Inman News just featured a luxury real estate video produced by our client, The Daftarian Group. I wanted to pull the curtain back a bit with regard to the production.
Paul and Lili Daftarian of the Daftarian Group, listing brokers of this property, had a vision to communicate luxury, elegance and lifestyle within a short video that would keep the viewer to the end- 2:45 minutes later.
Lili, as the Director of this shoot, enlisted Ray Shak of Shak Cinema as her Director of Photography. He sat down with Lili to storyboard her vision as a real life concept. Ray’s job was to capture this concept from the air and the ground with his crew of 4 videographers. Their ultimate goal was to sell the house and not the car or other objects that help tell this story. Ray stated, “The focus should always be the house. The story kept the video progressing and therefore did not lose the viewer’s attention.”
The still frame prior to the start of the video communicates there will be a story within this video, increasing the probability that the viewer will hit “play”. Most luxury videos I have seen are nothing more than shots of the home from cameras mounted on drones, UAV’s, steadycams, dollies and jibs with no human lifestyle interaction. I feel storylines sell houses.
Within the first few seconds, we see the professional actors Lili hired, Jerry and Veronica, leaving a luxury mall located in the area. This was prior to the store opening in order to shoot in a controlled environment. The car belongs to Paul, so it was always available at any hour.
The next part is really what got my attention when I first saw the video. The UAV shots following the car blew me away. I had never seen that in a luxury real estate video before. Lili stated that it was important to communicate the proximity of the house to the Pelican Hill Resort. The house is a half mile away and is located within the Pelican Hill community. The challenge was that Pelican Hill does not allow filming of the resort. Through the shots of the car driving to and up Pelican Hill along with the wide UAV shot above the house, it clearly communicated this.
Once they get home, and to minimize the time it takes to show off the house, the couple separates, featuring the master bedroom, kitchen, and the amazing game room where they rejoin to share a refreshment outside.
There was one shot that was not planned in the original storyboard. There is a scene that starts at 1:24. As the camera moves through, the couple are standing in the doorway where the UAV leaves west and turns around, looking back to see the couple standing in the doorway from afar. Ray and his crew originally shot that as an experiment. In reviewing the shot, it looked so amazing, they reshot that part of the scene intentionally.
The sellers are still living in the house and Lili did not want to disturb their surroundings, so she provided all of the props that were used in the shoot.
Cameras Used: Red Epic, Red Dragon, Sony A 7s
Interior Shot platforms: Steadycam , Ronin and sliders.
Single Property Website www.sixsunsetharbor.com
Daftarian Group www.daftariangroup.com
Ray Shak www.ShakCinema.com
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