Video Production Charlotte
Are You Filled With Fear?
by Randy Davis on Feb.09, 2010, under Video Production Charlotte
Does the idea of creating a website video for your company fill you with fear?
Without the right steps, the process can be overwhelming, but relax and I will take you through a simple step-by-step process. If you have been in the business world for longer than 25 seconds, you already know how highly effective website videos are. A well-produced video delivers your message in a way that engages and persuades visitors to take action.
Preliminary advice: Albert Einstein said it best, “If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” It’s paramount that enough thought and planning go into the production, to keep everything cohesive and free-flowing.
Unfortunately, some people dive in headfirst and end up with a complete, ineffective mess. Planning may not be the most enjoyable part of the process, but it is the most critical. Here’s a simple, 10-step process you can follow to ensure an effective Web video:
STEP 1: Scriptwriting. The story is one of the most important parts of the video. The story invokes emotions and drives people to action. Remember the movie, Where The Red Fern Grows? A properly developed script is very different that properly written copy. One of the pitfalls of video production success is having a copywriter try to develop a video script. The importance of a scriptwriting is a vital step in the success rate of the finished video.
STEP 2: Target audience. You can have a great script, but if you aren’t appealing to your target market, you risk the chance of loosing sales. It’s important to understand who your customer is. There must be an understanding in advance about what kind of music is preferred, what color scheme is preferred, what style of text is preferred, and how the story should be told: as a documentary, a drama, comedy, simply and/or with a cinematic style (Episode XI Studio’s style). No one buys with a rational mind, so it’s important to appeal to both the emotions, through scene interactions, and to the intellect, through factual entertainment.
STEP 3: Storyboarding. A successful video enlists the assistance of both the video production company and their client. A storyboard should be developed by the production company to allow the client a chance to see the vision of the finished product before the cameras begin to roll.
The storyboard gives everyone a chance to make changes to the scenes before the entire production staff arrives on set, saving time and money. The production staff will use the approved storyboard as a road map to shoot each scene, by giving camera angles, camera movements, and scripting for each actor/presenter.
STEP 4: Visualize the finished product. It’s critical to know your vision, when planning each shot. Will there be any slow-motion shots? Will it be deployed on the web, or in DVD format, or both? Camera-frame-rate is a vital part of the shooting process, and that rate determines what effects can be implemented during the editing process. Because video is “resolution dependent”, it’s important to discuss your vision with the production company before the shoot.
STEP 5: The shooting day. The day of shooting is an exciting time for the client. This day(s) give the client a second preview of what the finished product will look like. By using the storyboard as a guide for shooting, the production team captures exactly what the client is expecting. The use of dollies and cranes give the production a cinematic appeal that is rivaled by the huge Hollywood production companies.
STEP 6: Video editing. The editing process is where the magic happens. After shooting the many scenes on set, the editor takes the collection of film/digital tape into the editing bay and begins the lengthy process of “putting it all together”. The editor will sort through the many takes of each scene, along with the storyboard, and pieces each video clip into its proper place. Not only do the video clips need to be in order, but the clips sound recordings must be processed, to ensure that no background noise or any other unwanted sound makes it to the final cut.
STEP 7: Soundtrack. The video experience is only 50% visual; the other 50% is audible, making the soundtrack just as important as the rest of the production. As stated earlier, it’s paramount that the target audience is well understood. The editor needs to understand the music that is expected by your target market, in order to envelop in a total emotional experience.
STEP 8: Sound effects. Starwars® wouldn’t be Starwars® without the sound effects. It’s vital to have transitions, graphic elements, and other motion graphics “pop” with sound effects. It brings them to life and keeps your audience engaged.
STEP 9: Encoding. The very best video can be destroyed during the encoding process. The encoding process takes the digital video file and compresses it down to a manageable size and in a format that your viewer can see. There is no mistaken the horrible quality of a YouTube® video. Your image deserves the very best in picture quality, and that’s where encoding delivers.
STEP 10: Archiving. After your video is complete and deployed onto your website and some time has gone by, you may need to make changes. Archiving will to save you the high price of another production. By archiving your files, you are guaranteed that any future changes will only result in a small editing fee, without having to shoot the entire production over again.
Marketing Your Way to Success with Viral Video
by Beth Sowell on Nov.18, 2009, under Charlotte Video Production, Video Production, Video Production Charlotte
The definition of a viral video is basically a video clip which gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through e-mail, IM messages, blogs and other media sharing websites.
Viral video marketing is the best way to build your online brand, visibility, among a host of other online business benefits. Take some lessons from the big guys about how to use video marketing the right way, it’s about more than just traffic.
The amateurs like “Brookers” and “Lonelygirl” publish their video clips for fun and notoriety, and the big corporations like Nike, Warner Bros, and MTV2 produce and publish them in order to drive traffic to their web sites and sell more of their products or services. Because the advertising cost relatively inexpensive. And it produces amazing results.
Today’s youth now spend more time online that watching television. It’s all about page views and favorites and bookmarks and links on blogs. Your video can assume viral status and be passed on via emails and blogs and even be spotted on Facebook walls. Since the audience themselves decide whether or not your video is worthy enough to become viral or not. You better make sure it is.
People aren’t just watching video online. They’re taking it with them by downloading the files like the video iPod and Sony’s video game console, the PlayStation Portable. Now even cell phones have the ability to watch YouTube videos.
For the online entrepreneur (the web site owner seeking to make money online) the purpose of a viral video is to bring traffic to a website. The viral video is a phenomenon which has taken the world by storm and unless you’ve been off in a far away place, you will not doubt have seen one of the many videos which have been popularized by the site, such as Tyson the roller-skating dog. Did you know that YouTube gets twice as much traffic as Google? That means that YouTube alone, gets one million hits a day.
Their are numerous ways to monetize viral videos. From contextual ad programs like Adsense, Yahoo Publishers Network and Chitika to affiliate programs and product sales. Revenue sharing is just one aspect of earning money through the use of online video.
Viral video marketing is the gift that keeps on giving. Viral marketing is going to be the next big thing in SEO. The “on-demand” characteristic of video marketing is another great benefit. Facebook: Share, share, share. Other ideas include creating an event that announces the video launch and inviting friends, writing a note and tagging friends, or posting the video on Facebook.
Drive Your Competition Insane With Video Marketing
by Randy Davis on Jun.12, 2009, under Charlotte Video Production, Video Production, Video Production Charlotte
You could compare video marketing to a television commercial but that would be a fatal mistake. Firstly, it’s more effective. It also costs less to deliver since you’re not paying television stations for air time. You can take as long as you like as often as you like to show the world your products, services and ideas and give out all your contact details or just the bare essentials which is great for offline businesses and better for ideas with nowhere to live. Suddenly, everyone can reach an audience if the audience is willing to listen.
Many argue that television commercials capture audiences even if it’s only as they move past it into the kitchen to make coffee, put on the dryer or change channels. The same people staunchly believe in the subliminal ’something must stick’ syndrome. But even this theory is toppling over as technologies skip or take out television ads making the impossible possible; no boring ads and killing advertising revenues with it.
Video marketing has an equal hit and miss element because people are always searching for good quality information and content delivered in interesting ways. The rest is up to you. Master and deliver and before you know it you will have an uncontrollable marketing virus on your hands and an audience that will look, listen and salivate for more.
Video marketing has been around for a while but some scoff at its claims for effectiveness citing search engine optimization or article writing as a better use of resources. Wrong! Everything is effective but videos connect like television or film; movement and emotion. Hard to compete with that.
And compared to creating thirty second television commercials videos are simpler to construct and less expensive, in fact, you can make a video in just a few minutes or a few hours. There’s a warmed up global audience on the ready to speed through content and sink their teeth into the next big thing; the quirkier the better and it’s all so convenient because it comes out of the same box as a lot of your other content.
Online video marketing gives you a world wide screen to either bore your prospects or excite them into laughter, shock or action. The choice is yours. High level visibility of video marketing should not be ignored. It can change your bottom line in an instant and it’s legal. You can show your videos in one place like your blog or website or upload them to as many video sharing sites or get them bookmarked on social sites for backlinks to your site with more free traffic.
About the Author
Christine McVeigh is author of ‘Web 2.0 Traffic Demolisher – How to Dominate Your Niche Using Web 2.0′. Go now to get free access to an information packed strictly limited 5 part course on how to get traffic, dominate and make money using Web 2.0 and other free stuff on marketing Web 2.0 by going now to http://www.Web20TrafficDemolisher.comSee you on the other side!
