Revelator Makes "Social History" with Spredfast

Revelator was approached by SpredFast, an enterprise social media marketing platform, to create an innovative and unique brand video. This “Social History” video was designed to be a fresh take on the concept of a brand video that would stand out from the standard tech-brand model. We worked alongside Spredfast’s internal marketing and design department to come up with a creative and fresh approach to outline their various tools and services.

Using an animated timeline motif, the video represents the history of social media. We start from the very beginning of time itself, the Big Bang, and move toward the future. Throughout this process we touch upon human history in a fun and aesthetically appealing way, while incorporating SpredFast’s own services and tools across the animated timeline.

The finished video incorporates motion graphics and a live-action element of our host, SpredFast’s own Jim Rudden. Jim was shot as a single element against a large green screen and composited alongside the animated backgrounds and motion graphics that appear and illustrate the story as he journeys from the dawn of time to our present.

The first step in our work with Spredfast was to lock down our script and then create a pre-viz of the “look” of the piece. We knew from the outset that the timeline would be our visual metaphor, so all of the design work was motivated into making that concept come to life. The script would outline the basic beats of the narration, including the visual gags that would appear, which would then give us an outline of what assets we would need and how the animation would proceed.

After the initial pre-viz frames were completed we were able to create a shot list for the live-action shoot. Production took place over a single day on a wrapped green screen stage. We shot multiple versions of our talent moving cross-frame to help create his journey through the “timeline,” as he delivered his narration of product information. Since we already had an idea of where the animation would interact with our talent, we were able to place Jim in the frame after each shot while we were on-set. This way, we were able to audition our talent’s ideal framing and placement among our pre-existing VFX elements.

After the live-action shoot was completed, we started in on the timing and final structure of the live-action piece with talent performance as our guide. This footage was then keyed to remove the greenscreen, and the work to integrate the animation and additional elements began.

We worked closely with the team at Spredfast to adhere to their defined brand outlines for styles, fonts, color and graphic identity. This collaborative project was especially fun, since our friends at Spredfast encouraged us to always be creative in regards to new content, extra jokes and inventive ways of presenting information in the cut.

Thanks to the creative relationship, the timeline aesthetic landed on a look that can be described as a mix between organic and draftsman-like. This look, where the timeline seems to be a hand drawn line and the assets have an organic and cutout feel, served as a nice companion to the elegant and minimal design style of the SpredFast brand. It also worked in concert with one of their tertiary style templates called “viz hack” where the overall form of the assets seems to be drafted in a sketch form with subtle hand drawn motion blended in.

We think the visual style of the piece, combined with the information it conveys, successfully gets the brand message across in a fun way. And that equals self-aware promotion…and a happy client.

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ABOUT REVELATOR: Revelator is a full service film & video production company in Austin, Texas. We like to write, produce, & edit projects for t.v. and the web. We specialize in brand films, corporate identity work, as well digital advertising and t.v. broadcast advertising. If you need help with your script, production, or just an idea, give us a call.