San Francisco brand video production Archives - Luma Creative - San Francisco Bay Area Video Production Company

How to Make Impactful Training Videos

In the digital age, where attention spans are short and information overload is everywhere, videography has been shown to be a great method for brands to communicate their message effectively. Although there are various mediums available, training videos stand out as a powerful tool not only for educating but also for strengthening brand identity and engagement. In order to craft impactful training videos, you need to leverage the art of visual storytelling in these videos to create a lasting impact. However, you want to always be mindful of ways to reinforce your brand’s values and identity. Here we will share tips on how to create strong, impactful training videos. We will also show how our San Francisco video production company helped our client, Turo, leverage video storytelling to help their typical user base.

How to utilize visual storytelling to create impactful training videos

1. Captivate with compelling narratives

At the heart of every memorable training video lies a compelling story. Stories evoke emotions, capture attention, and make complex information more digestible. Whether it’s showcasing real-life scenarios, customer testimonials, or employee success stories, weaving narratives into your training videos helps create an emotional connection with your audience, making your brand more relatable and human. You want your story to be engaging but not overly complicated. The more complicated your story becomes, the less likely people are to follow it and connect with it. The goal is to solve a problem. So begin with the end in mind, and look for the story in the solution your brand is providing.

For the San Francisco based car sharing app Turo, we utilized the local nature of the shoot. Additionally, we brought in real Turo hosts with their personal Vehicles. This helped breed relatability and infused real life stories and scenarios into the training videos. The following still frame shows a real user demonstrating how to use the app.

2. Align visuals with brand identity will help make impactful training videos

Visual consistency is crucial for brand recognition. Integrate your brand’s color palette, logos, and messaging cohesively into your training videos. Consistent visual identity reinforces brand recall and strengthens the association between your content and your brand. From the fonts you choose to the overall aesthetic, everything should scream your brand! It’s not just about slapping on a logo; it’s about creating a visual story that speaks volumes about your brand values. Think of your video as an extension of your brand—each visual cue should reinforce brand recognition and familiarity. By infusing your brand’s personality into your training videos, you’re not just educating; you’re also reinforcing your brand’s presence and building a stronger connection with your audience.

For Turo, we wanted to highlight automotive imagery that showcases the brand. Additionally, We made sure to set up our shots in a way that was consistent with brand messaging. In doing so we were able to successfully make our training videos more impactful and familiar to our brand’s audience.

3. Engage through quality production

High-quality production values are essential in delivering a professional and engaging viewing experience. Invest in clear visuals, crisp audio, and graphics or animations that add depth to your content. Crafting high-quality training videos hinges on various elements that collectively enhance production standards and audience engagement. Make sure to optimize lighting conditions to create a visually appealing environment that keeps viewers focused. Additionally, script your content thoughtfully and plan your outcomes in pre production so you can execute and avoid any re-shoots. Moreover, utilizing professional narration or employing speakers with clear articulation can enhance learning experience. Pay attention to the overall aesthetics from color schemes to branding elements for a polished look. By focusing on a high quality production you not only elevate the look of the video, but also reflect positively on your brand’s professionalism .

Focus on a high quality production that will reflect positively on your brand.

4. Educate and empower viewers

Beyond storytelling, the primary goal of training videos is to educate. Ensure your content provides value, addressing your audience’s pain points or challenges. By offering actionable insights or practical knowledge, your brand positions itself as an authority in the field, creating trust and credibility among viewers. Break down complex concepts into digestible chunks, using visuals, examples, and real-world scenarios to enhance understanding. Don’t just tell—show! The goal is to inspire your audience to take action, so focus on making your training videos a catalyst for further education on your brand or subject.

For Turo, we set up a series of graphics with corresponding footage to show a step by step process in using their car sharing app. Also, this detailed system was designed to alleviate customer pain points and help customers visually process the system.

Creating graphics is a great way to solve customer pain points in training videos.

5. Optimize for accessibility and distribution to make impactful training videos

Optimize your videos for various platforms and devices to maximize reach and engagement across different channels. Firstly, consider incorporating text or subtitles to accommodate viewers with hearing impairments or non-native language speakers. Additionally, graphics alongside videos can enhance accessibility for individuals with hearing impairments or those who access the content in a muted format. Moreover, using inclusive design practices such as clear visuals, contrasting colors, and simple fonts can benefit a wide range of viewers.

Conclusion

Visual storytelling in training videos is more than just transmission of information; it’s a tool that aims to leave lasting impact on the audience. When creating narratives through these videos, you’re not just relaying facts but creating an immersive story that resonates with the target audience. Incorporating storytelling techniques, aligning visuals with your brand, and producing high quality content can transform your training videos into powerful tools. These tools not only educate viewers on essential information but also envelop them in a narrative that promotes action. The goal is to create a genuine connection with your audience, strengthening their bond with your brand. As a result, these videos become more than just educational tools; they evolve into vehicles that elevate your brand’s online presence. They establish your brand as an authority on the given subject. Furthermore, they foster trust and loyalty among the target audience, and help your brand establish themselves in the digital landscape.

San Francisco brand video production – Four day shoot for Cepton

We just finished our biggest project yet! Cepton makes LiDAR for several sectors but their primary focus is automotive. We have done several small video productions for them in the past, but now that they are officially listed on the NASDAQ they felt it was time to step it up a notch. They came to us looking to make a high end brand video on a tight timeline. Our concept was ambitious. Three storylines plus an arm car day shot over four days. The goal of this video was to not only educate users about their lidar technology but to inspire viewers to understand the larger goal of the company. To bring Lidar to the masses. In this article we’ll break down how we accomplished this San Francisco brand video production. Take a look at the video below and then read on to see our process.

Approach

Our approach for this San Francisco brand video production started with a treatment. In this treatment we presented two potential storylines to the company as well as the look and feel we would be creating. It turned out that the client actually wanted to blend the lines between both of our storylines. Not a problem. We tweaked and then started with our script creation. At this point, we brought in our script writer and got to work hashing out all the details of the story. We knew that because there would be such a large lift with the pre-production in order to capture the content necessary, we wanted to be 100% locked with the script before moving on!

Our script ended up being approximately six pages. It was our guide going into pre-production!

Once the script was ready, we presented it to the client for final story sign off. We tweaked and tweaked some more and then we locked the script. At this point, the base narrative was locked and we were able to start with the pre production. The first thing we did was break down the script into a shot list. Then our producer did a full script breakdown. At this point, we knew this was going to be tricky. Four days for this concept was very ambitious! Guess we just love a good challenge.

Pre Production

The first thing we did during pre-production was location scouting. This would be where we picked the houses and main locations for our shoot. The client loved that we were looking for distinctly different locations. They also loved the idea of shooting in San Francisco; however, this presents many logistical and security concerns. We’ve shot here many a time, but exteriors in San Francisco definitely pose a challenge. After scouting, we also decided that shooting on the highway between Muir beach and Stinson beach would be our best opportunity for some epic coastal footage. At this point, we brought on a locations manager. They helped us file appropriate permits with the city of San Francisco, state of California as well as the State Parks. This was a first for us working with so many jurisdictions.

During pre-production we also began casting for our actors and picking our picture vehicles. This posed another challenge as their self driving technology wasn’t actually in any of the cars we were shooting with! The vehicles also had to be newer than 2021. After finding our vehicles we began to lock our department heads. We chose to work with a Director of photography who had experience working with cars and had completed a successful project with in the past. We also knew that a limiting factor of the production would be the availability of our arm car team. At this point, we had the core team assembled and decided to lock shoot dates.

As pre-production continued, we began to storyboard. This part of the process is awesome! Everything starts to get visual and we now have a tangible communication tool with the client and all of our collaborators. Once those were locked we did our final tech scout with the crew and got ready to shoot.

Production

Once we completed the pre-production phase it was time for some fun! The four shoot days involved approximately twenty crew and each one of them was necessary to make sure we are able to not only get the cinematic shots that would represent their brand well, but would also keep us safe on the road. For day one, the russian arm day, where we were doing all of our shots on the road, we hired the local arm car company as well as San Francisco police and California highway patrol(CHP). This meant we would have full access to the road! It also helped that our locations manager was good friends with the SF film commission.

It was our first time being able to completely stop traffic and it was quite exhilarating. In the morning, we shot in downtown San Francisco by the Embarcadero as well as in the financial district. In the afternoon we went over the Marin and did our neighborhood driving shots as well as the coastal shots. This part of the day involved the CHP shutting down highway one between for a stretch of road between Muir beach and Stinson beach.

The image below shows the stretch of road on highway where the CHP shut down the road so we could film safely.

After we finished day one, we knew the shoot was going to be relatively smooth sailing. Day two involved our team shooting in the South Bay for the R&D scenes at their headquarters in San Jose. In the afternoon, we shot at a nearby house and school to get the daughter departure scene as well as the arrival. Because it was mandatory that we filmed at their headquarters in the South Bay, it only made sense that we shot the house and school in the South Bay as well.

On day three we were in Marin for the kids departure scene as well as the near accident scene and the coastal driving in car shots. These location moves were tricky, with trying to move so many crew but we got it done!

For day four we were in San Francisco for the couple departure scene as well as the in car city shots and the business woman arrival. We finished up the shots up at Mount Tamalpais for the kids arrival scene. We definitely scored on the weather!

Quick behind the scenes video from the shoot.

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Post Production

Once we captured all the footage from the shoot, it was just a matter of assembling things to get post production started! Our editor put together an assembly cut within a week and we were loving what we were seeing. Because their technology is inherently visual with how it uses lasers to map out the world around it, we knew VFX was going to take some time. We began sharing the plates of the scenes that would need visual effects integration with our VFX team. With regards to the GIF below, we took the drone shot of the truck on the road and then sent this to our VFX artist who then recreated the real world in a virtual setting by using a model of the same truck and animating it to show the distance that their lidar technology could detect.

The client was particular about how their technology was portrayed on screen so we spent extra time making sure their lidar technology was portrayed correctly on screen.

Once the client had signed off on the VFX, we were able to picture lock the video. At this stage, we moved on to color correction and sound design to put the finishing touches on the video.

BTS Photos

San Francisco Video Production Commercial Luma Creative 3

High end commercial video production San Francisco

San Francisco car commercial video production

San Francisco video production company luma creative car commercial

San Francisco car commercial video production agency Luma creative

San Francisco Video Production Commercial Luma Creative

Dolly and Film production for San Jose video car commercial

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Conclusion

We had a ton of fun on this production. It was our largest San Francisco brand video production so far. And it was also the project that our team put the most amount of hours into. As we continue to evolve as a company, it’s this type of work that we’d like to continue getting the opportunity to create! If you or your company are looking for a cinematic professional brand video, contract us today!