Efficiently creating an Evergreen video to tell their history and future.
Originally coming to us for a limited use campaign video, we used the same footage and scripted interviews to give them a second video with a shelf-life of many years.
Last year, The Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul in downtown Charleston, reached out to us about making a video for their building campaign to help repair some damage to their 280-year-old building – the steeple of the church was in danger of collapsing. They needed to raise money to rebuild this historic structure, reaching as many people as possible.
We checked out their website and noticed that they did not have anything explaining who they are and what they’re about, also known as an evergreen video. This kind of video has a usable shelf-life of many years, hence the name “evergreen.”
We went back to them with the idea to do both a campaign video and evergreen video at the same time. We explained that their campaign would eventually be over and that video obsolete, but that a video explaining their background and mission could last for several years. By having this plan in place, we were able to get additional with the plan to make an “about” video without having to have an additional filming day, saving them money in the long run. During the one film day, we also conducted scripted interviews with a teleprompter, to be used across both videos.
They loved the idea of killing two birds with one stone – filming both their campaign video and their Evergreen video on the same day. This was a great way to save lots of money, but also get two fantastic videos out of what started out as just one.
THE PROCESS
To create an Evergreen video, we spend a couple weeks writing a script with the client to come up with the exact words that they want in the script. We can write the script from scratch or write it using copy that’s found on the client’s website or company brochures. We have found that 125 words is about one minute of talking on camera. With the Cathedral of Saint Luke and St. Paul, they decided they wanted a two minute video that could have a five year shelf life, explaining who they are and what they are about.
They wrote a script that was about 300 words, which we edited down some with them to be ready for filming day. We were able to use a Teleprompter and get the interviews shot in only a few minutes. We then took the footage that we had shot for their campaign video and used it on top of their Evergreen video. The final results for them were two professional videos That you can tag onto any project and can sit on your website or your social media channels for years and years
