Category Archives: Video Production

Case Study: Georgetown University’s Lacrosse Season Recap Video

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Georgetown University was our very first client and we have been working with their lacrosse program on their season recap videos since the beginning.

The final product ends up running about 20 minutes in length. A snippet of our most recent video with Georgetown Lacrosse can be seen below (see the full version here).

A lot of our video services go into this video including:

• Scriptwriting (Telling the story of the season)
• HD sports videography (A fast lens and a wealth of knowledge of the game come in handy here)
• Non-linear Editing (To compile a season’s worth of games into 20 minutes)
• Motion Graphics (Think ESPN titles)
• Graphic Design (For the DVD artwork)
• Encoding (For multiple delivery methods)

Starting in February we shoot games in HD video and capture the footage in our edit suite. In the meantime we construct a script with the coaching staff retelling the story of the season. As the season ends we organize the footage and then videotape an interview with Coach Dave Urick, letting him recall the season as it happened.

We then compile all the footage according to the script, adding in soundbytes from Coach. We add motion graphics and transition to tighten everything up. Finally, we design the DVD label and encode for DVD and YouTube.

The Georgetown coaching staff enjoy the video because it gives them something memorable to present at their annual banquet. Furthermore, it helps them in their recruiting efforts by showing prospective players the story of the school, the ability of the team, and an overview of the Georgetown LAX experience.

Easy YouTube Closed-Captions and Increased Search Visibility

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It is no secret that adding closed-captioning to your YouTube videos is a big win when it comes to increasing search results and user engagement. ReelSEO confirmed this a while back in this great video:

What you probably haven’t heard is how easy it is to add captions to your video. We’re not talking about the auto-transcription created by YouTube, but rather a real 100% accurate and timed closed-caption that will help your video get better search results.

Here’s how to do it:

1.) Compile the transcript of your video. You might be able to easily do this if you have the original script lying around. If not, you’re still in luck since YouTube automatically transcribes every video that is uploaded. The YouTube auto-transcriber tends to get a lot of words wrong but it’s still a good starting point.

To get the YouTube transcript, go to My Videos and choose a video. Click “Edit Info” and go to the Captions and Subtitles tab. You’ll find a file called “English: Machine Transcription” and a download button. Downloading will produce a file called “captions.sbv”. This is not a very common filetype, but it can be opened in most text editors. Here you will find timing and transcription info that will be a useful starting point to transcribing your video. With any luck, the machine transcription will only need a few changes.

Copy the text into a new document. Don’t worry about the time info yet. Just fix all of the errors until you’re happy with the complete transcription.

2.) Time your transcription to the video. Since YouTube has a feature called “auto-timing” this part is easy. Watch the video as you read your transcription. For every pause, start a new line. For every longer pause, skip a line completely. That’s it! No numbers or timecode needed, just blocks of text spaced out organically. Save the document as a .txt file.

3.) Upload and test. You can upload your txt file on the page where you found “English: Machine Transcription.” Upload the file and within a minute you will be able to see your new captions in action. Watch through twice to make sure that they are complete and correct.

That’s it! Within a few days your captions should start ranking in YouTube and Google Video search results.

3 Ways To Use Your Smartphone To Help Plan Your Next Video

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Smartphones have truly revolutionized the way business is done.  They have become a sort of digital Swiss Army knife that can be used in many different ways.  I am going to take a minute to share 3 ways you can use your smartphone to help plan your next video production. Using basic features, no 3rd party apps, these tips will save time and money on your next video production as well as give you a clearer plan of action.

1.)  Use The Photo And Video Feature Of Your Phone To Perform A Site Survey

Any video that includes on-site production should include a site survey.   This survey is where a producer or scout analyzes the area where any video production will take place, trying to discover any issues that would adversely effect the production.

 

Some examples of would be:

  • noise from an air-conditioner or natural environment
  • size of a room
  • placement of windows
  • background visual distraction
  • access to electrical outlets

Use your phone to take detailed photos and even record video of the areas where you envision your video being shot.  Make sure to label each picture and video appropriately with descriptive names such as: boardroom facing front, boardroom facing back, hallway windows, et cetera.  If you record video of the room or area, make a note of the level of room noise.If you do a good job of using the basic photo and video features of your smartphone, you can possibly eliminate the need for an in-person site survey and save yourself some money.  You will also gain insight into areas you feel are best for shooting video, and might be able to select a better area based on your results.

2) Use The Voice-Record Function To Rehearse Your On-Camera Delivery

This tip is priceless and will save you and your video team tons of time and frustration. Let’s face it, if you don’t speak on-camera for a living, it is a nerve racking and anxious process.  Your instinct is going to be to write out what you want to say and then memorize it.  Don’t do it!  We don’t write the way we speak and some things that are written just don’t sound as good when spoken.  If you encounter this as you are trying to present the message on-camera you will try to make changes and start second guessing what you are trying to say.  Instead, whip out your smartphone!

Use the voice-record feature to practice delivering your message on-camera.  You should still write down ideas in advance, but use an outline to map out your main thoughts instead of creating a written script.

Record two or three takes of the message you want to present and have a listen to them and share them with your team.  If your delivery sounds weird to you or you are not coming off in the way you feel you should refine your message, alter your delivery, and record again.

Most people never feel warm and fuzzy about the sound of their recorded voice so use the opinion of trusted friends or team members.  By using your smartphone to record what you want to say on-camera you will refine your message as it will be heard by the viewer, and build confidence, making for a smoother and shorter video production process for you and the crew.

3)  Time The Length Of Your Script Using Your Phone’s Stop Watch

This tip is mostly for businesses looking to produce a promo that intends to be aired on television or radio.  Most advertising copy needs to fit neatly into 30 second or 60 second packages. Businesses always have a large amount of information that they want to convey within a short amount of time. We receive a lot of this type of copy from clients, and it rarely conforms to the time restrictions of their commercial.   We then have to take time to revise the copy for the client and proof it out with them which takes time and costs money.

One great way to avoid having your copy being too long is to use the stopwatch feature on your smartphone to time it out.

Here is how you do it:

  1. Sit down with your final script and phone in front of you.
  2. Get a glass of water and warm up your vocal cords.  Practice your best voice-over voice, “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday at Race Way Park!”
  3. Give yourself a count down, “3 – 2 – 1 “, and on one, hit ‘Start’ as your begin to read.

If you come up a few seconds short or a few seconds long you are in good shape.  One or two seconds can usually be adjusted by delivering the script a bit faster or slower.  If you come up more then five seconds short or long, it is time to go back and do some revisions.
We are always looking for tools and methods to make the process of creating video easier and more effective and hope these tips help you in planning your next video production. We’d love to know if you have any other ways to use a smartphone to help plan a video production.

YouTube Tricks: How To Render In Perfect MP4

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I’ll admit that the name of this post is kind of a joke. In Google Analytics (an app we obsess over) I see that people commonly search for “how to render in perfect mp4” only to land on our company website. In reality, that’s not such a bad thing because we really do render in perfect mp4 with a wonderful hardware based encoder (just ask us, we’ll tell you all about it)! Yup, renderin’ perfect is something that we know how to do really well, so why not give the people what they want? So here it is:

HOW TO RENDER IN PERFECT MP4! (Ta-da)

First off, I’m taking it that you wanna render your video in mp4 to place it on YouTube, Vimeo or another video hosting service. Keep in mind that these sites change their preferences on what seems like a daily basis. So just because these are the best encoding settings today, doesn’t mean they will be a year from now. Secondly, I’m just gonna assume that your video was produced in HD.

So here are 3 settings that “The YouTubes” LOVE right now:

Keep Your Frame Size Consistent
Why:  Youtube’s HD settings go as high as 1080p. So if your video originates in 1080p, congrats! Upload it full frame. If your video is smaller, don’t try to enlarge it in the encode. If it’s 720p, keep it 720p. 480p to 480p and so on. It will look its best at its original size and accordingly on all smaller sizes.

Encode At Datarate Of 5mb/s For Video
Why: Logically, it makes sense that a higher bitrate video would produce better looking video. However, YouTube is going to transcode whatever you upload to its own max bitrate (about 4mb/s). So encoding at the higher bitrate is just gonna mean larger file which ultimately means a longer upload with (arguably) the same results.

Use A .Mov Or .Mp4
Why: A lot of sites will tell you that your video has to be a MP4. To tell you the truth the file extension MP4 or MOV doesn’t really matter. What matters is that it’s compressed with the H.264 codec which is usually associated with the MP4 extension (Confusing huh?). Whatever you do, please just don’t upload a Windows Media file (.wmv)!

Anatomy of a Company Promo

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Creating a web promo about Render Perfect has been a long time in the making. We’ve talked about doing one for years. We knew that just having a reel on our front page was not enough to describe the truly full-service brand marketing via video content that our company executes on a daily basis. 

So why did we wait? Well, besides managing the day to day of working on videos and websites for our clients, it was just really tough to get started. The truth is that even as a video brand marketing company it’s difficult to look in the mirror and create the story for ourselves.

Writing and developing a script that we were all happy with was a painstaking process. But once we ironed out the details, everything came together fairly quickly. It was a valuable learning experience that truly evolved our web presence.

With that being said, here are 4 simple guidelines to get started planning your company’s web promo:

1. Share A Story Through Images

We wanted people to “get” our company quickly. We figured we could do this in two ways: show off a bunch of cool technology that we use and that most people probably don’t care about or explain our services in a simple way using creative graphics that are easy to identify.

In our opinion the best way was the latter; using motion graphics to creatively describe our service offerings. Creative graphics tell a story intrinsically and leave a memorable impact on the viewer.

2. Show Yourself

One of our biggest concerns when producing our video was making sure that we made a physical appearance within it.  It is important for a potential customer to know exactly who they will be dealing with if they give us a call.

Many video companies hide their presence on their website. Sometimes it’s even tough to find out where their studio is located. This elusiveness-by-design is caused by the fear of a potential customer becoming turned off that the production company might be too small or that their office is located at the opposite end of the country.

That’s not the case with us. We are a small company. And we find our ease of scalability to be one of the things our clients love about us the most.

3. Short Is Better

Realizing that a web audience’s time is valuable and their attention is pulled in a multitude of directions, we wanted to keep this video overview as short as possible without missing any crucial information. The 1:15 runtime is the absolute longest we wanted to go with this video. Ideally shorter would have been better, but would not have been as complete in its message.

4. Create An Aesthetic That Emanates Your Brand

Similar to the way we wanted people to understand our services through the visuals, we also wanted our video to evoke a feeling. The video ends up being a sweet piece of meta-advertising showing at a glance that:

  • We design graphics and motion graphics.
  • We shoot video and interviews.
  • We post and use this video effectively.

By design, the video in itself is exactly what we offer: the opportunity to market with video effectively.

The Blu-ray Debate: When To Demand A High-Def Deliverable

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Upon an approaching deadline, it is not uncommon to get a request for Blu-ray at the very last possible minute and oftentimes our clients feel that this need is crucial to the delivery of the project. Blu-ray Discs (BDs), better known as the high-definition replacement for DVDs, are great at displaying awesome HD video quality on a disc the size of a standard DVD. Although delivering on Blu-ray Disc is never a problem, typically we do not deliver on them unless requested.

The reason is two-fold. First, BDs are more expensive than regular DVDs, so we see no reason to charge our customers for them unless it is a must. Secondly, Blu-ray is still not a widely adopted format, and in our eyes playability is a much greater concern than a slightly larger resolution.

As a video client, it is important to know that when your project originates and is handled in high-definition, transcoding it to standard-definition presents very little noticeable loss in certain situations. Furthermore, it’s much better to transcode down at the project level, rather than to rely on consumer-level projection equipment that will downgrade your image on the fly. So when considering which product you wish to walk away with, the biggest factor to consider between HD and SD is control of the equipment that will be displaying your video. Since there are a variety of ways to display your media, you are going to need total control of the presentation and the equipment associated with it. 

When To Demand HD

One-on-one Presentations
Specifically for presentations that happen in your own office. Here you should have the opportunity to customize your A/V setup and really deliver the visual impact that your video is designed for.

Tradeshow Presentations
Again, this would rely on equipment that you bring or have delivered to a specific venue, so you can rely on having all of the equipment you need to present your HD video properly.

Detail-Oriented Video
Video produced solely to show off the fine-detail of a product is the perfect use of HD and should not be neglected. Do whatever it takes to show this video in the highest quality possible. The following video is a perfect example of the type of video that shows a good deal of fine detail and an ideal candidate for a Blu-ray deliverable.

As a video company we understand how frustrating this BD vs. DVD debate must seem to someone who simply wants to get the picture quality they paid for. Still unsure?  A quick call to your video production company should be all you need to determine which format is best for your specific project. 

3 Tips For Working With A Video Company

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Recently I received an email from a previous client whose organization was planing for a video they needed to produce. The question he asked was timeless in our line of work:

About how much does it cost to produce a 60 second animation?

I ended up writing him a response that addressed a lot of problems with that question. I decided that it might be useful to post an informal primer to help businesses communicate more effectively with a prospective video producer.

Have a specific goal in mind for your video
This is the cornerstone of all video production.  Having a clear goal guides every other decision you will make in the production process.

Instead of,

“My business wants something we can put on our YouTube channel.”

try,

“I want a YouTube video that has a humorous edge and can promote my top-selling product. A video that will be shared amongst 17-30 year old males, and will gain 10,000+ views within the first 3 months.”

Immediately the picture is clearer. A talented producer will be able to tell you immediately if her company is right for the job. She will also be able to start piecing together specific details about the scope of the project. A writer and talent will have to be brought on board. A distribution strategy will have to be developed.

Name Your Price
Many people feel that if they name how much they want to spend, they will get taken advantage of. However, when you name your price, you name the level of production that you wish to achieve. A commercial can be made for $30 or $3000, it really depends on the level of production. Knowing the goals for your video will be the key to figuring out how much money to invest.

WARNING: Measuring your  budget against a proposed hourly rate is not a good strategy. Just imagine you had to hire someone to type a long document for you. One applicant is the best in her field, has worked as a stenographer for 10+ years. Her rate is $100 an hour. The other applicant was just introduced to a computer three months ago. His rate is $30 an hour. Who would you hire? In one situation you pay a higher hourly price, but get your job completed quickly and with few mistakes. In the other situation, you have to wait longer for your project to be completed, it’s probably riddled with mistakes, and you actually end up paying about the same total amount because it takes up to 4 times as long for the typist to complete.

If naming a price is still over your head or you just have a clue where to begin, try this approach: View past work by the video company.  Find a video that you feel might be similar to what you want, then ask how much that particular video cost to produce.

Have A Deadline
Nothing gets more convoluted than a project in limbo. Goals expand, mindsets change, and suddenly the scope of your video can become much broader.  Have a deadline for when you want to launch and remember: video has the option of being re-purposed. Release your video, analyze effectiveness, and tweak to maximize. It is very rare for a message to be totally successful right out of the gate. But the only way to see what works, is to get your video out of the boardroom and into the hearts and minds of your viewers.

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Want to see more posts like this? Ask us for advice on proceeding with your project. Seriously, it gives ideas for some great posts!

The Pa-Pa-Pa-Power of Advertising Laterally

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Here’s a Zen question that keeps me up at night: Has subversive gone mainstream, or is the new mainstream just more subversive?  Since I tend to talk alot about video advertising on this blog you might already see where I’m heading.

Film buffs in the Baltimore-Washington area might remember a small film festival called MicroCineFest.  MicroCineFest was a small 5-day fest located in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood and it featured some of the craziest, most extreme, and subversive videos on Earth.  Remember, these were the days before YouTube (BYT), so people would come from far and wide to check out some insanely creative videos.

I was very into the programming at MicroCineFest.  It was challenging.  As a videomaker it made me wonder: If this is the film subgenre I am into, how could I ever be able to put this to work?  In other words, this seemingly unmarketable subgenre of film was fine for the arthouse, but could it ever break out?

Well here we are roughly 10 years later. YouTube dominates the web (and television for that matter).  Film festivals of any kind seem somewhat passe.  And commercials like this can be found running during primetime on national channels:

What happened?  It’s like all the filmmakers who made those crazy MicroCineFest films got real jobs and convinced huge companies to try something boldly different.  Not only that, but it’s working.  I personally heard a huge buzz about these commercials from friends before actually seeing them.  And just recently, I was alarmed to find my friend proudly displaying his collection of various Old Spice products.

The video is doing quite well online too.  With nearly 4 million views, the majority of comments read like this:

  • “that was @#$%ingepic sweet vid”
  • “Second commercial to convince me to buy a product. First was the last Old Spice one, man on a horse.”

and the comment that really hits the nail on the head:

  • “It’s as if they wanted the commercials to become viral videos that we would love and give millions of hits. Good job!”

So I guess the answer to my question is the latter.  With a variety of equally popular media outlets available for distribution, there is no longer a mainstream for media consumption.  In turn, the mainstream messages must get more subversive to accomodate each.  Successful campaigns are not created by pushing a variety of mediocre messages through one premium outlet but rather spreading one highly-contagious message over a variety of outlets.

Use Video To Empower Customers To Market For You

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Ever since there have been products and services worth talking about, word-of-mouth has always been the “Holy Grail” of marketing. Developing effective word-of-mouth is elusive in nature, but critical to the success of a business.  It is hard work to create and maintain word-of-mouth, but once you have a good core group of customer evangelists out there preaching the good word of your company’s product or service, there is nothing more powerful.

In order for your company to further empower its customer evangelists, you must make it easy for them to spread their positive word-of-mouth endorsement of your brand. Employing a short promotional web video to create a compelling and highly-portable message is a perfect tool to build word-of-mouth about your company.

Creating a short promotional video that highlights a word-of-mouth endorsement from your existing customers can be extremely effective.  These messages can be created and distributed to your word-of-mouth influencers in the form of web links, embedded Flash video or a posting on YouTube or other video sites.

It is important that the messages developed to support word-of-mouth campaigns include two key characteristics:

  1. Be sure to include a strong call-to-action
  2. Tie in your call to action with an incentive-based promotion

You need to capitalize on the momentum that your word-of-mouth influencer is providing, and you need to provide an added value within your message’s call-to-action in order for your word-of-mouth influencer to be perceived as not only providing good advice but also providing a value or savings.

This value-added component is key to the success of this style of marketing.  It can be a coupon code, percentage-based discount, or even a free giveaway. It is important to reward your word-of-mouth influencer for assisting you in your marketing effort.

So work hard on building your organization’s brand.  Target those individuals that can become powerful word-of-mouth marketing partners and support them every step of the way.

Using Rich Media To Drive Home A Point

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In my spare time, one of my interests is music and band marketing. Specifically, how to use video to increase exposure throughout the music industry. When it comes to music marketing, there is almost no one more knowledgable on the topic than Derek Sivers.

A week ago, Sivers gave a talk at South by Southwest. The point of this talk was to give advice to attending musicians about how they should spend their time at the conference.. The key takeaway: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU! That’s right; all the networking and marketing that you do as a person, band, or business is successful only when you can turn the conversation in the interest of the person you are speaking with. Asking people about their lives is the only true way to figure out what they need, and how you can help them.

In a very key use of rich media, Sivers himself turned the tables and asked his fans to give their advice to fellow musicians. It was a very “meta” way to show how powerful his key point could be by putting it into practice on the spot. This made for a very interesting content-call on his blog where 60 or so participants filmed themselves dishing out their very own practical advice. Some, not all, of the blurbs were shown at the conference but a little bit of promotion was given to each participant afterward on his blog.

His presentation was a clear and powerful use of rich media. Sivers certainly has enough knowledge and experience to give the talk all by himself. But relying on his base to drive his point showed humility, wisdom and faith that the followers of his own advice were worthy to chime in with their own tips and tricks.