Creating a marketing video for Bandy Ranch Floral
A sustainable flower farm in Southern California
Bandy Ranch Floral is a vertically integrated supplier of sustainably grown wholesale flowers and foliage, shipping farm-to-table retail bouquets and florist boxes to markets and floral artists across the US. Shortly before the onset of the pandemic, they engaged yes.I.said to create a new website, print identity materials, and product catalogs to support increased marketing initiatives for their growing business. Despite the hit their business took as the world went on lock-down, they stuck with the projects; I’m grateful for their continued patronage. I also must express gratitude for the glut of flower-oriented design work I’ve been handed in 2020—it’s been a dream to be handling such beautiful subject matter. (H/T to Adam Havrilla for bringing all of this work to yes.I.said!)
Picking up where someone else left off
Prior to my involvement with BRF, they hired videographers to create a documentary-style video spot that juxtaposed gorgeous drone footage of the growing fields, footage of the workers who harvest, arrange, and ship the products, and interviews with the family members who run the business. These original videographers shot all of the aforementioned footage, and edited it into a piece unsatisfactory for a number of reasons—the interviews were unrehearsed and unscripted, the music was a bit too subtle/delicate, and there was a marked lack of a storytelling or structure in the edit. The working relationship soured, and Bandy was left with a lot of raw footage and no final product to show for their expenses—this was a shame, because for all of the flaws in the final product the original videographers had put together, much of the footage (especially the drone shots) was quite gorgeous.
When we went live with the new website, there was a prominent spot on the Gallery page that was just begging for a video. The BRF folks bought the raw footage and conscripted me to create a new video with it.
Using music, video editing, and narration to tell the BRF story
MUSIC
Since much of my formal education is in music, I’m naturally inclined to choose a soundtrack before embarking on the editing process.
The music used in the original edit was a very sparse, sentimental piano solo without a lot of shape. The effect it had on the video was soporific and overly sentimental—I wanted to use something more upbeat that complemented the wholesome, hard-working vibe I envisioned for the piece. I spent a fair amount of time combing through the morass of terrible, electronic royalty-free music available on the internet. I needed the music to have an authentic, organic sound to complement the message of the video. I eventually found a pleasant, country-tinged folk rock instrumental by an outfit called Alsever Lake. I discovered them on Soundstripe, which has by far the most interesting, professional, and easy-to-browse selection of tracks I could find within my budget. You can license their music in two ways: by a $15 monthly subscription—which grants access to their entire library; or you can license a single track for $40 or so if you don’t want to deal with recurring charges, or have a continued need for access to royalty-free music.
VIDEO EDITING
To contrast the original video’s lack of narrative structure, we wanted to show the journey of BRF products from the growing fields, where they are harvested and bundled, to their warehouse facility, where they are arranged and shipped, to the doorsteps of the shops that stock them. The Alsever Lake track has two distinct sections—a lighter, acoustic first half that leads to a more full and grand second half with heavier percussion and bass. This lent itself well to beginning with the farm/field portion of the journey—which includes interviews with BRF owner Steve Dodge and Marcos, a worker in the fields—and introducing footage of the busier warehouse alongside the ‘heavier’ part of the music. The sudden shift to the denouement of the instrumental leaves the perfect amount of time to revisit the farm and the smiling faces of the BRF family and staff for a concluding statement.
I like to let the images to the music I’ve chosen, making cuts on downbeats and aligning crossfades, dips to white, and on-screen actions with moments and flourishes in the music. This makes the footage ‘belong’ to the music—and vice versa—in a satisfying, natural way.
I kept the titles and chyrons simple, using a BR monogram I developed as an extension of the somewhat complex existing logo for the company, as well as the fonts and colors I used on the website to maintain brand consistency.
VOICE-OVER
The first original video relied heavily on interviews with various members of the BRF staff and management to structure its narrative. This was problematic for a number of reasons, largely because the interviews were unrehearsed and off-the-cuff and the questioning didn’t seem to have a larger narrative in mind, so there wasn’t a lot of usable material. A voice-over would allow us to literally tell the story without depending on the interviews.
Based on input from the folks at Bandy, I began to write the V/O script. I did so after I’d completed the picture/music edit, aligning necessary talking points with corresponding imagery.
I recorded the narration in Adobe Audition using a Shure SM-7 microphone, reading each paragraph a number of times and choosing the best take for each. In terms of vocal tone, I was aiming for something friendly and enthusiastic, while still being relaxed enough to vibe with the music; to this end, I spoke at the lower end of my range and used strategically placed vocal fry.
After plugging in all of the segments, I realized that some of the language was too long or short and needed to do a few major rewrites and record them. Then it was just a matter of equalization and compression to get the narrative to sit within the sonic bed of the music while still cutting across the mix.
It’s always a treat to be able to combine different aspects of my skill set to create unique, strategic deliverables for my clients! Stay tuned for a case study about the website, identity, and print marketing work I’ve done with BRF this year!