Simplifying the Complex:
How to Package a Complicated Message in a Short Video

How do you boil down a global economic system that touches every part of the world into a 15-minute videotape that can hold even a fidgety teenager’s attention? When the Chicago Board of Trade needed to re-shoot a video for its Visitor Center, they looked to a partner with a deep understanding of both the CBOT processes and the latest video technologies to help them inform and educate a broad audience in the most compelling manner possible.

The Chicago Board of Trade, or CBOT, is an international center for the trading of agricultural and financial products. Futures contracts on commodities and financial instruments are bought and sold here every day – both in the trading pits and in cyberspace – impacting the global economy including individual farmers, food processors, and consumers. Thousands of visitors come to the CBOT each year, observing the action in the trading pits and learning about the highly complex process of futures trading.

“Since the Visitor Center is right above the trading floor, people can see the ‘open outcry’ trading, so we needed to explain what that is,” says Maria Gemskie, Managing Director, who is responsible for all communication at the CBOT. “But the majority of our business is done electronically, so we also needed to explain that.”

The CBOT originally produced a film in 1994 to explain the complicated process in a simple format that nearly every visitor would understand. But many things had changed in 11 years and the program needed to be updated to properly reflect the modern exchange. The CBOT once again called in Production Craft, a video communication and multimedia solutions firm based in Chicago, the company they had worked with to produce the original program.

“The challenge of explaining how the economy works and how the CBOT fits into it was not a small one,” says Dawn Arnold, Producer/Director of Production Craft. “The new program also needed to visualize the advancements the CBOT has made in technology and its shift to more financial products.”

“Our main objective was to inform and educate without being preachy,” says Vicky Pizzirulli, Manager of Legal and Executive Offices at the CBOT and the person responsible for the Visitor Center, including the video. “We have a variety of folks visiting the CBOT and we want to give them something they can apply to their daily lives. We can show them where the cornflakes they had for breakfast really come from.”

“We had a formula that worked, but we wanted to take the opportunity to make the video a little edgier and faster paced to reflect what was going on with the trading community,” explains Pizzirulli. “But we also had to find a way to make the electronic trading, which is less visual, more exciting.”

“Production Craft did the original award-winning film and has continued to provide us with unparalleled customer service and satisfaction,” says Gemskie, “so it was ideal that they would get the call because of their working knowledge and longstanding relationship with the Board of Trade.”

Because of their history and experience with a wide variety of video production, Production Craft clearly understood the challenges the CBOT faced: to incorporate new technology and activities in the right balance with traditional trading, to make the video visually interesting to a mostly young audience, and to communicate a global, complex process into a few minutes of tape. With this in mind, Production Craft brought its expertise to the table and applied it to the new CBOT video.

Redefining the Board

The new script stayed with the same basic formula as the original script, which included explanations of the trading process, interviewing market participants like producers, hedgers, traders and brokers. The new video updated explanations of how the futures system works within both agriculture and financial markets and the electronic enhancements now in place.

Production Craft shot more than 20 hours of footage for the video, conducting nine on-camera interviews many using green screens for flexibility in editing in the appropriate background later. To communicate the international nature of the exchange, shots from Tihi, India; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and London, England, were included along with footage of an Illinois farmer planting crops early in the season and harvesting those same crops a few months later.

“A lot of work went into planning the shots, going through the interview transcripts looking for just the right combination of sound bites, and storyboarding the scenes prior to editing to determine screen positions,” explains Arnold. “We had multiple crews on the trading floor to capture the action. And the edit was intense, but by manipulating multiple images and styles of movement on the screen, we were able to maintain an exciting visual dynamic throughout the program.”

“From start to finish, I was extremely pleased with our interaction and communication with Production Craft on the project,” says Pizzirulli. “They were extremely diligent in trying to capture everything and they kept in close contact with us throughout the process so we could see each step and make adjustments as necessary.”

The new production incorporated several techniques to meet the CBOT’s need for something more edgy and faster paced. To begin with, this program was shot on video using the more contemporary 16:9 ratio rather than the 4:3 ratio from the original film. The 15 minute new version also montaged up to four images on the screen simultaneously with multiple wipes, builds and fades to simulate action even when the actual video was fairly static.

“A lot of CBOT business is conducted electronically, and that’s not as visual as open outcry, so we needed to keep a brisk pace of images to keep the energy up,” says Arnold. “We gave several visual perspectives in many scenes, so the viewer could see all the individual pieces as well as the big picture.”

A key component of the new video turned out to be the one aspect that was heard and never seen – the narrator. Production Craft auditioned a variety of voice talent and provided the CBOT with select samples from which to choose. The result was a male narrator with the perfect combination of authority and enthusiasm.

The Final Cut

The resulting video was met with praise from the CBOT team as well as Visitor Center guests.

“The video demonstrates our commitment to technology and innovation in the global marketplace,” says Gemskie. “It educates the average person who comes to the center, but it also helps us sell to potential customers who visit the Board of Trade and want to use our markets.”

The CBOT team credits the success of the video largely to Production Craft’s script that took a hugely complex process and boiled it down into a few easily understood minutes of video.

“Production Craft did their homework with research and interviews to really understand the Board of Trade,” says Gemskie, “The script was a strong foundation that made the rest of the process much easier. I don’t want to wait ten years to do it again, but the video was crafted to allow any changes or updates to be done with great ease.”

Sidebar: Using Video to Communicate a Complex Message

• Dig Deep: You need to thoroughly understand the process before you even begin to write the script. Get the perspectives of as many participants as possible, and capture the most important facts from each person.
• Take Your Time: Don’t rush the process – take the time to tell the story properly. And be sure to make the most of visual techniques, like unique shooting perspectives and using multiple images on the screen at the same time, to hold the audience’s attention.
• Seek Balance: Offset your strong, active footage with the slower but important “talking heads.” This gives the viewer a break from the action, and sets the stage for the educational components of the video.