Cornerstone General Contractors
Case Study
Client: Cornerstone General Contractors
Video Type: Recruitment / Brand
Production Length:
- Pre-Production: September – October, 2022
- Production: December 2022
- Post Production: December 2022 – February 2023
The Challenge:
Cornerstone is one of the premier builders of K-12 schools in Washington State. Starting as a small family business, their commitment to quiet excellence and craftsmanship has contributed to their exponential growth.
A large part of any contractors growth is their ability to attract the right kinds of people — and Cornerstone is no exception. In their case, they were looking to create a campaign that would appeal to people who share their same work ethic and ethos — team players unafraid to get their hands dirty, to do what it takes, and seek a job well done, not credit.
The Strategy
We knew from the beginning that we wanted to arrange to hear from everyone — leadership to apprentice — about what it means to work for Cornerstone. It’s one thing to hear how great the company is from the leadership team — it takes on a whole new (and more impactful) meaning when the apprentice speaks to the company culture.
We were keenly aware this video had to resonate not only with people considering a career at Cornerstone, but the leadership team also had to be “wowed” by it.
The Process
1. Pre-Production
We took what we learned in our initial call and in our branding & messaging workshop, and began the storyboarding process. In our storyboards, we clearly define the visuals, the audio, and the graphics to be used. We then work closely with our clients to refine the storyboard so it fully reflects who they are as a company and achieves the goals we set out to achieve.
In addition, we spent significant time crafting our line of questions for the interviews. We storyboard, but never script our videos. This way, we have a clear vision of where the video will take us, but we aren’t dogged about how we get there. This leaves room for spontaneity and inspiration, while eliminating boring and stilted reading from the script or memorization.
The result is astonishing authenticity.
Additionally, we arranged to visit three job sites, all in different stages of development, allowing us to show the skillset of Cornerstone across the lifecycle of the projects they work on.
2. Production
Construction firms are notorious for being busy, so we needed to make the most of the time we had at our disposal. Our contact at Cornerstone (Melissa Castor) did a stellar job of helping us to coordinate the interviews, job sites, and scheduling.
To achieve success in this project, we spent around 30 minutes per team member, giving them enough time to relax (relaxation cannot be forced, after all), feel comfortable on camera, and give authentic answers to our questions.
Positions we interviewed:
- President
- Safety & operations
- Project Engineers
- Foreman
- Apprentice
- Superintendents
- Field Superintendent
- Project Managers
3. Post Production
Post production consisted of first, reviewing all the interview footage we captured and crafting a cohesive narrative. Our team uses the storyboard as a guide, but as in our production phase, we leave room for inspiration and creativity.
The editor we chose for the project (Liz Astra) went a slightly different direction than we had planned, and the video is the better for it. The pacing of the video, the music choices, and the general feel of the video was superb, and the credit goes to Liz.
We went through three rounds of edits, giving Cornerstone a chance to make changes, suggestions, and ask questions. This collaboration with our clients is critical to the overall success of the production.
Distribution
After the video was finalized, we hosted a distribution workshop with Cornerstone. Distribution is critical, and is often an overlooked part of the process. We know how much time and effort is involved in video production, and we want our clients to get the most they can out of the final product.
In our hour long workshop, we:
- Reviewed our 28 point distribution checklist
- Discussed what went well in the process
- Discussed what our team can improve upon in future productions
- Answered the remaining questions the Cornerstone team had
- Presented ideas for future video creation to further help build the Cornerstone brand.
