It Took a Great Team to Make a Great Drone Video
It Took a Great Team to Make a Great Drone Video
You have probably seen it by now. The magnificent drone video that showcases the best Baird Center has to offer for potential clients and visitors.
If you haven’t, you should take a few minutes to check out the clip here.
While it takes almost no time to watch the video, a ton of work went into creating it. In fact, the whole process from developing the concept to finishing the produced video took about four months before it could be released to the public.
Event Coordinator Haley Venne remembers the start of the process well. It was mid-August, about a month into her role at Wisconsin Center District, when she was assigned the drone shoot.
Before planning the shoot’s details could even begin, Haley faced the difficult challenge of finding a weekend day when there were no events happening in the entire Baird Center. As you know, those weekends are few and far between.
Somehow, they were able to find a workable date, and then the preparation could begin. Marketing Manager Kristen Day led the charge as the liaison between Visit Milwaukee, which first proposed the project, and Madden Media, the marketing agency who would shoot, produce and edit the video.
Kristen had to map out a vision for how and where the drone would fly. The goal was to highlight features like the Grand Ballroom, Exhibit Hall, Grand Staircase, Baird Sky View Terrace and Baird Ballroom. She and the Visit Milwaukee and Madden Media teams would talk through both Baird Center buildings, but they struggled, at first, to find a way to make the building feel “interconnected.”
“It was a headscratcher moment until we realized the video wouldn’t be a physical walkthrough like we were doing,” Kristen said. “We have a flying object, so it can go over the railing and down into the ballrooms. It can spiral around art pieces and it’s really cool to see how we ended up filming everything.”
Ideas took off from there. When they finally had a route set, it was about a week ahead of the shoot. That’s when work picked up fast for Haley.
When she received the run of show, the asks included having staff, actors, equipment rentals and full-room setups for the day. This included two electricians, a bartender and firepits on the Baird Sky View Terrace, a boom lift and security screeners.
One of the biggest requests was having the WCD team set up one of the breakout rooms with the maximum number of tables. Setup Manger Ruben Sanabria took the lead on this assignment, coordinating the setup for 25 tables in a banquet hall and the maximum number of banquet tables in the Baird Ballroom, which is 108.
He and two others on the setup team ended up being featured in the video.
“I’ve shown some family and friends the video and they see me and say, ‘That’s a great establishment you guys got over there.’” Ruben said. “That’s the good part about working here. You’re exposed to a lot of stuff that normal people don’t see on a weekend or event. The loading in and loading out, it’s pretty challenging but I love it here.”
The shoot took around 12 hours total. The drone’s battery isn’t able to do a single fly through, so it had to be done in pieces. For each segment of the video the drone had to repeat its path about four or five times each.
Madden Media spent two months cutting and editing the footage and also adding the graphics. The video officially debuted at Expo Expo, a global travel and hospitality trade show held in December. The impact was seen immediately.
“People flocked to our booth,” said Josh Albrecht, Chief Marketing Officer for Visit Milwaukee who first pitched the idea after seeing a drone tour of the Dallas Cowboys practice facility on HBO’s Hard Knocks. “A big component for doing this was making sure that when a meeting planner or anybody watches this, they can envision themselves and their event there. That’s working already and we’ll be using it for all trade shows moving forward.”
Wisconsin Center District staff involved agree that the long process was worth the final product.
“This is just one of those projects where BPX came to life,” Kristen said. “Doing exactly what we’re capable of and delivering on this vision with all the people who were involved in this big project. It was cool to be one hand among many.”
They also see the advantages for the Wisconsin Center District as they use this new resource and tool in their daily work.
“The video shows our space extremely well,” Haley mentioned. “It looks great for our existing clients, and we can use it to show future clients what Baird Center has to offer.”
A huge shout-out goes to everyone who worked on the project and helped the Wisconsin Center District differentiate itself from its competitors. The creation of this video is another great example of how there are a lot of hands, in many different departments, who have to work together to make any event we host a success.
If you haven’t, you should take a few minutes to check out the clip here.
While it takes almost no time to watch the video, a ton of work went into creating it. In fact, the whole process from developing the concept to finishing the produced video took about four months before it could be released to the public.
Event Coordinator Haley Venne remembers the start of the process well. It was mid-August, about a month into her role at Wisconsin Center District, when she was assigned the drone shoot.
Before planning the shoot’s details could even begin, Haley faced the difficult challenge of finding a weekend day when there were no events happening in the entire Baird Center. As you know, those weekends are few and far between.
Somehow, they were able to find a workable date, and then the preparation could begin. Marketing Manager Kristen Day led the charge as the liaison between Visit Milwaukee, which first proposed the project, and Madden Media, the marketing agency who would shoot, produce and edit the video.
Kristen had to map out a vision for how and where the drone would fly. The goal was to highlight features like the Grand Ballroom, Exhibit Hall, Grand Staircase, Baird Sky View Terrace and Baird Ballroom. She and the Visit Milwaukee and Madden Media teams would talk through both Baird Center buildings, but they struggled, at first, to find a way to make the building feel “interconnected.”
“It was a headscratcher moment until we realized the video wouldn’t be a physical walkthrough like we were doing,” Kristen said. “We have a flying object, so it can go over the railing and down into the ballrooms. It can spiral around art pieces and it’s really cool to see how we ended up filming everything.”
Ideas took off from there. When they finally had a route set, it was about a week ahead of the shoot. That’s when work picked up fast for Haley.
When she received the run of show, the asks included having staff, actors, equipment rentals and full-room setups for the day. This included two electricians, a bartender and firepits on the Baird Sky View Terrace, a boom lift and security screeners.
One of the biggest requests was having the WCD team set up one of the breakout rooms with the maximum number of tables. Setup Manger Ruben Sanabria took the lead on this assignment, coordinating the setup for 25 tables in a banquet hall and the maximum number of banquet tables in the Baird Ballroom, which is 108.
He and two others on the setup team ended up being featured in the video.
“I’ve shown some family and friends the video and they see me and say, ‘That’s a great establishment you guys got over there.’” Ruben said. “That’s the good part about working here. You’re exposed to a lot of stuff that normal people don’t see on a weekend or event. The loading in and loading out, it’s pretty challenging but I love it here.”
The shoot took around 12 hours total. The drone’s battery isn’t able to do a single fly through, so it had to be done in pieces. For each segment of the video the drone had to repeat its path about four or five times each.
Madden Media spent two months cutting and editing the footage and also adding the graphics. The video officially debuted at Expo Expo, a global travel and hospitality trade show held in December. The impact was seen immediately.
“People flocked to our booth,” said Josh Albrecht, Chief Marketing Officer for Visit Milwaukee who first pitched the idea after seeing a drone tour of the Dallas Cowboys practice facility on HBO’s Hard Knocks. “A big component for doing this was making sure that when a meeting planner or anybody watches this, they can envision themselves and their event there. That’s working already and we’ll be using it for all trade shows moving forward.”
Wisconsin Center District staff involved agree that the long process was worth the final product.
“This is just one of those projects where BPX came to life,” Kristen said. “Doing exactly what we’re capable of and delivering on this vision with all the people who were involved in this big project. It was cool to be one hand among many.”
They also see the advantages for the Wisconsin Center District as they use this new resource and tool in their daily work.
“The video shows our space extremely well,” Haley mentioned. “It looks great for our existing clients, and we can use it to show future clients what Baird Center has to offer.”
A huge shout-out goes to everyone who worked on the project and helped the Wisconsin Center District differentiate itself from its competitors. The creation of this video is another great example of how there are a lot of hands, in many different departments, who have to work together to make any event we host a success.