We recently completed a video project for Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL). The project was an interesting one because the folks at BELL wanted to get across what BELL does, but keep it short and punchy. So it wasn't a mini-portrait or short documentary-style piece that many of our clients want, but it also wasn't a typical commercial. Instead, it was a hybrid. Rachel was the producer...

The importance of b-roll is a subject that we've addressed before, but it bears repeating. First, a quick definition of what b-roll is.  Once upon a time, video was edited non-digitally, using tape decks. There were often two decks: one that was labeled the "A" deck and the second the "B" deck. All the main shots, like interviews, were edited from the A deck; all the secondary, supporting footage...

Earlier this year, Rachel interviewed Julia Frenkle and Lily Robles from Opus Design on a variety of subjects. Julia talks here about when it makes sense for an organization to redesign their website. This subject is a propos because we here at Reflection Films are in the midst of doing our own redesign. Allisyn Deyo is helping us, and, if all goes well, we'll launch it this fall.

Okay, so this isn't really business-related, but International Peace Day is coming up on this Sunday, the 21st, and this short video seemed very a propos. Back in 2010, our little guy, Sam, was in pre-school. Apparently, a few of his classmates were not getting along so well, and he decided to try his hand at a bit of conflict resolution. He explains here a solution he thought might work.

Green screens can be a very helpful tool in video production...when used appropriately. Pretending a person is in a location where they are not is probably going to look fake. But in other situations, using a green screen makes sense.

The other day my son brought home an activity sheet from a restaurant that had a game where you had to look at six turtles and identify which one is different from the others. This exercise reminded me of a wonderful presentation I attended by Amy Herman, whose work is to help people hone their perception skills using works of art. As a kid I loved looking at optical illusions and prided myself on being...

We get asked regularly if we do scriptwriting for video. We can, and we do, but scripting for a video is not always appropriate, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. Rachel discusses in a little more detail. Scripts for Video (with logo) wistiaEmbed = Wistia.embed("j4bpf90xa3");

April 22, 2014 Geoff and I recently traveled to Washington, DC on a film shoot for the Union of Concerned Scientists. On the plane down I was reading Tracy Carlson’s What Great Brands Know: Unleash Your Right-Brain Genius to Stand Out and Make Customers Care. One of the themes that Carlson talks about is the harmony that certain brands demonstrate. If a brand has harmony, she says, there is the “presence...

 April 3, 2014 At a recent event on personal branding, a member of the audience asked, “How do you fail in style?”  What a fantastic question!  The speaker’s approach to answering was to give examples of moments of personal failure and then sum things up, tongue-in-cheek, saying, “But look how I turned out?!”   The Clark School, I recently discovered, has a wonderful answer to that...

January 29, 2014 I recently attended two presentations on the differences among various generations and the implications of having multi-generational teams in the workplace.  The first event sponsored by Welsh Consulting featured Kari Heistad, Founder and CEO of Culture Coach International.  The second speaker, invited by The Friday Forum was Frances Kunreuther, Director of the Building Movement...