Working with Igloo Creative House

Working with Igloo Creative House isn’t a simple matter of a contract between us and our clients to complete project work. Our process is defined, intricate, and geared towards us providing the best work possible while our client is along for every step of the journey.

We have spoken extensively about our work in the past, but we wanted to provide some insight into our process and answer the question: What is it like to work with Igloo Creative House?

Our First Steps

The first objective for Igloo Creative House with every project is to understand the project and its needs as intimately as possible. We begin this process by having a call with our client where we listen to their wants and needs for the project, their requirements, and their objectives. Following this call, we send a questionnaire to the client so that they can fill in critical details about the project and help define its scope.

Our questionnaire requests details about the company’s background, project goals, the video’s purpose, product information, ideal length, and further information depending on the type of video it will be. Based on this information, a video brief is crafted which is a valuable document used throughout the entire production process that contains essential information.

Once we’re satisfied with our understanding of the project and our client’s needs, we move into the next phase which begins with a client kickoff meeting.

Initial Project Planning

During the kickoff meeting, we go in-depth about our process and how we work to deliver projects. Once the kickoff meeting has concluded, we determine our team composition internally and put the best-equipped people for the project on the team. We’re lucky at Igloo Creative House in that we have a deep pool of talented people who are skilled in diverse areas, so when it comes to deciding the team for any given project, we try to match the skills of team members with what the project needs. If the project relies on character animation, we’ll put our talented character animators on the team.

At this stage, the project manager puts together a detailed Gantt chart that chronicles our various deadlines and milestones, which we also share with our client. We believe that full transparency with our clients is in everyone’s best interests, so we’re proactive in sharing our timelines and projections. Additionally, during our kickoff meetings, we ask clients to give us a rough timeframe that they would need to provide feedback on our work. Whether it’s 24 hours, two days, or any timeframe, we include this in our Gantt chart so that our timelines and deadlines can be as accurate as possible.

Video Production Process

With our creative process, we usually begin by proposing at least three distinct creative directions for our client projects. We discuss these directions with our clients to determine which direction to go and make adjustments where necessary to refine our creative ideas.

Once a creative direction has been determined, we start writing the script which includes the lines for narration and a comprehensive visual description. In our experience, we’ve found that the visual description is helpful for clients to start tangibly understanding how the final video could look. We don’t limit the number of script revisions we do and we’re more than comfortable tweaking it as much as possible until both we and our client are satisfied.

Next, we move on to either developing a storyboard or an animatic. The more detailed nature of animatics can be beneficial for some productions that rely on precise timing. Animatics feature timelines and guiding voiceover work, so this exactness can be helpful.

Throughout the entire production process, we like to keep our clients involved as much as possible. Early on, we provide references to indicate what the final project will resemble, and throughout the main production period, we provide style frames to give a clearer look at how the video is turning out. Further to this, if the client we’re working with has a specific brand look, feel, and language they want to use, we can incorporate these aspects into our video production.

Once our overall creative direction is satisfactory to both us and our client, we develop a full layout that includes designs for every single frame and is based on our storyboard. We send this on to our client for approval and we send options for voice-over artists. The choice of voice actor depends entirely on the mood and tone of the video, and it’s something we’d like our clients to have direct involvement with deciding. With everything approved, we work towards creating a first draft which usually takes several weeks to come together. At this point, we don’t generally receive drastic feedback due to how we incorporate feedback into our initial project timelines on our Gantt chart.

One of the final steps is to work on the video’s sound design, effects, and mixing and once those steps are complete, our work is close to being done outside of a couple of refinements and changes here and there.

Client Involvement and Collaboration

From the beginning of our projects, we aim to include our clients in every step of our production process. Though we lead the production process, we keep our clients looped in the entire time as we seek their feedback, listen to their suggestions, and work closely with them to ensure we’re representing their brand correctly in our messaging and visuals.

In terms of communication, we establish communication pipelines early and use multiple channels. We use Google Meet or similar software depending on the client’s preference to conduct our regular meetings, and use various email threads for updates. We like to keep our email communication as organized as possible, so we’ll use different threads for different aspects, one for storyboarding discussion, one for scripting, and so forth. Additionally, we use Slack so that we can freely communicate with one another when the need arises.

We’re open to and welcome feedback from our clients on all of our project work, and we encourage precise feedback so we can refine and improve our work. We encourage our clients to use Frame.io, a workflow tool that facilitates comments on exact timestamps for videos so we know exactly what we need to do. If we’re ever unsure about the feedback we receive, we make every effort to communicate with our client and get it clarified. For feedback and all other aspects of the project, having an open dialog is extremely important and fosters a positive working and creative relationship.

Igloo Creative House is an expert video production and animation services provider for all your video needs. From product videos to brand and performance marketing content, we’re equipped to produce high-quality video content for numerous industries. Contact us today!

As part of Magic Media, we offer dozens of services for gaming, entertainment, and tech projects including full-cycle game development, game VFX, art production, and much more. Reach out, and let’s create magic!