Case Study – Animated Video Productions: Thrive Housing

The Client:

Thrive Housing Support is a part of Thrive Services, a not for profit community organisation that supports children, families & others living in the Lithgow and Blue Mountains areas. We have had an ongoing relationship with Thrive since 2017 to create meaningful and engaging videos for all types of audiences which includes: Real Estate Agents, Tenants, General Business and the General Public.

The Brief(s):

All the videos are designed to create awareness of specific services, as well as encourage people who need help to reach out, and also encourage sponsorship and support from the wider community for the programs that they offer.

Most jobs have had tight deadlines, with usually 2-3 weeks notice to complete.

Briefing requirements include:

• Because of the sensitive nature of the issues being brought to light, to protect the privacy of the participants, we were only allowed to use the voices of clients, or children.
• Usually they had minimal or no other assets or materials for the project, other than the voice recordings.
• The duration of the videos usually range between 2-3 minutes in length.
• Some videos were upbeat and fun, where others were a little more serious, requiring a call to action.
• All videos made were to try and look different from the style used in other videos.
• All videos were to promote a professional organisation that was actively helping families.

Our Solution(s):

Only having voice recordings to work with (and sometimes some photos), we needed to create all the visuals for the video from scratch. During the pre-planning consultation collaboration stage with the client, we would map out the story that each video was to tell, the animated style of that video, what further assets they were to try and gather to help with the production, and then the type of music we would use to set the correct atmosphere for the individual messages required.

We then wrote a script based on the information provided to us by the client, that also wove in the audio grabs we had to help tell the story.

Additionally, our solutions included:

• To create mood and contrast within the videos, colour or a lack thereof was used.
• Different animation styles, from rough child-like drawings, to drawings using only line art, to fully or partly coloured images.
• Utilising photographs wherever possible and if multiple pics were of the same subject matter, trying to animate them as a little hero sequence to bring the photos to life.
• Creating catch phrases such as ‘Housing Hero” to ‘Helping Hero” to help motivate participation.
• The Agency video was very corporate in feel, as we were addressing business owners.
• The Tenants video was ‘hand drawn’ to make it feel more like a story being told.
• The ‘Generic’ informational video had a mixture of animated text elements and image montages and drawn stories – combining all the aspects of the service together.
• The other Thrive Promotional videos had animated text elements and prominent branding style.
• All sound and music was mixed in-house to enable the quick turnaround the client needed. Occasionally, professional voice talent was hired to voice any narrative elements to help tie a story together.

The Outcome:

One very happy client! Which is why we have now been supplying their professional video production needs for the last 5 years : )

• The client always receives the videos well before their deadlines, and rarely are many changes needed, due to the thorough production process before animation takes place.
• Many client compliments!