Behind the Scenes at SVG: Editing

“You make three films. There’s the film you write, the film you shoot, and the film you edit.”

-Ancient Filmmaking Proverb

Shooting a video or film is unglamorous. It is an inherently structered, regimented, slow, and tedious process. On set you aren’t creating, just following the instructions laid out in the script: a shot from this angle, a line from that actor. The real creative inspiration comes from the writers, while questions of structure, pace, and taste go to the editors.

Imagine: the writer finds the diamond, the director digs it up, and the editor cuts to find the natural beauty. It’s much the same for social video marketing as it is for film.

We shot our own video commercial a few weeks back. You can read about the shoot here. On set we worked to cover the angles and actions laid out in the script. Apart from lighting, however, there was very little creative energy. Putting the pieces of the puzzle we shot together in the editing room, however, proved to be great creative fun.

The first thing I noticed, after the painful transcoding and backing up process, is how many things we shot that didn’t work. Sometimes it’s continuity, sound, framing, performance, etc. Most of the time it’s pacing, especially in a marketing video. You only have a couple minutes to hook your viewer and tell a story; beyond that you bore them, especially in the age of countless kitten video distractions. I started with a three minute cut and struggled to trim it to a taught two minutes two seconds at a time. the cuts always seemed to be my favorite shots. They just didn’t fit when I reduced the piece to it’s essential parts.

Perhaps I’ll come up with a 3 minute “Directors Cut Special Edition.” Then again, the edited film is better than the ones I wrote and shot. The boundary of running time helped.

This is why SVG shoots so much footage for our clients. We want to bring many pieces to the editing room so we can use only the best and most essential ones in our final cut. We spent two days shooting at the Al Huda Society and boiled the footage down to two minutes. Don’t be surprised when something we shoot for your company doesn’t make the cut.

With Non-Linear Editing technology powerful enough to do almost anything, the artistic choices an editor has are nearly limitless. (If you want to see that power used poorly check out this behind the scenes video of the first Star Wars prequel.) Then there is sound editing, mixing, and visual effects. You can do anything you want nowadays, but it’s often best to stay within boundaries.

That’s why production companies like SVG exist: To collaborate with clients on branding and content, go through the process of shooting, and craft everything into a cohesive, snappy social video.  That’s in addition to technical editing expertise with encoding for the web, uploading with a CMS, printing DVD’s, and so on. We have the experience and expertise to quickly turnaround a final cut.

I’ve hardly scratched the surface here, but I thought I’d share some of our experience editing at SVG.

UPDATE: Watch our new Videomercial on Youtube.

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.

Lecture Video Series from SVG

With our ever-shorter attention spans, why would anyone make a 45-minute web video? “Shorter is better” has become a cliché in online video marketing. But SVG and Hebrew at the Center think long videos can work in education settings, which is why we keep working together on lecture videos.

So does TED.

TED started as a exclusive lecture conference selling tickets for £3000-£4000, a price tag so exclusionary as contradict their mission of spreading good ideas. When they posted their lectures online 2006 they gained 500 million viewers in just two years. Millions want the in-depth content that a longer video contains.

That’s the kind of audience you could reach if you take your lectures out of the classroom and onto the web. Not only could you deliver educational content to a limitless audience, but the exposure would be a valuable tool for fundraising efforts.

That is why Hebrew at the Center keeps coming to Skillman Video Group. We shoot lectures for the organization that they use in classroom and online settings as part of their educational efforts. The 40-minute videos deliver lessons on Hebrew that can be distributed on the web or with DVD to supplement other educational materials. The videos also work as fundraising tools by increasing awareness and demonstrating HATC’s commitment to and expertise in Hebrew education.

HATC is now talking to SVG about shooting some shorter marketing videos showing students of their program. Follow our RSS feed to hear more about our work with education and fundraising campaigns. Check out our portfolio for examples of how your organization can use long form education videos.

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.

How can shooting on a DSLR boost your marketing video?

Last month on our blog I talked about why Skillman Video Group embraces trends and developments in camera technology. A major trend in videography in the past two years has been the adoption of DSLR’s. Cannon, and others, have produced still cameras capable of capturing 1080P hi-def video. The quality of the video is so great that many videographers, marketers, students, and filmmakers started using them for all manner of projects that the manufacturers hadn’t anticipated. SVG has caught the bug and and we used a Cannon 7D the Hebrew at the Center  video. What a difference it made! Our client received a high quality, cinematic-looking  video.

There are many excellent examples of the high quality image of the 7D here, here, here, and here. The difference in quality compared to a camcorder might not be immediately noticeable, but here are a few comparisons of DSLR vs. HD camcorders. Hebrew at the Center loved SVG’s DSLR footage, which made their video surpass their previous camcorder shoots.

What makes the DSLR image so great, so much more cinematic? Shallow depth of field. Motion picture film and still photographs often have a very shallow depth of field, which means that only certain objects are in focus while the background and even foreground objects are blurred. It focuses the viewer’s attention to the important parts of a shot and closely resembles how our eyes perceive the world. Camcorders, on the other hand, just look unnaturally sharp. This is one reason why your home videos never look as good as your grandparents 8mm home movies. Some also laud the colors, contrast, full frame image of DSLR’s, but the depth of field is the most noticeable difference.

DSLR’s still have a long way to go: they lack stereo audio capture, lack power zoom, lack zebra patterns, poor low-light performance, require expensive cumbersome rigs, inefficient or difficult to use codecs, etc. The lenses, essential to the depth of field, and rigs often cost more than the camera itself, but as more videographers have used them, manufacturers and third parties have found solutions.

If you want a cinematic looking marketing video a DSLR, like our 7D, is definitely your best option. A DSLR will make your social video look more professional and stand out.

Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing by Neil Saviano

By Guest Contributor Neil Saviano of CRM Boston.

As many businesses keep working with traditional outbound sales and marketing strategies to find new customers, they need to take a step back and find out if it’s really working!  They need to start measuring the return of the “old” tried and true tactics such as outbound cold calls, telemarketing from prospect lists, email blasts and trade shows.  Most will find out that success rates are really down.

Why? Prospects block out these tactics with tools such as caller ID, spam filtering and voice mail-to name a few.  Cold calling in an office building in any city is now almost nonexistent!  Sales people need to get by security-and they’re not getting by unless they have an appointment.  Let’s face it-prospective customers look at these traditional outbound marketing tactics as an intrusion.

They want you to stop trying to find them!!  They want to find YOU when they’re ready!!

Inbound marketing such as the program developed by Skillman Video Group called “Social Video Marketing“  is rapidly taking over for outbound marketing (cold calling, direct mail etc).  Search engines, blogs and social media put companies in a position to be found.  When this happens, the prospect takes the initiative and they become a “qualified” prospect.  Just ask a sales person about the value of a qualified prospect, and the high rate of conversion to a new customer.  Better yet-ask them how many telemarketing calls it takes and at what cost.
Skillman Video Group’s SEO strategies in their service  Social Video Marketing truly enhance inbound marketing, helping clients get found by search engines, social media sites and blogs that results in more leads.  And it costs substantially lower than outbound marketing such as outsourced call centers or going to distant trade shows.  In some markets the cost of an outside sales call is $150.00 per call!

At CRM Boston we’re excited about our strategic partnership with Skillman Video Group.  We add another whole dimension to inbound marketing by helping clients “take action” on those incoming leads using SugarCRM.

SugarCRM’s functionality creates a lead record, assigns it to a campaign and begins the sales process through automated workflow.  Typical workflow can include an automated email response and a task assigned to a sales person for follow up.  This is sales and marketing automation that includes dashboard graphics and metrics that clients use to measure campaign effectiveness.  Please contact us to learn more about the synergies between exciting new Boston CRM’s programs and Skillman Video Group’s Social Video Marketing service.

Back to School: Marketing Education With Video

This week we shot a marketing video for the Bedford Montessori School. Montessori schools have a unique method for early education that allows students to direct their own learning through practical, one-on-one lessons and group activities. Our crew was impressed by the bright and well behaved children and the patient teachers. One of them even drew pictures for us!

Many parents don’t know this education philosophy and approach exists. The Bedford Montessori School called us because they wanted to reach out to those parents and show them the benefits of their school. Our video will market the school by combining parent and teacher testimonials, with footage of learning activities to illustrate the Montessori method to parents and encourage them to investigate the Bedford school.  It will also publicize the Montessori approach in general to wider public audience generating interest in other towns.

If your school has a unique approach to education they would like to share with parents, give Skillman Video Group a call. We can help you use social video to attract new students and supporters supporting your current outreach and development efforts. Check out one of our past successes in education marketing video.

Behind the Scenes at the “SEO Guru” Shoot!

Earlier this week, the Skillman Video Group crew ventured to the Middlesex Fells Reservation in Medford in order to shoot a humorous video on SEO and social media. The video stars our very own SEO consultant, Francis McGovern, as “the SEO guru,” a mysterious Internet marketing expert who lives in the woods and speaks in riddles. Also featured are our interns, Zack and Eli, as young professionals confounded by the complexities of online marketing. We worked hard, but also took time to have fun and enjoy the beautiful spring weather!

Although the video is clearly meant to be comical, it does exemplify a problem faced by many business owners. Certain aspects of SEO and social media marketing can be complex, especially to those without extensive technology experience and training. SEO consultants or firms may compound this issue by using a lot of industry jargon, rather than taking the time to explain concepts in a clear, non-technical manner. At Skillman Video Group, we pride ourselves not only on our comprehensive Internet marketing knowledge, but also on our ability to elucidate this information for our clients.

Our team of expert editors is currently hard at work perfecting “The SEO Guru.” Stayed tuned to the Inside SVG Blog, as well as to our Facebook and Twitter pages, to be one of the first to see it!

YouTube Aims to Improve Quality of Video Production

Recently, Youtube has gone out and acquired two new companies with the intention of improving the visual quality of the videos that are uploaded to the website. One of these companies is Green Parrot Pictures, an Ireland based business that specializes in improving video quality. Youtube is looking to create a better image from homemade and amateur videos such as for example the ones coming in from Japan recently documenting the wreckage. The service will also help to lower the bandwidth of the videos uploaded.

The other Youtube acquisition is the video production company Next New Networks, which will specialize in helping to improve and accelerate the video production process in order to bring more money to Youtube’s content partners. Youtube’s content partners would include those that have established Youtube channels, which are making money by allowing for display advertisements to be posted next to the videos.

It would appear that through the acquisition of these two companies, Youtube is attempting to create more consistent and quality video channels to compete with media outlets such as cable television and Hulu, which broadcasts high quality video programs. Youtube’s steps toward creating a inexpensive and easier way to create and upload high budget caliber video at a low budget cost is great news for all content creators. It also means that Youtube is investing in the idea that more people will be turning to the internet for their entertainment programming. This is a golden opportunity for a Medium to Small business to  market their product or service using video on the #3 search engine on the web – YouTube.  With their new focus on quality, YouTube is hedging their bets that more and more people will be looking for their entertainment and information from Social Media as opposed to traditional Broadcast or Cable television.  Is your company taking advantage of Social Media and video marketing to their fullest?  At Skillman Video Group, our service Social Video Marketing, uses all aspects of Internet Marketing -  from high quality video to SEO, web design, blogging  and Social Media – to both drive more traffic to your site and then convert those visitors into business prospects.   We have our own Youtube channel, which we continue to grow by posting our high quality videos and directing others to the channel through our various social media outlets.  Ask today how Social Video Marketing can increase business for you!

To see the type of enhancements Green Parrot will provide to Youtube users, follow this link: http://www.greenparrotpictures.com/stabilization.php

Small Businesses and Social Media

On February 22, the Boston Globe’s Metro section featured an article about the impact social media is having with small businesses. The focus was how although some small business owners have not always been very tech-savvy in the past, they can no longer ignore the benefits provided by social media sites such as twitter, facebook, and even foursquare, which allows customers to “check in” wherever they are and send their location out to friends who also use the website. In turn they receive points and promotions for checking in.

The article highlights one company called “Mike’s Automotive Service”, located in Somerville, MA that has always prided itself for being on top of technological trends. They talk about using social media, saying,  “Twitter, Facebook, Groupon—the whole thing has gotten a lot more sophisticated. It’s kind of forcing my hand to get involved.” The point here is that in the next couple of years, small business will have to learn how to use social media to their advantage in order to stay ahead of their competitors. As the owner of Mike’s automotive put it, it will “force their hand”.

It’s also important to note that as these small businesses use social media to drive customers to their website, just getting them there will not be enough. Once more and more businesses discover the power of social media, the playing field will level out and their will need to be other ways to differentiate one company for another. This is where video pays a very important role in site visitor conversion into actual business prospects.  That is why at Skillman Video Group we believe that our service Social Video Marketing will go hand in hand with the rise of social media in the small business community.

Read the entire Boston Globe article here: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/02/22/small_businesses_learn_to_tweet_post_and_blog/

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