Going Viral

In a conversation this morning with a client, I was told that they wanted to produce a "viral video".

We've all heard the term, and who wouldn't want to produce a video that is ultimately seen by millions of people? But throwing around a term like "viral video" has become as innocuous as the term "social media". The words get thrown around but people don't always know what they mean.

The problem is people hear these buzz words and like a chubby kid in a candy store their eyes widen and they salivate at the thought. There is no magic button that can create these anomalies of the internet...they happen organically and in most cases by accident.

What defines a viral video? We all know of the Youtube sensations that get well over 1 million views. Depending on the intent, I might consider that viral. We have videos on our Youtube page that have over 35,000 views...is that viral? Depends on who you ask, but most would say not close. Some clients are thrilled to break the 1,000 mark. Whether you have 1 view or 1,000,000 it doesn't mean a thing in our business unless there is a response from the viewer to either visit your website or call to learn more about your service or product.

A video like "Double Dream Hands" (one of our favorites by the way) gets millions of views and in its own way is genius marketing (whether it was intentional or not) because that guy has been all over TV and you know that his website advertising choreography classes has been inundated with hits.

The best case of viral videos in our business has arguably been The Old Spice Guy . Over 33 MILLION views as of this writing! Did the Old Spice people know that campaign was going to go viral? I'm sure they hoped it would but they had no way of knowing. Bottom line it is great creative and perfect casting that re-birthed a brand that most men in the crucial 25-35 demographic would never have considered buying over the more hip competition (AXE anyone?). The genius of the campaign is that it targets women while selling a product for men. Everyone in advertising knows that women make the purchasing decisions.

Going back to our original client who wants to produce a viral video, it can be done in the corporate/commercial world. Like any good advertising it takes out of the box creative to grab an audience, and realistic expectations. No one wants a sales pitch. There has been no better time for video advertising. Who would have thought, even 5 years ago, that 33 million+ people would be searching for an Old Spice commercial?! Think of that, people WILLINGLY searched out advertising in an era when people DVR shows and skip past commercials!!

So you want to create a viral video? Get in line. Maybe the latest sensation will involve a wiffle ball freezing in mid-air, although we're not holding our breath. Remember, it's all about the soft sell...


For more information find us at www.take2vm.com

Are you "Winning"?

Thanks to the ever entertaining Charlie Sheen, America has gotten a taste of some great one liners such as "Tigers Blood", "Adonis DNA" and the pithy but poignant "winning" among others. Although it was only just over a month ago that Mr. Sheen was dominating every facet of media, it seems like ages ago since it took the tragedy of the Japanese Tsunami to remove "the warlock" from headlines.

We've had a lot of fun joking in the office about Sheen and his quips. We throw the term "winning" around a lot in jest but after a recent meeting I got thinking about it.

Are you "winning"? Is your business? How do you define "winning"?
We've been on a roll here at Take 2 with some successful meetings and landing new projects, while waiting to hear on others. In the last three meetings with potential new clients, each one has said how much they liked our work based on what they've seen and that is what prompted them to set up a meeting. In my book THAT is 'winning'. Having your work stand on its own is all any business can ask. From there let the chips fall where they may. When we started this company we wanted to create a quality end product that stood out from the rest and comments like these are exactly what we hoped for.

So are you 'winning'? Do you still have the drive and passion that brought you to the position you are in? Going the extra mile and treating every project like it's your first are ways to keep things fresh. In one recent meeting our editor suggested a really cool idea that the client was really excited about (as was I). After the meeting I remarked "that was a cool idea...can you pull it off?", his response..."we will".

Mr. Sheen, you can have your goddesses, and your silver valley ranch thank you very much.

Suggested reading: REWORK by Jason Fried and David Hansson

For more information: www.take2vm.com

How much does a video cost?

It's a long-running joke in the video production industry as we get this question more often than you might think. A potential (or even long standing) client will call or see us at a business event and say something like, "I'd like to get a video produced...how much does it cost?"

There are so many variables that there is no easy way to answer that without having a discussion about the details of the video. It's akin to asking how much does it cost to build house. How big is the house? Is it a small ranch or a two story colonial? Do you want tile or linoleum? Carpet or hardwood?

In the video world we would need to determine if there are actors, locations, and props among other things. Are we writing a script or is it to be just a simple shoot of a CEO being interviewed? These details determine the size of the crew needed and thus the cost.

On the post-production side it's the same thing. How intense are the graphics? Are we creating animations? 3D? What's the final output...Blu-Ray? Web? DVD? Broadcast? a combination of all? You can see how the initial question "how much does a video cost?" is not an easy one to answer without at least some base knowledge of the project.

We realize at times that it is not always possible to have all the information for a video project at the onset and that's ok. What we try to do is get at least a general idea of the video and then we can determine production needs and give a pretty accurate estimate of costs based on that.

Like most things in business and in life, preparation and good information is key. When working with a video production company be sure to allow for at least a short discussion of the project at even a base level and further discussion can evolve from there.

For more information find us at www.take2vm.com

The Lost Art of the Site Survey

In the world of video production, in recent years especially, the term "pre-production" seems to be a term we are hearing less and less of, and that is unfortunate.

Not too long ago, just before the social media rage and instant....everything, clients would call, we would meet (sometimes multiple times) about a project and then we would schedule a...wait for it...site survey. A site survey would allow us to get to a location well before a shoot and allow us to scout out the location to plan out things like camera placement, lighting, cable runs, etc.

Those days seem long gone. It is very rare, especially among agency clients, that we are able to schedule a site survey. Without this critical planning, precious time is lost on location on the shoot day trying to figure out the best angle for the shot, lights, etc. Even simple things like "where is the nearest power outlet" can eat up time. Taking time on shoot day to figure these things out eats up time and money. And the net result is that we don't always have time to set up track and dolly for moving camera shots, or a jib arm for dramatic sweeps if we are losing time deciding where to put the camera. It seems in this new age we live in, there is scarce time to plan between that initial call and the actual shoot day. It's not uncommon to get a call on Tuesday afternoon for a shoot Wednesday morning.

While it's true that not every production can allow for a site survey, some things really just happen fast and you have to shoot ASAP, if it is at all possible talk with your video production company about the possibility of scouting out a location before the shoot. A little bit of planning will result in a better video and a happy client.

Using video in your company's social media marketing

The great thing about producing a video as a part of your company's marketing plan in the modern age is that there are so many venues for you to showcase your video.

Back when I started in this business (waaayyyyy back in 1994) there was one outlet for a corporate video. After spending thousands of dollars, you got to walk away with....yes a VHS tape. Not only was the quality questionable but you would then have to make copies of that low quality VHS tape to send to potential clients.

In 2009, along with a physical DVD or Blu-Ray, video consumers have so many more options. It's a given that any video that is produced for your company should be on your website. But have you also considered uploading to Youtube, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc.? It's a no-brainer to upload a video to each of these services. Doing this also increases your company's searchable footprint on search engines like Google and Yahoo. Not to mention the ease of pointing potential clients, or employees (for training videos) to a website. You get much more bang for your buck for your video dollar in 2009 then you ever did in 1994 with the potential of millions of fews today versus dozens then.

There is of course still a use for physical media such as DVD or Blu-Ray, and we get requests for duplications on a regular basis. A client recently requested a number of Blu-Ray discs of an HD project because they go to conventions all over the world and utilize HD monitors and really wanted to show off their video in the best possible way.

These options offer the corporate consumer the most possible options that work for their specific needs. We can of course still offer VHS....we'd have to dust off the old VCR's though.

Know your video format

I recently was on a production where the client wanted the shoot to be in 4:3 (more on that later) letterbox format. Consumers have become familiar with letterbox of course from DVD's and commercials that have the black bars on the top and bottom of the frame. This gives a commercial a more cinematic look. Also as more people are purchasing wide-screen TV's the letterboxing has become more familiar.

The shoot went well, footage looked great. We got to the edit a few days later and the client was having second thoughts about the letterbox. "I'm not sure I like the black lines on the top and bottom of the screen" he said. I gently reminded him that we discussed this prior to the shoot and he decided he liked the look at that time. His comment "But I'm paying for the entire screen, I want to use the entire screen". Now, I should point out, that most productions go very smooth without a hitch. Then you get clients like this. He wanted the black bars off the screen and wanted full video. There are options for this but none of which were economically viable. We compromised and he ended up, against my recommendation, to fill the top AND bottom of the screen with too much text, it made a classy commercial look cheap in my opinion.

The lesson to learn here is know what you want going in. Most video productions at this point should be shot widescreen. What will happen is that viewers that have a widescreen (16:9) TV will see the image full on their TV's. People that still have the older TV's (4:3) will see the image squeezed down with the black bars at top and bottom. Without getting too technical, you see the black bars because the image is being compressed or "squeezed" onto the screen so that you can see the whole image that was shot, if the image wasn't squeezed down, the left and right sides would be cut off because the shot is wider (16:9) than an old style TV (4:3). Now what are these numbers? they are simply ratios 16:9 (or 16 by 9) is the screen ratio for a widescreen TV while 4:3 (or 4 by 3) is the ratio for a older style "square" screen TV.

Now this is totally different from the "SD" or "HD" options. The details could fill a book but will keep it simple here. SD stands for "Standard Definition" think old style TV's while HD stands for "High Definition" think all the new Widescreen TV's you see at Wal•Mart. I would highly suggest that your productions be shot in HD. In some markets this costs more than standard SD. In my opinion this is a marketing ploy that video companies do because jsut a few years ago it did cost a great deal more to produce video in HD. In our case we don't charge a premium for HD over SD, all productions have the same price point.

Here's the bottom line to keep in mind: If you shoot HD your video will look good on all TV's, old and new. If you shoot SD, your video will look great on a old style 4:3 TV but will not look as good on a new 16:9 widescreen. If you own a widescreen and you've noticed some programs or commercials go from widescreen to a smaller square picture and they don't look as sharp, it is because it was shot in the older SD format.

chris AT take2visualmedia DOT COM

What to consider when producing a video or commercial

The world of video and film production has changed dramatically over the last few years. As little as five years ago if you wanted a quality video production to market your company, musical band or product you would have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce a professional video then many thousands more to get that video in front of people.

That's all changed now. With the advent of digital video cameras and non-linear editing on computers, the costs of producing a video have come down dramatically. And with sites like YouTube you can be available to every computer in the world in a matter of seconds (with the right linking of course). In my career of over 13 years in the video business I've seen a room full of equipment that cost near $250,000 be reduced down to a computer with specialized software at 1/10th the cost.

What you, as a customer, need to consider in this brave new world is the ultimate quality of your production. As stated, equipment is less expensive which is a double-edged sword. What we've witnessed in the industry is an influx of would-be video producers that can afford the equipment but don't have the experience to know what goes into a production. What you end up with is a low end video that most likely won't get your message across and thus cheapens your image.

A good video production starts with a good script.  If you have a bad script you can have Steven Spielberg directing the video and, though it will look fantastic, your message still won't get across . The script then must be translated to compelling images for the camera (via a talented director of photography who knows lighting and composition) which in turn must be stylized by a talented editor.

Along with the script and technical side, there are other things to consider; actors, voice over, music, props, locations....all of these things should be provided by a competent producer. Bottom line, as with any major purchase you make, do your homework. Ask questions. When a production company offers you their demo reel make sure you know what they did on that demo reel (shoot, light, edit, all of the above?). Make sure that you know what you are getting for the money. Good actors cost good money, ever see a local car commercial with good acting?

Get your thoughts on paper (or Word document), outline what points you want your video to make, then work with a good producer that can make that outline even better.  A well produced video or commercial, in tandem with a solid marketing plan, will get you noticed.