All about the Form W-4 |Instructional Explainer
A video I made recently for Efile.com an online service dedicated to helping people navigate their taxes and file them easily to maximize their earnings.
It doesn’t have to be complicated, just show them.
I know all too well how hard it can be to explain a complicated and seemingly dull concept to your customers, It’s already hard enough to get their attention but we also gotta teach them what is it about.
Luckily a well-made video can achieve that repeatedly passively, and with animation, we can do it in a way that’s charming, clean, and free from distractions.
This instructional video was made to achieve just that, in support of a new tool Efile.com is launching to help people easily file their taxes free of confusion.
Taxes can be confusing, but nevertheless important, so having a clear and simple illustrated video can bridge the communication gap and make it so customers get why this is an important topic for them.
THE MISSION
The client, Efile, is launching a new tool to help people easily file their W-4 form taxes online, but taxation can be a complicated topic, there is a lot of jargon involved and people don’t often know why it matters to properly withhold the right amount of taxes.
So to communicate this, they decided to have me create an instructional video that goes over the whole topic, teaching people in a clear way why withholding too much can cripple them for up to 12 months before receiving their tax refund.
OUTCOME
I produced the whole thing like always and the process took roughly 1 month of back and forth, following my typical process, iterating on different ways to tell the story and working with the client to better understand their audience, implanting those insights in the form of colors, illustrations, characters, and music.
Read more below to get more insights into the decision-making behind the project.
SERVICES
Creative/Art Direction
Scriptwriting
Graphic Design & Illustration
Animation
Video Editing
Sound design & mixing.
Sourcing VO
THE IMPACT:
From the client:
"Samuel is a pleasure to work with. He always has a very good understanding of the projects, and he is very cooperative technically as well on creative aspects. He provides helpful suggestions and input during the project. His communication skills are excellent, and he is very responsive. We will continue to work with him in the future."
- Arnold Thielen @ Efile.com
Making drawings make sense
When the purpose of the video is to educate, it becomes more important to simplify the concept at hand and drive it home, vs let’s say… clever advertising meant to make people go “ohhhhh I see what they did there”
Because of this and the target audience, we decided to keep things simple, using cookies as a metaphor for money (like coins) and working with a script that, at first might seem really repetitive, but it’s all about driving the point and the keywords right into the brain.
This took a few tries and lots of back and forth, but in the end, we landed at the right balance between clever metaphors and clarity.
It all starts with Storyboards (my ugly drawings)
With 3 different options for style moodboards
Option 1: Clean Corporate
Bright colors, interesting shots & characters, connects with the viewer on a personal level.
Option 2: Simple & Educational
Fewer colors, less complexity, fewer distractions, more education, less connection. A combination of this and the previous style is what the client picked.
Option 3: Stylized Textured
Unique approach that stands out, so better for future use as a promo or to develop an unique style.
Moving onto Design
With all of the boards approved, we were ready to begin tackling creating the actual design elements that would play into the video itself, the process was fairly straightforward as we already had a clear idea due to the previous steps, so it didn’t take long to move into production for animation.
To the left, Samples of different color variations, of which the client went for the third version.
Final Styleframes
A quick look into some of the highlights.
Breakdown of what Taxes are
Probably the most important part, where we breakdown what taxes and the form are all about in the first place, it might seem like we got lots of redundant big words, but this was intentional as it is targeted towards a particular target audience, so specifics matter.
Main concept
My personal favorite, we show through repeated motions how the person continuously gives away too much in tax withholdings, only to get it back after filing their tax return 12 months later.
This section drives the main point of the video, too much withholding.
Breaking expectations
For the client this part was really important, as he wanted to address a common misconception people have in regards to taxation, so this takes a long scene where we set the expectations of free money, only to wake people up to the fact that "it is their Own Money.
By the time we reach here, we have set the problem, and are ready to move on to the solution.
Ask me anything!
Zetanimo@pm.me