Sam Stephenson asked if I could shoot a fun little video announcing Basecamp Mobile. This was on a Tuesday, and the mobile app was scheduled (at the time) to launch on Friday.
We have a Canon 5d Mark II at the office for general photo and video. Steve Delahoyde (video genius) at Coudal Partners graciously lent us his lights and light tent for the shoot. Here’s what the rig looked like (set up in our kitchen).
The direction
I wanted the video to be more about Bascamp Mobile supporting many devices rather than showing off the interface. The video had to be short and it had to tell what I thought was the most important story: You can use Basecamp on your iPhone, Android, Blackberry Torch, and Palm Pre 2.
First take
An initial idea we had was to show a hand passing a different phone across the screen: iPhone, Blackberry, Nexus One, etc. The idea that Basecamp could run on all these devices took too long to get across.
Out of focus
The better idea was to focus on the iPhone — make it seem like this is a Basecamp for iPhone spot. Then at the end we would show that Basecamp was also available on these other devices. Jason Fried had the idea to show different hands showing all of the phones.
The only problem was that the other phones were out of focus. No matter we had the idea down, we just needed to reshoot it.
Humming
Once we got the shot down I realized that we were missing an important piece: music. I did not want to have cheesy techno music for this video. Taylor Weibley recommended I work with Sudara Williams. Sudara runs a website called Ramen Music, and he also used to work with Taylor at Engine Yard. I spoke with Sudara via Skype. He lives in Vienna, Austria and I’m in Chicago. We had only 2 days to compose music for this video.
I had an idea that could move us along faster. Maybe we could arrange music that was in the public domain. There was that camp song by Allan Sherman called “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” that was based on Dance of Hours. It could be a cool connection: campy song about camp, Basecamp.
Sudara wasn’t familiar with it, so I made a rough cut of the video with my humming the soundtrack.
Humming with Piano
Sudara picked up on the humming and laid down another track of piano. He liked the idea of the humming (even though it was a scratch track) because it felt like we were seeing it from the perspective of a Basecamp customer.
Solo Piano
He also arranged the song as a solo piano track. He had never heard of the song before, and spent a few hours learning the composition.
Low-fi Indie
Sudara also composed an original piece with guitar. The Dances composition was something I thought could work with the abbreviated timeframe. However, I really loved the direction of this guitar piece. It brought a nice pause and surprise to that last part when the 2 other phones appear onscreen.
When I told Sudara that I wanted to use his original composition he was a little disappointed. He had been practicing the Dances song since I sent that humming track over to him. He really fell in love with the song.
Final cut
4 days, 50 takes, and a few Skype discussions later we had a final video. It was a blast breaking up my usual plate of web design! Thanks to Steve D, Jason F, Sudara, Michael’s (the star), Sam’s, John’s, and Taylor’s hands. I’m looking forward to doing more 37signals videos in the future.
Update: Read about Sudara’s music process for the video at the Ramen Music blog.
Drew Pickard
on 08 Feb 11I like seeing process work like this.
You guys might want to beg/borrow/steal/rent better lights. Either the paper you’re shooting against is off-white or your lights themselves are very yellow. It’d be a 100x better with a decent lighting setup.
Or – don’t adjust it from the ‘taupe’ color as the adjusted color looks overblown and clipped . . .
What’s with the extra 15 seconds of music at the end?
Michael
on 08 Feb 11Great story and thanks again for sharing behind the scenes material. Especially, I like the way you combined two approaches for showing the web-app on multiple phone.
Concerning music, wow did you find the song? Was that more a personal taste, something you heard some time ago and found interesting. In my view music makes all the difference and fits very well to the video.
-Michael
JD
on 08 Feb 11Drew, yeah I have to work on my white balancing skills. I wanted to add some filler at the end for fear of the “replay video” or “related videos” thing. We put the video on other sites too. I wanted people to see the URL.
Michael, Sudara composed and arranged that music. He is great!
George
on 08 Feb 11Haha the humming was great
Drew Pickard
on 08 Feb 11If your setup is one light – yeah, it’s pretty tough to get even-ish light. Two would help, three possibly even more. And a softbox or other diffuser would help with the harshness.
Hands are a bit tricky to light evenly.
Alternate shot idea:
Having all of the ‘hands’ using the site simultaneously and then at the end – pull back to reveal all 3 phones in tandem. (kinda like the new verizon/at&t apple ad)
Brad
on 08 Feb 11What stock music are you using?
Brad
on 08 Feb 11I’m an idiot. You already answered that question.
Ashley
on 08 Feb 11I like it, the music really fits in well.
BTW, the date of this post says ‘Feb 08’. :)
Ashley
on 08 Feb 11Wait, it means Feb 8th. It’s not very clear. ;)
Cristian Pascu
on 08 Feb 11Maybe you should try to shoot the three phones in separate takes and then combine them using the chroma-key technique. It’s much better and you have more control on timing, lighting and can even combine the best shoots for each phone.
jeff
on 08 Feb 11the solo piano was better, the final cut music is a bit drab and depressing. Made me fall asleep. The solo piano also felt a bit more playful… still a nice vid though.
Chris Radford
on 09 Feb 11A great short video. Hadn’t realised how nifty the mobile app was, was considering moving to basecamp and this may have persuaded me.
Colin Devroe
on 09 Feb 11I would have stuck with the humming version. :) Excellent.
Colin Devroe
on 09 Feb 11To be more accurate, the humming + piano version.
river
on 09 Feb 11i have to say i like the humming and piano best, too. great use of that tune, and sometimes your first idea is your best. it’s peppy and and a lot of people will get the camp reference.
i like the idea of having each set of hands using the site at the same time, too. that way you could crop tight and fill the screen more. then pull back to show the other phones.
when the hands pull away, i’d like to see the one in the middle go straight down, and i think it would be a nice touch to have the hands reveal the basecamp logo, like it’s behind them.
anyway, great work for such a quick effort. always fun to try on a different hat and play.
Igor
on 09 Feb 11It is really bad.
David Kukov
on 09 Feb 11Hey Guys,
Video looks pretty good. A few changes I would do as a cinematographer:
1) Zoom out. The hands are way too close to the screen.
2) Use green screen on the phone. The inputed additional video of the actual app can be added in.
3) I think the music with just the piano had the most classy “blend into the video” kind of feel. The type of feel that doesn’t distract from the point of the message.
Just my 2 cents!
If you want I can help you guys out on the video work as well, you can run an idea by me and I can let you know my thoughts.
-David A. Kurkov
David Kurkov
on 09 Feb 11Hey Guys,
It’s me again from above.
What I meant by zoom out, was at the end. If you cut two separate shots, you’d be able to do it pretty well.
Either way, keep on shooting!
Lennard Timm
on 09 Feb 11No matter what topic, I like reading the story of how someone created something. Good job!
I didn’t know Dance of Hours but immediately thought of German pastry shop Coppenrath & Wiese who are using the same theme in their TV ads when watching the videos above. They’ve put up some of their ads and the melody on their German web site (first item).
Blake
on 09 Feb 11I don’t really care for all the hands… I’d say just zoom in on the iPhone while it’s flat or on a stand and have the guy go through the motions of showing off the app, then zoom out and have the other 2 phones sitting/standing next to the iPhone with the app open.
Sudara
on 09 Feb 11Jamie asked me to write a bit, so here’s a writeup about the music side of the story.
This was terribly fun to work on. Thanks to Taylor and the signals for the opportunity!
Cooker
on 09 Feb 11As a musician I’m a little sad about the music treatment. You first choose a piece of music that’s been used in a million adverts, then finally go for a (very well-made and well-meant) Norah-Jones-Apple-iPhone-couldn’t-hurt-a-fly-cute melody, which we’ve heard so often.
How about innovative music to go with an innovative product for a change?
Georg
on 09 Feb 11@Cooker you are so right
Ads are totally the place where innovative composers want their work showcased.
And advertisers are completely ok with their product being upstaged by unrelated musical innovation.
But I’m curious, what’s stopping you from downloading the video, replacing the audio and showing us what you mean?
Rather than insult the client’s choices, why don’t you provide them with some options for future consideration?
Jobs Schulze
on 10 Feb 11Great music and great product which is more important to us as a SMB :-) Keeep up that work!
Emi Gal
on 10 Feb 11Jamie, this is awesome! Well done. One thing you guys might want to consider is adding a click-to-action button at the end, that says “Sign-up Now” or something like that.
Shameless self-promotion, I know, but it might help generate some leads :-).
Carrie Herrera
on 10 Feb 11Thanks for sharing the process!! This was a fun read on my otherwise boring Thursday!!
Don Schenck
on 10 Feb 11Four days!
Fantastic. Thanks for posting this; It’s inspiring.
Cooker
on 10 Feb 11@Georg – Irony duly noted
No insult was intended. I recognise the quality of the production. I felt merely obliged to point out the disparity between the innovation and creativity of the product being presented and the musical process involved.
I don’t think Kubrick would have said that Ligeti ‘upstaged’ him in 2001 A Space Odyssey, do you?
Sudara
on 11 Feb 11@Cooker
I took your comment as a compliment, so no worries :) I love me some good norah jones, and I certainly can’t hurt a fly…
From my vantage point, I’m not sure I could say innovation was on my mind this time. Not only was it clear that the goal was something light and “iPhoney” but I first talked to Jamie at (what we thought was) T minus 2 days from launch. I considered myself lucky to not only get the piano arrangement out the door, but to have a decent take of the guitar piece.
What was most exciting for me is the fact that over the course of 2-3 days, 2 people on other sides of the globe who’ve never spoken before collaborated, sending videos back and forth and producing several versions of something. It was a nice test for me.
I’m looking forward to working with Jamie and friends again, I think we could do some really cool stuff especially given a bit more lead time.
seapy
on 12 Feb 11Wow! great post. I love humming with solo piano :)
seapy
on 12 Feb 11oh… i can’t get that humming melody outta my head.
Whatever
on 12 Feb 11What a lame attempt at copying Apple
This discussion is closed.