One Minute Film Stories : Barre Body

We have worked with Barre Body’s team of glowing ladies for a total of 4 creative projects, each time creating a bountiful collection of One Minute Films! These gals have learnt a trick or 4 about going through the process well. This chat with Gemma (Barre Body’d marketing manager) was insightful even for us!

Hi Gemma, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me! So you are Barre Body’s ‘marketing manager’ — I would love to know what your day to day task list actually looks like?

Hello! It’s my pleasure! No two days for me look exactly the same, as our projects and visions are always changing. I quite like that as it keeps things fresh which is vital – I’m a creative at heart and don’t do well with monotony. I usually work from home and my day involves a lot of writing, from our Instagram captions to our emails, website copy, and project briefs. From time to time I’ll find myself at a shoot for our online studio, Barre Body Online, or something special like a One Minute Film shoot, which involves sourcing and booking locations, talent, wardrobe, coming up with a concept and even choreographing sequences. When I zoom out, my job is really about making sure every little thing we do is true to the beating heart of the Barre Body brand.

OK so I have to start with, how did you actually discover One Minute Film?

I can’t claim credit for this one! When I first joined the marketing team our Marketing Director Amy showed me your work and we were both a touch obsessed. I think I watched all your films in one sitting and it’s been a no brainer ever since.

The feeling is totally mutual! What inspired you most to choose a One Minute Film for Barre Body’s film content?

In a past life I was a choreographer and I dabbled in dance film and worked on some film clips. I loved that OMF produced content that felt reminiscent of that. We didn’t want our film content to feel corporate or sales-y, we wanted it to reflect the love and creativity and fun of the brand. When we found OMF it just captured that approach so beautifully. Even though they’re only a minute they really do feel like complete ‘films’ and tell a story.

That is a huge compliment (and might have a little something to do with me also having a past life as a choreographer)!

Tell me a bit about Barre Body, what are some of the core values? What do you hope to project to your people.

Barre Body is all about creating an experience – not just a workout – that gives people an opportunity to feel included, nurtured and safe. We’re very big on the value of fun, which is underrated! The fitness industry in particular can take itself very seriously so we’re all about encouraging people to move their bodies in a way that feels good, without worrying about what it looks like or whether it’s perfect.

And how have your One Minute Films helped project those values into the market place?

In so many ways! Our One Minute Films really colour in the story we’re telling. Seeing the visual representation of what we offer is so affirming for our audience, especially when we’re talking about a big investment like one of our teacher training programs. People want to know what the process is going to look and feel like and that’s something that our One Minute Films capture and portray in a way that words can’t always convey.

Barre Body has been through a total of 4 different film projects with The Honest Jones in the last year or so, each of them yielding quite a lot of video content! Why is video so important for the brand?

Movement is obviously so visual and the Barre Body style in particular is quite unique. As a brand we have a pretty strong visual identity and so it’s important to us that we’re able to communicate that at every touch point of the brand. For example, we don’t usually teach classes outside of our studios, because we’ve curated these beautiful spaces intentionally to be a part of the overall experience of our classes. Having video content that conveys that helps to share what we’re all about.

From your perspective, from our first project together to our most recent, has anything about the process changed for you?

Yes, it’s definitely been a learning curve! I remember for our first film we weren’t sure how much preparation and direction we should come prepared with, as we love everything you do and didn’t want to stifle your creativity by being too rigid. But I think as we’ve gone along we’ve realised that the clearer we are with our vision, the more you guys can really run with it and bring it to life. We did more prep for our most recent shoot than ever before and it’s by far one of my favourite, most fulfilling, most exciting professional projects ever.

That’s so fascinating! You do an amazing job of being prepared creatively, but we never feel stifled!

We’ve always been pretty involved (helicopter mum over here!) and I’m sure most small businesses are because your work is so personal and important to you. My biggest takeaway has been to get clear on what our objective is and exactly what we’re trying to convey. We might not know how to translate that to film, but luckily you do!

That is so true, small business is personal and that’s why we love it so much.

You mentioned our most recent project, 'Every Body’ where you had a really strong idea of what you wanted to portray which I loved! Can you describe your vision for the films and energy you wanted to get across? 

I’m still obsessed with this project. This was a watershed moment for us as a brand as we decided to make a pretty significant shift in our messaging. We’ve committed to changing the language we use around fitness and body image and focused on celebrating diversity in a really fun, inclusive, high-energy film. We wanted to showcase the sweat, the laughter, the jelly legs, and the sense of community we see in our classes. It meant stepping away from the more polished and groomed look of our previous films and instead letting our hair down and putting the spotlight on the joy in moving and grooving.

…And did the films achieve this???

Beyond our wildest dreams!

BRILLIANT!

Can you name something in the film making process that you thought would be a problem, but actually turned out fine…or even wonderful?

In the past we’ve always used our teachers in our films and they know each other, are pretty comfortable in front of the camera, and have perfect technique. For this film we wanted to showcase our amazing community, which meant casting clients who didn’t know each other (or us!) and didn’t necessarily have perfect form or experience in front of a camera. We were a little nervous that we wouldn’t be able to create that high energy vibe without seasoned performers but we were absolutely blown away by these incredible women. They truly made the shoot – they weren’t afraid to have a go at things, jump around to Beyonce in a crop top, tackle choreography they’d never seen before, and hype each other up. And most of all, I loved that we captured moments where they had to stop and take a breath, or made a mistake and laughed. Those authentic moments make the film so much more engaging than a professional poker face.

So good, real humans are the best.

I am incredibly curious about how the films have been received by your audience. Can you describe where and how you are sharing the films? And what has been most (and least) successful for the brand?

Our Every Body film has been pretty revolutionary for the brand. We launched it as part of a full campaign which included totally overhauled website and imagery, a blog post that was essentially a manifesto about why we’re dropping the phrase ‘dancer’s body’, and a promise to our clients that from now on they will see themselves represented and celebrated in all our marketing material. The films from that campaign live on our website and we also shared them to Instagram and Facebook. The response has been epic. We’ve been really transparent about why we’ve made this change and we were nervous about how it would be received, but we’ve never had such a huge response to anything we’ve ever done. It’s been incredibly powerful for lots of our clients and I’m really glad the films were able to so beautifully portray the message. It’s not just talk – they can see it in action.

Amazing! Has that been similar for the previous projects?

All our films serve different purposes and I think they’re all successful in their own rights. Our Elements film really elevated the brand, although we’ve shifted direction now so it’s less relevant today. And our Barre Body Online and Teacher Training films are mostly used for advertising for those specific arms of the business, so they still hum away in the Instagram algorithm!

Besides our cute faces, what is your favourite thing about working with The Honest Jones gang?

I really love how fluid everything is! I’ve worked on some massive shoots where there are so many cogs in the wheel (both human and technology) that a very simple shoot takes days to complete, and you can’t really stray from the list of shots. I love that you guys travel light and are light on your feet, so if something beautiful and unplanned happens organically on the day you just capture it. You can’t always plan those golden opportunities. Who would have known that on our most recent shoot we’d have the girls in a circle doing a dance off? We definitely didn’t plan that.

So what’s our next One Minute Film Barre Body collaboration dream?!

Ooh, so many ideas! I would love to do another studio shoot as our last few have been at locations. It would be fun to do something using the custom barres at the studio rather than a portable one. The options are endless.

Absolutely endless!

Do you have any last words of wisdom to brands who might be dreaming up a One Minute Film?

Do it! They should change their name to One Minute Magic. And don’t be afraid to get specific – story boards, references and inspiration galore!

Haha! I love it. I’ll pitch it to our branding team.