April 26, 2013 The Boston chapter of the American Marketing Association hosted an excellent panel discussion last week: Storytelling, the Art of Moving People. Panelists were Stona Fitch, who is an author and owner of the Concord Free Press; Steve Kolander, who is a VP at Boston ad agency, Small Army; and Doug Lipman, owner of Story Dynamics. A few of the many gems gleaned from the storytelling...

Here's a big shout-out to a group of talented actors we worked with last weekend. Communities for Restorative Justice works with victims of crime and the offenders.  The victim is given a space to express the harm they suffered, and the offender is expected to take responsibility for the harm and make amends. C4RJ wanted to show how their process works. Much of the process centers on the Circle, in which...

March 6, 2013 Many video productions need to be "on location."  In other words, the producers for a marketing video about a university probably ought to spend some of their time on campus.  But let's say you're the VP of Marketing, you plan to have several people interviewed for the video, and you want them in front of a neutral background.  For footage like this, filming in a studio might be a good...

February 22, 2013 The video above belongs to a fellow, Derek Halpern, whose blog I recently discovered. In the very first post of his that I read, he compares text and video. He argues that video allows a person or organization to paint a fuller portrait of themselves. I'm biased, of course, but I would tend to agree. To quote him: The Power of Video (Hint: It's All About Body Language) Your writing...

January 31, 2013 I came across this video earlier this week. We regularly tell people that they don't always need services of folks like us; sometimes they can produce video themselves. If, for branding purposes, your video needs to have a little polish to it, then trying in-house video may not be the best idea. But, in many cases, a homegrown video will do the trick. Here is a very good example of a DIY project....

January 17, 2013 I was speaking with a marketing consultant yesterday about a client of his who could perhaps benefit from video. The consultant was saying, however, that he suspects his client might have some reservations about being on camera, particularly if he had to "memorize lines." Totally understandable - not everyone is wild about the idea. There were four key points I mentioned to him and suggested...

January 8, 2013 We recently had a meeting with a school that intends to produce video for a fundraising campaign. The conversation hit a bit of a snag when they didn't share with us exactly what they were seeking. The work that we showed them did not match their vision, and, as a result, we won't be working together. This certainly isn't the end of the world - some things are not meant to be!! - but what's...

January 3, 2013 This video, produced by Children's Hospital Colorado, has an inherent advantage: sick children are almost always going to pull at the heartstrings, and this is no exception. Still, it's worth noting that any organization (whether it's nonprofit or for-profit) can create a compelling video if it gathers together a handful of people who can speak in a genuine way about how they have...

This blog is not intended to be a forum for political talk, but in light of recent events in Connecticut, it seems like sharing this video is a propos. Beyond the power of the mother's story, the video is effective because it's so simple.  83 Americans are killed by guns every day. Perhaps if one of these stories was created for each of the victims, and the videos were mandatory viewing for our members...

It's not uncommon that our clients decide to shoot a bit of footage on their own and ask us to incorporate the material into videos that we are producing for them. Taking this approach makes sense. Rather than hiring us to just get one or two interviews or just capture a bit of broll from a single event, it's simpler and more cost effective for them to grab the video themselves and hand it off to us. ...