The Art of Story Telling through Video

As we mentioned in our last post, Skillman Video Group was recently hired to produce a marketing video for the Boston area non-profit, Teacher’s21.  After what we call “the  discovery process” which involves hours of on-site interviews and studying the client’s printed material (if pertinent) or other information, the producers at SVG will start the “pre-production” phase of developing the script. This phase is crucial for the success of the video project and will set the entire process on a good foundation that will ensure excellence in the finished product. It is during this phase of production where we take the massive block of information obtained at the discovery meeting and slowly but surely chisel it down as the video starts to take shape.

Next SVG successfully spent two days on location, 1st interviewing the “Aspiring Principals” (or participants in the program) at Teacher21′s offices in Wellesly MA, and the 2nd day visiting 2 schools in the Boston area where the Aspiring Principals are being apprenticed. To help tell the story visually, SVG wanted to capture the program in action so the viewers would have a sense for how it operates.  In addition to shooting the Aspiring Principals in their day to day activities, we had the opportunity to interview the Schools’ current Head Principals on how the program has benefitted them personally, which we thought was a key perspective in the video’s message.

Currently the project is in post-production where SVG’s  editors are working collaboratively with Teacher21′s staff to produce a  video that will tell their story effectively and powerfully…in as little time as possible (a key to successful video marketing).    It is a time consuming process to edit down hours of footage and can be difficult to choose which sound bites are the best of the best.  However, this editing process is ultimately where the story – once and for all – comes together.  Have a story worth telling?  Call SVG today to see how our video marketing services can be of use to your company or organization!

Green Screen Shoots Revisited: What You Can Do With Green Screen Footage

Earlier this week we posted about a green screen shoot Skillman Video Group executed for Salt PR. We touched briefly upon the application of green screens, how they are becoming more the norm for current web based video production, as well as how essential it is to properly set up a green screen shoot. That being said, it only makes sense that we would actually show you some finished content to give you a better idea of what you can do with green screen footage.

 

In the video provided, we see a short clip (a small segment from the shoot earlier this week in fact!) that utilizes the Chroma Key editing features of Final Cut X. The first example is the basic footage, unedited. The next clip is that same footage, but with a background that has been “keyed out” (replaced for something else). The following clip is the original footage, this time with moving backgrounds, presenting a Ken Burns like effect. Moving forward, we have a “lower third” version of the segment, in which we reduced the size of our subject and added a subtitle. This particular style is similar to many documentaries or commercials you may see today. The last alteration is the lower third version once more, only this time over additional video footage – more structured like a newsworthy video piece.

It really is quite amazing how versatile your production can become when adding the element of green screen footage. Rather than just “talking to the camera,” we have a more engaging, vivid piece that pulls audiences in, allowing for a clearer message. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you can do with a green screen.

Do you have questions on how to make your next green screen shoot with Skillman Video Group? Let us know below! Or contact us by clicking here!

Add energy to marketing videos with motion graphics

Here at Skillman Video Group we know the importance of social video marketing, the convergence of video marketed on a business’s social media sites paired with search engine optimization. Keeping websites current with engaging content is what gets customers interested in products and services.  Adding motion graphics to videos or websites offers even more opportunities for companies to get their messages across in a more informative way.

Motion graphics are graphics that use video and/or animations to create the illusion of motion or a transforming appearance. The name may not be familiar but the concept definitely is.  Motion graphics appear in everything from title sequences to commercials to logos for tv channels and live sports games. More and more video production companies are utilizing them in their videos for their ability to deliver information in a fun, exciting, and fast way.  Skilled professionals are required to make these static images come to life. In most cases, they are creating something extraordinary out of nothing using computer animation programs like Adobe Aftereffects or Apple’s Motion.

Motion graphics can be just what your video needs to create that extra bit of inspiration or to make your website more memorable.

 

Why video editing is important

There are many factors that go in to creating the perfect marketing video. Having an intelligent script, skillful camera and audio work, and seasoned producing and directing are crucial aspects to making a marketing video successful.  But perhaps the most important piece, the place where all of this comes together to form a coherent story is during the editing process.  In the last post, the technical aspects of editing were analyzed including the software.  The other side to editing also needs attention, the side that should be considered an art form. When combining the technical knowledge and skill with creativity and craftsmanship, the choices editors make can affect the overall tone of the piece and what emotions they want to evoke, create rhythm and timing, and transform the raw material into a cohesive final product.

For Skillman Video Group, editing is where the footage we shoot is molded into a story.  It is important to realize what you are trying to convey with your video and after revisiting the initial script, editing lets you trim the information into a concise and clear message.  Working with many different types of clients with varying needs, our videos are tailor made to fit the style and intentions of those that use our services. SVG strives to create unique and exciting videos that will entice customers to believe in your company.

If your company is looking to produce a marketing video or you have footage that needs to be edited, give Skillman Video Group a call.

Flash mob viral video marketing continues to thrive and evolve with success

Next week, Skillman Video Group is set to film a flash mob set up by a local non-profit.  Since its inception in 2003, flash mobs have been entertaining unsuspecting passersby with their spontaneous yet organized public group performances, usually involving dancing and singing.  Because of the amount of coordinating and planning that goes into it through social media and email, most of these occurrences are filmed and made into short videos, which most often go viral.  The fun is in watching the confused people who stare dumbfounded by what is before them and the increasing delight that appears on their faces as they realize what is going on. For this reason, flash mob videos make for great marketing vehicles for businesses selling a product or creating awareness for their company.

From T-Mobile’s song and dance numbers in Liverpool and Trafalgar train stations followed by Heathrow airport in 2010, to Delta and Southwest airport outbursts in 2011, to Finnair’s dancing flight attendants in celebration of an Indian holiday on a flight to that country in 2012, major companies have made these musical flash mobs a part of their marketing campaigns. This guerilla style advertising approach has grabbed the attention of many consumer and social media companies who see its significance for a successful ad campaign and have realized the excellent potential of public stunts to increase word of mouth tracking rates. Like any trend, the flash mob concept has evolved but continues to be relevant even by the internet community’s discerning standards, the main target audience for these videos. More recently, companies have used the large group performing in public framework and taken it to a different level.  The Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra played an impromptu concert to amused subway riders to promote a local radio station and Tic Tac’s unique “Death” shows a whole city center ‘dying’ after smelling the breath of a passerby.  All of these videos have gone insanely viral, and have been successful as part of their video marketing campaigns in terms of revenue.  T-Mobile showed a 52% increase in sales from their first Liverpool video and a 129% return-on-investment from the second.

It’s no secret that flash mobs are effective for video marketing, and that they are no easy feat with the weeks of planning and gathering of participants and talent and precision of camerawork and audio, the payoff is even sweeter.  In fact, they are so popular that Flash Mob America, a full service flash mob production company, exists and has an impressive client list like BMW, Dell, and ABC. Flash mobs are infectious fun and with businesses conceiving clever, original videos all the time, you never know if you may one day be that unsuspecting passerby.

Google Penguin ruffles the feathers of businesses that practice bad SEO

There has been a bit of a shake up for businesses that rely on Google rankings to thrive.  With the release Penguin, Google’s newest algorithm update, the search engine is looking to decrease spam on the web and foil those who use shady SEO practices.  This is Google’s biggest update that focuses on offsite factors such as link spam, a way to artificially inflate page ranking with links between pages that have no relevance to that pages subject matter. This includes improper keywording, buying links from other websites, building a link network or link farm and various other nefarious schemes. Link spamming is cheating the system, giving you fast results but without a long term outlook for your website.  Now that Google is cracking down on this type of behavior, many sites are feeling the heat while businesses that use proper SEO are benefiting from their losses.

SEO is part of the constantly changing field of internet marketing but a few factors remain the same for achieving success: keep your site current with relevant and engaging content with regular blog posts, social media updates, and video marketing.  Making the site look fresh and aesthetically pleasing while being easily navigable is essential as well.  While this method takes time and hard work, if done properly, it will pay off in the end.

Skillman Video Group puts in this effort and it shows. Our last three new clients found us through a Google search of video production companies in Boston and Somerville. Our search engine relevance combined with our thorough and comprehensive website featuring a portfolio of past work and our unique approach to social video marketing, urged these customers to pick up the phone and hire us for our services. The hardest part of internet marketing is being noticed in sea of competitors.  SVG’s proven SEO strategies can be applied to your business’s marketing module and will be done the right, and most effective, way.

New video mobile apps give businesses video marketing campaigns a chance for more viewers

Creating the hottest phone app is the ultimate dream for programmers and entrepreneurs, like the inventors of the photo-sharing app Instagram that was recently bought by Facebook for $1 billion. Hoping to be the next Instagram are two apps that use video as their sharing medium, SocialCam and Viddy. These two apps open up another realm in the social media world that businesses need to get involved in for video marketing purposes. While both apps can be accessed through their online sites, the bulk of their content sharing and users will be through their mobile apps. More and more, social media sites are being visited through mobile devices rather then computers, and businesses are jumping on this bandwagon. According to blog Ad Age Digital, SocialCam “operates like a mini social network for videos. The more than 50 million monthly active users can record videos from their mobile phones or upload existing videos, add filters or soundtracks, and consume and comment on other users’ videos”. Big businesses like General Electric and PepsiCo have their own pages on SocialCam and have begun uploading videos.

Viddy, which has been around longer, has slightly less users (36 million), and limits the videos that you record to just 15 seconds. This is less helpful for businesses to promote themselves but perhaps this will prove successful for some who are up to the task and can take advantage of the short attention spans of some viewers.

We are now in the age where user generated content is extremely popular almost overwhelmingly so. Every person with a phone can produce content for the world to see. While the internet is saturated with video content, it is a struggle to find the best. Hiring a professional video production company can provide your business with what an amateur cannot. Not only are our technical skills top notch, we use state of the art equipment and our filmmaking backgrounds provide years of expertise, but fundamentally we at Skillman Video Group are storytellers. We will take your provided raw material and transform it into a script, shoot it, and edit it until it is sculpted into a piece that represents your business.

It’s hard to keep up marketing your business nowadays with all these places on the internet constantly popping up. Even though it is a lot of work, it is important to frequently update all of your websites, blogs, and social media platforms with fresh content and join new ones when they come along.

YouTube vs. Vimeo for Video Marketing

Video is a key component to marketing your business.  Now that you have hired a professional video production company like Skillman Video Group to produce high quality marketing videos, product videos, or a video lecture seriesfor your business, the next step is to put those videos online.  Choosing the right video hosting site is important and many factors need to be taken into consideration such as exposure, viewing quality of your videos, ease of use, and cost.  Easily the two most popular and effective sites are YouTube and Vimeo. Both have their pros and cons, and exploring these attributes is important to achieve the greatest success.

YouTube is the web’s video juggernaut with one hour of video uploaded every second, over 4 billion videos viewed per day, and 800 million unique users visited each month. These stats blow Vimeo out of the water with their unique visitors only reaching 64 million for the entire year (November 2010 to November 2011). Vimeo’s growth in membership for the year increased by 82% from 5 million to 9.1 million, which is nothing to sneeze at, and 2011 was their biggest year yet.  In terms of search results and SEO, one of the most deciding factors for internet video marketing, YouTube videos will most always appear before Vimeo videos. It’s no coincidence that Google owns YouTube and both take two of the top three spots for most visited sites on the web. While these stats definitely point to YouTube as the clear winner in the exposure category, other factors have to be taken into consideration before this fight can end.

The difference in these hosting sites is actually quite vast and depends on what you are trying to market and whom you are marketing towards.  YouTube caters to everyone and everything, virtually having no restrictions on content and as a free account you can upload as many videos as you want that are less than 15 minutes each (longer if you have had an account for a while and are in good standing).  Vimeo is more particular, they do not allow any commercial content, no copy written movies or tv shows, only content created by the user and cater to filmmakers and creative people.  The free basic account allows uploading of 500 mb per week and upgrading to the Plus account gives you 5 gb a week plus no banner ads on your videos. This also includes priority uploading, unlimited HD uploading, full customization of the video player for branding, and analytics for your videos, all for $60 a year. For businesses, here is the most important fine print- Vimeo only will allow marketing for products and services on their Plus accounts, which will set you back $200 a year. The look of your personal page and quality of videos is very sleek and professional however compared to the busy clutter of YouTube. The ability to get rid of ads is also a huge plus for Vimeo and beats YouTube’s annoying pop-up ads that will most likely feature your competitors on your videos.

In conclusion, both hosting sites offer businesses great ways to market themselves and the ability to embed their videos on their own websites.  While quality and customization go to Vimeo, cost and exposure fall to YouTube.  The deciding factor must be in choosing what is right for YOUR business. If you can’t decide then it doesn’t hurt to use both!

 

 

You Have the Right to an Attorney: Expertise video shoot with attorney Michael DelSignore

Recently, Skillman Video Group shot an array of “expertise” videos starring client Michael DelSignore, a Boston criminal defense attorney. The shoot took place at our studio location in Chelsea, MA.  Michael, who also hired SVG to produce a videomercial for his Criminal Defense law practice, knows the importance of his business having a strong web presence. Unsatisfied with the videos he shot himself for his website, he found SVG via a Google search and made the wise decision of hiring a professional video production company that is experienced in law firm marketing. Michael’s needs were on par with the type of service that SVG provides its clients- producing videos that draw customers to your business through the use of video marketing, social media and SEO. With an unprecedented number of lawyers in the US today, standing out as top notch can be difficult. It is crucial that people find your business first when searching online and this is why SEO is so imperative.

Shooting the videomercial with SVG was a great first step for getting customers to Michael’s website.  The  short 2-minute marketing video we produced gives the viewer an immediate and visceral experience on how their needs can be met through his services and expertise.  In addition to the videomercial, Michael also wanted an array of videos that would be concise yet informative for clients who needed legal representation after an OUI (Operating Under the Influence) arrest.  Collaborating creatively with SVG’s creative team, this info came in the form of seven individual 1-2 minute expertise videos explaining such things like where to go and what to do at your arraignment, to demonstrating the faults of the field sobriety tests.  Michael is clearly passionate about practicing law, which is why he chose to market his skills using video.  SVG is there to help customers and businesses meet in the most efficient way possible, by using the combined power of video, SEO and social marketing.

Traveling with Classical Pursuits: The Pursuit of a Great Video

Skillman Video Group had the pleasure of traveling to Key West Florida with Classical Pursuits, a travel group that shares the unique experience of learning about the culture of a place from the locals, and developing a dialogue based on books relevant to that culture. SVG was hired to produce a promotional video for the travel company during their most recent trip to Key West.  This particular group discussed books in several settings, including outside at the famed literary hotel, La Concha, the lush Audubon House downtown, and a sailboat at sea.

We moved around with the friendly group while they trekked down the bright streets of Key West, getting to know the local cuisine, historic landmarks, theaters, and hidden gems. Famous for its authentic connection to the local people, we joined the Classical Pursuits group at a friend’s home. There, we set up our tripod and camera for video testimonials in which members spouted off their favorite things about Classical Pursuits trips, like: the comfortable environment, the inspiriting book discussions, and the wonderful new friendships that blossom.

As we captured the Classical Pursuits Key West travel group’s most intimate thoughts and activities, we felt a part of the adventure. Our video production company’s attention to detail and careful appreciation for a client’s mission produces tour company travel videos that are compelling and beautiful.  Please watch the final video below and contact us today how SVG can produce a promotional video for your company!

 

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