Five Below – Master of WOW

We wanted to tell the story in a testimonial format from the team members that benefited from the program. The plan was to interview five district managers and five store managers, have them talk about the program as a whole, and then focus on each aspect of the SCALE acronym.

In just 60 seconds, each video needed to define each pillar of “SCALE.” The challenge was that Five Below also wanted representation from actual district and store managers in their actual districts – this meant getting interviews in five separate states across the country. We would have to film in Philadelphia, Raleigh, Little Rock, Houston, Detroit, and Southern New Jersey.

The shoot was broken up into multiple days. We had one shoot per state to get the store managers. Luckily, the Master of WOW program brings district managers into WOWtown, Five Below’s corporate headquarters in Philadelphia, so we were able to film interviews and b-roll of the district managers during a two day training event in one location. After seven days of filming, all of the content needed made its way back to our Philadelphia studio to be edited for The Big Show…which now was just 30 days away…

Shooters Shooters Everywhere…

Because of the number of locations, the cost of travel, and the time needed to coordinate everything, we reached out to partners across the country and sourced local crews in each location. Video City does this all the time – and it’s a big part of the value we bring as a video production company.

One our criteria is consistency – you need to make sure the style of shooting is consistent, the quality of shooting is consistent, the messaging is consistent, and for us, ensuring the ‘elevated experience’ – which just means the directors are empathetic, patient, and provide guidance – is consistent as well.

Shooting Style:

this gets into the equipment the shooters use and how they use it. We want the camera color profiles and styles match. It’s important that the audio equipment isn’t all over the place too – lavaliers will produce a different sound than shotgun mics – and different types of lav and shotgun mics will produce different sounds. These are all situations we account for.

We’re also explicit in what frame rate and format the final deliverable is in as well as what settings we want for time lapse or slow motion effects.

Quality of Shooting:

usually samples will let you know whether a shooter is “intentional.” Many times a reel doesn’t tell the full story. Everyone can get a nice slider shot once in a while or an epic gimbal movement here and there and not every shooter that films shaky handheld is “sloppy,” either. The idea is to look through someone’s breadth of work, talk to them, and understand if they know why they are doing what they are doing. If they film intentionally, then they can be directed, and we can get consistent footage.

Consistent Messaging:

We referenced the “whisper down the lane” analogy above. Ultimately if you don’t fully know the message chances are something will get lost in translation when you send a team on site. It’s important to vet that messaging with your client and then with your shooting team. It’s even more critical when working with a new shooter that you ascertain if they able to understand the messaging.

Elevated Directing:

especially in testimonial filmmaking like this, you aren’t working with people that are necessarily “camera ready.” For this shoot most of the store managers had never been on film before and in our pre-interview calls most expressed being nervous about the shoot. Your first job as a director is to help them overcome those fears, to bring forth their best self. That requires cinematic techniques, guidance, patience, but overall empathy. Get in their shoes, imagine feeling like a fish out of water, and try to help.