HILTON GARDEN INN, SAN FRANCISCO

How do you film a project on the other side of the continental United States in less than 48 hours? 

Boston Virtual Imaging partnered with McWHINNEY to produce a capital fundraising video for the development of the new Hilton Garden Inn located in downtown San Francisco. 

The client’s need for this video was to visualize their future development in order to gain capital funding from private investors to break ground on construction. It was important that we educate the viewer on “why” this location was significant, by highlighting its proximity to Downtown San Francisco, as well as its thriving economy and world class institutions. The overall timeline for this project was three weeks. 

In order to tell this story to an audience of capital investors, Boston Virtual Imaging worked directly with McWhinney to understand the location and the target audience. We generate a storyboard and geo-located shot list for filming. Once approved by the client, we booked airline tickets and accommodation during a sunny window of forecasted weather. Aerial and neighborhood footage was captured in less than 48 hours while in San Francisco. 3D animations were embedded into some of the aerial footage to visualize the hotel prior to construction. 2D text graphics were animated to music to deliver information to the viewer.  

I enjoyed this project because it was the first time I had even been to California, let alone the west coast of the continental United States. At this point, I had built a familiarity with producing this type of video in Boston, but wanted to know what it would be like to execute in an unfamiliar city. Google maps made it easy by geo-locating our shot list and familiarizing ourselves with the city beforehand. This was a fast moving project and because of this, we were not provided much direction from our clients for the graphic design of the 2D text animations. I ended up referencing brand and design elements from McWHINNEY’s website, to design the motion graphics for this video. As much as I love Boston, I realized how refreshing it is to visit a new place and make work about it.