Make ‘Em Laugh: Social Video Marketing Services

This summer on our blog I have written about social videos that use entertainment alongside information to market a company or organization. You can read about two of my favorites: Inspiration Studios and YouTube Show and Tell. I wanted to show how to use entertaining marketing videos to attract potential customers, B2B clients, job candidates, donors, and so on.

To demonstrate how this approach might work for your company Skillman Video Group made a 2-minute social video. The idea was to create something cinematic and entertaining while advertising our social media and marketing services to a target audience, namely organizations and companies that lack modern interactive marketing campaigns. The project was out of the scope of our usual documentary style marketing videos which usually employ a single camera angle, b-roll, graphics, and interviews. Our new Videomercial utilizes actors, set design, location shooting, wardrobe, cinematography, and multiple camera angles to tell a story. It takes careful consideration of our brand and tone and balances everything with available resources.

Check the video out. What do you think?

This is a new type of service Skillman Video Group wants to offer to certain clients who would benefit from a more lighthearted, mass-appeal approach. We’d love to collaborate with clients to produce more videos of this style.

This kind of entertaining video casts a wide net and attracts a large audience. That audience then visits the company’s website for more in-depth content and marketing videos geared at turning visitors into clients. Your social media campaign (blog, twitter, email, facebook, youtube, etc.) would spread the video to both your current and potential clients. See how all the pieces fit together? That’s why SVG offers those complete, interlocking marketing services.

Imagine you are a law firm looking for the young, ambitious, future associates. You could really distinguish your firm from all the others with a short, entertaining, well-shot videomercial. Your competitors would look dull by comparison and you would see immediate ROI with more job applications. One of our clients already does something like this with SVG. The same method should work for finding B2B partners, customers, and donors, if you are looking for a younger, more casual demographic.

If you are looking to impress people with a cinematic marketing videomercial, give SVG a call.

If you want to read more about the production of this video check out our behind-the-scenes blog and pictures.

Fundraising Video Production Made Easy

Last week Skillman Video Group had the unique opportunity to videotape two Ramadan services for the Al Huda Society in Chelsea, MA. Al Huda hired SVG to create a marketing video to help the Islamic community organization raise the funds to complete their community center.

Al Huda is in the process of creating a permanent home for themselves, but they are short funds to complete the project. They struggled to make a fundraising video by themselves to attract donations, but the organization had difficulty scripting and planning their video and lacked the equipment, skills, and experience to execute their plans. With all the activities and services Al Huda conducts, they had no time to complete the project. Making a fundraising video was not as quick and easy as they thought. Al Huda focuses, after all, on community, education, and faith, not marketing videos.

Frustrated, they called SVG.

Fundraising videos are one of our specialities. In a matter of days we collaborated with Al Huda on content, shot two services, and delivered an attractive, thoughtful marketing video. We make the process quick and easy. Check it out. This is one of my favorite projects at SVG. Standing amidst any religious service is always an moving and energetic experience, but I may never get to witness another Muslim service delivered in entirely in Arabic. Check out the photos on our Facebook page. The finished video looks great and is unique in our portfolio. Adam Guzewicz was our lead photographer and shot the footage using a Canon 5D.  The end result was breathtaking footage! The people were welcoming, open, and genuinely appreciated our work. Al Huda tells us that the fundraising video will be key in achieving their vision for the organization.

If your organization wants to use video to supplement your outreach and development efforts, but lacks the time and expertise to make your own, give us a call. We’ll make it easy.

Behind the Scenes at SVG: On Set

Skillman Video Group spends so much time helping our clients market their companies that we rarely get the opportunity to market ourselves. When I began my work at SVG, I decided to make a cinematic commercial for our social media services, something more broad than our usual work.

It takes a lot of work to make a commercial. Scheduling, finding locations, casting, budgeting, lighting, food, etc. As if that were not enough, I set our video in a “turn-of-the-century” shoppe, which requires extra work with wardrobe, set decoration, and props. But I felt the greater production value was worth the extra investment in time.

After searching for several weeks for an appropriate, available location to serve as an Old Timey Shoppe we decided to build a set in my basement. The plan had the advantage of giving us freedom to do whatever we wanted, short of setting the building on fire, on our own schedule. It had the disadvantage of requiring that we build and decorate a set from scratch. My background in set design made it easy, despite the extra work involved.

I knew that the most important part of making a high quality video production was the cinematography. We shot the video on the Cannon 7D, a camera I’ve talked about in a previous blog post, that captures a “film-like” look. We also had quite a few more lights than we usually use in our small shoots, another element vital to achieving a cinematic look. Our cinematographer used not only his lights and camera, but also drew on his experience as a photographer, gaffer, and grip in Hollywood films.

The set, performances, costumes, and cinematography combined to make a short that showed off what SVG can do with a social video if we “pull out all the stops.”

I cashed in all favors owed to me and had great help from friends and local businesses. Many of the props came from Freight House Antiques and Mad Props. Our costume designer, cinematographer, and actor were good friends from the film business. Our supporting cast were the people of SVG. I even tapped the assistance of my local wine and cheese shop, Formaggio Kitchen, for our exteriors. It’s cool what you can get when you just ask.

If you’d like to know more about how we made our social video just leave a comment. Also check out the Behind the Scenes photos on our Facebook page.

Next up: editing. Stay tuned.

Print It!

In the days of film — real celluloid with images stored as silver shadows — it was too expensive to print every take from the camera negative. When the director saw a take he liked he would shout “Print it!” and the script supervisor would circle the take in her notes. The printers would then only print the circled take saving huge money for the production.

Now that celluloid film is largely a thing of the past and video is so cheap, filmmakers can make economical use of nearly every take. Normally a whole take would be rejected if just one thing goes wrong, but now filmmakers keep shots if only one thing goes right.

In these days it’s not about what you “print,” but how you “print it.” Do you host it locally or on you tube (or vimeo)? Can viewers comment and share? Do you distribute DVD’s to your clients? Does it need to be High Def? If so, which file format? Do you need a teaser? Do you want to build a website around your video?

This is where a company like Skillman Video can really help you. We can build your website, kickstart your social media campaign, and use SEO to boost your video’s exposure. We integrate video, social media, web design, and SEO to gain our clients the highest return possible on their investment.

Cut!

I remember my college days sitting for forty hours at a Steenbeck cutting and splicing a five minute short, getting to know every frame intimately. Today the same short would probably take a quarter of the time to edit, but I think I would know the project half as well. There’s something about the tactile act of physically cutting film by hand and splicing it with tape that makes one appreciate their own work as well as the work of master editors and directors.

Nowadays it is so easy to edit video digitally on their home computer, that nearly everyone can do it. An entire generation of filmmakers has never actually “cut” film.

But don’t think good editing is not still an art. Editing is where the story comes together and takes a certain level of experience and expertise to take the most jumbled of raw footage, and turn it into a concise and powerful video. Professional editors not only use the best practices and technology, but they also use years of experience solving problems, shaping story, and most importantly, following the technological changes. They also know how to create graphics and polish audio — integral to creating professional looking and sounding video. They know how to compress video for the web just enough to make it load quickly without losing quality. It might take“do-it-yourself” home editor hours to read printed manuals and scan online help forums; only to end up no better than when they started. When you have a deadline, time can’t be wasted finding answers. That’s why the editors at Skillman Video Group keep up-to-date and well practiced in the latest editing techniques and usually can end up editing the project in a fraction of the time as a novice, and with far superior results!

Save iMovie for your home videos.

Action!

When a director says “Action” that exactly what he wants to see: Characters with an objective doing things to each other to achieve their objective. Actors think in these terms. What am I trying to do in this scene? What is my obstacle? Who am I working with or against? Why?

It works the same way in marketing. What are you trying sell? To Whom? Why?  We help answer these questions by developing your content and writing marketing copy – essentially scripting your lines. We also prepare you so that when the camera roles you sound and look confident and natural.

I talked about preparation on our blog. We had one interviewee struggling to get through her prepared lines. We suggested that she imagine that she was meeting Christina Skillman, our director, at a networking event, and that the client had to convince her to join the company in under a minute. It was a familiar scenario for the interviewee. When she thought in those objective-based terms her delivery was so natural and convincing Christina was ready to submit her resume.

That’s the kind of performance tweak we can suggest to take your video to the next level. Skillman Video Group can also develop content, allowing you to focus on your day-to-day work.

Camera!

How much do you know about: HD, DV, 4-4-4, 7D, 4K, 3300º, 3-2 pulldown, DVX 100, DigiBeta,1080i, 1080p, DSLR, f5.6, hyperfocal distance, 640×480, SECAM and NTSC? It’s not a quiz so you won’t be graded. Luckily professional cameramen do know these things and more.

Cameramen and cinematographers live for technology. I have had lunch with camera departments on film sets and been completely lost in shop talk. I sometimes think camera technology is all they talk about. But that’s exactly what camera operators and cinemetographers have to do: discuss and test new equipment every day. There are at least a dozen magazines for cinematographers and videographers and limitless forums and websites.

Digital video technology changes so often that it’s nearly impossible to keep up, unless it’s your full time job. That’s why production houses like Skillman Video Group exist: so you don’t have to purchase and learn new technology every week. Video experts can choose the most appropriate camera equipment to use for your shoot. Do you want a cinematic look or a TV look? Will you be distributing solely on the web or do you need DVD’s? Skillman Video’s cameramen know their craft and how best to apply their knowledge to your video.

Lights!

This week I thought I would share a little insight about video production that I gained from working for Hollywood and Madison Avenue for a number of years. Lights! Camera! Action!

The difference between the cinema and YouTube is lighting. Okay, there are other differences like wardrobe and make-up and set decoration, but good lighting is the most noticeable. Film cinematographers will spend hours lighting a scene. Watch the night scenes in almost any film and notice how the trees and buildings are all brilliantly lit against the night sky. Every interior light is on. Also notice how shiny the ground is. That’s because the crew wets it down with firehouses, even when there is no rain in the scene. Why? It just looks prettier reflecting the lights.

Most social videos on youtube are lit by the glow of a laptop screen. That’s good enough for amateur purposes. What if your company needs to look professional? You’ll need more lights than just a desk lamp, but not so many that you need to hire a 500KW generator and a crew of 20.

Documentary crews get by with a few small lights and bounce cards. But they still make their work look better than what you see on the web. That’s the kind of lighting we do at Skillman Video Group: simple, elegant, and fast. A simple three or four point lighting scheme not only makes your marketing video look professional, but you have to know how to get it just right. That can only come with practice. Check out some of our behind the scenes pictures on flickr to see our lighting setups in operation.

Four Reasons To Make A Social Video (Part Two)

Last time I suggested that you can reach a new audience with a social video and that showing your face on the web could create trust. Why else would you want to make a social marketing video?

Reason #3: Show, Don’t Tell

So you’ve advertised your service on your website, and boasted your daily achievements in your blog, and pitched at sales meetings. Maybe you feel like your potential customers and client still aren’t seeing your company’s work. If only you could show them somehow…

Video is a visual medium where you can SHOW not just talk about your company. With a 10-second shot you can tell your audience more about what you do than you can in a 10 minute pitch. For example you can show how students learn at your school instead of writing a book on it. Or you can show how to fix a window instead of writing a manual.

When you talk about data, and figures, and numbers to a client don’t you use charts and graphs? Why not use video when talking about your work? A video is worth  thousand words.

Reason #4: Fun

Making Videos is fun. Our clients always have a good time. It a pleasant change of pace from their usual work day. It also allows them to be creative in new ways by brainstorming story ideas, writing pitches, etc. Even the most awkward, camera-shy people are surprised to see that it’s not that hard to appear on-screen.

Some of our clients have used blooper reels from our productions at company events and given awards to their best on-screen talent. Call Skillman Video Group and let us help you take a break from work while marketing your company.

Four Reasons To Make A Social Video (Part One)

I am guessing that you are among the 200 million monthly viewers of watch video on the web. You have probably noticed that everyday more companies are posting video content. It’s become a powerful tool for marketing more than just deodorant. Are you missing out on video marketing? If you have your doubts about creating social videos for your company, read on.

Reason #1 – A Massive Audience

In the first quarter of 2011 there were 800 Million views of branded videos. If you are not producing at least a couple of your own branded videos, then you aren’t taking advantage of that potential audience. Even if you do B2B work or other specialty services and products, there is an audience out there that you aren’t reaching. If your video is only targeted at a small audience that’s even better. You might only get a 1000 views (which is minuscule compared to Rebecca Black), but more of those 1000 viewers will be interested in your company because you are speaking directly to their interests.

Are you attracting the best candidates for jobs? Are there B2B customers you haven’t tapped yet? Are your lectures being seen online? A few targeted video efforts will win you a valuable piece of the 800 million views.

Reason #2 – A Friendly Face

If you still shop at the Ma-And-Pop Hardware store down the street instead of the city-sized Lowes in the minimall, you know that seeing familiar, friendly faces is worth more to you than a President’s Day Sale and self scan checkout. The same logic applies to your potential B2B customers, recruits, students, and so on. How can you give them the feeling of a face-to-face interaction at a neighborhood store when you are 2000 miles apart?

Try a video. Introduce yourself. Talk about what you do. Tell your audience how you can help them. Be personable. Skillman Video Group can make it easy for you.

If you help someone fix a window with a free online video, they will come back to you for a number of related  services. If ten companies have a website advertising their services, but only one includes an approachable, helpful, honest person on video, that company is going to get the business.

We’ll discuss two more reasons for you next time, if you still need convincing.

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