Pre-Production: These Are Our Stories.

Stories are what connect us all together.

When Vern at Bob’s Heating and Air Conditioning contacted us saying he wanted to create some branded content but wanted to do something different than his competitors – our collective eyebrows raised. After some preliminary brainstorming and collaboration, we came up with the idea of a web series called “These Are Our Stories”. We want to tell the stories of Bob’s employees in a way that anyone can relate. Allow Bob’s customers to invite friends, instead of service technicians, into their homes.

It’s an amazing opportunity to bring cinematic storytelling to a place that doesn’t really see much of it.  YouTube is full of air filter tutorials and furnace breakdowns- in our eyes, being able to concentrate on the people is a dream project.

First thing after finishing the final developing and estimate process, we brought everyone working on the project into Trello. Our project management software, nerdspeak for we need to get organized and attack! The ability to help communicate with not only Bob’s but internally with my team is invaluable. For example, the ability to organize 20 candidates for the cast made taking notes and selection super easy.

Casting is an incredibly fun process especially with a company like Bob’s. Talking to 20 people, from newbies to people who have been there for 30 years was truly a cool experience. So many different backgrounds, so many different passions for life – it makes this project very special. Using FaceTime, we spent 15-25 minutes per candidate just trying to get a feel for their camera presence and personality. From the notes taken during casting, we started our scripting process.

We made sure to script as much of this documentary as possible in pre-production. Doing notes back and forth made sure we’re heading in the right direction for every episode and, more importantly, the feel of the entire series. It also helped in breaking down exactly what will be needed when we get into production.

From here, it’s onto coordinating our production days in June. We’ll be sure to keep the latest here.