Behind the scenes: The making of Auto Trader’s Product Update video
The big idea, how we made it happen and some of the things we learned along the way.
✏️ Backstage
The brief, the big idea and our plan of action
For the third year running, it was time for our Auto Trader Product Update.
A way for us to share some of the products and features we’ve shipped that year, and the people who made them happen. Our first version in 2021 was a big list of completed tickets. Our second in 2022 had a bigger focus on storytelling with a video to go with the webpage.
This year we wanted to be even more ambitious.
So our small working group got together for lots of collaboration and ideation. Sticking post-it notes up in real life and on digital whiteboards. Sketching and script writing. Speaking to designers, developers, product owners and our in-house video team to understand these new features, what was possible, and discover more about the stories we could share.
The idea was to put our people inside the tools we use to create our products, as an interesting way to show them from the inside out.
So we created a magical digital multi-verse(!) to take the audience on a journey inside product and tech at AutoTrader in the last year. The theme was all about how we make the complex simple for our users. And the project was designed to highlight all the brilliant people who do this every day, behind the scenes.
The project included a web page (as always) to explain the products and features in a little more detail. But, the challenging part this year, was this ambitious video shoot, so that’s what I’ll focus on for this blog.
🎬 Lights, camera, action!
On set with the team and the green screen
The shoot finally arrived across a few hot days in Trafford. Although we all had been involved with filming to different extents in the past, our green screen experience at this huge scale was slim to none. So we knew it would be an adventure, loads of fun and likely a steep learning curve.
Wardrobe malfunctions
We’d done lots of pre-production planning and thinking, but our newness to major green screen shoots showed in the wardrobe. We’d carefully provided some guidelines for the clothing of our cast:
✔ Avoiding strong patterns that might look wobbly on-screen
✔ ️Avoiding distracting brands or slogans
✔ ️Avoiding noisy fabrics that might be heard on their microphones
✔ ️Avoiding white and green clothes which would pick up the green tinge or make the person look invisible
✔ ️Thinking about our brand colours and the colours of backgrounds that would be behind each person
✘ But we hadn’t thought about their shoes.
Some were too shiny and reflective, and others had white bases which were picking up the green floor. Cue some last-minute dashes to the nearby shops to source some all-black super fashionable supermarket shoes!
Making props
It can be helpful to use some physical props or real-life effects when shooting. It can help the cast and production team imagine the invisible, and help with editing later. A few things we did were:
- Build a big wooden frame for Catherine to step out of, simulating the edge of the flat photograph on our magical digital whiteboard.
- Make a green cardboard rectangle and stick it on a green pole to represent the floating phone. Then Eniya had something to grab and the team could add in the specific phone and screen later when editing.
* Special mention to Tim for making it from scratch. - Created steps and held up lights to simulate the glow from below. The light that would be emitted from a real-life, backlit phone screen (if a tiny person were standing on it!).
- Got George to hold up a green piece of wood, to act as a wall for Tom to lean on. Instead of the huge imaginary smartphone that we would edit in later.
And the dreaded treadmill… We needed our presenters to walk past lots of imaginary things on screen but the studio we were filming in was only a certain size. We made use of their treadmill, so our people could walk and talk infinitely. It proved a little tricky to get used to at first but our cast aced it. And the safety cushions were thankfully not needed.
Office sights and sounds
We’re lucky to have an in-house recording studio at our Auto Trader HQ in Manchester. So we set up the microphones and recorded voiceovers with our three presenters. We were able to try putting different emphases on certain words, and also rewrite any sections of the script if we realised there was the odd tongue-twister of a sentence.
Filming the last sequence in the office presented different challenges. Finding the best locations to film and switching rooms due to noisy air conditioning fans. Thinking about background elements (plants and lights and wires) that were visible. As well as roping in some last-minute extras using AutoTrader colleagues who were sat nearby.
We also found out what things are good to use for whip-pan-style transition camera shots. Shout out Stu and Hazel for letting us use their shoulders as well as a good old sheet of A4 paper.
✅ That’s a wrap
A few highlights and things we learnt
After a couple of months in post-production including; editing, adding sound, special effects, music, animation and all the background visuals. Followed by rough cuts, lots of collaboration, feedback and final decisions. And, on my part at least, lots of fizzy drinks to fuel all this. We were done!
Here are a few highlights and things we learned:
- Collaboration was key… plus it was fun and fruitful too. Having a shared vision that we created together at the start was super helpful. As well as respecting and making the most of everyone’s talents and knowledge.
- It was a steep learning curve! There were lots of things we had never done before and many curveballs. But we were adaptable and flexible, thinking on our feet and working together. We learnt loads and upskilled, with things we can use in other projects.
- Having a ‘magical’ concept is useful for being flexible but it does lead to some funny questions from the team. Such as; “If you were a tiny person standing on a phone how would you click the CTA (call to action) button?”
- More planning, even clearer communication and consideration of other uses for the video in advance (for example pre-planned social snippets) would make it even better.
So, did we manage to achieve our aim? …we think so! The ambition was big, but as a team, we produced a high-quality video and web page in-house that showcased AutoTrader people and new products from the inside out.
🍿 The premiere
Grab the popcorn…
We shared the film with the wider AutoTrader team internally first on our Slack channel. Followed by conversations and watch-alongs with our retail partners. Plus video snippets and links were shared all across social media and with relevant industry and tech titles.
Curious to see the finished film?
And check out the web page here: www.autotrader.co.uk/2023
There’s even an episode on our Product and Tech Podcast ‘Roadmap’ discussing the video and the concept of ‘simple is complex’. What it means to them, how it relates to their roles and the ways they see it come to life at AutoTrader.
👏 Roll credits
Thanks to all involved with our 2023 Product Update. Those who were part of making the video itself put so much time, effort, craft and love into it. And also those who helped create the AutoTrader products we were showcasing. There are way too many people involved to name them all, we’d be into triple digits. But here’s a few special mentions:
Script: Rachael Edwards and Richard Hampshire
Director: Tim Platt
Editor and Visual Effects Lead: Jonathan Tracey
Camera Operator: Tom Wakefield
Sound Effects and Music: Jordan Greenhalgh
Colour Grading and Subtitles: Joe Hair
Leading Cast: Catherine King, Thomas Holmes, Eniya Ali
Supporting Cast: Miguel Sousa, Ryan Pitt, Tracy Smith, Stu Hull, Hazel Bolton, Dru Chavda, Millie Wood
Stakeholders: George Burton, Ben Smith and Yasmin Sidat
Product, Creative & Technology advisors: James Tudsbury, Carl Hamilton, Tracy Smith, Dolapo Olaoye, Nick Jenner, Warren Nicholas, Nat Brady, Ian Walker, Pete Fletcher, Dan Trent, Dominic Barnfather, Pete Jones, Ben McCarthy, Karolina Edwards-Smajda.
Landing page developers: Nat Brady and Lucy Donnelly
and me… Creative Director, Production Manager and background visuals.
What will we do next year?
Watch this space…
