Web-based media company Big Thinking By The Hour (BTBTH) is completing the last of 45 instructional videos for Canadian manufacturer Bombardier Recreational Products, maker of Ski-Doo snowmobiles, Sea-Doo watercraft and Can-Am Spyder ATVs.
Directed by BTBTH partner Jim Courtright, the 60-second to 120-second videos feature spokespeople who customers can relate to, portrayed by a variety of actors who add a touch of branding to the practicality of explanation.
“If you just show a guy standing there talking,” says Courtright, “it’s not gonna be cool. The people who ride snowmobiles, it’s like a total subculture. They live it.”
The project began in late 2013 when Bombardier asked its Oak Park-based ad agency, SoudersMarcom, for four videos to educate dealers about new products.
“Bombardier was coming up with all this new gear for their waverunners and snowmobiles,” says Courtright. “Instructing their dealers was wasting a lot of time.”
Brian Souders, who wrote the scripts, contacted BTBTH partner Mary Beth Hughes.
When Hughes and Courtright researched similar videos by Bombedier competitors, they discovered a cache of shoddy, careless ennui.
“People would stumble over lines,” says Courtright, “and they would not edit the audio.”
Courtright avoided this flaw by hiring local cinematographer Marc Menet to shoot with two cameras, including “a DSLR for inserts and an AF100 for prompter and audio.”
Products shot in Oak Park studio
Menet also finessed the visuals by shooting against a white cyclorama, knowing that the bottomless depth of the background would intensify the style and design of the products.
But first, he needed to transport those products — which ranged from a jacket that fits comfortably on your back to an 11-foot long 500-pound vehicle — into the foreground.
A Great Little Studio (AGLS) in Oak Park provided the solution to both. It offered the perfect set as well as “a huge bay area where you can wheel stuff from a truck,” Courtright says. It was also conveniently located near the client’s home.
Karen Stavins Talent cast actors for their ability to portray the typical Bombadier customer: an edgy consumer who enjoys riding through snow and surf on high-powered machines that can do 50 miles an hour.
Editor Ted Askew cut their performances with zooms and B-roll to give them the proper attitude.
DVDs of the videos are distributed by Bombardier dealerships throughout North America and posted to its YouTube Channel.
