Everything you
need to know.

It is a chat, filmed properly

One of your customers, one camera setup, about 20 to 30 minutes of talking. We ask 11 broad questions, they answer however they like, and we walk away with enough to build 1 full video and 6 or 7 short ads.

Nobody learns lines. There is no script. The customer gets the 11 questions beforehand and nothing else, and that is on purpose. When people rehearse, you can hear it, and nobody believes a rehearsed answer.

Set aside 1.5 to 2 hours. Roughly 35 minutes to set up, then 20 to 30 minutes on camera, including the 5 minutes at the end where we grab the opening lines. After that, 35 to 45 minutes filming what they do, plus packing down.

What happens, and what you get back

On the day

• We set up where they work. Their yard, workshop, gym, clinic or office. The room says a lot about them, so we do not take them to a studio.
• We run the 11 questions. Loosely. If something interesting comes up, we follow it rather than rushing back to the list.
• We grab the opening lines last. 5 minutes, done on purpose. This is the bit that turns 2 or 3 usable ads into 6 or 7.
• We film them doing the work. Based on what they just talked about, not a standard list.

What you get back

• 1 full video, around 1 to 2 minutes. This is the one for your website, your proposals and your emails.
• 6 or 7 short ads, 15 to 40 seconds each, cut tall for phones. Each one starts on a different line, so each one reaches a different person.
• Photos pulled from the day, for ads and your website.

All of it comes from the same conversation. That is why the 1.5 to 2 hours is worth asking a customer for.

Why a customer saying it beats us saying it

3 reasons it works, and none of them are clever.

• It is not you talking. A business saying it is good is an ad. A customer saying it is a recommendation, and people treat those two very differently.
• It says the quiet part out loud. Whoever is watching has one thing holding them back. Hearing someone who had the same worry, and went ahead anyway, is what moves them.
• It is specific. Real names, real numbers, the actual week it went wrong. Nobody can copy that.

What it looks like when it is done

The full video

1 to 2 minutes, filmed wide. It goes into your ads and your socials, onto your website, into proposals and into your follow-up emails. In ads it works on people who are already close to buying and want to see the whole thing first.

The short ads

Filmed tall for phones, 15 to 40 seconds, one idea each. 3 finished examples from 3 different shoots.

How to film it

Camera

• 2 angles if you can. 1 wide, 1 close, both rolling. With 1 camera there is nowhere to cut, so every edit shows as a jump.
• Frame it so it can be cropped. Shoot wide, put them slightly off centre, leave room above the head. Most of these clips end up tall for phones.
• They look at the interviewer, not the lens. Sit just beside the camera. Talking to a person is what keeps it sounding like a conversation.
• On a tripod, not handheld. Save the movement for the shots of them working.

Sound

• Clip a mic on them. Every time. The camera's own microphone is not good enough for an ad, and no amount of editing rescues it.
• Record a backup. Even a recorder in a pocket. It has saved more shoots than anything else on this list.
• Kill the background noise. Fridges, air conditioning, radios, machinery. Stand still and listen for 30 seconds with your eyes shut before you roll.

Light and location

• Where they work, not a studio. A background that shows what they do is doing half the job for us.
• Soft light on the face, ideally a window off to one side. Never a bright window directly behind them.
• Leave some depth behind them. Something going on a few metres back looks real. A blank wall looks like a hostage video.

Running the chat

• Start rolling early and do not stop. The small talk while everyone settles in is often the best thing they say all day.
• Ask them once to answer in full sentences. So instead of "about 5 years", they say "we have been working with them about 5 years". Ask once at the start, then drop it. Nagging them about it every time makes the whole thing sound stiff, which costs more than the clips it saves.
• Let a second of silence sit after each answer. It gives the editor a clean point to cut on, and people very often add the best part of the answer into that gap.
• Follow them, do not march the list. When something good lands, just ask "what happened?". The useful detail is almost always in the follow-up, not the question.
• Collect the openers at the end. Once the questions are done, say "one last thing, I will give you a few openers, just say each one in your own words" and get them back to back.

What to send us

Everything, untouched. We cut the ads at our end, so nothing needs finishing first.

Filming what they do, and when

These are the shots we lay over the top while the customer keeps talking. They are not decoration. They are the reason an editor can build 6 or 7 different ads out of one conversation instead of 2 or 3, because every join needs somewhere to go.

When to shoot it

• Straight after the chat, same visit. 35 to 45 minutes is plenty.
• Never beforehand. We work out what to film from what they actually said, and we do not know that until they have said it.
• Whoever ran the chat calls the shots. If the customer mentioned a 6am start, we need something that looks like a 6am start.

How long to hold each shot

• Shoot it at 50fps or 100fps. It gives us the option to slow a shot down cleanly in the edit. Footage shot at 25 or 30 cannot be slowed after the fact without it stuttering, so this one is worth setting before you start.
• 10 seconds minimum, camera still. A 3 second clip cannot be cut around and will not get used.
• Film every setup twice, once wide and once close, so the editor can cut between them without a jump.
• 2 or 3 shots for each thing they mentioned. Anything they said that we have no picture for gets dropped.

What to cover

Who to put in front of the camera

Pick someone who

• Switched to you from somewhere else. The switch is the story, because it is the same decision the viewer is about to make.
• Has one specific story. A single week that went sideways beats 5 years of being generally happy.
• Likes talking. Warm beats important. Your biggest customer is not automatically the most watchable one.
• Looks like your next customer. People need to see themselves, so pick from the middle of your books, not the top.

Send us this at least 3 days before the shoot

The 11 questions, as an example

This is the shape of it, not the sheet your customer gets. Yours will be written around your industry and the person we are filming. Deliberately broad, so the customer does most of the talking and we follow along.

1. Tell us about the work you do?
2. Tell us about your business, and what you bring [Company Name] in for.
3. What does a busy period look like for you?
4. Before [Company Name], how were you getting that handled?
5. What matters to you when you are choosing who to go with?
6. How did you come across [Company Name], and what made you give them a go?
7. What has it been like working with [Company Name]?
8. Who do you deal with there, and what is that like?
9. Is there anything they do that you did not realise at first?
10. Tell us about a time it got tight. What happened?
11. What would you say to someone thinking about giving them a call?