An Eid message video looks like the simplest job on the calendar. One person, one camera, two minutes of speech. It is also the job most likely to be left until the week before, which is precisely when it goes wrong. Breef Sandwich brought us in to film the Eid message from the chief executive of REDF.
We filmed it well ahead of the date. It went out online on the day itself.
Why an Eid message video gets filmed weeks early
Between the edit, the captions, the subtitles and everyone who has to approve it, a two minute speech needs far more calendar than people expect. Film it the week before and someone is approving a cut at midnight. Film it three weeks out and nobody is under any pressure at all.
One person, one position, nowhere to hide
There is no cutaway to rescue you on a piece like this. The room has to be calm and the setup simple. We light it softly, keep the crew small, and offer a prompter to anyone who wants one. The fewer people standing around watching, the more natural the speaker sounds.
Warm rather than corporate
The difference between a greeting people watch and one they scroll past is tone. A seasonal message read like a quarterly statement does not land with anyone. We run a few takes and use the one where the person sounds like themselves rather than like a press release.
Captions matter more than usual here
Most of the audience will watch this on a phone with the sound off. Burned in captions, in the right language and sized for a small screen, are not an afterthought on a film like this. They are most of how it gets understood.
“Film it three weeks out and nobody is approving a cut at midnight.”
Stock Stop
Seasonal and executive films are one of the ways Stock Stop supports teams in London and across the United Kingdom, and in Riyadh and across Saudi Arabia. See our corporate and event video service. Tell us the occasion and your deadline, and we will come back with a plan.
Tell us what you need and we will come back with a plan.
