BRAINS & PASSION

My team at PTC creates physical and digital demonstrations for PTC’s software products, from computer-aided design to augmented reality. My challenge was to make a video to help people at our company understand what we do.

CONTEXT

Weeks before producing the video, my coworker Irena built a 3D-printed, hanging sculpture using Creo, PTC’s 3D modeling software. Her project informed the concept for this video: designing and building a 3D-printed sculpture would be a metaphor for what our team does: designing and building demos. To suggest the uncertain nature of our team’s work, I decided to reveal Irena’s final design only at the end of the video.

PROCESS

Before writing the script, I roughly mapped out the video using post-its to get early feedback from the team and save pre-production time. The top row of post-its describes key parts of the story (what is said) and the bottom row highlights the corresponding visuals. Physical mapping helped me explain the video’s overall concept and easily make story changes by adding and moving post-its.

Based on Stillmotion’s storytelling principles, I think the most powerful stories are personal, so try to build my stories around people.

After understanding Irena’s design process, I directed her to recreate its key moments: sketching, modeling, 3D printing, getting feedback, and assembly. The project took about five days to complete.

CREDITS

Matt Rossi: Story development, writing, producing, directing, filming, editing

Christine Bahmer: Story and script feedback

Brooks Eaton: Script feedback

Joe Natale: Interview lighting and sound recording