Our friends at the Illinois Tollway approached us to produce a video highlighting their I-Pass Assist program - a program aimed at helping income-eligible individuals and families realize the benefits of I-Pass.
The main driving force behind the creation of this video was the fact that the Illinois Tollway received an award from the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), and they wanted to present this video at the live awards ceremony.
We had less than a month between the initial inquiry from the Tollway and the awards ceremony. As a Chicago-based video production company, we were beyond excited to help such a prominent Illinois organization, but we knew we had our job cut out for us.
We aligned with the client to understand the key story they wanted to tell - the difference they are making in people's lives by giving them access to an I-Pass.
Once we were aligned creatively on the key story points of the video, we began putting together a high-level storyboard for the video, shot listing, figuring out locations, logistics and scheduling.
Obtaining footage of I-Pass Assist customers was an important and obvious component of this video. But, we knew this video would be played at a conference in front of hundreds of industry peers, and the client wanted to support the story of this program with dynamic and engaging visuals. They wanted to "wow" their industry peers.
One of the most effective ways to create an engaging video is to capture a wide range of footage that you can bounce between to support your primary story.
Shot diversity is one of the most effective ways to create an engaging video that can hold an audience's attention.
With budget and time constraints in mind, there were a few key pieces of footage we ended up putting on our shot list. These included drone footage of key tollway interchanges, ride-along footage with Illinois Tollway employees, and Illinois Tollway office employees interacting with customers.
Given the time and budget constraints of the project, we scheduled production to take just 1.5 days. Day 1 started with early morning to capture some sunrise drone shots of I-90 and finished with interviews of key Illinois Tollway staff at their Downer's Grover office. Day 2 was primarily at an I-Pass Assist activation event in Cicero, IL.
The beautiful part about creating videos is that you can spend all of this time scripting and storyboarding in pre-production, and still encounter (welcome) surprises during the post-production and editing process.
And that's exactly what happened during the editing of this video.
During the interview with Illinois Tollway's Executive Director, Cassaundra Rouse, she gave us this amazing quote - "Customer service is at the heart of everything we do." At the time, we didn't think much of it.
But when we sat down to review the interview afterwards, this quote just continued to stand out. And when we decided to experiment with placing this quote at the very beginning to the video - it just worked. It was an extremely powerful way to open up the Illinois Tollway's story of service for the people of Illinois, and allowed the video to parlay into the high energy and upbeat video the client wanted.
Giving your creative team the freedom to weave in and around the initial storyboard or script always leads to a better product.
Dual Native finished the initial cut of this video within a week of obtaining final footage. And after a couple of iterations back and forth with the client, we had something they were extremely proud to share at the IBTTA Awards Ceremony.
We're beyond proud of being able to associate ourelves with an organization like the Illinois Tollway and share the successes of a program like I-Pass Assist!
