We first worked with Tim on a campaign for the Federation for Defense and Corporate Counsel. Tim had been a former President and integral member of this international organization, and we did a short bio piece interviewing him about his time with the FDCC.
This is from a previous project with Tim Pratt.
Tim reached out to us a few years later, wanting to create a brand video to launch his newest chapter in his career. Tim has been speaking, advising, and training lawyers for decades, and has begun to focus his work specifically with happiness, culture, and setting oneself up for a great career in the world of law.
He needed a branding film that showcased those 3 elements, to go with his new website!
Tim does group trainings, often at larger-sized firms, with all of their incoming or sophomore lawyers. We knew we wanted to get a great selection of footage of him speaking in this sort of setting.
The next area of expertise is what we termed ‘partner advising’. For those firms looking to add new partners, make transitions, or simply want to bring Tim in to learn from his decades of experiences, Tim does smaller, more intimate and customized, round table sessions with firms.
Lastly, Tim travels around the world speaking at international conferences and legal summits. This was something we had to be on site for, and lucky for us, he had a keynote address in Beaver Creek, Colorado, for the Colorado Defense Lawyers Association when we worked on this project. Tim has a great talk that he gives on happiness, taking ownership of your happiness, and the things all lawyers need to know to be happy.
Tim Pratt’s interview shot, with the Kansas City, MO skyline in the backdrop.
Since Tim is based in Kansas City, we scheduled a long day of production to capture 2 of these 3 elements in action. We knew we wanted to be able to light the room, and control the environment, and so we took over a floor of a law firm for the day. We staged ’new and young lawyers’ to sit in on a training, and even recreated a round table with some more ‘esteemed’ looking attorneys.
For our last sequence of the day, we shot the interview with Tim, to help tie everything together. We had several questions planned out, but really just wanted to get Tim on camera, speaking about his experience, observations in the legal field, but mainly, why he does what he does! We also wanted to hear why he continues to give back to a field that he’s already dedicated his professional life to. He said some great things; it was difficult actually to narrow it down to a 3 to 5 minute piece.
At the end of the day, we had over 2 TB of excellent footage, thanks to our DP Joseph Pollock, a KC native.
This is what a typical branding film edit looks like. Some have lots more footage than others to involve!
When we started the edit, we knew we wanted to keep the energy high, keep the shots clean and full of dedicated movement, and have great matched action — meaning, we wanted to see the things Tim was talking about.
That’s one of the best ways to integrate audio and visuals. Creating compelling hand-in-hand story and image takes a lot more work up front, and in the planning process, but in the end it’s completely worth the added time. Tim did a great job with giving us an amazing narrative to work with.
The purpose of this piece was to have something that Tim could put on his website, something he could send out to prospective speaking events, as well as use for LinkedIn. We even think it’s a great way to kick off a speaking engagement, like a keynote address! Playing this video, then having Tim walk out under the bright lights to begin his talk is an incredibly effective took for creating expertise, sharing a narrative, and showcasing a different way to start a talk. Imagine how different the audience feels as Tim begins his presentation, compared to if he had just walked out after his intro and jumped right into his slides.
——
This has been one of our favorite projects in the last 2 years. Tim was amazing to work with, gave us such a great experience as his partner in this creation, and we hope this turns out to be an amazing asset to his work. If you ever have an opportunity to hear Tim speak, or bring him in for a session, you’ve gotta do it!
Project Details
Camera Package : Canon c200 & Canon 5dm2
Lenses : Contax Primes and Sigma Art Line
Lighting : Kino Flo 4’ Bank, Quasar LED 4’ tubes