Promos Past
The first of the P&P-era promo videos (yeah, and those other guys I listed earlier too) was posted to DJTV on July 7, 2005. The Editor's Toolkit Garage promo was created to tout the release of three new Editor's Toolkits, bringing the total toolkit count, at the time, to six! The VideoTraxx "Library," StackTraxx "Band", ETK 10 "Production Zone" and Juice Drops "Art You Take Apart" promos followed shortly behind. Those early promos were big ones! They were fully produced, shot on location and took a pretty sizable chunk of time to produce (some as long as three weeks from concept to completion). A second type of promo, the easier-to-produce, studio-shot, greenscreen variety, was employed as well, and quickly replaced the location promo as the standard because it was far less resource-intensive. Because greenscreen promos take significantly less time to shoot, they're the answer when we need to knock something out quickly and with maximum efficiency, but they aren't the only ones being made. Perry shot our recent interview-driven "Making of SFX3' An Inside Job" in a vacant building across town.

Get to Know the Product
Regardless of whether the promo is to be shot on location or on the greenscreen, every promo produced at Juice starts with a production-planning meeting. The planning meeting is typically run as a brainstorming session with the team. Everything that's discussed is noted in a Microsoft Excel document that will serve to preserve the plan.

We start by trying to figure out the "feel" or "personality" of the product that we need to promote. For instance, when we were presented with the task of promoting Editor's Toolkit 10, we talked about the personality of that Toolkit. We decided it was best described as a working-person's toolkit. It's yellow and black box had a distinctly "construction" look about it. We felt it was kind of a hard working, blue-collar sort of product, like the trusty toolbox of a carpenter or handyman. When it was time to promote Editor's Toolkit Pro, however, we decided it had a different appeal and needed a new persona. We saw ETK Pro as being more the Cadillac Escalade of the Editor's Toolkit collection. It had a level of class and sophistication that called for a more formal/elegant approach. That lead us to sell it with Chuck in a suit instead of sawdust.

Feature Presentation
The next step is to identify and make a list of the key features of the product, to spec out a series of examples to create that will showcase a variety of ways in which the product can be used, and to draft an outline from which to write the script. Most Juice promos use similar outline elements, typically using some or all of these modular elements:

- Open/Intro - What is this video about? Why should I watch?
- Animated Logo Sequence
- Re-open - What is the product? (define & describe)
- Who is it for? (identify the audience/user)
- What's in it? (number, type & quality of elements in the package)
- What does it do? (showcase examples)
- How does it work? (interface & instructions)
- What's the deal?
- Close (call to action)

We also talk about the target audience for the product. While most DJ Products are for video producers, different products appeal to different people at different levels with different needs. The combination of the product's personality and it's target audience drives everything else. The way we write, the setting, the wardrobe, the style & tone of delivery, the music we choose, and the pace & style of the edit are all tied directly back to the things that we nail down in that meeting.

Write You Are
The next step is to write the script. This is typically a "Chuck" task, and most promos have a similar cadence that reflects his style, but Perry, Rusty and Ace have all been part of the writing process at different times (after all, behind every good writer is a good editor). Once Chuck has written an initial draft, there's a "reading meeting" that takes place. At this meeting, Chuck reads the script aloud for Perry and Ace. During the reading they listen for things that may be missing, unclear, or out of place, and they run a stopwatch to check the time. One of the golden rules of video (particularly for web-distributed video) is "Be Brief." The target length for most Digital Juice promos is somewhere between 3-5 minutes, although some of the earlier "full promos" ran 10-minutes or more. Some may roll a little longer (or shorter) than the 5-minute mark depending on the importance of the product and the need for added detail in explanation, but the production team always attempts to be respectful of the viewers' time. After the reading meeting revisions are made and the script is ready to export and send to the prompter.

Shoot Me Now
Because we've done it so many times, shooting on the greenscreen is a relatively fast and easy part of the process. While Chuck makes revisions to the script, Perry, Ace and/or Charlie start to get the set... set. This involves positioning lights, setting up the camera, mounting the mic to a boom pole, loading and powering the prompter, and positioning five or six portable Billy-built sound dampening walls around the set just outside the frame. Once the stage is set and Chuck is made-up and in uniform (wearing one of six different colored Digital Juice mechanic's shirts), it's time to roll. All of Juice's promos and DJTV episodes are shot in HD using one of three Panasonic HVX-200 P2 cameras. it takes about 15 minutes to run (cleanly) through a 5-minute script twice, and then it's time to edit.

Cut it
All of our videos are edited in Final Cut Pro. Post production takes anywhere from a day and a half to three days depending on the complexity of the project. There are four or five "types" of video in most Digital Juice promos: The A-roll (Chuck's delivery to camera), Examples showing the product in use, Screen Shots of the interface, a Logo Animation (many of which have been custom-created for each production by former Animator, Brent Milby), and, occasionally, Product Shots (shot by Perry Jenkins).

Some parts of the post production process start before the video is shot. Both Examples and Screen Shots can be created before the edit actually begins. These tasks are often distributed across several desks, with Charlie, Sean and Ace each creating a handful of examples and/or capturing screen shots. Once the A-roll is in the hands of the editor doing the assembly, it is imported into the timeline and cut for time, based on the audio/VO. Next we determine what portions of Chuck's delivery will be seen on-screen and which will be covered with B-roll. We key only those portions that will be seen in the final edit. Music is selected (from StackTraxx, naturally) and the pieces are assembled and prepped for a screening. Because every edit affects the audio track, all edit decisions are approved and finalized before we start the final audio mix. Once the audio mix is done, the piece is ready to render and export for encoding.

Thumbs Up
The work doesn't end after the edit, though. Every DJ Promo gets a custom-designed thumbnail/billboard icon. This follows a similar process (brainstorm, planning, writing, shooting and post). Making the thumbnails is not an afterthought. One full day of the process is devoted to planning, shooting and designing the thumbnail for a promo while the video is being encoded for distribution.

That’s a Wrap
So there you go. Now you know just what we go through to make it takes to make the fast-paced, info-packed, idea-inspiring, and (hopefully) fun to watch DJ promotional videos that you have grown to know and love. So keep watching them! As a matter of fact, this would be a great time to click over to the DJTV gallery and watch 10 or 12 of them!

Chuck Peters is VP of Media and Publications at Digital Juice and is an Emmy Award Winning writer and producer.