How to Make a Launch Film

by Krishna Veera Vanamali

whyvanamali.com

LinkedIn

The steps below are my learnings from making the launch film for The Investment Memo, Lightspeed India’s new podcast. The steps are general, so you can use them for a launch film in any sector, e.g., for a product, a series, a report or an event.

The process at a glance

Plan for about three weeks from kickoff to a posted film, and work backward from your launch date. Most of the time should go into the first half of the work. About 60 percent goes into the concept, the treatment and the storyboard, and about 40 percent goes into the edit. The edit often takes only three or four days once the story is settled, so the extra time is better spent on the concept.

Step 1. Define the job the film has to do

Before you work on any idea, write down what the film is for, because you will settle later decisions about a line, a shot or the ending by going back to it.

What does success look like? For us, success meant getting the startup ecosystem to talk about something new from Lightspeed India. The film had no target for subscribers, leads or views. When the goal is to get people talking, the film can be a little abstract and doesn’t need to explain anything. It does need to be good enough that people share it for its own sake.

Who is it for? We made the film for founders and aspiring founders. Any founder who watches it should be able to appreciate the craft and the story behind it.

What is it not? Our film was one film for the whole series, and it was not a trailer for the first episode or an explainer of the format. It was also separate from the show’s intro animation. Writing the list down keeps the film from trying to do too many jobs.

Where will it be posted? Pick one platform as the main one, and build the film for it. We chose X, because the startup and AI conversation we wanted to join happens there. So we set the hook, the pace and the length with X in mind.

What style will it be cut in? Choose an edit style early, so you know how fast to cut, how to use the music and how long each shot stays on screen. We chose a hype edit, which is a style with very fast cuts timed to the music, because the style suits a short film on X. Your story is still original, and you can study other films in the same style to see how to tell your story in it.

Once you have the answers to the five questions, work backward from them. For example, if the goal is to get founders on X talking, the film has to hook people in the first three seconds, and it has to work with the sound off for part of its run.

Step 2. Decide what the film is made from

Before you work on the concept, decide what the raw material is and what the film will never use, because the raw material and the limits shape the creative work more than any reference film does.

We decided to build the film from existing footage, with no new shoot. We told the story through Indian founders, and specifically through Lightspeed’s own portfolio founders, in their own words. We ruled out a voiceover of any kind, whether human or AI. We also ruled out AI video of real people and any AI copy of a real person’s face or voice.

Write the decisions as a short list, and share the list with your agency partner or video editor on the first day. Clear limits rule out the familiar choices, so you end up using material that belongs to you.

Step 3. Build a library you can search

A film built from existing footage depends on the footage you can find, so collect it before you need it.

We gathered every long video from Lightspeed’s own channels, which came to about 140 videos and close to 100 hours, and we turned each video into a transcript. With the transcripts, we could search for an idea across all the videos, see who said what, and find candidate lines in minutes.

• Index everything. Keep one list with the source, the speaker and the length of each video.
• Make it searchable. Transcripts let you search by word and by idea.
• Hand it over on the first day. Your agency partner or editor should start from the library, and then add their own research from news and public appearances.
• Keep a source note for every line you select. When you write about the film later, you can then say exactly where each line came from.

Step 4. Explore ideas before you brief anyone

Spend two or three days testing ideas yourself before you brief your agency partner.

Make rough prototypes. We made a few quick and cheap films to test different concepts, e.g., founders saying the same word, a single line over several faces, and pictures running backward in time under founder audio. None of them was meant to be the final film. The prototypes show you, quickly and visually, whether a concept makes sense, so you go into the first conversation knowing what works.

Show the prototypes, and then set them aside. Share the prototypes with your agency partner as references, and tell them clearly that the prototypes are not the brief. You want the agency’s best idea, and not a polished version of your rough cut.

Study references in the style you chose. Collect films that are cut in your edit style, and take each one apart. For each film, note who speaks (e.g., a narrator, one speaker, or music only), the shape of the story, the pace and the look. Then decide on the effect you want. We set the goal of a film that strangers would share for its craft alone, without any connection to the company.

Step 5. Set up the brief and the way you work

Brief the agency on the job, and leave the idea to them. Spend the kickoff call on context. Explain your subject, the objective, the audience, what the film is not, the platform and the raw material. Then share the library and the prototypes.

Have one point of contact. One person on the client side who can make decisions speeds up the whole project. That person should agree the feedback with their internal stakeholders in advance, so the agency gets clear feedback once and doesn’t wait on approvals.

Approve quickly with still images. Agree on quick approvals in one chat group, with rough frames or screenshots for a yes or no answer. Hold a short call only when something needs discussion.

Fix the milestones. Work backward from the launch date, and agree on a date for the treatment, the storyboard, the first draft and the final film.

Step 6. Choose the treatment

The treatment is the set of choices about how the film tells its story, e.g., the voice, the visual approach and the ending. Give this step the most time.

We took ideas from several concepts and built the final treatment from them. The following choices held the treatment together.

Use one voice from start to finish. We told the film entirely in founders’ own audio. One type of voice keeps the film consistent, and it lets the people in the story tell it.

Move the audio forward in time and the visuals backward. While the founders talk about their journey in order, the pictures run the other way in time. For example, doubt in a founder’s voice plays over a picture of the company today, and a breakthrough plays over the earliest photos. The contrast shows the viewer that time is passing, without any words about it.

Put nothing on screen that needs reading. The film has to hook people in three seconds, and viewers stop watching when they have to read. Keep any text to a few words at a time.

Reveal only the name. Keep the show out of the film until the last frames, where the name appears. Then make the ending clear about what is coming, e.g., with “Coming soon”.

Step 7. Build the arc and choose the lines

Build the arc as a sequence of emotions, in the following order.

1. First, a hook of very fast cuts, under a second each, with sound and no words.
2. Second, three bold lines from three founders, where each line is a little bigger than the one before.
3. Third, an open question that brings the viewer back in. For us, the question was whether India can build companies like these.
4. Fourth, a beat drop into a short silence.
5. Fifth, a rewind, where the footage plays in reverse and the founders get younger.
6. Sixth, the early days, the doubt and the struggle.
7. Seventh, the breakthrough, the growth, and the moment the world notices.
8. Finally, a calm closing line, and then the name.

The arc catches the viewer’s interest at the start and gives them a reason to keep watching. It also has a low point in the middle, and it ends on ambition.

Use many founders to tell one story. No single founder carries the film. About a dozen founders each speak for one moment, so the story belongs to all of them.

Choose lines together with your agency partner. Go through the clip library in one working session, and pick lines for each part of the arc. One session turns days of research into decisions.

Choose lines with one meaning. Every line should make sense out of context, and it should have only one reading.

Use one line per founder. Each founder speaks once, with their strongest line for that moment. The same company should never appear twice in a row.

Leave names, dates and titles off the screen. Leave out the captions that name a speaker. Show the passing of time through the look of the film instead, e.g., with older photos, film grain or an old TV frame.

Use one visual metaphor, in short cuts. We used a caterpillar that becomes a butterfly, for the journey from nothing to something. The caterpillar appears as the founders look back to where they started, the chrysalis appears during the struggle, and the butterfly comes out at the breakthrough. Keep the metaphor to very short cuts between lines, so the founders stay at the centre of the film.

Show the founders getting younger. Start from each founder’s biggest moment, and step back through their photos to the earliest one, with each photo matched on the eyes. You need a gallery of dozens of photos to get a few seconds of the sequence right.

Step 8. Treat the storyboard as the final film

Build the storyboard frame by frame, close to the finished film. Keep a script table beside it, with the section, speaker, company, line and source for every part. Treat everything in the storyboard as final, because the edit then goes quickly.

Placeholder images are fine in the storyboard. The storyboard fixes the emotion of each part and the lines that carry it, and the edit then finds the real footage. Tell your stakeholders about the placeholders, so they judge the story and not the images.

Lock the following items when you sign off the storyboard:

• the length;
• the music;
• the source of every clip;
• the end card.

Step 9. Edit quickly, and use sound to carry the story

Once you sign off the storyboard, the edit takes days, and changes come back in hours.

Test the first draft on someone who hasn’t seen the storyboard. Everyone who worked on the storyboard sees the arc, because they know it is there. A new viewer sees only what the edit shows them.

Mark the turns in the story with sound. Keep the music calm during the struggle, and let it grow as the founders grow. Leave a near silence before the turn, and end each section on a line that sounds like a close.

Show the founders’ faces. In a film told through voices, show a founder’s face with a few lip-synced words for one in every two or three founders, so viewers know who is speaking.

Put subtitles at the bottom. Keep the animated text in the middle of the frame and the subtitles at the bottom, so the two never overlap. Subtitles also let people follow the film with the sound off.

Launch Film Breakdown: Storyboard, Script, Edit

Step 10. Distribute the film

The plan for launch day matters as much as the film, because a launch film doesn’t spread without help.

Tell your team a week ahead. Tell the people you are counting on that a launch is coming, when it goes out, and what you are asking each of them to do. Send one email with the whole plan, so on launch day they get a reminder and not their first message.

Build excitement inside the company first. Share the film privately with a few key colleagues before it goes out. Colleagues who are excited about the film post about it with more energy.

Give people lines to start from. Share a few short lines that your team can use or change, with one rule, which is to tease the film and not explain it.

Keep a short list of friends to send it to. On launch day, send the film personally to a few friends who are likely to engage with it. Early engagement from people you know helps the post reach more people.

Focus on one platform. Put all your effort into one platform, so the post gets enough early engagement to keep spreading. For us, the platform was X.

Treat the film as the ad. The launch film makes people curious, and the first episode is what people discuss. So ask for likes and comments on the film, and save quote posts and longer discussion for the episode.

Checklist

1. Write down the job. Include what success looks like, the audience, what the film is not, one main platform and the edit style.
2. Decide the raw material. Decide between existing footage and a shoot, whose voices you use, and what the film will never use.
3. Build a library you can search, and keep a source note for every line.
4. Test concepts with rough prototypes, and study references in the style you chose.
5. Brief the agency on the job, name one point of contact, approve quickly with still images, and work backward from the launch date.
6. Choose the treatment. Use one voice, move the audio forward and the visuals backward, put nothing on screen to read, and reveal only the name.
7. Build the arc as a sequence of emotions, and choose one strong line per founder, with one meaning each.
8. Treat the storyboard as final, and lock the length, music, sources and end card.
9. Edit quickly, test the draft on a new viewer, mark the turns with sound, and show the founders’ faces.
10. Tell your team a week ahead, give them lines to start from, send the film to a few friends, and focus on one platform.