TIPS FOR CREATING AN EFFECTIVE EXPLAINER VIDEO

At Farmore, we have a long-standing partnership with Florida-based energy company TECO Peoples Gas. They reached out to us about producing a series of entertaining explainer videos for their new RNG initiative that’s launching across Florida in the coming years.

Their one demand: we had to make an information-dense topic interesting, educational, and fun. This was something that we immediately jumped on because it presented a creative challenge that needed to be solved. In this blog, we’ll cover some of our tips and best practices for creating effective explainer videos through the lens of this project we did for TECO.

Before we get too far along, here’s a little background on the subject matter. And yes, it involves cow poop.

The Project

RNG stands for Renewable Natural Gas, and it’s produced from organic waste from things like dairy farms, landfills, and food waste. Because it’s renewable energy, it actually helps to reduce greenhouse gasses and address climate change

The biggest hurdle we were facing from a creative standpoint was: how do we make this series worth watching and something that everyone can easily relate to and understand? Our target demographic was pretty much anyone and everyone, as RNG will impact millions across the state in various regions and industries. We knew that we needed to give people a reason to engage with this initiative and the impact it will have on our state.

Establishing Tone

When you are ready to approach an explainer video project, you certainly want to determine the tone before anything else. This will guide you throughout the production process and ensure the viewer can connect with your messaging.

Early on in this project, we made the decision to have these videos feature on-camera talent delivering scripted dialogue, interspersed with animation to illustrate some of the more complex talking points. Instinctively we knew that if these videos were strictly animation and voiceover driven, they would likely feel dull or too educational. Let’s face it, would you watch an educational video about how cow manure is processed? 

Our initial creative pivot was to have talent delivering lines in a studio made to look like a lab environment. Think something like a cross between Bill Nye the Science Guy and MythBusters. We’d build out practical examples of the RNG tech and have our talent explain how it works in simple terms. In theory, we loved this idea, but as we were developing things further, it became clear that we needed to make things feel more grounded and less “science-y.” At its core, RNG is actually a pretty simple process - we really wanted to lean into this and show the blue-collar side of RNG and have the information be more relatable to the masses.

And that’s when the idea of filming our talent on an actual working dairy farm came into our minds. We’d have him walking around, taking steps over cow poo, and leaning on fences. Real-life stuff that contributes to the feeling of actually being somewhere rather than in a stuffy lab environment. This is where the tonality for the series really started to take shape and solidify. We started shifting the creative to be more information based, but presented with a humorous and light-hearted tone. We became less worried about how to illustrate certain points with contraptions in a lab, and more invested in making sure what was being communicated felt human and real.

At one point we were actually trying to think of clever ways to say “poop,” as we felt like we were using the same word too many times. We legitimately spent an hour or so in the writing process re-working the word poop at certain points in the script. It was fun, and we think that spilled over into some of our character development as well.

Casting

Talent is crucial to the success of an explainer video. Your audience needs to know, like, and trust the individual entrusted with delivering your message.

For our host, we knew we needed an individual that came across as genuine and believable, but could also give us some comedic moments as well. Our scripts called for a lot of lines to be read directly to camera, and our host needed to interact with different things around them to cement them into the world we were building for this series. Some of these were real, and some were imaginary. So needless to say, casting was critical for the success of this series as so much depended on the host.

We first partnered with a few local talent agencies and held virtual auditions, but we weren’t finding anyone we really loved. We then expanded our search to a few Atlanta-based talent agencies and that’s where we found Jason. We knew immediately he was our guy, as he strikes the perfect balance between being relatable and entertaining to watch. 

Expanding our search outside of local talent agencies was a big lesson learned for us, and it’s something that we’ve started to implement whenever we have the budget for it.

Pre-Production

Because this was a 3 video series shot over just 2 days, that meant we had to figure out a way to get 1.5 videos done per day. You don’t have to be a math major to recognize this is a logistical puzzle that requires solving. The one saving grace to this was that we had repeat dialogue for some of the scenes. There were slight script changes here and there for the repeat scenes, but for the most part, we could bundle them together to save time. This was critical to making sure we could film everything needed for all 3 videos in just 2 days.

Here at Farmore, we utilize StudioBinder on every production, and it’s become an invaluable resource for us. StudioBinder lets you consolidate scripting, scheduling, storyboarding, call sheets and more into one centralized location. It takes a bit to get used to the way things need to be laid out in order for StudioBinder to be fully optimized, but once you get used to it, it’s a powerful resource. 

To avoid the headache of working in multiple projects, we decided to consolidate all 3 scripts into a single master script document inside of StudioBinder, with a master storyboard, shot list, and production schedule for the entire series. We essentially approached this as an episodic TV series, with each video having its own unique set of shots, props, filming locations, etc, but consolidated into one larger project so we didn’t have to bounce back and forth between projects. Although this took a while to lay out correctly on the front end, it was a huge time saver as we got closer to production because all of the pertinent information was in a single project.

Once we had the scripts and shot lists inputted correctly, we were able to generate a shooting schedule for each shoot day. The way it’s laid out in StudioBinder is great too, as the information is easy to read and label, and you can also change the order of things quickly and easily. 

The last step was creating production books for our Creative Director and Producer. We used these extensively on set to make sure we were getting everything we needed. StudioBinder allows you to make director’s notes on script breakdowns, and this was huge as we could write little notes in pre-production about how we wanted the lines delivered or a shot framed. It just goes to show you that spending the extra time in pre-production is the most valuable thing you can do, as everything is informed by those decisions. 

Production / A Hurricane Story

About two weeks before production was set to begin, we started getting updates that Hurricane Ian was headed for Florida. When you live in Florida, you get used to dealing with major storms and even hurricanes, as it’s just part of living in a tropical climate. So we weren’t too worried about it. 

For our location, we had actually scouted a dairy farm in Southwest Central Florida that was perfect. Large open fields, lots of cows, and best of all - low average rainfall for that time of year. We planned out our day based on photos from the scout and were pretty much locked for production to begin.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Ian had strengthened, and it was headed straight for the dairy farm. Ian was a major category 4 storm, and it caused an estimated $50-65 billion in damage to Southwest Florida. All said, the dairy farm took on irreparable damage to its facilities and was no longer a viable shooting location. Even if we changed up the filming angles, it wouldn’t have worked as the damage was so severe.

To make matters worse, we were working with an in-demand actor who had already committed his availability to other projects. If we decided to push the shoot back, we wouldn’t have been able to work with Jason until several months later. This wasn’t an option for us, as we had agreed upon client deadlines to hit, as well as other projects in our production schedule we had already committed time to. 

Hurricane Ian hit our state on a Thursday, and we were slated to film the following Tuesday. We immediately started reaching out to as many dairy farms in the area as we could. Phone call after phone call, we got lots of promising leads, but no one was willing to host us with such short notice. Finally, at the end of the day on Friday, our Producer found a small dairy farm located in Brooksville, Florida called Irish Acres. The owner agreed to let us scout on Friday evening and was agreeable to letting us film the following week. It honestly felt like a miracle.

The only headache was we had to scramble to re-work our existing production schedule with the new film locations. This is where proper scouting is crucial, because we knew exactly how many unique locations we needed to scout and what would need to happen for each scene. Our DP gave us input on what time of day would be best for filming each of the scenes, and after that we were able to solidify the schedule, generate call sheets, and get some much-needed rest.

During the shoot, it felt like the production gods were smiling down on us. We had two cloud-free days, temps were in the mid-70s, and there was no chance of rain. This was huge, as it allowed us to backlight our talent with sunlight and utilize large bounced light to create a very natural and organic-looking image. 

So, our takeaways from this experience would be:

• Plan for as much as you can, and expect the unexpected during production.

• Sink as much time as you can into pre-production so that you can return to your original focus if challenges do arise.

• Location is everything!

• Good talent is sometimes worth sacrificing for.

• If you have a production team, trust them and play to their strengths.

Post-Production

In post-production, it’s important to keep your intended tone in mind - as this will guide everything from color grading to sound design to animation, and everything in between.

Once production wrapped, we headed straight into post in order to hit our deadline. Because we did our due diligence to take proper notes when filming, we were able to give our editor a good starting point in terms of which takes to start with, and more importantly which to ignore. This helped save a lot of time, and we were actually able to get rough cuts for all 3 videos turned around in just over a week. This was crucial to hitting our deadline because it allowed us to get the rough cuts out to our animator, who could then start working on the animations and VFX simultaneously while we continued to tweak things in post.

Speaking of animation, we opted for an approachable aesthetic that felt educational. Hand-drawn graphics and a typeface that felt youthful and bright were our primary concerns. Animation is key to many explainer videos - it fits right into the show, don’t tell rule. We would highly recommend including animation or graphics in your explainer project.

Once we had this locked, we moved on to color and sound mix. We weren’t trying to go for a vibey film-emulation look, as it felt very out of place against the bright blue skies, comedic host, and friendly cows. We filmed outside on a real dairy farm for a reason, and we wanted the viewer to feel like they were transported there.

Our lead editor Rhea was able to work multiple songs into each of these videos. Even though they aren't long videos, they each have defined sections communicating different information. Each video takes you on a bit of a unique journey, but they all feel connected and part of the whole. If you have editing experience, you know working with multiple songs is no easy task.

Beyond the music, there were countless hours spent on sound design and finding the perfect samples and tones for everything from a magic 8-ball shaking to cow manure plopping on the ground. Sound design is actually our favorite part of the post-production process because it adds so much depth and dimensionality to the edit. You’re informing the viewer on how to feel about what they are seeing, and there’s so much power in that from a creative perspective.

Takeaways

We learned A LOT from this project. Most importantly, the power of pre-production. We can’t stress enough just how important pre-production is to ensuring your explainer video is on time, on budget, and making sense creatively. 

Because we did our due diligence to be as organized as possible inside of StudioBinder, it allowed us to pivot quickly when we were forced to switch locations last minute. If we had not laid things out in the way that we did, we don’t think we would have been able to pull it off. 

Secondly, we learned just how important a shoot location contributes to the final look of a video. Even with the advancements in virtual filmmaking technology you’ve seen recently, the reality is you simply can’t fake real sunlight interacting with real objects in a real environment. There’s an almost intangible quality to it. It feels real because it is real. This adds to the final look of this series, and it’s something we’re proud that we committed to doing, even with the location challenges we faced.

Lastly, we learned just how important it is to champion the creative. If you believe wholeheartedly in an idea, it’s worth pursuing, even if it means it may be harder to achieve. We had a very clear vision of how we wanted this series to look, feel, and sound. There were certainly easier ways to get it done, but the results would not have lined up with the creative idea. The result is a series that is engaging, fun, educational, and something that everyone can learn from and enjoy.  

So for your next explainer video project, be sure to employ these practices and it’s sure to go off without a hitch. And if you still have questions, drop us a line at info@farmore.io!