The Sparkhouse Process

In the all-important discovery phase, our aim is to learn as much as we can about your needs and goals as we start to conceptualize your video or video series. We'll bring together our account, strategy and creative teams and sit down with you to learn and collaborate. We will explore the unique value proposition of your product or service, discuss competitors and strategize about the type of video options available. Ultimately, the discovery meeting ensures we start off on the right foot, with all parties weighing in and shaping the video marketing mission.

The creative brief is your project’s north star.  This will include the project's background and objectives, key differentiators, main hurdles, target audience,  brand values, market positioning, competitors, as well as the channels that the campaign will be distributed. From this point on every team member will be referring back to this document to assure we are accomplishing the project’s goals.

Whether your animation is an explainer, narrative or voiceover driven, we need to start with a solid foundation — the video script. The script could have several versions as we move closer to the animation phase and will be shared with your team for input and collaboration via Google Docs.

Once the script is locked in, Sparkhouse will get to work on the following:

• Casting Voiceover Talent – With many years of experience vetting local talent, we'll select the best voiceover artist for the job and consult your team for the final hire.

With your video script locked down, the Sparkhouse team will get to work creating the AV script, a two-column table that includes the script copy on the left side and descriptions/ references of the visual aspects of the video on the right side. The AV script is essentially your video's blueprint. This will also be shared with your team for input and collaboration via Google Docs.

A visual outline of the story about to be told, the storyboard is the closest we are going to get before heading out to film a video. Depending on the project, the storyboards could be full-size sketches, thumbnail illustrations, or visual composites of mixed media such as still photographs, text and other reference types. At this phase, we'll double check everything to be sure we're ready to roll — confirming location, actors, products, props and shot angles — so that when production day arrives, everything runs smoothly. Ideally, at this phase, there are no last-minute changes or adjustments and we can proceed confidently with a successful shoot. We'll be sure to share the storyboard with your team via Google Docs.