Developing a Video Asset Workflow

0:00It's important before we start this conversation to let you know what's going on right now, what I'm working on in my business at SUNY University. We have a lot going on right now. It's the middle of February. We are gearing up for pool season and we have decided to tackle a couple of big projects. One of the biggest projects we're tackling is updating our pool care video course by literally rewriting and re-recording and re-editing every single video. The current course has about 35 long-form videos in it. We're probably going to end up being more around 50 videos by the end. We are trying to get that done before April. We're talking about a month and a half of trying to edit long-form videos. This is definitely possible for us to do this.

1:01In fact, when I did the first course, the first version of the course, I was able to edit every single video within a week. But I was hyper focused on it. It's like all I did. Now the footage is easy for us to get. We have all the B-roll. We have an editor who is working basically a video a day. I'm probably going to have to take over some editing in order to get it done twice as fast and the editor is my brother. Me and my brother working on the edits in tandem, trying to get these videos out the door. These are different from YouTube videos because they're updatable. If we mess up an edit, we can change it. We're saving all these files. We're uploading it. We're getting something out the door and then we can improve once we have a solid base. We can improve videos over time. Which is very different from running a YouTube channel where you kind of have to get it right out of the gate or else you got to take down the video and re-upload it and you

2:05lose all your stats and all that. This is not the case for our course videos, but I still feel like I want to get it right. I still feel like I don't want to half-ass what we're making. And this is a big undertaking. Not only that, we're also working on still doing short-form videos three times a week. I'm trying to up, you know, in the summer, once this course is done, I'm going to try to up that to five days a week, ideally seven. We'll see if we can get there. We are also working on apps short form horizontal apps for our, sorry, apps short form horizontal videos for our app, which we're working on about two a week. So that that involves similar process to our social media posts where we're writing

3:09a script, shooting the A-roll, Chris is editing the B, Chris is editing the A-roll and B-roll together with some animations. And then we are uploading that to WordPress, to WisDia, so that it appears in our app. Okay. We have all that. Then the other, what's the other thing we're doing? So we're not doing YouTube videos right now, although once the course is done, once we're in season, we're going to weekly YouTube videos. Now I'm doing some other things like we are doing this new thing where we are creating videos for our app. These are called update videos, these are different from our help guide videos. And update videos are videos that I record using my phone, like I plug my phone into my computer so that you can see my screen and I walk through the new updates in the app.

4:09And I record myself talking about those updates. I do a little editing where I trim the beginning in the end. I upload that to our website and we publish that live. And then that's going to also appear within the app. So there's another type of video we're doing. So for the update videos, we're probably doing one to two a month. Now that could change. We have some interesting workings happening I can't talk about right now, but there are some developments where development might speed up drastically. So that's going to push me to make more of those videos, which is good. It's a good thing. And by the way, those videos are very easy to make. So I'm not super worried about it. The other type of video we're doing, which we started doing on a monthly basis, is last month or I guess this month in February, I teamed up with a company called Swimpley, which is basically Airbnb for pool and hot tub rentals.

5:11They, we are doing a monthly webinar about pool and hot tub care, mostly pool care. And these are public. These are free to join. And we've been, so I did one, it went extremely well. The company that I'm working with, they're handling all of the sort of operations. All I have to do is show up and be an expert. And I have like a little slideshow that they put together that I just kind of walk through, prepare a little bit beforehand and then like launch into it. So we're doing that once a month. Those videos are being recorded and uploaded into the course. So point is saying all this is all context. We are doing an absolute ton of video. And I believe we can do a ton more. And when I said, I said last year in this podcast that we were a video first company,

6:13we have put that to the ultimate test. We are an, we are absolutely a video first company. Now part of what I'm trying to do as a, as the owner of the company, is I am trying to get to a point where I can focus 100% of my time on video. Because it is the most important part of our business. Now we have two people, my brother and I, who were working on these videos. Now of course, Steph does as well, but she's only writing the scripts. So Steph is doing all of the writing. She's in charge of mostly like what we say, the content, et cetera. But Chris and I are in charge of like the visuals, the packaging of those videos and what they end up becoming. And what I'm, what I was trying to do for a long time was say, okay, let me just be the talent.

7:14Let me just be the guy who records the A role, reads the scripts. Let me just be that guy because you know what? That's an important role. And the more times I can get in front of that camera, the better. And that's still true, but we ran into an issue, which I talked about on the show a couple of episodes ago about doing these animations. So recently I was, recently I had spent time putting together what are called mogarts. These are animations and after effects that have text and are reusable within Premiere. These are very, very helpful animations that are drag and drop. They make editing super fast. So if you want to create a little text bubble or a little lower thirds text, I can build that once. And then every time you enter it into Premiere, into the actual timeline of what you're editing, you can change the text on the fly and reuse these assets over and over again. It's great.

8:14And it's kind of the same way we work with our footage. When we go out and get B role footage, we pay people, mostly like friends of mine, who have pools or have access to pools or videographers, to go out and get us footage that we can use over and over again to create these videos. So this has worked so well for us all these years, okay? But as we started doing the course, there's something happened, which was, and this is because of me, I'm much more involved in the video process. I told Steph, hey, we're going to make these course videos. She used to be the one who would edit them and look over them and have things change. But I'm like, no, I think I want to do this because I know what makes a good video. I'm a good editor, I'm a good editor. So I go, okay, I'm going to work with my brother.

9:15We're going to get these videos dialed in. So I'm watching the first few videos that he's edited and immediately I'm like, okay, we're missing stuff. We're missing crucial pieces of either footage or graphics or animations that I think would elevate this video dramatically. Do we really need them to actually publish? Technically, no, I could operate on a frictionless system where we just go, okay, we're just going to basically cut together some A-roll, throw in some B-roll, do the bare minimum, get it up, and then wait for comments to come in, wait for people to talk about the course and see if we're missing any crucial visuals. And then just update those and add them back and all that stuff. But I kind of like doing it right the first time.

10:18So I was watching this and I talked about this before but I was watching this one video about a above-ground pool anatomy. And there were like three parts of the video of the script where I'm watching it and I'm going, man, it would be really cool to see an animation here of how water flows through an above-ground pool pump, as an example. Because we don't have footage of that, we can't get footage of that, how would we? You can't show what's inside a pump, you have to animate that. And we have our own animation style that we include in our books and our app. So like, why not lean into that? Problem is, we have to pay somebody to do this because I can do it. I know how to animate these things, but they take me a long time. And so if we're watching these videos and going like, ah, shit, we really need that,

11:18then I have to go and animate it. It's gonna hold us up and then, you know, it's just gonna be a bottleneck. Now, I, over the, over the, like last week, late last week, I was looking, we have a project in our Asana workspace called Footage. And this is how we collect B-roll. We usually do this during the pool season, but we don't have a process. So basically, like, I might just randomly go out and say, okay, here's some footage I think we need. And I'm, I really hope, I was hoping my brother would have the wherewithal to be like, oh, I'm struggling with this one video. It would be great if we had this footage, put it in the footage project, I'll order it from my buddy, we'll get that delivered, and then you can add it to that. But that's not how this works because he's an editor and I don't think he's really paying attention

12:19to the overall visual style of things the way that I am. And I don't really expect him to, and I also haven't given him that task. So this is my task. But the problem is, I can't do that. Once the video's already edited, I can't be like, oh, shit, I wish I would have thought of that because then I would have gotten it, I would have made it or gotten it ordered, and then we would have had it for this video. And so that's the problem, it's the workflow and how this is. So over, so last week, I don't even, last week we had, there was no video scheduled or anything. I was just like, my dad called me, and he was complaining about how much snow they had in New Jersey. And I'm like, oh, it must be nice to have a ton of snow to complain about because out here in Colorado, we've had jack shit and it's been terrible. I moved out here for snow, for snow boarding, and there is none. Anyway,

13:19that gave me a quick idea. I was like, oh, shit, there's snow out there. I didn't even think about this. Let me call my body, like one of my best friends. And I'm like, hey man, and he's a videographer and I go, hey, do you think you can get me like drone shots of a pool covered in snow? And he was like, yeah, I can get it tomorrow. And I was like, sweet. So he goes and he gets me those shots, literally delivered like the next day into my Google Drive. And I was like, okay, well, hmm, okay. Well, now we have those shots. And so I'm like, well, let's write content based around those shots instead of the other way around instead of going like, well, now that we have these shots, like, I guess, you know, how does Steph know that we have these shots? How would, you know, she doesn't know. I'm the one who knows. So I'm like, okay, wait a minute. I think we're going about this the wrong way. So I'm in, so this morning I get up

14:21and I'm thinking of myself, oh, right. I have this, I had this one idea last year where I wanted to do stop motion animation of like shock bags coming into frame. I don't have to explain it. It's just stupid, right? And I go, oh, maybe I'll do that this week. Maybe I'll just get some footage that we can use for the course. And I go, wait a minute. Why am I doing, why am I doing stop motion? That's not our brand at all. I just had a wild hair up. I asked that was like, hey, I want to try stop motion animation. It's like, okay, do that on your own time. That's fine. You know how to draw an animate. Make something that can be reused. Just make it. If you, if you need it and you want to do it, do it. But instead of, instead of doing it for like

15:21of shock bag, which we don't need right now, like, yeah, will it be handy in the future? Yes. But right now we're not talking about shock. We're talking about this pump anatomy and we're talking about this filter anatomy and all these things. And yes, we can hire a guy to make those pieces of footage to make those objects. But why don't I just do it before we need it? So how does this work? And this is what I'm literally trying to figure out in this episode. I don't know the answer to this, but here's my guess. So what happens is there has to be a broader communication between the team. My brother has to know that we have these assets now. And Steph has to know that we also have these assets because if I develop an asset or order an asset that we don't need right this second,

16:21but it just happens to be the right time. So for example, getting a pool filled with snow. Yes, we may not need that right this second, but this was the opportunity to get that. Because otherwise like we're not getting that footage in the spring, right? So how can I make that a part of my creation process? Because I was thinking, well, I'm work, I guess I've been so, I've been trying to get out of doing work. I've been trying to get out of doing graphic design for the book and out of getting doing the thumbnails for our YouTube channel and doing graphics for our website. And you know, and I'm like, well, no, this is the, this is, you know, this is part of video. This is part of the brand. This is the thing that I am in control of. This is the thing I'm the best at in this company.

17:22So why not make it a part of the workflow as opposed to having to do it once in a while? You know, it's like, oh, okay, now you're gonna do this book. You're gonna spend, you know, a whole month doing all of these graphics. And it's like, cool, and you made the book and that's great. But like you spent all this time making these assets. Let's use them. Let's, let's, let's use them in the same way that B-roll is multifunctional and animations are multifunctional. And so I was thinking, okay, let's do a test. Let me go and look at our, our upcoming scripts for our short form videos that haven't been edited yet. And let me just read through the scripts and go, okay, what assets do we need? And there are assets in there that I'm like, oh, I already have these. They're just not in our normal folders

18:24and my brother doesn't know that they exist. And so I was like, well, let me just go and get those. Let me just make those. And now I have this new process of making assets for like, or I should say making reusable assets for everything. These can be for thumbnails. These can be for, you know, animations within our videos or just graphical elements that we can add in our videos or they can be featured images on our website or featured images in our app or they can be used in so many places. They're so useful. And yes, I could get somebody else to do it, but also I can just do it. And I happen to like doing it because it is one of those tasks where I don't have to think I can just put on music and just go. So I think this is the thing I'm supposed to do,

19:27which is still a part of the video process. This is still like, yes, the more times Mac can get in front of camera, the better, which I believe in. But honestly, in terms of leverage, like that's an hour and I'm making like a month's worth of videos in a single hour. It's incredibly high leverage. But also graphics and animations and reusable assets that we can use across our entire brand is also incredibly high leverage. Like crazy high. And I realized that like, if there is a possibility like I was talking about earlier that development on our development for everything could speed up soon. And it may not happen. I can't talk about it yet, but if it does, we're going to need a ton of that stuff.

20:29And it needs to just like constantly be flowing out of me. And that's the workflow I think has to go like this. I have to look at every single piece of content that are that's coming down the pipeline. Like that's just my job now. And I do know what this is, because I'm the one that does like the videos, but like, and I'm also the one that does the emails, like I put together the emails, because again, it's all graphic work. And I'll go, well, if I know what's coming, then I can develop another like to do list of assets to build. And then I can build them, stick them in the right folders, categorize them correctly, and then everyone on the team will know that we now have these new assets, as long as I tell them that. And I think that will just make everything easier and better and faster. And I do believe that there is a point

21:31in which we have every asset. Like, this is a done project at some point. Like, we could have every animation we could ever need. And then from there, anything would just be super custom and would happen, you know, randomly. And so I think like today, as an example, like I'm going to start working a little bit, and I have three emails to put together. And that's going to take me 15 minutes. And then I have an article that I have to publish, which will take me another 15 minutes. And then I have nothing else to do. And I thought, all right, well then, whatever. And it's like, or, I could try to make one animation, a simple one, that we'll use in an upcoming course, and use in an upcoming short form video, and use in an upcoming, whatever, whatever. So yeah. I'm going to attempt that. And I have to do it with...

22:32There has to be some type of rhyme or reason to it, some type of cadence. Now, when it comes to animations and graphics, I know that I can assign myself those things, and they will get done. And I can maybe pick a day, or if there's any free time to work on these things, if there's any sense of urgency to them, like, oh, we have this video coming up, like I better get this graphic done. I can organize all that. The one thing I don't know how to do yet is, so what I'm thinking is, I have one Asana project just called Assets. And in there, it's a Kanban board, right? You have ideas for Assets, you have, you know, stuff that's on deck, stuff that's in process, stuff that's completed. And then, each type of asset, there's three different types. You can have a animation, a graphic, so a single illustration, PNG, or whatever, that can be used, that can be animated in Premiere,

23:32or it can be used in a featured image, or a thumbnail, or an email header, whatever. So you have a graphic, you have a photo, which would be, you know, photos of our products, things like that, photos of chemicals that we could just use, photos of whatever, and then, in photos that we can use for, again, featured images for whatever, and then you would have, and then they could be used as social media posts, and then you would have footage. And footage, or video, I should say, would be like, okay, we need a drone shot of snow on a pool. We need a shot of this pool turning from green to clear. And that can be an animation, or that could be a blended thing, like, we take a clear pool, and we do like an animated tint, you know, just to kind of show it,

24:32because obviously we wouldn't be able to do that in real life, or like, you know, get timelapse footage, or get like, or do like, throw animations on top of footage, which would be sort of a blend, which would technically just be an animation. So yeah, you'd have four types of assets. Photos, graphics, because I want to say, illustrations, or it's graphics, it's graphics. Photos, graphics, animations, and video. And technically we've called footage, but videos fine. And we just create these, and we build up a massive bank over time, and I think I just have to be the one in control. So that's what I'm going to go do. After I'm done my regular work for the day, I'm going to try to do something that we need, and see what happens. So, okay, that's all I got. Draw my newsletter. Go to jiminic.com,

25:33g-i-o-v-a-n-i-s-c-i.com. I'm trying to get on some sort of cadence, but it's hard. But yeah, if you want to email me, you can just respond back to any email I send. And that's it. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next time.