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CUE is a professional development conference organized by ETC every other summer. If you use ETC products in any capacity, this conference is for you. Designers, programmers, educators, students… there’s something for everyone.
This year CUE is taking on a summer camp theme, and we’re pretty excited.
Perhaps you saw the Camp CUE video on social media in mid-February. If you missed it, you should definitely check it out. And if you saw it but want to see it again, feel free to watch it over and over and over until that song is permanently stuck in your head. (You’re welcome.)
Fun, right? Well, I’m sure you can assume it was even more fun making the video than watching it. So we decided to give you the insider scoop.
What’s the first step in making a video at ETC?
Step one – ask your friends to help!
Get the most creative people you know together in a room until someone comes up with an idea. Let that idea roll around for a week or so, and before you know it, you have a song and a storyboard! This is the actual storyboard created to guide the filming process.
Step two – convince the actors!
The two singing in the video are none other than ETC’s own Jackie Ernst and Alex Librie.
- Jackie is ETC’s translation coordinator. She organizes all of our manuals and other printed materials through translation companies around the world.
- If you’ve ever called into ETC phone support, you might recognize Alex’s voice. He’s one of our front-line tech service dudes on the phone.
The campers are your favorite guy tech writer, Thomas, and your favorite Northeast quotations lady, Emily.
Step three – audio!
In this case, we set up the studio and recorded the audio first. Here’s Jackie in the studio.
Step four – build a set!
A few things you may not have noticed the first five times you watched the video…
The campfire was built using five Selador Classic Fire fixtures (of course!) and pile of logs. It was controlled by an awesome random chase effect built on a Gio console.
Did you notice the Christmas tree in the background? …complete with pre-installed Christmas lights, of course. And the basket that’s holding the deciduous tree isn’t actually hidden until after Thomas sits down. (oops!)
I borrowed the dancing badger from my four-year-old. He’s operated by Video guy David (who had to lie on his belly and be covered with black fabric in order to not be seen).
The white “sunscreen” on Alex’s nose is actually eyelid primer from Jackie’s makeup kit and was a last minute addition.
If you listen very carefully at minute 1:30, you can hear one of our voice extras say “I wanna go home.”
Step five – a little post production work
Add in a few fire effects of smoke and burning embers. Toss in the fire crackle sound effect and voilà! Video complete.
