This is how our reels are made!

We, Kim and Jana, ended up in HR marketing as part of our training and are responsible for reel production, among other things. Amelie, one of our trainee colleagues, is also involved and a great support.
This blog post will take you on a journey - from the very first idea to the day of filming to the finished post. Be curious! 🚀

It all starts with an idea! For us, this is not a tightly planned meeting, but rather a joint brainstorming session that often arises spontaneously from gaps in our editorial plan. Kim and Jana are usually the brainstormers, but colleagues from the department also come up with great ideas. There are no fixed topics - our focus is clearly on everyday life as a trainee and everything that goes with it. 🎥

We mainly get our inspiration from Instagram and sometimes also from TikTok. There are countless viral reels and sounds that are displayed directly in our feed. If we like a trend, we immediately think: "Is this feasible for us? Do we have the necessary 'props' here in the office, and does the trend fit in with our trainee world and our messages?" Lipsync reels are particularly popular with us - they are usually easy to implement and often super funny. If the questions can be answered with a yes, then nothing stands in the way of the next reel idea. 💡

Once the idea is ready, it's time to shoot. As many of us trainees work from home, our main shooting day is usually on Wednesdays. We arrange to meet at a fixed time in a suitable room in the office. Sometimes we have our tripod and mini microphones with us, but often we don't need much equipment at all. Beforehand, we make a brief note of which reels we want to shoot and what we need to make the shoot as efficient as possible.

Once the idea and the day of filming are set, it's time for the technical implementation. Shooting requires a good eye for the right angle and a sense of humor. Before we even press the record button, we first test a camera position. We test until the position is right and the background is right. Then we place a person in the intended position and check whether the light, background and framing are perfect. During the shoot, we're also all in communication: whether in front of or behind the camera, we try things out spontaneously and see if they work. 📐

And to be honest: many takes don't even make it into the final reel. When we're shooting something funny, it's really hard to stay serious, especially when eyes meet and someone starts grinning. We had a particularly funny situation with our reel about "Feedback on the Work Beast". The sound was so funny that we must have needed ten attempts. But it's precisely these moments that we enjoy so much. The duration of each reel varies greatly. Sometimes it works on the second attempt, but sometimes it takes longer. On average, it can take us up to 15 minutes just to shoot one reel. ⏱️

Once the material is in the box, it's time to cut. Our tool of choice? Canva! It's super practical because we can also make sure that the sound and video overlap perfectly and that the design elements are inserted in the corporate design. We've almost learned it by heart for our purposes - so we know exactly which fonts, colors and logos are allowed. Before a reel goes live, we send it to our internal channel so that our colleagues can give us the go-ahead or make suggestions for changes. This is how we make sure that everything fits. 💬

The biggest secret? Recognizing a good trend and then implementing it promptly. Viral sounds are often displayed directly in the feed - so you know immediately what's hot.
Every Tuesday, we meet as an "Insta-crew" and discuss where there are still gaps in our editorial plan. Then we plan our next reels. If a current trend comes up, we sometimes put other things to one side - because that's the only way we can ensure that we don't miss out on the trend and that our content remains relevant. It's about being agile and reacting quickly. 🗓️

Of course, a reel also needs the perfect accompaniment: a good caption or - if the topic allows - a suitable blog post. In our reels, we try to keep the captions short and humorous, because our video usually says it all. We only write blog posts when a topic really lends itself well in terms of content. They are usually a good addition to the reel, but are no substitute for a successful caption.

You may have already noticed: behind every reel there is often a lot of fun and improvisation.
Yes, really - no reel without outtakes. Whether we've forgotten our lines, someone starts laughing uncontrollably or something just doesn't go according to plan: These little mishaps are just part of it. They show that we have fun doing what we do and that not everything always has to be perfect. ✨

Of course, we can't keep the outtakes from you: