You’re scrolling mindlessly through Facebook, sitting at home (obviously not at your work desk, because that’s not following the rules of true adulthood) and you come across one of those little videos that automatically start (silently) playing. The video may pique your interest, it may not–so you either continue to watch it silently like a social media zombie, click on it for sound, or just go on with your scrolling. Then that 10 second video is gone, deep into the depths of your Facebook feed.

 

Being a Camp Reality Intern for Stone Ward the past few weeks has taught me a plethora of things, but if anything, I’ve been most surprised by the process a whole team of people goes through to make those little 10 second videos you’ll probably scroll past (even though we hope you don’t, because you know, the whole team/process thing I just mentioned.) Recently, me and some fellow interns were tasked with creating a series of those little clips… and by recently, I mean the process is ongoing.

First, you have to come up with a concept that will catch the attention of different demographics (so that they’ll give their thumb a rest and watch the video). The concept has to accomplish this silently, while also delivering whatever message you’re trying to send. The whole process is quite tricky.

So, where do you begin once you have the general concept? In our case, we wanted to use the ‘hip phrases’ of our kind (aka the feared millennials) to make humorous videos of people screaming on rides for a client. Seemingly simple, right? Wrong. Trial and error, trial and error, trial and error: finding the funniest 10 seconds from minutes and minutes of GoPro footage, coming up with the perfect one liner for the clip (thank goodness for our main muse, found in the form of the men’s graphic tee section at Target), and then finally, putting the clip together itself. I know absolutely nothing about making videos, but that’s why I’m a creative copy intern. However, I have learned from my fellow Camp Reality friends that that process can be very, very difficult. BUT ALAS, we prevailed, and figured it out as a team.

Working in creative was nothing I expected it to be. I thought we would be in our own section of the office, and would only really interact with the other departments when it was noon and our stomachs were rumblin’ away. However, working on this project has really taught me how all of the departments work together to pull off a project, any project, even if it is just a series of short silly video clips. Even if that just means asking a coworker what they thought of a tag line (for example, my reference to the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” got rejected unanimously) or asking someone for help with getting rid of background noise for a video (a video that may only be watched silently), it really is a team effort.

Specifically, I have been most surprised when it comes to the creative work that goes into social media. I had worked with companies social media platforms’ before, but had never really seen the amount of planning that goes into the 140 characters. The seemingly brief way of communication has become even more prevalent than a phone call, yet it’s so carefully calculated.

When it comes to creative copy in general, the first try is probably not going to be the best. You try and try again, and it may turn out that you go full circle, back to the first idea you had, but hey–that’s the creative process. Something like this goes through all the different departments–concept, copy, social marketing, oh my! Think of it like this: if we put this much effort into a short clip, think about how much we put into the other stuff!

 

Truth be told, we’re still waiting for the videos to be approved–and probably will be fixing them a few hundred more times until those ten seconds are absolutely perfect (if there even is such a thing in the world of advertising).

In the meantime, let us all log onto good ol’ Facebook, scroll to a little 10 second video, and give our thumbs a rest.