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...

A question we get with some regularity is, "Do you guys do scriptwriting?"  It's not always clear what people are hoping for when they ask, but it might be a concern that if they don't have a "script" for the folks on camera, the result will be something like the interview excerpt above - a rather incoherent mess. But here's a little secret about video production and editing that shouldn't be much...

Last week we had a conversation with a new client who asked about filming their executive director in front of a green screen and then inserting a background afterwards. Our response: We can film her in front of a green screen, but we don't think it's going to communicate what you want. Green screens can definitely come in handy, but they need to be handled with care, so to speak.  In this case,...

An important conversation to have with your producer is to discuss the best approach to your production. Put another way, should it be slow-brewed or instant?  Here are two examples to illustrate what I mean. Example #1: The slow-brew. We are currently working with MIT on a couple of admissions videos. One of them is the inspiration of an imaginative fellow in their admissions office who had the idea...

A couple posts back, I shared a few suggestions for how to create a filming schedule during the pre-production phase.  As I’ve mentioned on several occasions, pre-production is what can make or break a video production.  Here’s another scenario. We are working with the folks in MIT's Admissions Office on a music video of sorts that communicates the magical world that new students will enter...

We were visiting with the folks at MIT Admissions Office last week, figuring out a strategy for the three admissions and marketing videos they want produced.  Like many clients, they wanted to understand how to best prepare for the filming days.  It all basically comes down to, in their words,  "filling out the matrix." A matrix is one accurate way to think of it - not being from MIT, though, we've...

A gentleman came in to visit us today who is interested in getting some fundraising and marketing video for his organization.  One question he asked was:  "What am I getting when I hire a professional video production company that I might not get if I sought out a camera guy to shoot some footage for me?"  This is a very sensible question, and there’s no single answer, of course – cameramen...

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...

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). ...

We had a recent conversation with a client of ours who was clearly feeling a bit frazzled.  His boss had assigned him to be the video point person for the organization, and his basic problem was too little time and too many things to do.  He put on a brave face, but he probably wished he didn’t have this responsibility. If you are considering a video project for yourself, but the idea gives you similar...