We always ask before we book a job making a promotional film – what is the purpose of your video? Who are you sharing it with? And why?

Pre-planning for grant proposals, presenter clips and more helps an entire film shoot go more smoothly. Peter Bogdanos, Artistic Director of Mexico Beyond Mariachi, is extraordinarily passionate about his work, and is a great planner. He knows the value of video to bring in new audiences, presenters and partners.

Super organized, Peter planned with us before a performance to pull a few excerpts from interactive parts of his company’s show for schoolchildren. He needed a teaser to share along with a proposal. (Watch above.)

Peter knew he needed to showcase audience engagement and excitement, so he asked us to capture that in our film shoot of the performance. We brought three cameras so we could capture the full show from two angles as well as interviews with the artists and b-roll of the students’ reactions to the show.

We’re working on making a longer promotional trailer for Mexico Beyond Mariachi’s school performances – can’t wait to share it! – but we were also prepared ahead of time to pull something fast for Peter’s proposal deadline. He helped choose the moments from the performance he thought would best showcase that interactive quality, and we were able to turn around a very simple excerpt for him within two days of filming.

For another example of planning your video creation for the audience you want to watch it, please visit Mexico Beyond Mariachi’s website. Right on their homepage is a promotional film we made from a special video shoot last year. It’s prominently displayed so every visitor can get a feel for the company’s energy right away!