Parc Entertainment - A Video Production Company - Birmingham, AL

The above scene is from Jaws and it takes place right at the moment that Chief Brody gets his first look at the great white shark. It’s then that he realizes that he and his team underestimated just what they are up against. The same problem can occur in any video production. It’s easy to underestimate the scope of your project. What seemed like a simple, straightforward shoot and edit can quickly balloon into something entirely unexpected. The last thing that you, as a video producer, want to do is to go back to your client and say, “We’re going to need a bigger budget.” That’s not a fun conversation. Here’s what needs to happen to ensure that neither you nor your client underestimate the scope of the video project.

1. Everyone (both client and video producer) need to be upfront and honest at the beginning. You as a video producer should never over promise. Be clear on what your capabilities are. And you, the client, should never try to downplay what’s involved in producing the video. If you are working from a script and are not as prepared as you need to be, then you need to tell the video producer, “I’m going to need several takes to get this right.”
2. All decision-makers need to be involved from the very beginning. If the “higher-ups” wait to watch the video after everything has been shot, you may be forced to re-shoot portions of the video if they don’t like what they see. Re-shoots are costly. You as the client can avoid them by making sure that anyone who has to put his/her stamp of approval on the video is present for all important decisions.
3. When it comes to budgeting for post-production, the “less is more” mentality doesn’t work. More is more. In other words, you will always need more money for post-production than you think you do. Many clients (and video producers) underestimate just how much time will be spent editing the video. You may accurately gauge the hours you will spend assembling the edit, but you may neglect to consider time needed for encoding, making approval copies, delivering approval copies, approval meetings, phone calls with the client, making changes to the edit, re-working sections of the script, additional color correction, audio mixing, more encoding, more approval copies, etc. The list can go on and on, so you need to be prepared. Always budget more for post-production.

Video producers and clients need to work together so both parties clearly understand what’s involved in the production of any video. These tips are intended to help you avoid potentially awkward meetings wherein you have to ask for more money, because you simply underestimated what you were up against.

Our free e-newsletter is distributed every first Tuesday of the month. Included in each issue is the “Public Parc,” a forum for discussing different topics pertaining to sales, marketing, video, and social media. Subscribers to the newsletter and readers of the blog are encouraged to get involved in the discussion by posting their comments here. You can also post your thoughts on Twitter, using the hashtag #PublicParc. Here is this month’s Public Parc discussion:

If you were to do a Google search to find a video production company and/or a website design/development company, what search terms would you use?

What your video production doesn’t know can hurt you. Many people who have little experience working with video production companies usually feel a bit overwhelmed. They understand that they need to produce a video for their company, non-profit, school, etc. but beyond some basic generalities about the project, they aren’t sure what the video production company needs or needs to know. If the entire process is to run smoothly, you need to provide the video production company with some logistical details. A good producer or director will know to ask you these questions, but it’s still a good idea to have this information in-hand when you discuss the project with your video production company. Here are some details that need to be hammered out:

Project Overview

• What/Who the video is for
• The goals/objectives of the video
• The desired length of the video
• Where the final video will be shown (website, public event, seminar, trade show, in-house communication, sales meetings, etc.
• The deadline (Read this post regarding video production deadlines and how to schedule your video project accordingly.)

Technical Details About the Project

• The video format (standard-definition or high-definition)
• If standard definition - widescreen or standard 4:3
• If high-definition - 1080i or 720p?*

Responsibilities

• Script-writing responsibilities (will the video production company be required to conceptualize and write the script, or will your department handle that task?)
• On-camera talent (will the project require professional talent to be provided by the video production company, or will your company provide employees for the video?)
• Voice-over talent (will the production company need to provide this, or do you have someone available that you have used before?)

The Video Shoot (this will help the video production company determine how many shooting days are necessary)

• The amount of material that needs to be shot
• The specific people/places/products/etc. that needs to be shot
• The number of different locations
• The number of people that need to be interviewed
• The amount of archival footage, stock footage, and/or stills that will be needed

On Location Considerations

• Addresses and directions to all locations
• Contact person for each location
• Loading/Unloading zones
• Specific location protocol (security concerns, where to sign in, where the video production company can and cannot go while at the locaton)
• Staging area (an out-of-the-way place at the location where the video production company can store their gear)

I recommend taking the video production company representatives on a tech scout of each location before the shoot, so you can go over these details and clarify any unresolved issues. A good tech scout will catch potential problems before the shoot begins.

Clear, consistent communication between yourself and the video production company will be of enormous benefit when the shoot begins. Take the time to conduct thorough pre-production planning. Provide the video production company with everything they need. Your finished video will be a lot better because of it.

—————-

*Don’t let the higher number - 1080 make you think that it’s better, or has a higher resolution that 720. Both are official high-definition formats. The difference is mainly in how the two formats record an image. The “i” in 1080i stands for “interlaced,” and the “p” in 720p stands for “progressive.” An interlaced image is created by breaking the image you see on your screen into two separate “fields” - upper and lower. Scan lines reproduce the image on the screen by scanning horizontally, top to bottom. On the first pass, the scan lines recreate every even line. On the second pass, the odd lines are recreated. The horizontal lines are interlaced to show you the complete picture. In HD video, there are 1080 horizontal scan lines. A progressive image is created by scanning the entire image in order, all at once, much like a single frame of film.

Our free e-newsletter is distributed every first Tuesday of the month. Included in each issue is the “Public Parc,” a forum for discussing different topics pertaining to sales, marketing, video, and social media. Subscribers to the newsletter and readers of the blog are encouraged to get involved in the discussion by posting their comments here. You can also post your thoughts on Twitter, using the hashtag #PublicParc. Here is this month’s Public Parc discussion:

In your estimation, how much time per day do you usually spend watching online video?

Experts agree - online video will continue its growth over the next several years as consumption of video content continues to increase. In this video from Beet.TV, Jeff Cole, director of USC’s Center for the Digital Future, predicts that people will soon be spending up to 50 hours per week watching video. This rise (up from only 16 hours in 1975), will be due to the popularity of mobile video. This presents an incredible opportunity for advertisers and marketers, who will be able to use video to reach their audience while consumers are outside the home. This is TV without borders.

The question, however, is on the content itself. Where do you see the trend heading? Do you foresee an audience willing to watch 30 or 60-minute shows on their mobile devices, like Cole predicts? Or, do you you predict that the trend will continue to favor shorter, easily consumable 2-3 minute clips?

In regards to advertisers and marketers, what direction do you see video taking? Will production quality give way to production quantity? In other words, is it more important for advertisers to churn out as much video content as quickly as possible? Or, should they take their time with crafting and creating a well-polished, well-produced marketing video that has a longer shelf life?

DishyMix is a podcast in which host Susan Bratton interviews well-known media, internet, and marketing executives. The goal is to provide listeners with insights on how to better market themselves and their brands by taking advantage of the philosophies and tools provided by Susan and her guests.

I was listening to episode 137 recently (follow the link to listen or to read the full transcript) and heard a comment that caught my attention. In the episode, Susan interviews Jim Kukral, a speaker, author, consultant, coach on all things business and marketing. He was on the show to promote his book, Attention, This Book Will Make You Money. Read the following segment of the transcript where Jim talks about the topic of motivation (emphasis added):

Jim Kukral: Motivation; well, you know, I’m kind of a different perspective guy. I know that there’s a lot of people who will tell you to go out and do step by step by step stuff, and I’m a big believer in you just have to go out and try and really fail. You really got to go out and fail. And it’s more important than ever in the internet business, is going out and failing as many times as you possibly can.

Susan Bratton: Yeah, fail and optimize, right?

Jim Kukral: Yeah. I mean there’s so much forgiveness out there right now, you know, in the internet marketing space. YouTube, I’ll give you YouTube for example. I mean YouTube has transformed the way that we are okay with videos now. Before YouTube came along everyone had, you thought you had to have this really nice pre-produced, you know, post production video that was very beautiful. Now it’s kind of like, you look at videos like that you’re kind of like “Ugh.”

Susan Bratton: It’s inauthentic now.

Jim Kukral: It is. And, you know, so it’s okay to make poor quality video now. It’s okay to go out and build a website or a blog or do something that’s not completely perfect, and this economy and everything that we’re, the technology that’s coming out is allowing people to be able to go out there and put stuff out there. So if you want to get motivated you got to go out there and actually just really try it.

In its full context, Jim is advocating that entrepreneurs, inventors, small business owners, etc. not be afraid to step out and take risks; that it’s important to try, even if it doesn’t come out quite right; even if it isn’t perfect. He then goes on to say that it’s acceptable to create a poor quality video in today’s market, because it translates into “authenticity.”

So, I’m going to leave this one open for discussion. I would love to hear your thoughts. Here are some things to consider:

• Do you agree or disagree with Jim’s assessment?
• Do you feel that it’s okay for a business to create a poor quality marketing video?
• When you see a brand with a poor quality video, what is your immediate reaction?
• Should companies start creating lesser quality videos because it makes them look more authentic?
• What does this mean long-term for video producers?

A disconnect now exists between advertisers and consumers. People don’t like being interrupted by hard-sell advertising messages. They don’t like the idea of being “talked to.” They would rather be “talked with.” They crave conversation and engagement. The old rules of broadcasting to large audiences are slowly giving away to “small”-casting; that is, carving specific messages for a niche audience. For example, a few years ago I shot a video for a hospital. Rather than create a broad overview commercial for use on television, they specifically targeted those interested in nursing. They launched a microsite for their recruitment campaign and placed several short videos throughout. Each video featured a nurse from a specific area of the hospital talking on camera about his/her discipline. The nurse also spoke about the surrounding community - its social scene and nightlife. The campaign was successful because it spoke directly to a niche group. The videos used terminology the audience could understand. And it didn’t interrupt them with a hard sell. The following video humorously illustrates the current relationship between advertisers and consumers. The challenge for marketers is to adapt to this growing change in the way products and services are advertised.

If you happen to be graphic designer, a fan of fonts, or just a fan of movies, you will appreciate the following video. It’s amazing how pervasive one font can actually be and how overused it can become. There’s a lesson for the kids out there. Be willing to do something different to help you or your client stand out.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Font Squabble: Why So Hot Over Comic Sans (cehwiedel.com)

Editors don’t always have the luxury of working with raw files that are entirely the same. Sometimes, footage of varying formats will come in to the studio and editors are required to convert those files into a format suitable for post-production or for sharing via FTP or for upload to a website.

MPEG Streamclip from Squared5 is a video file conversion program available for a free download. In this tutorial we introduce MPEG Streamclip and provide a brief overview on how you can pull footage from a DVD, an existing video file, or even a website, and convert it into a format suitable for your particular project.

While watching a recent episode of the New Minute Minute from Daisy Whitney, I was treated to this little nugget of information. According to eMarketer, online advertisers are spending more and more money on video, versus any other format. The chart below details the advertising spending growth (in percentages) for various online formats from 2008-2014. As you can see, advertisers definitely favor online video. Look at the statistic for 2009. Advertisers spent 20 times more money in video than in Search, which is ranked second. And the amount of spending growth for online video is expected to remain a favorite format for advertisers through 2014.

Here are a few things we can take away from these statistics:

• Utilizing video for your online presence is a necessity in today’s market
• Video has impact
• Video is an effective communication tool
• Your competition is using video
• The use of video is one of the best ways you can gain an audience and improve your bottom line.