Your Business in Video!

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Quality of video

This gallery contains 2 photos.

Video, being both a visual and audible medium will be a representation of the voice, character and personality of your brand. Your brand is all the experiences gained from everything you do and say to your audience, good or bad.

If your brand is knowledge and quality is not an important aspect then sure, go ahead and deliver your knowledge through a video without thought to how it looks or sounds. But if your brand is about quality service, quality products, quality innovation etc then don’t make the expensive mistake of damaging the perception of your quality brand by presenting a poor quality video.

Obtaining a quote for a video production

We are often asked for quotes on a video but given very little information to base the costs on.

 

 

A production company need to work out what crew to use, what equipment we will need and how long it will take to film and edit everything. There is no single way of doing things.

To get the best and most accurate costs you are best to put together a brief which the production company can work to. Not sure what you want in your video?

The following list is some of the elements that might impact on the cost of a video if they were to be included. Providing the answers to these questions will help you build your brief.

1. What are the main elements to be filmed?
2. Will you need Graphic animations (maybe to show an internal mechanism)?
3. Is there to be a voice over used to narrate the main story of the video?
4. Can all the video be shot in one location on same day?
5. How many things to be filmed at the same time?
6. Describe what will need to be filmed. Some things like presentations are best filmed from two different cameras.
7. Will you want music added to the video. At the beginning and end or all the way through?
8. Do you need text to be placed on-screen to explain or annotate things in the video?
9. How long is the video likely to last?
10. If the content is interviews, how many interviews will there be?
11. Is the filming to be done indoors or outdoors?

Hopefully by now you are starting to get a feel for what is involved. Just as placing air conditioning on the spec of your car will add to the quality of your journey’s adding a Jib to your production will add to the quality of the final production. They will both add to the cost. Whether they make it in to the final product probably comes down to available budget and how important they are to you.

Increase sales with Video

Original article by Penny Schneck http://bit.ly/nUT594

Ecommerce video has grown in the past year, with 73% of US retail sites now using video according to eMarketer. Still, video remains relative underutilized in our industry with only a handful of videos on some sites and many of these videos hidden deep in the website.

There are a lot of good reasons to feature product videos on your website as well as the multitude of social media sites now available. First, video is interactive. It will keep customers on your site longer; lower the number of abandoned shopping carts; reduce return rates; generate higher sales; and enhance the customer’s experience of your brand. Video is more personal and can help build trust with your customers. It also can bring your product and brand to life in ways unattainable through text and photographs. You can use video to showcase new products; demonstrate special features; instruct customers on how to use or put a product together; bring testimonials to life; and bring new life to the traditional “lifestyle” product images.

Today, there are even more ways to leverage your investment in video. In addition to giving copies of your video to sales representatives and customers, post your videos on Facebook, YouTube, Twitvid and any other appropriate site available to you such as local business chambers and affiliate sites. You’ll reach new audiences, build your brand, and drive traffic back to you site. We can even post your video right here in the video gallery of this website!

Another great way to leverage videos is with QR tags. Use a QR tag in your print ad, direct mail or even point-of-purchase displays. Link the tag to a video and you’ve now launched your first mobile marketing program!

Incorporate snippets from your videos into web display ads. Video can be used in a pre-roll commercial (15-30 seconds) that runs prior to news videos; sponsorship of special news segments; and in-ad videos. In-ad videos can have nearly triple the click through rate of standard ads. A good combination buy is a video with a standard banner ad running next to the video to optimize click through rates.

Here are some tips for getting the most out of your videos:
• Be sure to tag the videos so search engines find them. Video search engine optimization (VSEO) works like regular SEO. Promote your online video using back links from other reputable websites. Optimize the search terms and tags connected to your video and post links on social media websites. For some great tips on how to optimize your video, visit Reel SEO at http://www.reelseo.com/seo-for-video/
• Feature a link to your videos right on the home page of your website.
• Make sure there is a call to action in the video as well as clearly visible on the landing page where you video is posted. Don’t put your call to action at the very end of the video as many viewers will not watch the complete video.
• Keep your videos short with a focus on a few key points. If necessary, produce a series of short videos to get your whole story out.
• Be sure to storyboard and script your video before the camera roles! Even if you don’t follow a script word-for-word, storyboard and script will not only save you time and money in production, but also ensure your message is clear and impactful.

 

 

Amazing 1 take steadycam video

Want to know what can be achieved with a camera mounted on a steadycam? Check this out. All filmed in 1 continuous take which makes it quite amazing.

Vimeo PRO video-hosting

If you are a company looking to host your business video within a professional environment that can be branded to your business and doesnt have advertising surrounding your content then this service is worth a look.

Vimeo PRO is video-hosting done right. Built for business and commercial-use with powerful tools that are easy to use. And best of all, it’s insanely affordable.

Vimeo Pro

Jargon Buster

What is a Track & Dolly?

Dolly ready to set up

A Track & Dolly is a piece of equipment designed to allow a range of fluid camera shots that could not be achieved through either a handheld or tripod mounted camera.

The Dolly is a base with wheels designed to carry the camera mounted on either a stanchion or ordinary tripod. The Dolly can move smoothly along the ground or on the track provided. The track is modular and can be extended.

A camera mounted on a track and dolly can provide a range of shots that bring quality and interest to your video. The dolly effectively moves along in the direction of the track although the actual camera has all the usual tilt and pan functionality as well.

Track & Dolly in action

Shots taken on a track and dolly can often be found in TV and films but they can be used in exactly the same way to enhance any business production.

The Track and Dolly in itself does not need specialist operators although some experience is beneficial to get the most out of what it can offer.

Please view the video below for more information or view the slide show containing various pictures of the track and dolly in action

Three key stages to a video production?

There are no hard and fast rules and the size of the production will often dictate the various stages involved but as a rough guide the average business looking for a fairly straightforward video to be made, there tends to be three key stages you will hear being talked about.

1. Pre-production
2. Production
3. Post-production

Pre – Production is all about the preparation for the making of the video. Typically the activity that takes place before the crew arrives on your site to start filming. The more planning you do the greater the chance of the resulting video being what you want. The sorts of activities involved are:
briefing sessions to outline what is required of the video

Scripting (where necessary) of the specific things to be said. The script might be delivered by a voiceover artist for instance.

Storyboard is laying out the flow of the video. The storyboard will help define the structure of the video, what shots need to be captured by the cameramen and when will there be voice, music video etc. Its kind of the video in paper format. Storyboards come in lots of forms. Some much more detailed than others. It all depends on the complexity and budget of the video.

In some cases there might be a shoot list although less common in small projects. They are the storyboard re-ordered to list all the shots to be captured in the order that they will be filmed. A video is not shot in the way it is shown. Shoot lists might often only be seen by the crew.

Auditions – If your video will include actors or voiceover artists then this would obviously all be done in advance of turning up with crew and equipment. This might involve watch some showreel or require actors to come to a studio for an audition. Voiceovers are mostly done by listening to an audio file which can be emailed or hosted online.

Production is principally concerned with the shooting of the video. The crew and equipment will arrive on location at the agreed date and time and will work their way through the shoot according to the brief, story board and shoot list if appropriate.

Post – Production is all about turning all of the video captured on the production day in to a watchable video in accordance with the brief and storyboard. The editor will import the video content and using editing software, they will piece together all the elements (voiceover, music or sound effects, graphics, titles, animations etc) to create the video.

There are likely to be several stages to the editing such as draft revisions of the video for client to review and provide feedback. Once all the video editing has been completed the video can be published in the appropriate format for the clients needs such as AVI, mov, mpg4 or Flash.

As I said at the start these stages are a rough guide as the actual stages will depend on the complexity of the project but you are almost certainly going to hear these three stages being included talked about.

Making your own video? Video camera tips…

You can if you so desire, make a video with a webcam or a flip cam but good luck and I hope your brand can take it. This article is squarely aimed at those who want to get a more professional outcome from a consumer level budget. These are not cameras we would use on a professional level but that is not to say they wont turn a good result for you.

There are just too many consumer cameras out there for me to be specific about a brand or model you should buy. However, I can help guide you on what to look for to get the best out of a consumer video camera. There are some key elements you might want to consider when building your short list.

Most current consumer video cameras already come as High Definition (HD) as standard and provide excellent picture results but the quality of your business video will not be determined by the camera and HD alone. If you want to make a video that people will endure you will need to think about sound and light also.

The built-in mics on a consumer video camera are fine for your home movies but if you are delivering a message worth listening too then you need to consider an add-on mic because you want to get a mic as close to the subject as you can.

Microphone

At the consumer level, microphones connect to the video camera via a 3.5 audio jack so when you look in to buying a new video camera you want to make sure the specification includes a socket for plugging in a 3.5 jack. Even then, you are limited to one microphone unless you purchase an adaptor like a Beachtek but I will cover that another day.

Mics in themselves is a big subject and you can get a huge range of types and quality. What you buy depends on the video you want to make and the budget you have available. If this is a subject of interest then leave a comment at the end and if more information is needed I will write something up.

Manual Focus

The next aspect I would encourage you to consider would be manual focus. If you are filming on an autofocus camera (especially in fairly low light) then you could find the camera struggling to fix its focus on the main subject. This can be extremely distracting to your viewer which is likely to result in them not watching the whole video which kind of defeats the objective.

Both the mic jack and manual focus will add to the cost of the camera but I feel if you are making the video for business purposes which in turn is designed to return you business, then you need to be making this investment to get the right results.

Using an iPad as director / location video monitor

I am always eager to try out new video kit (toys) if I think it would have a practical benefit to what I do or for one of my clients productions. actually I am just happy to play with new video kit without a good reason.

So, when the good boys down at Mad Dogs Television asked if I would like to try out an iPad as my directors monitor I was only too pleased.

Mad Dogs Television had the brain wave to try hooking up their iPad via a wireless transmitter to the video camera feed so that the iPad could act as a very portable & lightweight monitor and were keen to see how it would pan out on a real job.

Delivering the wireless video signal was a very small device which received an HD-SDI feed direct from the camera. Ordinarily the device would take its power from the camera but the Canon XF305 was not able to provide a direct power source we drew power off a separate battery source.

Once the wireless device was powered up and connected to the camera it runs through a short diagnostic test and when all lights are green we were ready to connect with the iPad. The iPad was provided with the wireless connection already configured so can’t tell you too much about that but suffice to say it found the signal very quickly.

The iPad was also already configured with a software app that allowed us to receive and display the video signal. Again, it opened up 1st time and displayed an extremely good picture.

Unfortunately we were only shooting some static interviews in a meeting room so I don’t think we were realistically going to give it a thorough test but it was worth a look none the less.

For this particular job, I was going to be both preparing the interviewees and performing the interview so I would not be in a position to look over the shoulder of Phil the camera operator to see what kind of image we were capturing. To add to the problems, Phil was also having to sort out the lighting and needed to leave the camera while he reset lights for each interview.

Ordinarily, this would mean Phil having to trip backwards and forwards to look through the camera or he would have had to keep moving the monitor around to see it. With the iPad as the monitor things were really easy. Phil could either take the monitor with him and view as he went or I could literally hold up the iPad to face him and flip round if I wanted to take a look too. Very very easy and convenient.

Once everything was prepared, I could sit with the iPad on my lap while I was sat facing the interviewees and I could see the shot very clearly. If the shot was re framed during the interview I could check I was happy as we went along.

Mad Dogs Television provided the iPad with a rugged rubber backing for protection and also an Otter box harness making it easy to handle the iPad through the day even when walking around with it. The harness included a strong handle on the back or you could use the larger strap to hang around your neck or over your shoulder.

The other aspect I was keen to check out was the range it work comfortably work within. Sat beside the camera it work brilliantly but how good would it be if I was sat in a different room down the corridor? To test it out I took a walk along the office corridor to the green room where various interviewees were gathered so I could introduce myself. The room is approximately 25 meters away and it was only when I went in to the room that I started to get a bit of breakup in the signal but even then it would have been OK to work from.

All in all, it was a joy to work with. I found it very easy and flexible to work with and it did create a bit of interest from those all around. The only thing I would have liked on the day which I couldn’t was to hear the audio as well. I am told it can deliver audio but testing it had presented some lag on the video delivery so that is still being looked in to.

Unfortunately, the screen on the iPad is not quite as rugged as the rest of the set up. In transit, the screen must have moved around on top of one of the bnc connectors also inside the case and it left a very definite scratch on the screen. I would strongly recommend that if you were to use a similar set up you keep the screen in a separate case or make sure that it is recessed in to its own space to keep it from moving around or anything getting in under the screen.

 

Cheers

Sous Productions

Fonts for video projects

If your ever looking for fonts to enhance your video production then you may be interested in visiting this great site. There are hundreds of fantastic fonts which are really easy to download and add to your font library.

Some of the Fonts are chargeable for commercial / Free for personal use but there are a good number that are completely free to anyone to use.

 

There are great visuals of the font so you can get a good feel for what it will look like.

There is everything from cartoon to serious, fancy through to simple.

I’m off to use one I have just downloaded for my current video project.

dafont.com.