquent they're very confident yeah,
So it can go both ways. From a filmmaking and shooting point of view,
what do you think are the key elements in building that authentic story?
(13:59):
Well, first of all, it's finding a good subject. I think that's very important.
So I think, as you guys have mentioned, I feel like pre-interviews,
pre-production, doing research, really honing in on your subject and making
sure they align to what you're crafting, what your intention is,
as a filmmaker, as a director, as whatever.
So finding a good subject, the act of filming it as well, I feel like part of
(14:22):
that's like if I'm working for directors if I'm working with Thomas like on
a on a project I think part of it is under or like,
you know doing a location scout a recce again Depending on the intention of
the story. Is it filming in their house?
You know we representing who they are or they are we trying to show them in
like a different light something That's more than that, you know having good communication,
you know finding a good subject, you know filming when
(14:45):
when you film it Try to make sure it's not forced
or anything that they you know that they feel comfortable in
front of camera because at the end of the day they a lot of people do
feel very vulnerable because it's quite an you know i'm
it's quite foreign you know you don't often have a
camera or whole film crew in your face or in your house you know and you're
like 10 people and you're like okay tell me about the time your cat exactly
(15:07):
and you're like oh no exactly i mean sometimes it's worse than the cat sometimes
you it's you know a more higher family member not that there is any Any lack
of emotion of a cat passing away,
by the way, just to be clear. We all like cats. We all like cats.
You know, I actually try and use that word authentic to really guide me through the process.
(15:29):
You know, I think I probably said this to all of you in this room at various points.
For me, I always believe if you're going to do these stories,
you have to really care about them.
And you have to research it like you're going to go undercover.
You're going to be like a cop. You're going to kind of like live that world.
So, you know if it's gonna be a story about somebody who lives in community
(15:49):
housing somewhere in another country You got to go you got to know what that
smells like you've got to know what it feels like You know how hot it is.
You've got to kind of go and experience that world like adapting yourself in
their shoes basically totally and I think and I think the other side of it is
you need to shoot that in a really
unconsidered way because I think one of the things that really feels inauthentic
to me is when you do one of those stories and it's all like beautiful landscape shots and
(16:13):
a magic hour of like perfectly manicured
stuff and you kind of sit there and go but we're telling a story about you
know somebody who lives in community housing and they don't see their world
that way like you know you've got to kind of take that into
the situation of the story and just try and follow that all the way through
like in the editing and everything else because often you know the art of editing
is condensing down that story to a 45 minute to one hour interview down to 90
(16:36):
seconds that's the craft in
itself you know we are we are making a product at the end of the day and.
It's not it's not like we're watching a live stream of someone's life right
so i think we have to make sure we hit all those beats all
those points all right so i'm going to ask one last question how important
do you think it is for brands to work with a video partner that understands not
(16:57):
just authenticity but that brand's particular
approach to authenticity i think very even if
it's like big brands sometimes they don't have the creative process yeah they
have an idea they want to shoot it but yeah is the idea actually
authentic no it's not most of the time it's not so that's
where like company like casual comes in we do creative as well we
basically nurture them put them in the right track based on
(17:17):
their branding based on their story and just put them in the
right direction and make amazing videos you know i won't disagree with that
you have to get the brands to trust you slowly over time yeah because they're
talking about like i don't know however many millions of dollars uh that of
their like marketing budget that they're risking like and this is like you know maybe it's putting.
(17:38):
Themselves out on like the public image and so
like a lot of people can be really stressed
about like well this is the wrong move for us and you know
how often do we see that i mean like when we first work with
the brand yeah we we can see that sort of like oh
god are we this is new oh no i don't
know if this is good yeah and then there's that usually that
(17:59):
sweet spot around edit two or three yeah when they sort of
like go oh no i'm i'm cool with this now i
get it and then you know they either become addicted to it
or they don't but but i mean i i think it's very important you
know i think we talked about i talked about this earlier where it's like
part of it is education it is the understanding and
and part of that's like these brands or brand managers or marketing people whoever
(18:22):
they they do really need to understand their own brand identity and what what
they're really trying to achieve so i think i mean that's a great question i
think that's what a lot of people should think about you know especially when
they're approaching agencies in production houses or storytellers?
Well, I think also from the agency or production partner thing,
it's caring enough about the relationship to be somebody who will challenge
(18:43):
and somebody who will ask questions.
And because that really, to me, is what creative collaboration is about.
It's about you can tell me what you're thinking. I can tell you what I'm thinking.
Neither of us is deeply going to be offended by that because at the end of the
day, what we're all working towards is having the best outcome for the story
and for the brand. And so I think we should be as caring about that as brands
(19:04):
should be. We see that a lot.
We also see brands that come and work with us because they've gone,
yeah, I've just done a video and it's not worked and I've not found the process to be this.
And I think a large part of that is, you know, how you engage with people and
how much time you spend investing in that relationship.
Any final thoughts on comments on authenticity before we close this off for
today? It would be really great to have like a fluffy animal video.
(19:27):
An authentic fluffy animal video? Yeah. Okay, so if there are any brands out
there looking to do a fluffy authentic animal video, we're here for you Yeah,
we understand those things a lot too. Anything else Richie, Ansh?
I guess really pressing home the point that we really care about the product we.
Music.
(20:08):
Thank you very much everybody thanks for joining us on this edition of the content
combo podcast as always i'm your host thomas elliott and thanks again to the
combo arch gray joey khan and filmmaker richie fowler for the contributions
to our show please do tune in every friday for more of the content combo and
don't forget to follow us on casual films website but i know.
Music.
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