In a post from last week, I talked a little bit about the video production process and how it usually starts with the discovery phase.  During discovery,  the producer and client spend some time  in advance of production talking about the goal of the video, deciding who and what should be in it, and then mapping out a plan for the production.  This is a pretty logical approach, and we never  suggest...

Here’s a sequel to an earlier post on documentaries worth seeing.  I came up with another ten. Grizzly Man – man living among bears in Alaska Spellbound – smart kids competing fiercely in a spelling bee Crumb – underground comic artist, Robert Crumb Murderball – quadriplegics competing in wheelchair rugby.  Intense! Rivers and Tides – the nature-installation artist Andy Goldsworthy. ...

I mentioned in an earlier post how most good video producers will have a process.  The process will vary from one producer to the next, of course, and it will also be dependent on the type of project. But let’s say you want to create a web marketing video, and you are working directly with a video production company (as opposed to hiring an ad agency or a communications firm to help with the video). ...

Not surprisingly, a lot of clients these days are asking for help with internet marketing videos.  Beyond producing the video, there are questions about maximizing the “engagement” of the online audience once it’s been uploaded to the client’s website. When evaluating user engagement, the first obvious step is to measure it, and there are several ways to do this.  The video hosting service...

Just a quick shout-out to MassBay Community College, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Because we're helping them produce a video to celebrate the event, we've had the chance to hear numerous stories of students who have benefited from their MassBay experience. Many of the stories are about students who didn't succeed in school until MassBay gave them a chance, and then they...

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 option:...

Regardless of what kind of investment you made to hire your video production company, it makes sense to get the most possible value out of them. And one area in which you can make sure to maximize the value of your investment is during your actual production - the day(s) you spend on set or location filming with your producer. It doesn't take a master logician to understand that if your producer...

I've never understood the appeal of car racing, and though I've been tempted to pass judgment on occasion, I always resist the temptation.  Afterall, I like baseball, and that's not much different than...cricket. So it was with high hopes that I decided to watch Dust to Glory.  Technically speaking, the documentary isn't about car racing.  It's really more about motorized racing - the film follows...

Almost every time we meet with a prospective client, one of the questions asked of us is some variation on "What other videos have you produced for companies in my industry?"  Most of the time, we get this question because there is the assumption that if we have done work in their industry, we'll understand their company, and, therefore, deliver a better video than a producer without the same experience. Feeling...

(Editor's film reels, Patrick Gallo) “What’s the definition of great editing?” is a question we get asked with some regularity.  It’s not as obvious as, say, identifying beautiful camera work.  And it also depends what kind of video you are talking about.  A documentary-style editor is probably going to have a different skill set than someone who works on commercial spots. Since our promotional...