When it comes to protecting our clients' video, we are somewhat paranoid. We back video files up, distribute the various drives to multiple locations, and then deliver a drive to clients for added security.  And we tell them to back up their drive.  So, in the end, the master video files might be scattered across 4-5 different places. Yesterday, we attended a workshop at Rule to get more suggestions...

In a previous post, Rachel spoke about the role of the client in the messaging and storyboarding phase of the video production process. This is the second in our four-part series of videos. Once you have those elements locked down and are moving closer to your filming day, investing a little time in scheduling for your shoot helps ensure that you'll be capturing as much content as possible (and...

We had lunch with our friend Adam from Wistia today. Wistia is a video hosting service that provides some seriously good analytics to help their clients understand viewer engagement with their online videos. Adam and his fellow Wistia pals regularly make the case for keeping things short with online video. This time was no different. "Forgive me if I sound like I am lecturing," he mentioned at one point,...

I'm sure it's the same in countries across the world, but I'm sometimes struck by what a diversity of cultures exists here in the U.S.  The immigrant populations certainly contribute to that, but I'm thinking of the differences from one geographic region to the next. While watching two documentaries recently, Buck and Rank, I kept thinking: "Wow, those cowboys look basically like me (white and Anglo,...

The success of video production lies mostly with the skill of the producer, but client collaboration is often a very important factor that affects the outcome. This is because you can rarely hire a video production company and then just set them on their merry way to make your video - the client usually needs to participate in the process to ensure the right messaging, help coordinate logistics, act as a liaison...

We are always trying to help our clients save a buck.  One way to do this is to employ a smaller crew during filming. So, on occasion, we will just send out our camera guy and sound person to film with the client, without me there as producer. (In the video world, the "producer" is equivalent to the "director" for a film.) The two of them have enjoyed that - "Guess you're unnecessary, eh Geoff?" This...

Rachel was talking a few days ago with a marketer who mentioned to her that he often finds himself having to explain his work process to clients to help them understand that, regardless of how straightforward a particular project might seem, there's usually a good deal of effort required to deliver an outstanding final product. This resonated with us because it's a situation we often find ourselves...

We have been working on a couple of different video production projects for MIT's admissions office, and the first of the videos was posted to their site earlier this week. In our pre-production conversations with the admissions folks, one of the things they made clear was that they wanted the video to really focus on debunking misperceptions of MIT, versus extolling what the Institute offers.  In...

Okay.  Misleading title. Anyone who tells you that shouldn't be trusted, like the folks who promise that you can lose weight while sleeping. But we got to thinking a little about this because our friends over at Wistia invited us and others to submit a video to help debunk a perception that video production equals headaches and hassle. Over time, we have had a number of conversations with clients...

Last week, I attended an event, along with about 200 other video production folks, to see the latest Canon camera that will be released in the next few weeks.  A Canon rep was there to give a demo of the camera and discuss its many merits. In the audience were a fair number of tech-heads, and they loved the rep's rather lengthy discussion of pixels, chips, color coding, etc.  Much of the tech talk...