Jannah Network Promotional Video
Jannah Network Promo Video
In the past month or so, I’d been working with the Jannah Network and made the above promotional video for them.
The Jannah Network is a vast network filled with sites that serve the Muslim community. These sites (as seen in the above video) include Jannah Studios (a Muslim webhosting & design studio), Halal Press (a Muslim version of wordpress.com, a blogging platform), Jannah Radio (weekly Islamic webcast) and so much more.
The video took about 35 hours total to create. This is one of the first “Project Reflections” posts, so I wanted to share the process I took.
How I Got the Job
I was just searching through the internet, and found this blog: Diaries of a Hafiz and found it interesting. I commented on one of the posts, and as you may know, when you comment on a blog, you put your name, email and your website. A few days later I got an email from the Jannah Network (who runs the blog) saying they clicked on my comment to go to my website, and saw my video page. They asked the price for a YouTube video and the back-and-forth contact began from there.
LESSON: Never underestimate the power social networking. I unintentionally got a job from writing a simple comment on a random blog.
1. Development
This is a part of video production often neglected. Often clients and organizations feel like you just “make” a YouTube video. Pick up a camera and start shooting. That is WRONG.
I emailed Jannah Network back and forth (and even instant-message-chatted with them), and tried to develop the idea of what they wanted for the video. I got down two crucial pieces of information. The (1) Purpose of the video, and the (2) Emotion they wanted the video to convey. With that information, it became so much easier to frame how the video would be set up. I kept my ideas all together in one place. For those of you who like the Taking Better Notes post, you’ll love this:
The above is called a “Mind Map” and I made it using a software called Mindjet Mind Manager.
There, it outlined the purpose and emotion of the video, the overview of what the Jannah Network is, and listed all the websites. Later, I’d added sub-topics to each website and wrote the short description for each one. I referenced this a whole lot in the editing of the video.
LESSON: A great video needs development. Two starting points are the purpose and emotion of the video.
2. Production
The process of making videos usually has this three step process: Development, Production, and Post-Production.
Because this video was a trailer/promotional video, it has a different process. It doesn’t include any live-action footage, so there’s no real “production” aspect of it. I didn’t have to film anything for it, I’ll expand on the visuals of the video in the next step.
3. Post-Production
In this process, I also discussed with Jannah Network about some requirements of the video, one of which was a request to use the background audio from a voice-only artist. I found out that they actually have rights to use songs from this group called Labbayk. I listened to their songs, and chose one called “Ask Him”. With a promo/trailer, it’s often driven by the background sound. Therefore, audio must be chosen first, then the visuals will aid it. Unfortunately, I don’t think I did as good as I could’ve with matching visuals to sound (I actually edited the audio to fit some visuals).
Next up, I listened to the song and decided that I’d begin first off with a series of pictures to match it. The song’s lyrics go:
Gather your hands together,
And send your prayers away,
Whisper your utmost love to Allah,
And ask Him what you may
So, I headed over to sxc.hu (thanks to Brother Arif for pointing out this site to me) which is a free stock-image site and I found some pictures to use. In addition, I also used Stock Footage for Free to find a free video clip.
After that, I decided that I wanted to present the websites in a way to show that there were a whole lot (part of the emotion to convey was for the viewer to feel overwhelmed with how many awesome sites there are). So, I decided that one of the best ways was to use video of someone typing in each site into their browser. So, I recorded myself using CamStudio typing in each site.
Then I used the handy Snipping Tool that comes with Windows 7 (and Vista I believe as well). It’s basically an upgrade to your keyboard’s Print Screen button. I took screenshots of each site.
The process of presenting the work to the client went as follows: the first initial progress draft video, and they gave their revisions. I sent them the final video, and they gave their final touch-ups/small revisions. Then, the final video was delivered.
Project Reflections
This project took about 4 weeks to happen. I actually made this simultaneously with another video which had to be made for an event. That’s why it dragged on so long. In addition to that, Jannah Network had quite a few corrections (they had some uncertainty about exactly what they wanted in the video, so it caused them to doubt some of their decisions and improve and revise). However, the final email they sent to me really made me smile. In itself, this is a LESSON:
I wanted to really express my gratitude on your efforts…you’ve really been able to patiently deliver the final outcome and result in the most efficient of manners. May Allah Ta’ala reward you manifold.
- Jannah Network
