Relatively speaking, AI video creation is in its infancy still with perhaps the most famous example being Sora AI Video Generator, which is an OpenAI video generator that garnered a lot of media attention for some of the creepy imagery spit out from user prompts. Despite strange faces, extra limbs, or almost surrealistic interpretations of user text prompts, AI video creation is only going to improve. For all of us in the film industry, the response is a mixture of curiosity and terror. Could AI threaten our livelihoods and replace our jobs? The knee-jerk reaction is to reject new technology if it could be a threat, but the wiser approach is to embrace new technology as merely tools in the creation of human-directed art and marketing videos. Ultimately, people connect with other people. Sure, maybe one day an AI video generator could spit out a 30 second Taco Bell commercial with all AI-created “humans” and no camera being involved at all, but even then, the commercial has to be specifically designed to appeal to consumers — actual humans, not AI creations.

At...

When considering your company’s video production needs, eventually the discussion arrives at which package will maximize your value and minimize the cost. Typically, video production companies offer a variety of “set” packages that include the number of hours of filming required, length of the deliverable video, crew involved in production, and even the equipment used for the project. On more sophisticated videos, package pricing becomes impossible because of the highly customized needs for the video such as casting, actors, locations, effects work, specialized gear such as a slow motion camera, underwater videography, or special permits for filming in sensitive locations (seaports, airports, freeways, etc.). Your job as the marketing expert is to figure out what you need from the video, then let the video production company help decide what package is right.

Basic Vs. Custom Video Packages

For our clients, we typically customize quotes based on our two basic packages,...

When searching for an Austin video production company, marketing professionals may want to consider a company that has filmed all over Texas in almost every city large and small, from car dealerships to senior living communities to airport terminals to logistics facilities, many of them in Austin. At JLB Media Productions, we believe in a specialized approach to video production that meshes an agency approach with the single owner-operator approach. With marketing agencies, video production is one service they offer, but is often highly marked up because of expensive office space, many employees, and generally high overhead. With single owner-operators, you’re asking one person to be the best possible videographer, the best editor, the best customer service representative, and the best marketing specialist. We believe in keeping our videos affordable to clients while still having a key professional to handle each aspect of the video creation...

Searching for a Chicago production company that can provide reasonable video production pricing and videography rates? JLB Media Productions has shot aircraft terminals, commercial office buildings for CBRE, senior apartments, assisted living communities, and worked with major Chicago-based companies like Grant Thornton to handle their video needs. Whether you’re looking for event video production, virtual tours, product demos, or even training videos, our team can assist you in creating the perfect video and ideal marketing asset. With new clients, our first priority is learning what purpose the video is intended to serve so that we can better tailor the video production pricing to meet their needs. We offer several standard package prices, but can design a custom quote for more sophisticated video needs.

Included in the discussion of target audience and delivery methods (social...

1. Come up with a general budget range you want to spend. You may not know exactly what to expect, but generally a professional video will range anywhere from $1,500 to $20,000, depending on a variety of factors. More documentary-style filmmaking (interviews with employees and executives, filming at the office or place of business, etc.) will be less expensive than hiring professional actors, a creative director, larger crew, and sophisticated post-production work.
2. Find videos online that match the style, tone, or feeling you would like for your video. Maybe a competitor has a video that caught your eye, or maybe a TV commercial you saw has elements that you want to replicate. Whatever the case, finding a few sample videos to send to a video production company can be immensely helpful in communicating your vision.
3. Know the audience for your corporate video production. Are you targeting consumers or other businesses? If you’re targeting other businesses, are you focused on their marketing staff? Their IT professionals? Their HR directors? If you’re targeting...

One of the bigger video trends of 2016 — and one of the most fun — is Facebook allowing video postings of 360 videos often created by panoramic photos users generate. For instance, someone can create a 360 video while on a boat in the ocean off the coast of Hawaii and showcase their surroundings in a “wish you were here” type of posting. The videos are immersive and innovative, allowing iOS and Android mobile users to hold their phone up in the air and see a rotating 360 image by moving their phone in front of them. The experience is almost like a window into another world far away, made more realistic by the movement of the video mimicking the movement of the mobile device.

Not surprisingly, National Geographic has used the videos to great effect on their Facebook page to capture beautiful and far away places for their fan base to enjoy. Other companies can use them to engage with audiences, too, even if they can’t showcase the same amazing visuals. For instance, you may want to create a 360 video showcasing a new store display area, or a grand opening of a restaurant, or...

Crafting a quality request for proposal for corporate video production is an essential element of obtaining accurate quotes from production companies. Many executives have experience creating RFPs, but video production requires a special set of considerations that may not come to mind immediately. The usual elements are still essential, like a target audience, basic messaging and product or service details, and details about what you want or expect to see in the video on a general level. Being unsure about many of the details is not a problem, but being unsure about both the budget and the details can create issues with production companies trying to offer accurate quotes. Here are some tips:

1. Explain location considerations and needs. If you write, “Interviews with corporate executives,” make sure to include whether you imagine the interviews all taking place at one location or at numerous locations (even different cities?), and whether the location or locations are company-controlled or elsewhere. In other words, corporate offices are available and free, but if you...

If a 30-second commercial is rendered at 30 frames per second, then based on the unscientific assessment that a picture is “worth a thousand words,” the commercial would be worth almost a million words! What is it that makes video such a valuable tool for communication, and why is it that it has such a significant impact on websites?

How Does Video Differ From Photos?

Humans have highly developed means of communicating with one another and understanding the world around us, and visual stimuli are only one element the brain will process. Nonverbal cues such as body language and environment are just as important, if not more so, when the brain processes information.

Video helps to satisfy the brain’s desire to understand more about something because it creates a sense of dimension, has movement, incorporates sounds and allows viewers to see nonverbal cues such as facial expressions and emotions. In contrast, static images present a subject in a narrow perspective, providing few additional clues to meaning.

Why Does Video Work?

You have...

You have probably heard that video is how to differentiate your website and establish a brand, but have you thought about where and how to use it? The beauty of using video on your website is that it is incredibly flexible and customizable. There are few rules. Unlike television, you do not have to fit your video into a certain block of time, so it is an enticing medium to express yourself and tell your business story.

If you are looking for some ideas on how to incorporate video into your website, consider trying one or more of the approaches below.

1. Use it as a personal introduction

The Internet is notoriously impersonal. Showing your face to the world and introducing yourself and what you do can be a powerful way to humanize your online presence. When an online visitor sees your face, he or she will make subconscious assessments that help to determine whether you are trustworthy and authentic.

2. Highlight and demonstrate products and services

Video demonstrations help your website overcome the inherent disadvantage that comes...

Besides being valuable marketing pieces, corporate video production can help boost your company’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Since video production for marketing purposes is largely about attracting more customers, gaining SEO benefits from your corporate videos is a no-brainer. Let’s take a look at some statistics to demonstrate another value that video marketing has for companies’ marketing efforts:

• YouTube is the second largest search engine, behind Google (and owned by Google), which means it ranks ahead of both Yahoo and Bing for user searchers. Placing your video on a company YouTube channel gives you additional opportunities to reach customers.
• A comScore study found that Website visitors stay on a page two minutes longer when it has a video. The average time visitors stay on a Website impacts its page ranking, which is essential for excellent rankings on Google. The faster visitors “bounce” from a site, the less relevant Google thinks the page is for the user’s search query.
• Brightcove found that videos posted to social media were...

National Video Production Services for Large Corporations & Companies

Senior Lifestyle operates senior living communities in more than half of U.S. states from coast to coast. As a result, their marketing and training divisions have a lot to handle not only on a local, community-specific level, but in standardizing operations and quality control across the portfolio. Operationally, a company could choose to let each individual community figure out their own marketing needs and hire local videographers, but the results may vary wildly. Strategically, most companies with numerous locations want to maintain certain high standards that are followed by each location. The goal is not only to assure similar quality and customer service from every location, but also to make sure the marketing goals align with corporate standards. A company like Senior Lifestyle is the perfect fit for our national video production company because we built JLB Media Productions to serve clients with video needs nationwide. For single-location businesses, choosing a local video company...

Your business certainly has a plethora of options when it comes to choosing video production services. But how do you know which video production company is the best for your needs?

At JLB Media Productions, we have produced more than 1,000 professional videos for businesses across the country in 93 of the top 100 U.S. metro areas. Much of our success comes from being a national video production company based in Los Angeles.

Today, we’d like to help you better understand the benefits of being a national video production company based in Los Angeles and how it helps us best suit your company’s needs — no matter where you are in the United States!

Connections

There is no question that Los Angeles is the unrivaled location for video production and creative talent. While you may know Los Angeles for its major role in the production of television shows and movies, those areas are far from the only ones. Being a national video production company based in Los Angeles affords us the fantastic...

A terrific-looking video is an extremely powerful marketing tool for your business. For one, it is a vital marketing element that you can utilize across platforms, from your website to your social media presence and beyond. But you only achieve successful videos through quality video production.

Corporate video production is just one of the many areas we specialize in here at JLB Media Productions, tapping into our wealth of experience and resources to provide our clients with the top-notch video production services they should expect.

However, we also understand that some companies may have the size and scope to consider bringing video production in-house, so today we broke down the decision into a basic pros and cons list. While there are benefits to each side, a business should carefully consider which route is best for the long-term success of the company. Besides, JLB Media is always here for you!

PROS

1. Volume

If you think your company is going to...

With commercial filming, one of the first considerations with any concept is whether to film on location or in a studio. Of course, some concepts naturally require location filming, like cars driving through a city or in the country, for instance. Other concepts are more open-ended, like one set in a store or a living room. With lower budget commercials (i.e. not national commercials), a company will usually choose to film in their own store to save money. Likewise, finding a living room of someone’s house to film is much more cost-effective than building a living room set in a studio. There are advantages to filming in studios, though, and sometimes it makes the most sense overall.

The primary reason large production companies often choose to film in a studio versus on location is because of the greater control they have over every element of the production. Soundstages not only have standing permits, which means no special permit requirements, but they also have control over the sound in general of the area. Filming in a house somewhere requires permits from the city for...

The vast majority of corporate video work doesn’t require a trained or skilled director, primarily because there are no actors involved, but also because the budget doesn’t usually allow for it. In filmmaking, the director makes or approves all key creative decisions and works closely with department heads like production design, director of photography (cinematographer), and wardrobe, besides directing actors. Corporate video production often involves interviews and B-roll, neither of which specifically requires a creative director. In the corporate video world, you’re more likely to find videographers who double as the director on set, helping the interviews go smoothly, making decisions about which shots will look best for B-roll, and helping move the day along. The “one man band” mentality predominates, not because it’s the best way, but because it’s the cheapest way.

When does a corporate video need a director? The simplest answer to when hiring a director is required is whenever actors are brought aboard. While you can certainly take the risk and go without a director...

In the world of big budget feature filmmaking, almost any type of specialty tool is available to capture the perfect shot. From specialty slow motion cameras to underwater housings to action cameras and car mounts, helicopter shots, and cranes, whatever a filmmaker can imagine, gear exists to help make his or her vision a reality. In the world of corporate filmmaking, a few tools are more likely to be considered for their relatively low impact on the budget but immense leap in production value. Though high budget commercial filmmaking includes all of the fun toys (techniques like “bullet time” from The Matrix and many early CG efforts were pioneered on commercials), corporate video work can incorporate a few fun tricks and tools as well.

The recent rise of action cameras like the most famous GoPro line allows filmmakers to capture exciting shots by putting the camera directly in the action. From helmet-mounted shots on a snowboarder or paraglider to inexpensive car-mounted cruising, the GoPro allows for Ultra HD filmmaking without heavy production costs. Any brand...

Comedy is a great way to engage audiences and hook them as part of an effective marketing video, but it also has pitfalls to avoid. Humor that one person finds hilarious, another person finds offensive. Especially in today’s world, the battle between PC social justice warriors and everyone else means many topics of humor are best left to late-night comedians and avoided by corporations. One need not look any further than Pepsi’s disastrous Kendall Jenner commercial, which was immediately pulled, to understand the dangers of comedy when mixed with politics. While politics is almost a definite subject to avoid, it’s not the only subject around which brands should tread carefully.

Playing around with gender comedy is potentially dangerous, especially when a brand assumes specific gender roles and the humor is based solely around such assumptions. For instance, “look at the silly girl trying to hunt with a big rifle” or “look at Mr. Dad struggling to take care of the kids” are just dated comedy tropes that simply don’t work in the 21st century. Not only will a small but...

When trying to promote a viral video, of course you can only control its popularity to an extent, but you have to start the ball rolling, so to speak. Even the best videos need an initial push and a small base from which to grow. While some videos go viral seemingly randomly, others are carefully planned and can attain solid success levels through cultivating the right distribution strategies. As with any video, the normal rules apply of making sure you place the video on every network possible from Facebook to YouTube to Vimeo and your company’s home page, though your best viral results will likely come from YouTube and Facebook because of the massive group of users on each site.

When you’re trying to come up with a distribution strategy, first consider your intended audience, then consider where they are likely to congregate. If your video involves pets, for instance, you could probably find hundreds of pet-related Facebook groups and pages to post the video. Rather than spam other peoples’ pages, though, use diplomacy and charm to secure authorized posts. For instance,...

Most people have seen many marketing videos online, whether short commercials or longer product demonstrations, so intuitively most marketing professionals probably have a good idea about video length. At the same time, statistics help inform the proper structure and length of corporate videos using known data points. If most videos are between 30 seconds and 5 minutes, is there a sweet spot in duration? Does the length depend on the product or service being offered? Does the length depend on the type of video? Video production is a relatively expensive proposition, so you want to make sure when you commission and create a video that you’re getting the best value for your marketing dollars, which means tailoring the video length and structure to your audience.

Wistia, an online video platform, always publishes the best, most comprehensive research data about video statistics and engagement. They have a massive data set from which to draw, which means their information is highly actionable for marketing professionals. Through more than 1.3 billion plays of 564,710 videos,...

Many companies have to plan their video strategy by thinking about whether they should produce general brand videos or produce specific videos for each of their locations. The decision may come down to budgeting, but if budget is less of a concern than practicality and marketing goals, then consider some pros and cons. If you run a business with numerous locations, here are some considerations:

• Is each location noticeably different, not just in layout but in service offerings? If so, you may want to advertise each location separately to emphasize its unique services. If each location is more or less the same, except for inventory and space, you are probably best served by a general purpose video for the brand and your stores as a whole. With nationwide department stores, they have no choice but to focus on the general brand as individual video marketing makes no sense.
• Are people familiar with your brand having multiple locations? If not, consider one combined brand video showcasing your different locations, educating consumers about the options they...

Typical turnaround time for most corporate video work is between 6 and 8 weeks, but you don’t have nearly as much time. You need a product launch video or a special company video to play at your conference in just a few weeks. Can you make a video production happen from start to finish in just a few weeks or are you out of luck? Luckily, if time is a concern, you can drastically shorten the process but only through careful focus, hard work, and the right production company. To put your video on the fast track, you need to shorten the pre-production process substantially and you need to have a rush edit of the footage or you won’t meet your deadlines. The actual production is the easy part, but the planning is where you need to save the most time.

In Hollywood, as well as probably the greater business world, filmmakers have a saying that you get to choose between two of these three options: fast, good, and cheap. You can have a high quality, cheap video, but it won’t be fast. You will be put last on the list of priorities and be at the mercy of someone else’s schedule...

Narrative feature films and high end commercials typically use only one camera, along with most dramatic scripted TV shows, so why would a corporate video need multiple cameras? The simple answer is that many corporate videos, especially event videos, are more similar in nature to reality TV, which often uses many cameras, even dozens of cameras, to capture all of the action. Though the vast majority of our shoots only have one camera, we have frequently used two for interview purposes and occasionally relied upon several shooters at events as well. Hollywood feature films, except for during action sequences, often avoid using more than one camera because the lighting is specifically set up for a single camera at a designated location. With corporate interviews, though, the subject isn’t moving and the lighting can work perfectly fine from two different angles if arranged carefully.

One of the key benefits of filming an interview with two cameras is the ability to cut in and out of different takes more readily without cutting to B-roll. If you have a single camera interview...

Corporate video work at lower budget levels is not much of a producing challenge compared to feature films or even short films, but making sure the process runs smoothly is part of what makes a production company worth hiring. Producing a video production of any kind involves several basic elements, the first of which is an examination of the script or concept that is the basis of the whole project. In the filmmaking world, a script is like an architectural blueprint that helps guide the process, but in corporate videos a script is often missing, so how do you proceed? Much more so than narrative storytelling, corporate video producing starts with a finished idea and works backwards. In other words, a client wants a video similar to the one completed for ABC Company, so the producing process works by figuring out the similarities and differences between an already-produced video and the current project.

If a client expresses interest in creating a business overview video to post to their Website, the production company asks a series of questions that are relevant first to...

Though not necessary for the vast majority of corporate video work, storyboarding is common practice in commercial video production. In the commercial world, storyboards are usually referred to simply as “boards” and are a way to demonstrate visual ideas to the client for approval before a shoot occurs. Because of the immense amount of money spent on commercial production, the advertising agency wants to make sure the client fully understands and signs off on any ideas before hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent on producing a finished commercial. As part of the process, once the general concept for the commercial is approved, boards are created to show a shot-by-shot look at the flow. Understanding the value of storyboards is a good way to understand whether they are the right way to proceed for smaller budget corporate video work or general commercial work.

Storyboards have multiple purposes and uses, depending on who is reviewing them and who they are intended to impress. When designed for clients, they are primarily intended to represent a concept visually for...

For many people, the holiday season is a special time of year. We get nostalgic, we work to reconnect with loved ones, and our hearts are just a little more receptive. To effectively use videos during the end-of-year holiday season, keep the following in mind.

Start Early!

Whether it’s related to Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Winter Solstice, New Year’s Eve, or any other winter-time holiday (or summer-time festivities, if you’re south of the equator), it’s important that you launch your holiday season video production push early. Once Halloween is over, everything moves quickly. Plus, a lot of employees are gone, which can slow down production. The earlier you start, the better … but at the same time, it’s never too late. Get started today! Just be realistic with your schedule. You may still be in time for the holidays, or you may want to aim for the New Year.

Get Creative

As we’ve mentioned before in previous posts, people love stories. During the holiday season, you have the opportunity to get creative and craft...

If you’re a marketer or an executive at a technology company, you need to know that leveraging your video production efforts is in your company’s best interest. Here are five effective ways to accomplish this.

Product Demo

Your company will benefit from videos that showcase your products and services. If you offer a complex product with features the end-user may not be aware of, a product demo video is a must. You can convey a great deal of information quickly and clearly through a visual demo.

With a product demo, you can accomplish the following:

• Highlight features that make your product stand out;
• Show how your product is better than what competitors offer;
• Generate excitement for your brand;
• Instruct the user on how to use a specific product; and
• Offer solutions so viewers can see why they need your products.

Your demo video is your chance to sell your product by highlighting the best features and...

The other day, I downloaded an audio enhancement software program to use the trial version. However, without much support on how to use it, I quickly found myself frustrated, and instead of purchasing the software, the company link sits in my Bookmarks folder in marketing limbo.

Sound familiar?

If you’re worried that your software product might be suffering a similar fate, it’s a great opportunity for you to create a software demo video. Done well, this will keep your customers engaged, show them a vision of what they can accomplish, and get them to understand the value of what you offer.

In this post, I’ll cover how you can create high-quality software videos, enhance your customers’ understanding of your software, and get more conversions.

Step 1: Choose a video production company

If you have an internal video department, this step might be as simple as submitting a video request, but if you’re going to outsource this job, you’ll need to take into account a number of different factors to ensure that you’re getting the highest quality work...

Avoid Choosing a Company with a Limited (or Inexistent) Portfolio

This is no time for amateur hour. Your corporate videos must be professional and polished, and they need to communicate the right message while reflecting your brand in a positive light. Each video needs to make an impact, and it has to be memorable, with the key points you want to convey getting across to viewers.

It takes a certain level of experience plus a mix of just the right technical, creative, and business skills to produce corporate, marketing, and promotional videos that exude a high degree of professionalism while being entertaining and innovative. A video production company with a limited portfolio, or a company that has no samples to show, is not the right choice. The risk of spending a great deal of money and ending up with poor results is just too great.

The Production Company Shouldn’t Skimp on Creativity

Even if your promotional video is a marketing tool meant to promote your brand and gain a larger following, the creative factor is still important. The video...

A little bit of cinematography magic will make your promo videos far more engaging and memorable, greatly enhancing your marketing efforts.

Don’t Be Afraid to Get Creative

When it comes to marketing campaigns, video productions can convey a wealth of information in a short time. Here’s an important thing to remember: if you’re having fun making the video, chances are good that viewers will have fun watching it, and that element of fun will help make your message stick. So let your guard down, and start getting creative!

It Begins With A Story

Your promotional video has to tell a clear story in a succinct format. You only have a few seconds or minutes to get your message across, so the challenge is to use that brief time to visually convey a story viewers will associate with your brand. Start by listing the main points you want to convey, and remember that less is more. Your main message should be woven throughout the entire promo video, and you can add one or two supporting points, but keep things simple. Try not to stuff too much information...

While the cost of commercial television production is widely known to advertising agencies and production companies, most outside marketing professionals, especially for small to mid-sized businesses, have very little idea about the costs involved. As with any advertising, the range is enormous between the lowest budget and highest budget examples. At the lower end, many or even most cable networks will offer “free” commercial production if a business purchases a certain volume of TV advertising. They build the costs of producing the commercial into the overall package pricing, which also results in almost always laughably amateur hour productions. The difference between typical local TV ads and national ones is like watching an NBA player take on a grade school kid. Examining the true costs involved in different types and levels of media production is a great place to start when looking at how to budget properly.

For a local TV commercial production, the business is often of local interest only, like an HVAC company, a dental office, a furniture store, or a restaurant. The...

Many of our clients think of JLB Media Productions as a great budget option to deliver quality, affordable corporate video production services for their businesses. While we enjoy the opportunity to produce all types of corporate work, we also like to emphasize that our creativity is limited only by the budget, not by our experience. When you think of a restaurant chain like Olive Garden, you probably think of solid, affordable Italian food, nothing special, but not a bad option for a regular meal. When you think about Safeway, you maybe think of a regular, ordinary grocery store that will meet your needs most of the time, but nothing fancy like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s with specialty items and gourmet selections. Every company has its niche, which they either define intentionally, or fall into unintentionally, but with a video production company the key ingredient is creativity.

If a video production company has just one staff member, such as a camera operator who also edits, the company may by design be more tailored to crafting straightforward videos without a lot of...

Making your visitors navigate through fish-eye pictures of model apartments may seem like a nice idea in creating Website interactivity, but it can also be an exercise in frustration for potential customers who just want to push play, sit back, and observe. When you let your visitors choose how they see your community or business, you give them the opportunity to become frustrated, bored, or worse yet, confused. When you have a video, you have full marketing control not only of how information is presented but the manner in which it is displayed. For instance, good use of music can strike an emotional chord with viewers that a fish-eye photo of a room simply cannot, no matter how many times it spins around.

Videos also provide a lot more options, from voiceover and music at the simplest end to actors and spokespeople at the higher end. Are you selling an apartment room, a hotel room, or a building, or are you selling a community, an experience, and a way of life? People are not moved by simple facts or floor plans, but by attempts to form an emotional connection to the...

As with most video production companies, we have common inquiries from startup companies or individuals who want to create nice videos for tiny budgets. Many times, we have to turn away the smallest potential clients because we cannot do justice to their video for the funds they have, but we always try to come up with creative solutions that could work to create a professional video on a small budget. Low budget work doesn’t have to mean low quality work, but managing expectations is important as is coming up with a proper concept. The biggest issue is when companies want to create a Hollywood-style video on a smaller budget, because many times it will just become hokey or simply be impossible to execute, often leaving the company with no video at all.

One of the best recommendations we have made for our clients is to consider a video using voiceover, stock footage, and brand / product photos they have, sometimes in combination with motion graphics templates we already own or that can be acquired inexpensively. Many motion graphics templates look fantastic and high-end, so...

With video increasing search engine rankings and giving a massive boost to front-page Google rankings for companies and their products and services, most companies understand the need for effective video marketing. While videos can play a key role in an overall marketing strategy and be distributed to numerous locations from Facebook and YouTube to the company’s Website, companies have to ascertain how much money can be allocated to video production to achieve the desired result. Most importantly, how much do you need to spend to have a professional video that meets your marketing goals and yet leaves you money left over for other pressing needs? The cost of any video production is based on a number of factors, but best seen as a series of three stages: pre-production, production, and post-production.

Pre-Production Planning

The expenses incurred during pre-production are based around taking a concept or a video idea to a finished plan for production. Pre-production can be as simple as picking a date for the filming, creating a schedule for the day’s filming,...

Though corporate video production usually centers around specific marketing goals or sometimes training videos for internal use, another type of video production is focused on creating a better employee culture and honoring top employees through a video. Though on the surface an employee award video may seem a questionable use of scarce marketing resources, the benefits can be much more substantial than initially envisioned. Not only can an employee award video instill loyalty in top employees, increasing retention of talent, but it can instill a company-wide feeling that top management notices and cares about the contributions of its employees. The video can also be crafted as a pseudo-training video for what types of strategies and behavior lead to great results, then shown throughout the company to improve performance.

A typical employee award video need not be expensive or complicated, but rather a simple way to honor the hard work and dedication of your best employees. Ideally, the shoot should be scheduled on a day where the employee can be shown performing regular...

In creating corporate videos, companies are often faced with the decision of whether to hire a professional actor or actress to serve as a spokesperson or select one of their employees to deliver the information and be the “face of the company” at least for one video or video series. Each path has its advantages and disadvantages, which means deciding between the right option depends largely on the company’s marketing goals, budget, and preferences. Taking a look at each option and the benefits and drawbacks is a good starting point for helping you come to a decision about which path serves your needs best.

Pros and Cons of Company Representative

With a company representative featured on camera, you have the advantage of a knowledgeable professional who can speak naturally about the product or service. A company representative like a marketing head probably has delivered many such speeches in the past either informally at networking events, to potential customers, or friends and family or in more formal settings like presentations and client conference calls....

Several of our clients have asked about shooting a spokesperson against a white screen or a green screen, but many people aren’t really sure which one they want or for what reasons. Numerous Web videos, especially informational ones, are filmed against white backgrounds not only for the simplicity of production but also for creating a more focused visual field. Filming against a green screen (or blue screen, in the past) is an entirely different type of process with different end-goals. Knowing which setup makes the most sense for your corporate video depends largely on need, so let’s take a look at both processes and outcomes.

White Screen Videos

Using a white background or white screen allows the spokesperson or actor to be the sole focus of the composition, often removing any possible distractions present in an office setting or a heavily production-designed desk. Shooting against a white background has added benefits, though, in allowing for adding text elements, motion graphics, and even B-roll fields to the sides of the actor. Shooting against a white...

Perhaps the most important aspect of a successful corporate shoot is the videographer who shows up to gather the footage and record the audio. All of the planning that the production company does before the shoot, all of the paperwork, all of the client’s time and planning, and all of the effort that an editor goes through to create a finished video are meaningless if the video quality isn’t good or the audio sounds distorted and poor. Selecting the right videographer for a job is not as simple as just finding “the best” shooter, but rather finding the perfect fit for the budget level and for the project, which is where a knowledgable corporate video production company shows its value.

The first consideration for selecting a videographer should be their creative eye and their diverse set of skills. Can the videographer manage a nice variety and balance of pans, tilts, zooms, slides, and perhaps handheld work that looks professional with smooth motion? Does the videographer have a great eye for framing and focusing his attention on the most visually interesting aspects of a...

Without working in video production, many consumers and clients are confused by terms thrown out in the film industry like UHD (Ultra High Definition), 4K, and HD. Because of different standards and even inaccurate labeling, most people aren’t really sure of the difference between each label and what they really mean. On a practical level for corporate video production, should marketing professionals care about the newest video standards like 4K? Though the answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no, the bottom line is most clients won’t benefit from having their videos shot in 4K.

Even the label “HD video” can be misleading because officially, HD is defined as either 720p or 1080p, where the number represents how many vertical lines of resolution exist in the image. As a broadcast standard, the overall picture resolution is 1280×720 of progressively (p) scanned lines. Although 720p counts as HD resolution, few professionals take such a low resolution seriously now for acquisition. “Full HD” refers to 1080p, or a resolution of 1920×1080, which almost every modern...

With the ease of sharing videos across social media networks and the Internet as a whole, every week sees the rise of new highly shared video content. Keeping an eye on the trends is a solid way to see what works, what people share, and how videos go viral. Even if a video seems unspectacular or not related to marketing in general, keeping an eye on popular videos is a good way to make mental notes about what people are likely to share. Last week, BuzzFeed’s Tasty posted a video of how to make sliders in four different ways that has received more than 80 million views on Facebook.

The video is a simple tutorial or “how to” for cooking, sped up in post-production with music and text added, that appeals to cooks everywhere. It contains several recipes and shows how to execute them, making the process look easy to do for anyone with basic culinary skills. How is the video relevant to marketing or what can we learn from the massive popularity of a seemingly simple video? Let’s...

Most corporations, especially medium to larger businesses with numerous physical locations, have frequent turnover throughout the company. While turnover is normal, it also leads to increased training costs and frequent frustrations with new employees not properly following the company’s standards, practices, and values. Training new employees is both expensive and time consuming, but training videos can help companies gain an edge in company-wide education and training at a fraction of the cost of in-person physical training. Sending key employees to numerous facilities repeatedly becomes expensive and unrealistic, especially given the greater responsibilities and higher-value tasks that key employees often have to undertake. Having a series of training videos for employees to view allows top employees to pursue their everyday activities while also educating new hires in the company’s proper standards and procedures without leaving the corporate headquarters.In days past, training video production could be both expensive and just as time-consuming as in-person training, but with...

Years ago, your company commissioned a great video, but enough has changed about your company or about the product or service in question that you know you need to update the video or redo it completely. Reasons for redoing a video differ, but often are necessary because of remodels, new employee hires, updated product lines, new service offerings, a change in company marketing strategy, and unhappiness with significant elements about an older video production. As with any company, though, your marketing budget is tight and the last video was expensive. Should you refresh the video or redo it completely? Each path has pros and cons, but considering all of the factors involved will help you make the right decision for your company.

The obvious first question — though it still has to be mentioned — is whether your current video is professional, well produced, and overall a solid piece of work. Take a well shot apartment tour video, for instance, perhaps the lobby has been updated, paint refreshed, and landscaping improved, but many of the areas like the fitness center, model...

The key to many great corporate videos is great interview footage, which is a mixture of the right subject, the right setting, the right framing, and most importantly proper audio. Interviews are the toughest and most important part of most corporate video shoots because the people being interviewed are not trained professionals, the locations are often not ideal from an audio perspective, and most corporate videos lack the budget for a production designer let alone a production design department with set dressers and rented items to beautify a space. Though challenging, like most aspects of corporate video production, gathering quality interviews is largely a matter of careful planning.

The first critical element to obtaining great interviews is selecting the right subjects. Our company has shot hundreds of videos with interview commentary and the best ones with the strongest quotes are always the videos where our client chose great subjects. As with film production in general, much of the battle is won during pre-production, not only in selecting the right interview...

There seems to be a lot of talk about the importance of branding, but little substance about what comprises a brand. Ultimately, perceptions define a brand. Essentially an extension of the human dynamic of relationships, branding is about feelings, trust and respect. Telling the story of your business is one of the most powerful ways to stir emotions, build trust and immortalize your brand.

What Exactly is a Business Story?

Every business has a story, which includes:

• A company’s roots and history
• Track record
• Values
• Good deeds
• Contributions to the world
• Successes and failures

Knowing which of these aspects to highlight is part of the challenge of branding. A business story need not be all “rainbows and butterflies,” but in order to be an effective branding tool, it needs to be positive overall and most importantly, relatable.

Why do Business Stories Matter?

People have countless choices for products and services and they are increasingly cognizant of how a business can influence...

Nobody wants to spend more money on a video than necessary, but nobody wants a video to look cheap, either. Fortunately, modern technology and old-fashioned planning allow for the creation of nice, professional videos even on small budgets. In days before digital filmmaking, options for low-budget filmmaking were limited and looked cheap, making a brand or company look cheesy in the process. In modern corporate video production, the talent costs more money than the gear, which leads to potentially great results when talented professionals can also work efficiently.

Pre-Production Scheduling and Planning

The key to low budget video production is to minimize the time that talented, expensive professionals need to spend on the video, which means maximizing the time invested in pre-production before even hiring a corporate video company. For a company overview video, for instance, know the basic message of the video, who will provide interview commentary or what the voiceover script will include, and which B-roll elements need filming. A tight, detailed schedule...

Nobody wants to spend more money on a video than necessary, but nobody wants a video to look cheap, either. Fortunately, modern technology and old-fashioned planning allow for the creation of nice, professional videos even on small budgets. In days before digital filmmaking, options for low-budget filmmaking were limited and looked cheap, making a brand or company look cheesy in the process. In modern corporate video production, the talent costs more money than the gear, which leads to potentially great results when talented professionals can also work efficiently.

Pre-Production Scheduling and Planning

The key to low budget video production is to minimize the time that talented, expensive professionals need to spend on the video, which means maximizing the time invested in pre-production before even hiring a corporate video company. For a company overview video, for instance, know the basic message of the video, who will provide interview commentary or what the voiceover script will include, and which B-roll elements need filming. A tight, detailed schedule...

Case studies have long been a favorite marketing tool for businesses in building trust in their brand and increasing sales to new customers. Whether selling a product to consumers or businesses, video case studies provide a great way to demonstrate the benefits of your product quickly and in a tangible rather than abstract way. You have the opportunity to show real people talking about your product, why they wanted or needed it, and why it was the best choice for them. Who better to help market your products than satisfied customers?

People enjoy watching stories more than they enjoy watching marketing-heavy commercials, so take advantage of what people enjoy watching by creating a case study video that feels like a story. For instance, a small business owner may start with discussing what their business does, what problems or challenges they face, and how your product helped them solve the issue. A company like Nike may feature a consumer training for a marathon who wanted to find comfortable, effective shoes and clothing to help their efforts. The video could start with...

On the hierarchy of companies that create videos, the order usually starts at the top with marketing agencies, then production companies, and finally one-man-band type of operations. In the latter example, one person shoots the video, edits it, and manages all elements of creation themselves. Understandably, the more people who are involved, the more expensive the video. Nonetheless, with highly specialized talent involved from pre-production through post-production, expensive marketing agency videos often yield the best results if a client can bear the steep price of entry. Meanwhile, an average video production company offers some specialization, such as a professional cinematographer and a separate editor, along with limited creative guidance. Besides the traditional three types of video producers, I would argue for a fourth type better known as a video agency with greater creative capabilities and oversight.

Any reputable video production company can translate simple goals into a finished video, such as a company overview or product overview. Most of the time on lower...

While major banks and insurance companies are major players in national TV advertising every year, affordable Web videos for other financial and insurance services companies are still a new option for many companies. Aside from creating awareness about services and about your company, Web videos can educate customers and potential customers about services of which they are not aware, foster brand loyalty, and explain complicated concepts in simpler ways than text alone. With the availability of high-end digital video cameras and fairly inexpensive editing software, companies commissioning video are paying for the skills and expertise of the production company and not the equipment used to create the videos. A more affordable entry point means more companies are choosing video as a marketing medium to distribute to YouTube channels, their own Websites, and even direct e-mails to customers.

Building brand loyalty has always been important to companies, but in an era where the competition is just a click away, and where customers can quickly compare quotes for insurance or...

Each corporate video production has its own goals and challenges, but as a general guideline videos for individual business locations should focus on similar marketing goals no matter the industry: 1) What differentiates the business from other local businesses? 2) What philosophy or approach guides the business practice? 3) What specific services are offered? If you’re considering a video production for a dental office or orthodontist, you probably know about the SEO benefits of video production. Not only can marketing videos help search engine rankings, but they also establish a trust and connection between the provider and the potential customer.

Before you produce a dental office video or orthodontist video, write down a list of reasons why customers should choose your office over others in the area. Location alone is not a good marketing point, so if you’re stumped ask some of your customers what they like most about coming to your office. Do they enjoy the care they receive? Is the lobby especially appealing or unique? Is the pricing competitive or is the business...

One of the new filmmaking tools that has recently caught the attention of marketing agencies, tech savvy consumers, and video buffs is VR video. Technically, VR stands for “virtual reality,” a fact most people know already, but what is VR as it pertains to video? Though the term VR video is now omnipresent, it’s actually not “virtual reality” in any meaningful sense. In a complete sense, virtual reality is meant to create an immersive virtual world with as many replications of the actual experience as possible, including sight, sound, touch, and even smell.

In video gaming, a virtual reality experience typically means a headset of some kind, 3-D imagery, and the ability to interact with the gaming world and impact the environment. Nintendo’s commercially unsuccessful though innovative Virtual Boy was an early attempt in the 1990s to enter the VR world. More recently, several tech companies have started to offer headsets for VR gaming, with confirmation that Sony will create a VR Playstation. Meanwhile, Google’s Oculus Rift has made waves in the tech industry for its promise...

In the past 15 years, the availability of inexpensive recording formats for video has continued to improve, from hand-held MiniDV cameras of the late 1990s to current High Definition cameras available at the local BestBuy. While everyone now has access to HD quality cameras, the gap between professional video work and amateur work is still just as wide as it was decades ago. Everyone can go buy a hammer and nails at Home Depot, but you wouldn’t hire just anyone to build your house, so why would your standards for crafting an effective marketing video be any different? In both cases, a weak foundation will lead to disastrous results. Professionals train and practice for years to acquire the skills to produce the best-looking images, they use more advanced support equipment, and professional corporate video production companies understand more about your marketing and intended results than a mere amateur or hobbyist videographer.

The Quality of Your Video Reflects the Quality of Your Company

A professional videographer or cinematographer has often studied their...

As Part 2 of our advice for videographers seeking work with production companies, I want to take a look into some tips and tricks you can use to benefit your efforts. The goal is not just to make the most money per day of shooting, or to book the most days of work per month, but to establish great long term relationships at a solid pay rate that lead to regular work.

1. If You’re Busy, Apply Anyway

As long as you are polite in informing the producer upfront that you’re unavailable the day of the shoot, you may as well send a friendly introduction e-mail. At least 20% of the time, shoot dates are moved anyway, so if you’re the best option you may end up gaining the job anyway. If you miss out on this shoot because you’re booked, you could still end up as a future hire. Many times, producers — including myself — make mistakes when we hire a videographer. A great reel and great communication don’t always lead to great results, for whatever reasons. Maybe the videographer had a bad day, maybe they didn’t understand the project, or maybe it just wasn’t a good fit....

For companies that produce regular corporate videos, you shouldn’t rely on a video production company to hold onto all of your data. Video production companies can’t afford to keep dozens of terabytes of digital data in multiple secure locations unless they’re charging their clients a premium for work. Most video production companies also won’t or can’t promise to hold onto data forever. Fortunately, inexpensive options exist for individual companies to back up their data and have some peace of mind. In the event the production company loses the data, you’ll still have a backup.

We make a best faith attempt to keep all data for five years by backing up footage onto multiple RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Devices) units, which are hardware units like a Drobo that contain many hard drives. With a Drobo or other similar RAID unit, a series of drives turns into one superdrive with built-in redundancy so that if one individual hard drive fails, no data is lost. Unless you are producing hundreds of videos, though, you need not worry about an expensive RAID unit for...

Besides interview footage, B-roll is the main source of visuals for most corporate video productions. In video terminology, B-roll refers to everything from activity footage to architecture shots to food preparation and product footage. It goes alongside the primary footage to add emphasis or showcase what an interview subject is discussing. The primary reason for great B-roll footage is because it breaks up the monotony of just watching someone talk to the camera. If your company spokesperson is talking about an exciting new product launch, viewers want to see the product, not just hear about it. If someone is talking about a beautiful view from the hotel balcony, showing the beautiful view is far more effective and visually engaging than just hearing about the view. How do you obtain great B-roll footage for your corporate videos?

Know What You Need

The most critical element of obtaining great B-roll footage is to have a plan in advance of the shoot for what you want to shoot, how many locations need to be shot, and roughly what elements are required. For a...

You’ve finished your first corporate video production, so now what should you do? Besides the obvious answer — make more videos, of course! — let’s take a look at some strategies to maximize your return on investment and prepare for future steps in your digital marketing plan. Here is a checklist to make sure you’re not missing anything:

• Imbed your new corporate video into your home page or relevant landing page. Not only do landing page videos increase the time-on-site of visitors, they also improve conversions. Several sources have found through A / B testing that videos increased conversion rates between 80-100% at maximum. Even a conservative 25% increase, though, will bear significant results with enough traffic.
• Make sure that wherever your video appears on your Website, you include text that targets keywords that are valuable to your marketing efforts. In other words, if your Google AdWords campaign is targeting 5 primary keywords, make sure to include as many as possible on the page with the video. While Google values videos, they index based on...

Kickstarter is one of the most exciting crowd-funding options available to burgeoning entrepreneurs today. While the media loves to highlight the myriad success stories from products launched after successful Kickstarter campaigns, the reality is most companies fail to generate enough interest in their product to succeed. As with anything in business, success is hard fought and the path to a successful, celebrated product launch is challenging from concept to execution. Making matters more complicated is the irony that great videos can help launch successful Kickstarter campaigns, but video production costs money, which is exactly what you’re trying to raise in the first place. The good news is great videos don’t have to cost a fortune, but they need careful planning to save costs.

The main elements that add significant costs to video productions are actors, locations, and extensive equipment, primarily because the more advanced the equipment, the more crew a production company needs to hire to deal with it. The first key to saving money will be to find a suitable location...

Once you’ve decided upon a production company with which to partner for your video needs, reviewing the contract is one of the most important elements of the process. Unexpected surprises or details can cause a lot of problems later, so make sure to review the language carefully. Corporate video production is usually fairly straight-forward, but a few contract details are essential to keep in mind, specifically payment terms, deliverables, and timeline.

Most production companies ask for a 50% upfront deposit for video work, especially for larger projects where the production company enters into its own contracts with various other independent contractors to make the video happen. As a policy, video production companies won’t agree to no money down because they’re not banks, so without receiving a 50% deposit to cover their costs, they would have to dip into corporate savings. Additionally, if a company decides to break contract and not make final payment for creative reasons, the production company at least has collected enough money to cover most costs.

Larger video...

One of the biggest challenges of corporate video production is having many potential people to please. On the smallest shoots, for instance for a dental office, maybe you just have to please one person. For most corporate work, though, numerous people are involved in the project and have ideas about what they want to see. There may be a local marketing contact, a regional marketing head, and various mid-level employees who have clear ideas about what they would like from the video, but their views may not match even within the same company. At the same time, video production companies have their own standards, ideas, and perceptions of what makes the best video for the business. At the end of the process, how do you make everyone happy?

One of the keys of great corporate video production is remembering the end goal, rather than focusing on pleasing every person at every step of the process. Clients don’t always know exactly what they want, despite the mantra that “the client is always right.” The production company needs to take some ownership of the process and recognize...

A large part of our success as a national corporate video production company is the ability to find and recognize talent in far away places, without ever meeting the videographer, working with them, or otherwise knowing them. We have built an extensive videographer network in large cities and remote locations through careful selection that has gradually become a trusted database of professionals. Many videographers may wonder what a producer looks to see in their reel and how to stand out from the dozens of other videographers who apply to any given job posting. Understanding the selection process is valuable not only to videographers but also to clients, who may wonder how the selections are made.

1. Communication Matters

Before any consideration of the quality of work sent, other considerations come into play immediately. At least half of potential videographers are eliminated simply from their e-mails, which often show the person hasn’t read the job posting. If the job says the pay is $500, the pay is non-negotiable; don’t apply if you don’t like the pay....

1. Myth: You can’t afford a great video unless you have a few hundred thousand dollar marketing budget. Fact: Great videos are more the result of creativity and proper planning than massive marketing budgets. Even a few thousand dollars can be enough to create a great video with the right planning, but for under $10,000 you should expect a high end professional cinematographer, great editing, a powerful concept, and accomplished direction.
2. Myth: Videos have limited marketing uses. Fact: You can plan and execute a single day shoot gathering enough footage for videos targeted at different groups of customers. Besides multiple cuts, videos can be marketed on social media platforms, YouTube, the company’s Website, and even shared on other sites promoting your products or services.
3. Myth: Coming up with enough material to fill a video is difficult. Fact: Shorter is better, so don’t worry about having a ton of material. Focus on your core messaging and offerings,...

The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefits of corporate video production and marketing videos are widely touted, especially because YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, after Google. Of course, Google also owns YouTube, which means many videos appear in search results where relevant, which is a hugely beneficial development for companies able to acquire top video placement. As with any marketing, though, targeting is critical and guidance is necessary for success. Simply creating a video, throwing it up onto your company Website, and hoping for SEO results is bound to be a failed proposition ending in wasted time, wasted money, and considerable frustration. Here are some tips for using video to boost SEO efforts:

1. Videos should all be placed on company channels on Vimeo and YouTube as well as embedded into your Website. Not only are you missing out on huge amounts of traffic by failing to upload your videos to YouTube, but you may also be hurting the video’s chances of ranking on Google. The video production itself is the expensive part of the...

You’ve decided you need a video production company to meet your company’s marketing goals, which is a fantastic step in the right direction. It means you’ve considered and understood the importance of video production in your company’s overall digital strategy. One of the first steps for a company to take once they are serious about video production is to draft a request for proposal (RFP) that outlines the target audience, the scope of the work to be completed, marketing points to hit, and perhaps a few general ideas for the video. Many companies both refuse to provide a budget and refuse to provide clear direction, which is a mistake if you want the best possible video.

The traditional thinking from a company’s marketing department is the budget should be withheld and a bunch of companies should bid on the project, but that approach only works if the concept for the video is crystal clear and you just need a company to execute your vision. If you neither have a clear vision nor a clear budget, how do you expect to obtain any kind of accurate quote? Nobody contacts a...

Many clients, when first exploring the world of corporate video marketing, are surprised at the costs involved to create a quality video production. One of the largest expenses, or often the single largest expense, is the videographer. With the greater availability of HD cameras, even quality video footage from smart phones, many people assume videography is easier than ever and therefore should be inexpensive. While quality cameras have continued to drop in price, most support gear from lighting to jibs to dollies to steadicam rigs remain expensive investments for independent contractors. Additionally, the biggest expense is not for the gear involved in video creation, but the talent and skills involved in capturing great footage.

Reviewing thousands upon thousands of videographer reels and work samples over many years as a producer, I would estimate no more than 10% of videographers who apply for our gigs have a great eye for visuals and the skills to match. Maybe another 20% shoot competent, basic work but their skills are not suitable for high-end professional work. The...

Corporate video production can be expensive, but finding ways to save money doesn’t have to mean cutting corners or losing quality. While many smaller tips are helpful, such as asking numerous companies to bid the project, or providing your own location for filming, the biggest tip of all is to have a clear plan. It sounds really simple, but a straight-forward concept for exactly how you imagine the video playing is the best way to reduce the quotes that come from video production companies. Granted, if you are producing a high-end custom corporate video for your home page, you will want to enlist the creativity of a professional creative director. For most corporate video work, though, the projects are more direct and simple with clear goals.

Before looking for a production company, first consider the goals of your corporate video. Do you want to educate potential clients on a new solution to an old problem? Are you looking to demonstrate a service you offer that will appeal to people with a specific need? Write down your marketing goals because they will drive the flow of...

One of the most stressful days for many marketing professionals is being present on the first corporate video shoot their company has commissioned. With film production not being an ordinary part of most peoples’ jobs, they aren’t sure what to expect, how the process normally goes, and how to judge whether it is progressing smoothly. Because of the uncertainty involved, a production day can often be stressful and seem disorganized even when all is going well. To give you some peace of mind, let’s go over some common issues and observations to let you know what to expect:

• The time before the first shot is almost always the longest wait. Whenever a videographer shows up to a shoot, he or she must deal with a large assortment of equipment, meet and greet the client, and often perform a brief walkthrough of the shooting location. If the first task is an interview, the setup time could be substantial. The feeling of nervousness and anxiety isn’t unique to non-film people, either. When I started as a director, I always felt nervous and worried we were behind schedule because...

Many clients are initially hesitant to commit to a date for corporate video production, or think that the date set is tentative and could be moved if something comes up at the last minute.Unfortunately, video production is a highly coordinated endeavor, even smaller corporate shoots. Changing dates at the end directly affects the livelihood of videographers and other production staff, which is why most production companies have no choice but to implement a cancelation or postponement fee. Especially for in-demand videographers, if they have blocked out a date for a client, they have turned down other well paid jobs anticipating being booked on a certain day. If the shoot is delayed at the last minute, the reality is potentially two days booked for one day’s pay.

The best advice for a client who is unsure about the date of a shoot is to delay booking it at all. If the production company is pushing you for a date, they aren’t trying to be pushy, but just trying to figure out a day that makes sense so that the video production can proceed. If you’re on the fence about the...

When a company produces their first corporate video, they are understandably nervous about the investment of time and money and the benefits it will bring. To maximize the value not just for branding purposes but to generate leads and increase sales, you must avoid making some common mistakes that can doom your video to the dustbin of wasted marketing dollars. Here are a few key mistakes:

• Saving the Key Message For Last: Many viewers won’t even be watching by the time your video ends, especially if it’s more than 1-2 minutes in length, so you want to hook your viewers immediately. Present a strong question addressing a customer need, then give an answer. For instance, “Looking for a great way to boost brand awareness and increase sales? Videos provide the best return on investment according to marketers worldwide.” Start the video by telling viewers what they are going to see, then show them the details.
• Cramming Everything Into One Video: Along with the first point, viewer engagement decreases massively the longer the video runs. Wistia, a...

1. Understand Your Target Audience: You may have a large potential customer base, or a small one, but focusing on your best, most likely demographic will yield the strongest overall product video production. If you’re selling an anti-aging skincare cream, for instance, it may be valuable to anyone over age 21, but you know that women over age 50 are your most likely consumer.
2. Speak to Your Target Audience: Once you narrow down your most likely consumer, focus on their main concerns, pain points, or needs. Using the example above, maybe you want to start the video with a question, “Just starting to notice the signs of aging? Fix them with our specially formulated anti-aging skin cream.” Tailor the video to your demographic and make them feel like you’re speaking directly to them. People like to feel that a company has made a product for them and their needs.
3. Highlight Your Product’s Best Features: What sets your product apart from the competition? Is it innovative? Does it offer the same benefits of more expensive products, but at the best price? Does it fulfill...

Many businesses, both small and large, struggle with managing customer service inquiries in a timely fashion and providing great customer service while maintaining their profit margins. One of the best ways to reduce phone calls or e-mails from frustrated customers is building a knowledge database with the answers to frequently asked questions. As with anything online, though, people can become frustrated if searching for answers takes too long, or if they don’t understand what they’re reading. Especially for technology products or various gadgets, having “how to” videos of various common settings, features, and issues is an invaluable tool not just to solve customer issues, but to build customer loyalty.

The key for any customer service solution is being easy to find and simple to understand, so corporate “how to” videos need not be highly polished marketing pieces, but rather straight-forward descriptions of solutions based on common problems or misunderstandings. John Paul Engel, an internationally recognized consultant, speaker, and author, said, “Video links that...

Many businesses, both small and large, struggle with managing customer service inquiries in a timely fashion and providing great customer service while maintaining their profit margins. One of the best ways to reduce phone calls or e-mails from frustrated customers is building a knowledge database with the answers to frequently asked questions. As with anything online, though, people can become frustrated if searching for answers takes too long, or if they don’t understand what they’re reading. Especially for technology products or various gadgets, having “how to” videos of various common settings, features, and issues is an invaluable tool not just to solve customer issues, but to build customer loyalty.

The key for any customer service solution is being easy to find and simple to understand, so corporate “how to” videos need not be highly polished marketing pieces, but rather straight-forward descriptions of solutions based on common problems or misunderstandings. John Paul Engel, an internationally recognized consultant, speaker, and author, said, “Video links that...

When you’re in the process of planning corporate video production as part of your digital marketing strategy, you need to know how to select the best long-term fit for your production needs. Though cost is a big consideration for any business, you have to consider the quality of corporate videos you want for your brand and the customer service experience you expect from another company. Here are some questions you should be asking before deciding on a video production company:

• Once I’m given a quote for cost, will that cost be fixed and no overages charged without my approval? Budgets for corporate video productions may increase if you add more elements to the video, but a production company should stick to their quote unless you change the specifications and approve all overages.
• Will the video have a clear completion date that is contractually obligated? Though time may not be critical for your corporate video production, if you need the video finished by a specific date, make sure the production company will agree, in writing, to delivering by your final...

Reading about the usefulness of a software program is great, but it is just the start of enticing customers to purchase new software. Even giving a free trial of software, which is almost a given in today’s marketplace, fails to address the basic need of showing potential customers the value of your software and all it can do. Creating a quality corporate video gives you control over your marketing message and showing your software’s full power and effectiveness. As a recent example, I downloaded an audio enhancement software program to use the trial version, but without much support for how to use it, I found myself frustrated. If the company had created a video showing “before” and “after” results, demonstrated how to use each control to achieve the desired results, and gave me a basic overview, I would have been much more likely to purchase it. Instead, the company link sits in my Bookmarks folder in marketing limbo.

At the basic level, a software demo video should start broad, covering very briefly all of the features that it offers. Use text and voiceover to reinforce...

Many companies spend a lot of money to send key employees to trade shows, purchase booth space, print materials to hand out to attendees, and pay for lodging and airfare. Though the hope is for trade shows to provide meaningful leads and industry connections that pay dividends down the road, companies that neglect to consider producing a video of their presence are leaving money on the table. While the trade show may only last a few days, a week at most, a video can live on the company Website, YouTube channel, and social media outlets forever. It can be sent to prospects via e-mail and used to generate leads far into the future for a fraction of the cost of the trade show itself. Event video production is an often overlooked but highly valuable part of a successful corporate video marketing campaign.

Planning a successful trade show appearance has a lot of logistical elements involved and requires quite a bit of time investment from a company, besides the cost of attendance. The best part about trade show videos is the limited amount of planning required. Because trade...

One of the ways that many small businesses find contract professionals for their digital marketing needs, including video production, is through aggregator sites like SmartShoot, UpWork, and VideoPixie, among others. The benefits of such an approach are the ability to post a project and its specifications, then let a bunch of professionals bid on the project. Not only are you able to see many different pricing options, but you’re also able to check out the portfolios of the talented professionals applying to your project. Sounds like a perfect way to find video production talent, right? Not quite. Aggregator sites have their strengths, but they also have significant drawbacks for full-featured productions that should make business owners consider all of their options before heading down the job posting site path.

First, there’s the issue of specialization and skill sets required to complete an entire video. Are you going to post for a videographer, then post for an editor, and finally post for a voiceover artist to complete your video? What if you need acting talent or...

For larger companies considering regular corporate video production needs, sometimes the volume of work makes a company think about hiring a full-time video production professional to tackle all of the company’s needs at a fixed yearly rate. Companies may figure that by hiring a video professional, they will eliminate markup costs that a production company incurs and be able to produce more video content for a variety of areas of company need. While there are advantages of such an approach, taking into consideration all of the drawbacks involved as well is important before reaching a final verdict.

If a company requires a great volume of video production annually, the first consideration is whether you can find one person to tackle it all or whether you would need to hire a small team of professionals. While plenty of people can both shoot and edit video footage competently, very few people are experts at both. To be great at anything requires total dedication, which nobody can give to one craft if they’re splitting their time between multiple jobs. On the flip side, if the...

Emerging technology will continue to change the landscape of online video in years to come, with 2017 being perhaps the first “breakthrough” year for mainstream VR video. With VR headsets becoming widely available, even extremely inexpensive ones using a viewer’s cell phone, more and more marketing professionals will tap into the VR market for their product demonstrations, hotel walkthroughs, and other types of videos that take full advantage of immersive 360 video. To maximize marketing benefit from an emerging technology, marketers and video creators need to think of exploiting the novelty factor. What do viewers want to see in VR that will take full advantage of the format? For instance, a video of an exciting Day Club pool in Las Vegas is great, but seeing a VR video from the perspective of being in the middle of it all, allowing the viewer to choose where to look, is perhaps even more exciting.

A case study by Magnifyre found that 28.81% more people viewed the same video in 360 versus non-360, when both were offered, and double the number of people finished the video....

Each year, video becomes an increasingly more important aspect of most companies’ marketing goals. One of the big reasons for a rise in the importance of online videos is the increasing number of devices that viewers use to consume video content, from smartphones and tablets to laptops and desktops. Cisco expects spending on video advertising and online video ad spending to grow 31% for 2017. Looking at the expected video trends in 2017 is a good way to understand how consumer behavior has changed or will change regarding video consumption. Emerging technology and changing advertising structures also contribute to expected changes in video trends for 2017 that will impact corporate video production needs.

Social media networks are becoming more attractive to marketers, not only because of people sharing videos with one another but because people spend increasingly large amounts of time on social networks like Facebook. As a result, videos drive engagement and brand interest to a much larger extent when they are capable of “going viral.” While informative, educational videos...

In Part 1 of our blog article on Super Bowl advertising and lessons to learn from the biggest agency commercials of the year, we looked at some of the weakest links and the reasons why some commercials just don’t connect with viewers. Whether the subject of the commercial or the product itself isn’t interesting, the biggest takeaways are refine your messaging and pick your audience. Avoid bland commercials that leave viewers bored or immediately looking away, which also has to do with where you choose to advertise. The commercials we will analyze in today’s blog entry are the “winners,” where the brands and agencies did everything right to earn free media attention beyond their Super Bowl spots.

The Kia commercial was almost the unanimous choice for “best commercial” among people with whom I watched and USA Today’s readership through Ad Meter. If a brand wants to check every single box, the Kia commercial is an example how to do it. Celebrity cameo? Check. High production values? Check. Funny? Check. Not only is the video shareable, but it’s rewatchable and communicates a...

The price for 30-second spots during Super Bowl LI passed $5 million in 2017, an incredible sum of money for just a single commercial airing. Still, the Super Bowl reaches more consumers than any other television broadcast on an annual basis by far, with the latest contest drawing 111.3 million viewers, down slightly from the past several years, but still an enormous number. While Super Bowl advertising is reserved mainly for the wealthiest and largest companies, smaller companies can learn a few lessons from how people respond to the expensive advertising spots. Just as the Big Game is the ultimate contest for the NFL teams involved, it’s also the ultimate showcase for the biggest advertising agencies to show off their most high-profile work.

Every year, the game produces a few big winners for marketing agencies, a solid number of hits, and a lot of failed attempts or downright poorly planned commercials, despite the “best and brightest” minds in advertising working on them. I think examining the reasons for success and failure is a valuable way to gain insight into video...

In filmmaking, numerous decisions fall to the director and cinematographer when deciding upon the look of the image. Whether they’re discussing lens selection, color saturation, lighting preferences, or camera rigs, each gear decision and technical decision has an impact on the overall artistic direction of the piece. There are few right and wrong choices, but each choice has an impact on the viewers’ perception of the finished work. A highly desaturated, darker image is dreary, ominous, perhaps a bit depressing, which means not ideal for a product launch video or glamour shot of a product. A saturated, bright image is cheery and associated with a more uplifting mood and feeling. The choices aren’t as simple as they seem, though, because each camera move communicates a feeling or an idea and must be correctly chosen for the style of the video.

The most common choice that companies face when deciding on a style for their video production is whether to lean more cinematic or more documentary-feel with the footage. A testimonial video is likely to lean heavily documentary...

Much like effective governments, the best corporate video production succeeds on a system of checks and balances. A single contractor who speaks to a client, plans the shoot, shoots the video, and edits the finished result could do a fantastic job, just like a president could make all of the right decisions, but a team effort is most likely to result in polished success. When a production company has specialized talent to handle each aspect of production, even if the corporate video is limited to a simple production, the result is more likely to be worth the investment. A least with a client relations specialist to understand the needs of the client and their marketing goals for the project, a producer to oversee the planning and execution of the video, a videographer who can match the client’s vision, and a dedicated editor, the project will have the best chance at success.

The difficulty of corporate video production in today’s marketplace is the cost sensitivity of many clients but the expectation for the finished work to shine and stand out in an increasingly crowded...

In our blog looking at different filming times and locations relative to lighting needs, we started with the easiest two setups, which are day exteriors and night interiors. The ease of lighting in different situations arises because of the sun’s powerful light (day exteriors) or the lack of competition with two light sources (night interiors, where no sun shines through windows). In the case of the two more difficult filming situations, day interiors are a competition between an overwhelmingly powerful and often tough to control light (the sun) and weaker interior lighting. Meanwhile, night exteriors are challenging because of a total lack of free light, either from the sun or from inside lighting sources, meaning expensive electrical and lighting requirements.

Day Interior

The next filming situation is daytime interiors, which are the most common in corporate video work. In technical terms, the color temperature of the sun is somewhere around 5600 degrees Kelvin (though it varies depending on time of day and atmospheric conditions), but the color temperature...

When we usually discuss filming locations, we’re speaking specifically about whether you’re filming inside of a store or on an airplane set or inside of a mansion, etc. Today’s blog focuses on four general types of filming, rather than specific places, and how those types of filming affect the budget of a corporate or commercial video production and the final quality. There are four basic lighting scenarios in film production when breaking down a script, which concerns not just the cinematographer but the unit production manager, any producers involved, the 1st Assistant Director, and even the production designer. The setting and time for a scene impacts not just the gear requirements for the camera and lighting departments, but also the overall crew demands and scheduling of the whole shoot, which consequently impacts the budget.

As a general, not-always-true rule, the order of difficulty from easiest to hardest goes like so: exterior daytime, interior nighttime, interior daytime, and exterior nighttime. On a professional script, these appear with abbreviations INT. / EXT....

One of the key considerations in any cost-benefit analysis of marketing materials is the expected usefulness and lifespan of the material in question. When you pay a company to design a nice brochure, you spend money on the graphical design and quality of the piece because you expect to use it for several years, possibly with a few updates along the way to pricing or mundane text details that are easily changed. When you want a flyer for an upcoming event, you may just have someone whip up a quick and dirty in-house flyer because paying a marketing company or graphic designer for a one-time event is simply not worth the investment or hassle. In a similar fashion, real estate videos for residential houses are almost entirely the domain of struggling videographers, newly graduated film school students, or even iPhone-recorded videos from the real estate agent. Because selling a house is a one-time event for the agent, spending significant resources producing a video is usually seen as a waste of time and money, especially when they already have nice photos. By contrast, Coca Cola...

The choice of music for a corporate video is very important to the overall feeling and mood of the video, which is critical to the impression the whole video gives viewers. Imagine a video for a relaxing upscale spa, but with hard rock playing during the duration of the video. The whole video would be ruined and the feeling of relaxation wouldn’t come across no matter how great the visuals. Of course, playing rock music during a spa video is an extreme example, but music selection often takes finessing and a lot of work to capture the energy and mood desired. Typically, a discussion of music should be had before editing even commences because many editors cut to the music on corporate work, so when they select a track they are actually making edits that align with the beat of the music.

When you are discussing music for a corporate video, there are several options available that will dictate both the budget and the process of selection. The vast majority of our videos have music selected from several stock sources, usually with a standard online royalty-free license. Most...

One of the most common practices for many companies creating online videos is to commission a single video, then post it everywhere they can imagine from YouTube to the company home page to landing pages to their social media networks. Marketing executives have went through the tough process of figuring out what the video should say, how it should look and feel, and then hired a production company to create the perfect video, so they’re ready to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Unfortunately, creating one video for every outlet is a “one size fits all” mentality that is unlikely to yield the best results. I want to discuss an alternative strategy for video marketing already in use from many larger brands and discuss how to take their marketing strategy, scale it down, and make it more affordable.

Of course reading a blog from a video production company telling you that you need to make a separate video for every single platform or distribution tool sounds like biased advice and just an excuse for you to spend more money on marketing you don’t need. A closer...

On corporate video shoots involving outdoor filming, inclement weather is probably one of the biggest annoyances and sometimes cause for downright panic. When you want to showcase a beautiful exterior, but a hail storm happens to have other plans, you need to be able to adapt without ruining the shoot day or the budget. One of the best ideas to avoid issues with weather is planning outdoor shoots during appropriate months, whenever that may be in the area where you are filming. Of course, sometimes you need a video during the rainy season or winter and waiting just isn’t an option. Having a backup plan will put your mind at ease, though, and hopefully avoid any unexpected expenses and issues.

Because of videographer schedules and planning a successful shoot in general, you’re going to need to have a shoot date picked 2-3 weeks in advance of filming usually, which means you won’t know the weather for the day of the shoot until after everything is in motion. Hopefully, most of the shoot is indoors if weather is a big concern, in which case you can have several blocks on the...

Though it’s a niche subject, shooting video of food and drinks in corporate work and commercials has its own challenges that have created a niche industry of professionals who specialize in food photography and food videography. A relative handful of commercial directors (many or most of whom are also cinematographers) specialize in shooting glamorous, appetizing food footage, whether for a new McDonalds commercial or a packaged food item sold at grocery stores. For corporate video purposes, food is more likely to arise in videos for hotels, senior living, upscale restaurants, or even event videos. Though nothing beats hiring a highly paid professional cinematographer who has years of experience making food look great, there are a few tips and tricks for smaller budget shoots that can yield better results than just wing-ing it (get it?).

As with almost all video production tips and tricks, the battle is mostly won in the planning stages. With senior living videos that have dining room footage, hotels that emphasize their restaurant options, and upscale restaurant and lounge...

One of the key ways to save money on corporate video work is to take inventory of your creative resources, just like an independent film producer would do for a project. For instance, if you have a place of business, you already have one free location. If you have a marketing department or a marketing specialist, you already have someone who can help with your key branding and messaging goals. While major companies hire advertising agencies, major companies also have hundreds of millions of dollars for marketing; you probably are looking to save money over such expensive options. Your customers may be a great asset, too, depending on your business. Could you interview key customers about their experience? Could you showcase what you did for other clients or customers of yours?

Another idea is to browse similar videos you like and draw inspiration from what others have done. Remember, ideas aren’t copyrightable, only the execution of ideas can be copyrighted. If you find another video with a similar style and structure and want to apply it to your business, feel free to base...

When a lot of people think of the word “cool,” they may think it’s an inconsequential word, hardly stirring enough to discuss in a marketing blog. When I think of cool, I think how relevant the word is to almost every consumer product that isn’t a household good or tool. If the cool factor of a product doesn’t matter, then why would fashion exist at all? People not only like to look good, they like to feel good. They like to feel cool. Cool sells. Most of the time, a product being “cool” isn’t enough to make it a worthwhile purchase, but it is a deciding factor. If I can choose between dorky looking but effective sunglasses or perfectly designed, cool sunglasses that do the same thing, I will never buy any pair of sunglasses without “the cool factor.” To take advantage of the “cool factor” of your product, you need to find the right way to market it through videos that make it feel like a must-have item.

Certain brands have spent millions of dollars and many years developing their image into one synonymous with cool, like Ferrari, or Oakley, or even Apple. Through the...

Marketing professionals routinely face challenges with how to allocate their precious marketing dollars and spread them between numerous mediums to maximize return on investment. Even once a budget is set for video marketing, a further question arises: Should you create one larger budget video with all of the bells and whistles, or create a series of videos? The answer depends largely on your marketing goals and distribution strategy for videos in general. Both paths have benefits, but choosing which one makes the most sense depends on your desired outcome for corporate video production or Web video production in general.

As an example of how each path would look, let’s take a hypothetical $6,000 budget and see where each path leads for two different companies with two sets of goals. Company A owns and manages a chain of 25 successful restaurants in a three-state region and has decided to add video production to their marketing strategy. Company B creates a variety of technology products for different applications and customers. For Company A, the goal of restaurant...

Many large companies use marketing agencies for their creative work, despite having their own marketing departments, but video production through a marketing agency costs a fortune in general. Not only are agencies leasing expensive offices and carrying dozens or hundreds of employees, but most high level marketing agencies work with other high level video production companies, which means they are all union signatories. Once a production company becomes a union signatory, all labor costs skyrocket because of existing union contracts between organizations like SAG-AFTRA (for actors), the DGA (Director’s Guild of America), the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America), and union crews. Marketing agencies can provide the best talent for the biggest companies, but they’re not the right choice for all purposes or even for most companies.

To put costs into perspective, the Director’s Guild of America considers a “low budget” commercial to be $75,000 per day of production or $225,000 total cost. Most companies with which we work consider $5,000 to be an expensive video production, but for...

Once the script for a commercial is approved, pre-production can begin in earnest, which involves hiring the right crew for the project, securing locations, auditioning talent, and figuring out equipment needs. On a small commercial production where budget is a concern, we don’t have the resources to bring aboard an experienced production manager, which means I am wearing several hats: writer-director-producer. I have the experience to create budgets for projects, know where to rent gear, obtain proper insurance paperwork, and ready contracts for cast / crew. As producer, I spent a few dozen hours just putting together the project and trying to find a date that works for everyone.

As director, my job doesn’t stop, either, because I need to location scout where we are shooting, speak with my actors about the job, coordinate with my 1st Assistant Director about scheduling, and talk with my cinematographer about my vision. The discussions with my cinematographer and 1st AD are most important in the planning phases because we knew we needed to shoot the commercial in a day, but...

One of the perpetual constants of film production is an immense amount of time expended for even the smallest finished videos. With most jobs, people can’t just take a few minutes and see “what you’ve been up to” for the past few weeks or months, but with film production your time is on display. A feature film can take years to craft, but only a few hours or less to watch. With a creative commercial production, many people spend dozens or even hundreds of hours on the finished project even if it’s just a 30 second or 60 second spot. Breaking down the time required is a good way to understand why the costs can balloon for what seems to an average person perhaps not to be a large job.

For the Mr. Formal commercial in Portland, the first phase of the process started with research. I had already heard of Mr. Formal and understood loosely what they did as a business, but I wanted to visit their Website, poke around, and see if any ideas came to mind. On the surface, a tuxedo rental company is obviously in business to rent tuxedos to people who need them, just like a car company...

Hopefully no companies actually think of their own products or services as “boring,” but the title of today’s blog posts is to focus on “less sexy” products, like for instance a Ziplock bag versus an iPhone. Granted, an iPhone is cooler and a lot more fun, but a Ziplock bag is extremely useful and found around most households in America. Most supposedly “boring” products solve minor or major issues for customers, which is exciting when presented in the proper way. No, you can’t make a corporate video showing the unboxing of a Ziplock bag, or focus on all of the cool “features” it may have, but you can make a great video nonetheless. The key to making great videos about seemingly mundane products or services is to focus on the benefits in clever ways and how the product or service addresses pain points for consumers.

When you’re thinking about ideas for a video for your product or service, come up with one key idea and one key reason why people would be interested. In the example above, the key product benefit is keeping your food fresh and protected from the outside world....

No matter your budget or marketing goals, one of the cardinal sins of video marketing is producing cheesy, laughable videos that do more harm to your brand than good. Fortunately, avoiding cheesy videos is not mainly a matter of budget and spending, but creativity and professionalism. Here are some tips for avoiding the dreaded cheesy corporate video:

• Never use too “on the nose” dialogue. A good example of a cheesy setup for a video has two people in a room, one facing a dilemma, the other watching. Let’s call them Victim and Commentator. Victim spills red wine all over the carpet after dropping her glass. “Oh no! If only there were some easy way to remove spills quickly without staining.” Commentator replies, “Gee it’s funny you should mention that, because now there is exactly such a product” as he pulls out a cleaning supply product. Maybe cue some dramatic voiceover as both actors smile into the camera. Why would anyone think such a concept is good? I have no idea, but you’ll still see these cheesy infomercial-style spots on TV occasionally and they are downright...

In filmmaking, one of the biggest pieces of advice told to new filmmakers and film students is “show, don’t tell,” which could apply to the basic premise of creating a corporate video instead of relying on text on a Website or a few pictures. A video alone is not enough to satisfy the “show, don’t tell” requirement of marketing and video production, though. A corporate video full of talking heads, i.e. corporate executives speaking about the product or service, is not just boring, but hard to follow and retain the information. According to many studies, roughly 65% of the population are visual learners, so providing helpful visuals along with spoken commentary is essential to having an impact in the world of corporate video production.

In videos primarily driven by visuals with accompanying voiceover, you probably already have a great plan for what the visuals demonstrate and show. What about videos with extensive interview commentary, though? The first key to success for a video that is interview-driven is figuring out a list of questions that will be asked. From the list...

One of the topics that we haven’t covered much is helping clients review edits and make appropriate notes for improvement in a second edit or preparing for a final master edit. Regardless of whether the project is a $200 million Hollywood blockbuster or a $2,000 corporate video, no first edit is going to be perfect. Unless the video is complete amateur hour, don’t be shocked when you see a first edit from any production company and you have areas you want to improve or change. Remember, many blockbuster movies underwent massive reshoots and re-edits after the first edit, including Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), which went on to critical acclaim and enormous financial success. When reviewing a first edit, you may have the temptation to send off a quick e-mail to the production company immediately and start asking questions, asking for changes, and making notes, but avoid the temptation. Here are a few tips:

• Compare notes with everyone else in your company whose opinion you value and who has input into the video. With small companies, you may be the only...

For most of our clients, filming involves coming to their place of business and gathering B-roll, recording interviews, and showcasing their services or products. For filming videos at corporate offices that don’t have storefronts, filming during business hours usually presents few if any challenges. Perhaps a few office workers need to be quiet during takes, or a section of the office needs tidying up and clearing for the shoot day, but the production proceeds smoothly as everyone in the area of filming is an employee of the company. In other words, if a supervisor tells them to be quiet, they’re going to comply. For filming in retail locations or senior living homes, though, the challenges can be much more significant. Trying to film a video in a busy store with customers walking in and out would be nearly impossible, not only because of clearance issues, but mainly because of noise and having control of the set.

The biggest advantage of filming during business hours in general is the availability of almost every critical employee, none of whom have to rearrange their...

Though video marketing is widely used to sell products and increase brand awareness, the use of video assets for healthcare companies and hospitals is just as valuable both for patient awareness and information as well as staff procedures and standards. When seeking medical help for a surgery, patients naturally feel a degree of anxiousness with their decision and which hospital or doctor to choose for the procedure. Video provides a way for the patient to connect with the doctor speaking about the procedure, his experience, and his staff in a way that text alone cannot, which may make the difference between the doctor the patient chooses or at least sees for the initial consult. With best practices and proper procedures changing regularly, and hospital safety and cleanliness being a major concern both for medical staff and patients, training videos also provide a way to make sure everyone is on the same page with the way they handle their duties.

Healthcare marketing and video production has a different approach and feel than more sales-oriented videos in that the goal is...

Most of our corporate video work involves interviews in some capacity, which is a big difference from commercial video work. For corporate interviews, another huge difference is involving people with limited to no on-camera experience, versus professional actors and performers. Understandably, many people are nervous on camera or concerned about how they will appear and whether they’ll be an asset to the company’s video or a detriment. Here are 5 tips to help you appear natural and confident during an interview:

1. LOOK YOUR BEST. For most people, looking their best helps them feel their best. You don’t want to spend the whole interview worried about your hair, your makeup, your clothing, or even your skin. If you’re especially concerned about looking your best, have the production company hire a hair and makeup artist for the shoot. For a reasonable price, you can add peace of mind to the proceedings and have the same treatment professional actors enjoy on every shoot.
2. PREPARE FOR WHAT TO SAY, BUT NOT HOW TO SAY IT. A really big issue with many executives is...

An often overlooked aspect of creating a corporate video or commercial is the color palette for the project. Granted, when you’re filming an event or documentary-style production, you may have very limited control over the colors in the video. Everyone is wearing whatever clothes they have for the day, little pre-planning occurs to alter the color scheme, and whatever is in front of the camera will be captured. For higher end video work with more coordination, however, a little bit of planning can make a big difference. The first consideration you should have is for your own branding and company color scheme. For instance, Apple has always been associated with white, which almost speaks to their entire brand strategy from their initial one-button mouse design to their iPhone launch (with no keyboard) to their iMac (with computer and screen in one). Each design is clean, simple, and elegant, so white fits the profile. Your color palette can impact the whole theme of a video and make for a more cohesive finished video.

Starting on a basic level, which any company can manage...

A common issue for our budgeting purposes and giving quotes to potential clients and existing clients is factoring editing time into the equation. Because we’ve completed many hundreds of videos, we have a good idea how many hours most video projects will take without too much trouble. Even so, every project has its unique challenges. We typically build into the project budget enough editing hours so that unexpected snags and difficulties don’t cut into our expected costs, but are careful not to pad the budget and overcharge our clients, either. We also heavily benefit from having staff editors rather than freelancing our editing work, which reduces the hourly rate substantially. I would argue we have one of the best and least expensive editing costs in the industry by not relying on freelancers for our editing needs. If a company is trying to ascertain how much editing work goes into a video, though, we’ll examine a few guidelines in this blog entry.

Somewhat ironically, corporate video editing is often more challenging than narrative editing work, like short films,...

As part of many corporate videos and commercial productions, extras become a key part of setting the scene. Whether you are filming in a restaurant, storefront, or in a park, you may need a number of extras to make your production look realistic. The added cost of extras is perhaps one of the more obnoxious parts about a higher end commercial or corporate video, because the cost isn’t just the extras, but the crew involved in managing them. The shorter duration you need extras, the more reasonable the cost is bound to be and thus the more realistic an option it becomes. I recently spent a solid amount of time budgeting a restaurant video for a potential client, only to learn that he had nowhere near the budget to afford any extras let alone the number needed for his concept.

Many people assume they can just ask friends to help out and play extras in their video, but you are much more likely to run into issues when you’re not paying people money to be present. If you’re asking employees to appear as extras, you’re going to have great success because they have no choice. But...

Companies today know that video production is an important part of their digital marketing strategy, but often wonder where to start. Even after producing a video or two, what else can be done to engage your customers or potential customers? Today, let’s take a look at some types of corporate video productions that work for businesses beyond the obvious company overview video.

1. ABOUT US. Building customer trust is an important part of business marketing. An “About Us” video allows you to introduce your team in a fun way, provide some insight into company culture, and let your customers know what sets you apart from your competition. Seeing the people behind the company makes your business feel more accessible, which is especially important in service-related businesses. Take a look at our About Us video!
2. CASE STUDY VIDEO: We have produced a number of case study videos, which is a great way to demonstrate how their products work in the real world. Beyond explaining basic features, pricing, and functionality, case...

Producing a training video or series of training videos can be a daunting task. Not only are you trying to communicate a lot of information in a short amount of time, but you’re trying to do so in a cost-effective way that justifies the expense of video production. Here are some tips to help your process and make the best possible videos:

1. Decide whether company employees or paid actors will make the most sense for your video production needs. When demonstrating complicated techniques that must be done a certain way, you may be better off using your own veteran company staff than trying to explain to an actor how to do something. One concern many companies have is what to do if employees featured in the video leave the company, especially under bad circumstances. If you’re hugely concerned about that possibility, paid actors are another great way to go, but they do add expenses.
2. Consider a hybrid approach to training videos involving both a paid actor spokesperson and employees demonstrating best practices. Your spokesperson can introduce each segment, explain...