OBJECTIVES
Streem’s Business Development team identified an opportunity to serve companies in the insurance industry, though our competitors were already doing so and had case studies to prove their value proposition. To make up for that lead and show these customers that Streem understands and prioritizes their needs, we decided to produce a targeted ad on a shoestring budget and a one-month timeline. Content marketer Danette Beal had already researched the insurance industry’s pain points and identified a tone and message that would speak to them.
PROCESS
I hewed closely to Danette’s script, but she approved some light edits for pacing and flow. I collaborated with her and our head of brand UX to select a soundtrack and voice actor (Lauren Modica, who would later become my wife!).
I then broke the script into beats, and collaborated with our head of Marketing UX to select imagery and sound effects. To streamline that process, I set up a storyboard template in Figma where we could place thumbnails representing candidate video clips to go with each beat. Once we had enough options for each shot, we moved our favorites to the top and I got to work editing the video.
For the below shot, I repurposed footage from a previous video where an actor aims his phone at a wall-mounted media controller. I used After Effects to mask out the controller and replaced it with a stock photo of water damage — rotoscoping the actor’s hand so it wouldn’t be masked. Then I isolated the phone screen and applied the effect to its view, updating the phone UI while I was at it. Lastly, I cropped in for visibility and color-graded the shot to better harmonize with the rest of the video.
DELIVERABLES
The finished video is the most ambitious and emotive of my projects with Streem. From sound effects and voiceover to storyboard edits and script refinement, the piece feels sincere and knowledgeable, and you’d never know it was made in one month using only archive and stock footage.
OUTCOMES
The style process and production value of this video set a new standard for video marketing at Streem. Although my time at Streem ended before I could follow up on it, there were plans in place to produce a series of similar videos targeting Streem’s other key target markets.