The Latest Trend in Austin Video Production? Legislative Videos. Here are 4 Types
Austin’s corporate video scene is not all culture videos and product videos from fun tech companies. Austin TX, being the capital of the state, is also the hub of legislative activity for the second largest state in the country. Unions are less prevalent in Texas and state trade associations, most of them based in Austin, serve as the primary lobbying entities in Texas. They have a big need to communicate with their dues-paying members where their money and effort is going. Not to mention the political groups, nonprofits, politicians and businesses that have the same communication needs.
That’s where video production comes in. Imagine spending years of money, time, energy and resources into getting legislation passed (or not passed) and not being able to explain fully what an accomplishment the new law is, why it matters or how it got done. Even if you had time to explain to every person you’d love to reach out to about your achievements you probably still couldn’t truly encapsulate just what you did for them. But a video could do this, and in just a few minutes. Because nothing communicates better than video.
And with decreasing video production costs thanks to technology and a plethora of local video production talent in Austin thanks to The University of Texas, custom-made legislative documentaries are increasing viable. Here are four types of legislative documentary videos that could be game-changing for messaging, won’t break the bank and could be done by one of several local quality Austin video production companies.
Longer legislative session documentary (5-minute+)
Most corporate videos average around two minutes. But to effectively communicate what your legislative session was like the story could go back months or even years. It’s hard to tell that story, or much of any story, in only two or three minutes. Sometimes a longer form video is necessary. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not talking 90 minute feature-length documentaries, we’re just talking about something that that can’t be done in one day of shooting. For instance, the below video consisted of about 20 interviews over 2 primary shoot days and some ancillary b-roll shooting at the Texas Capitol. This may seem a little more daunting and the post-production is definitely trickier but I assure you it’s still a very feasible option that a good video production company can ably handle for you.
Shorter legislative session documentary (2-4 minutes)
And for those who have a little tighter of a budget there’s the shorter option. If done thoughtfully you can still effectively sum up your session’s successes in a relatively short amount of time. The following example is a video shot completely in one day, utilizing four interviews.
Rally Day/Legislative Day video
Most state associations have a legislative day or a “Rally Day” each legislative session that gives their members a chance to meet at the capitol and talk to their representatives about their issues. They often involve large groups of members, speakers, fun social events and these are terrific opportunities to shoot a video, either as part of a session video or its own stand-alone video. Legislative days are often the most fun days of being an association member and they’re a great opportunity to interview people from all over the state in one place and the videos make great recruitment tools.
Specific bill documentary
It may make sense to produce a stand-alone video if a bill passed was significant enough for your audience. Rather than speak to a whole session, which can consist of multiple subjects and pieces of legislation, it might be more effective to detail one bill only. It will be a much more focused story and it will really show viewers the process of getting a single thing done at the government level. It will show them that passing legislation can mean pulling off a miracle. And that’s what you do for them.
Michael Mason is the owner of Perfect Chaos Films, a corporate video and documentary Austin TX production company. Perfect Chaos Films has experience in video production specializing in corporate culture videos, company product videos and legislative documentaries. We are recognized as a top video production company on DesignRush.