Video Production Austin Style: Animation Fun for Dell

Expressions in Video and strategic partner ZaneTV are always looking for ways to bring the “fun” and “funny” to video production Austin, Texas style. Sometimes the ideas lead to a combination of fun characters and physical comedy, as in our “Abused by Tradition” TV commercial for Carino’s Italian. Other times it leads to fun animations, like our “Protect Eddie” spot for BW Films and Dell.

For this current piece, again produced for BW Films and Dell, the writing/producing/directing team of  Zane Rutledge and Jeff Stolhand were tasked with wrapping the powerful topic of Dell Reliable Memory into a fun, entertaining corporate video. The answer… a “problem” versus “solution” animated short featuring super heroes, bananas and a dash of slapstick.

Starting with a script draft presented by Dell, Rutledge/Stolhand began to expand the script. Part of the expansion process is bouncing around ideas on how to bring the “funny” and still remain true to the core message. This is our brain-storming or “spit-balling” session. These spit-balling sessions always include a list of two key elements. The first key element is “what about the product do we need to say?” The second key element is “how do we entertain?” Often what we discover is that the two elements go hand in hand. If there is a key element of the product that needs to be included in the video, then there is often a fun and exaggerated way to demonstrate that element.

Once the script was approved, the next step was creating the voice over sound track and the animation. Stolhand worked with voice over talent Creative Mills to develop the tone and style of the voice over, while Rutledge began drafting sketches and visual ideas for the animation storyboards. Once the storyboards and voice over track were both approved, Zane began the actual task of animating the piece in After Effects utilizing a palette of Dell brand colors.

The result is a fun, entertaining piece that brings the fun of animation to video production Austin, Texas style.