How I Turned a Day At the Lake Into a Brand Video
Creating a Brand Video Can Be Hard Work, But in This Case, It Didn’t Feel That Way.
While I was shooting a brand video recently at Lake Lanier, an old saying popped into my head.
I’m not sure where it comes from or who said it—Confucius, maybe. But on this particular day, that old saying seemed appropriate: if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.
That’s what it was like creating a brand video for Freedom Boat Club. It’s hard to complain about hard work when you’re doing that work at Lake Lanier. This was a beautiful sunny day in mid October, with temperatures in the mid 80s. And I got to ride around on the lake in dozens of different boats.
In other words, it didn’t suck.
Shooting a Brand Video
Freedom Boat Club is a smart alternative to expensive boat ownership. Instead of buying a boat and then having to pay for storage, maintenance, etc., you can join Freedom Boat Club instead. Then for a monthly fee, you can reserve whatever boat you need, whenever you need it.
That way, you have access to dozens of boats. You can get a fishing boat one day, a ski boat the next, or spend the night on a cruiser. They even have pontoon boats for entertaining groups.
So back to Confucius—turns out it was my good fortune to spend a day at the lake, shooting boats for Freedom Boat Club. I got to the marina around 9 a.m. The early morning haze was starting to clear and the sun was low in the sky. First thing, I got some beautiful landscape shots of the marina and boats, with sunlight dancing on the rippling water.
Moving the Camera
Next, I got to try out my latest toy, a Zhiyun Crane 2 gimbal. I was able to walk up and down the marina, and around each boat, getting smooth, steady camera moves the entire time.
It took some getting used to. I was constantly moving while trying to avoid shooting my shadow.
After a while, five pounds of equipment feels heavy. My arms were aching. But once again, I was at the lake on a gorgeous day, and getting paid. Any complaints at this point just sound like whining.
For the rest of the day, I went boat by boat, getting slider shots of the cabins, the controls, the seating areas and anything else I could think of. Everything was shot using natural light, using an assortment of lenses.
Besides the brand video shown here, I used the footage to create a dozen boat videos—visitors to the Freedom Boat Club website can click on the different boats and watch a video on each.
Thank you to John Roberge at Freedom Boat Club for being such a great client, and to Jame Riley for the referral.
About the Author:
Harry Hayes is the owner and executive producer at Content Puppy Productions, a corporate video production agency based in Charlotte. Before starting Content Puppy, he spent 20+ years as an advertising writer and creative director.
