By Jason Joseph | Production Manager

That seems like a strange question, right?  It really isn’t.  We receive many requests for video projects, ranging from the very easy and well laid out to the complex, multilayered and detailed ideas that folks want to turn into a consumable and everlasting video message.  Within this vast array of requests, we also see the entire spectrum of investment that is put forth by those who are asking us to help them.  No, I’m not referring to investment from a financial standpoint. I’m talking about those who are and those who aren’t personally invested in the project itself.  Being personally invested in the project that you are trying to create is probably the biggest “make it or break it” component of creating a successful and well received video. Why is that?  That’s easy.  We are production professionals and we are good at what we do.  We know how to help generate and nurture ideas.  We know how to pick a location and set the scene.  We know how to light that scene and capture the imagery and sound.  We know how to tell a story and supplement information with graphic elements.  That’s a lot of know how! What we don’t know how to do is be the content experts of the project, especially when it comes to medical procedures, clinical practices and anything else that involves six syllable words that blow right over our heads. Continue reading FEATURE: Your video project is important to us! Is it important to you? →

By Jason Fischer | AV Support Analyst

Storytelling is the art of delivering a message in narrative form. Doing this well is a skill and takes practice. Throughout the ages, stories have been used within all cultures to facilitate education, deliver humor, and preserve historical perspective.  Key elements of a narrative include the setting, the characters, the plot, and the narrative point of view. In this post the term storytelling is being used to describe the technique of communicating your message in video format.First, we will discuss the initial preparations necessary to lay the foundation for your script. Start by considering your target audience and the take away message. Then decide on the main themes that drive home that take away message. Next, consider how these themes overlap and interact, then use these relations to develop transitions between the main themes. Once you have the themes and transitions, draft the story outline.

The story outline is the sequence of events listed in the order that they will appear in the video. At this point, think about the interplay of video, graphics, and B-Roll to complete the story outline. Basically, imagine the footage, interview dialog, and images necessary to tell your story.

Continue reading FEATURE: Telling Your Story →

By John Oyster | AV Support Analyst

When it comes to creating a polished video project, script formatting is a key component that often goes overlooked. The script is your blueprint for the entire video; it tells the photographer what they need to shoot, it tells the talent what they need to be doing, and it tells the editor how to piece it all together. Therefore, it is critical that your script be formatted in a clean and concise way. Luckily, professionals in the industry thought of this long ago. As a result of their endeavors, there are two different ways to format a script; the first is primarily used by film and television (narrative), and the second is a two-column audio/video (AV) script.

The most common format to write a script is what I’ll call the “narrative” format. The narrative format is laid out this way to make it easy to read, and to ensure planning the shoot is as easy as possible. For example, each scene is numbered so the producers, directors, etc. can have a final count of how many scenes there are in the script. Each scene begins with whether it takes place outside (EXT) or inside (INT) and whether its daytime (DAY) or nighttime (NIGHT), so scenes can be easily placed into groups and shot in the most efficient manner possible. Directly below the scene heading, we find a description of what we can see and/or hear (with key words, actions, and props CAPITALIZED), and dialogue is indented inside, with the character’s name centered above and capitalized. A fun fact about the narrative style: these scripts Continue reading FEATURE: Choosing a Script Format →

By Eric Graham | AV Support Analyst

Technology is always evolving. Every single year, new ideas are born, something bigger and better comes around, or an adaptation of something great emerges. Before you can blink, it becomes available in our market, it falls into our laps, we adapt to them, and we unknowingly fade out older technologies. It is an ongoing cycle that never stops. DVDs are becoming a thing of the past and this is because of 3 main reasons. ONLINE STREAMING, CLOUD STORAGE, and VIDEO QUALITY.

Let’s start with ONLINE STREAMING. It used to be that watching a movie involved going to the store and buying it, or going to the video rental store and renting it for a couple days. Then local cable and satellite companies began to offer on-demand movie rentals, and online stores such as iTunes and Amazon came around to offer digital, downloadable content. Around the same time, online streaming was born and services such as Netflix, Amazon Video, and Hulu emerged. Today, the original online streaming player YouTube has hit an all-time high, reaching over 4 billion people per day, with over 300 hours of video uploaded every minute! With this direction in mind, our industry has Continue reading FEATURE: DVDs are out… Video Files are in! →

By Jason Fischer | AV Support Analyst

When it comes to recording videos, audio quality is just as important as video quality. Placing your microphone correctly is very important to make sure you look AND sound your best. Here are a couple quick tips on adjusting your lavaliere microphone.

1) Make Sure the Mic is Facing Up –  One of the most frequent issues I see with new users is that they place the mic upside down, which is picking up their waistline and not their voice.

2) The Mic Clip is Adjustable – There are five adjustable positions. Please realize that you can always adjust the microphone clip 180 degrees, to ensure the mic is facing your mouth correctly.

Continue reading FEATURE: Lavaliere Microphone Placement →

By Alex Van Valkenburgh | AV Support Analyst

Writing a script is the single most important step of the preparation process for creating a video. This is true regardless of whether the primary purpose of the video is to inform or entertain its viewers. Putting careful planning into a script will greatly assist you in determining exactly what information needs to be conveyed and how to best package that information for your particular audience. Writing a script should be the first step of the creative process; it will guide you through the remainder of the steps needed to create the video. You’ll discover that a well-scripted video will be more concise, much quicker to shoot, and more positively received by its audience than a video with a poor or non-existent script. The following are some suggestions for preparing your script.

Length– Determine how long you would like the finished video to be. While there is no set rule for video length, audiences tend to prefer shorter videos. A 10-minute informational video can seem much longer than that to its audience. There is, similarly, no perfect guide to determine how long a script should be on paper, even if you have a Continue reading FEATURE: Script Writing for Video Projects →