I attended an interesting roundtable this morning with the savvy folks at SMEI Boston.  The subject of the conversation was, basically: Is social media worth it?  Very quickly, we all agreed that it’s a necessary activity for marketers.  Next, was a discussion about what is SM’s greatest value. This provoked some lively talk, and Lisa Dennis from Knowledgence Associates began by relating her experience...

This is another 1-minute excerpt from an interview Rachel had with Jim Burns, CEO of Avitage, on the subject of b-roll.  In the top clip, I've added some b-roll grabbed from a client, Exploration School.  Just for the sake of comparison, I included the same clip but without the accompanying b-roll - just Rachel talking on camera. Transcription of Video Shots of kids dancing Rachel...

So I mentioned last week that my partner and I have decided to use YouTube more for our company's marketing.  Step one is identifying keywords to optimize the video on YouTube.  So here are a few more ideas gleaned from Jarboe and other sources that we intend to try for getting our videos found on YouTube. When using your keywords for optimizing video on YouTube, the order of importance is: • Using...

After a little time off from reading Greg Jarboe’s YouTube and Video Marketing, I’ve returned to it.  Being a video company, my partner and I figured we ought to be taking fuller advantage of YouTube for our own marketing purposes.   In an earlier post, I gave Jarboe’s definitions of video SEO, YouTube optimization, and video optimization. Jarboe has some helpful ideas for YouTube optimization. ...

A client who is the communications director for a nonprofit visited us today. We’re working on a fundraising video together that she will show at an upcoming gala for her organization. She mentioned that she had met recently with a fundraising consultant who offered several pieces of advice related to her video. Though the advice was for a fundraising video, I think all of the points below can also...

The Children’s Room is down the street from Reflection Films in Arlington.  We help them with their video needs and believe strongly in their mission.  We asked Anne Favaloro, the Development and Communications Director, to share a little about what their fundraising strategy is, and how it’s changed over time. What is The Children’s Room? The Children’s Room is the leading nonprofit grief...

Just about any film – documentary or fiction – is going to employ a technique or two in order to get us hooked.  One that rarely fails is the good versus evil dynamic: good guy and bad guy duke it out, and we root for the good guy.  Often there’s a hero(ine) who is central to the story.  Perhaps he’s the good guy battling the bad guy, or perhaps he’s just a person we root for because...

A Boston hospital called us, asking us for a proposal to do a training video.  After we delivered the proposal, my partner, Rachel, had a follow-up call with a woman who is managing the process.  She wanted to know why our estimate had come in lower than the other two she had received. It’s not clear why.  Perhaps it was because Rachel asked what money the organization had allotted for the video,...

My partner at Reflection Films, Rachel Jellinek, was recently interviewed by Jim Burns,  the CEO of Avitage.  Jim and Rachel talked about several different topics related to video production.  This particular excerpt was on the subject of the challenges related to video production.  A transcription of the clip is also included below. JB: So what are some of the challenges associated with video...

Being flexible is often the name of the game in video production.  Sometimes it’s adapting to a situation that changes unexpectedly; other times it’s adapting to a situation that cannot be changed. Reflection Films encountered the latter on a film shoot in New York yesterday.  We had the pleasure of interviewing a donor who has given generously to a research center at Clark University.  She was delightful...