Discussion and Commentary on Commercial Video Productions

M-1 Studios was proud to be the Official Video Sponsor of the Motown Winterblast 2012 held in Campus Martius Park last weekend in Detroit. Great weekend weather was a part of the local food offerings, live entertainment, ice skating, snowshoeing and even dogsledding this year!

Here’s the promotional commercial we put together for WDIV Local 4 / Click On Detroit:

M-1 Studios was proud to be a part of the 1st Annual Motown Macdown for Justin’s Vision this December, held at Dino’s Lounge in Ferndale. We put together an opening video segment where we asked all of the participants to give us some more information on what they planned to cook for the big event, while at the same time possibly adding in a little competitive smack talk along the way. Cliff Bell’s, The Rattlesnake Club, Slows To Go, Forest Grill, The Hungry Dudes, and Garden Fresh Gourmet all lent their talents to be a part of what will now be a great annual event to support an important cause in kids’ lives.

Here’s our opening video, as well as the blog entry from Garden Fresh Gourmet that captures a bigger overview of the entire event.

http://blog.gardenfreshsalsa.com/motown-macdown

Thanks to everyone who organized and participated in this event, as well as all of the supporters who came out and enjoyed the amazing mac & cheese offerings. We’ll see you there next year!

M-1 Studios
www.m-1studios.com

At M-1 Studios, efficient and effective video productions from script to screen for businesses and organizations is our core competency and passion.  In that regard, we’re excited to announce a new organizational partnership, as well as a new employee that will help us carry out this upcoming video production mission.

Jeff Wolka joins us effective November 1st, 2011, as a Video Media Specialist.  In this new role, he’ll be working directly with the Michigan Humane Society to create and edit content for all of their media outlets, including Facebook, Youtube, email newsletters and more to come.  Jeff will join the Detroit MHS shelter team in carrying out this position.

To keep up with the latest news & updates from the Michigan Humane Society, check out their Facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/michiganhumane

You could walk down the street up to a total stranger, and say to them “A picture is worth…” and they wouldn’t have to even be prompted to finish the saying “…a thousand words”.

But if you went up to that same person on the street and said to them “A video is worth…” you’d probably get a blank stare back (or maybe worse) in response.

Let’s think about the “picture” saying for a minute.  To define it means rather than I tell you a story about something, I’m going to draw a picture to describe it.  Or rather than I describe something to you, I show you a picture that lets you see what condition a product is in.  Or rather than I tell you about how someone feels, I show you a picture of them showing a clearly defined emotion on their face, or through their actions.

I’m sure you’ve even heard jokes rather than having to read something, someone will say why don’t you just “draw me a picture”.

Since a video production is literally a series of moving pictures, its too easy to say a video is “worth a thousand pictures”.  Or the often proposed “a video is worth a million words”.  Because its more than just words.

A well-produced video can not only just be visually informative, it can take you on a journey to reach a particular destination or conclusion, or make you feel or understand something that you wouldn’t have before you watched it.  Video seeks more than just to show or describe, although those are two very basic and important elements.  A good video can entertain, inform, prompt you into action– think about how you found a funny video online and emailed it or posted it on your Facebook wall.  That video prompted you into action- to share.  And we haven’t even touched on all of the audio elements- voiceover, sound effects, dialogue, music- that add to a production.

With the advent of online video and portable video, we have more options than ever to view video productions, be it from an online video-blog to a short comedy film, to the latest clips and previews from our favorite television shows.  And numerous articles continue to point out the fact that we’ve probably just scratched the surface of the avenues that we’ll be able to access video as we move forward into the future.  And for individuals, videos can hold different meanings and interpretations.

So let’s propose a new saying going forward: “A video is worth…what it means to you (and your customers!)”

– Mike Madigan, Operations Manager, M-1 Studios
http://www.m-1studios.com

http://www.facebook.com/m1studios

Not that this is necessarily a news flash, but with Apple making their “iCloud” announcement this week, the talk of cloud computing and storing all your files/music/video on the “cloud” has once again turned into a hot topic this week online.  Kind of amazing when you think about it, how Apple makes us suddenly care about things so quickly right?  That’s the power of a brand (see my previous blog post).

So the thought is that your laptop, iPhone, iPad, Android epad, or other wireless device will eventually just become a tool for downloading and processing data and information that exists on the “cloud”.  Why hold all of your MP3′s of your songs locally when you can have instant access to them anywhere, from any connected device?  Why save videos of your favorite music videos when you can have instant access to watching the whole movie online via Netflix?

Full disclosure time: being in the video production business, we can never have enough local storage space fast enough when it comes to our production work (Drobos, external hard drives, backup external hard drives off-site, Dropbox online backups just to name a few.)  Our local storage space need grows with every consecutive month, and we need instant local access quickly and efficiently.  “Cloud” computing within the world of video production is a LONG long ways off.

But here’s my problem about “cloud” computing that I can’t quite get over.  I can think of three different places I was at just this week where I couldn’t even get a wireless signal where you would most likely expect one to be.  More people are expecting “Free WiFi” wherever they go (Starbucks is free, finally!) but it just isn’t a reality.  Remember when every local city was going to spend all this money to make sure that every citizen had free wireless access no matter where you were located in any part of the city?  Yeah, that grand plan didn’t quite pan out when cities realized how much money they’d have to spend to create this widespread wireless coverage.  And to purchase a 3G/4G plan for your iPad can get really expensive really quickly.

I can also think of two local places where I was on the phone this week (using what is touted as a very reliable wireless carrier) and my signal totally dropped out.  And that was just a phone call.  Imagine if I’m trying to access my important data and I lose a “signal” and I don’t have that information backed up somewhere locally, what are my other options?

Don’t get me wrong, its great to have your resume, and important files and documents online that you can access from anywhere (look at the success of Google Docs and Dropbox), and also be able to share with others too.  But the US of A just doesn’t have the free wireless utopia that everyone thinks that we do (nor are we willing to pay that much for it either on a monthly basis).  So we’re kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to what I feel will be the 2.0 of cloud computing.

We just might have to be content for now in listening to our music stored locally in the event of a “no wireless signal detected” emergency.

– Mike Madigan, Operations Manager, M-1 Studios / www.m-1studios.com

What comes to mind when you think of a "brand"?

When you hear the word “brand”, what image or words pop first into your mind?  If you’re like me, when you think of a “brand” you associate that term with a larger company or image that’s probably been reinforced by a specific marketing strategy over the years.  Apple, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Pepsi.  And the associated images (or taglines) that go along with those.  When Apple first reinvented themselves (before the iPod) it was “Think Different”.  McDonald’s and “I’m Lovin’ It”.  These marketing campaigns help to establish their respective brands and how you feel as a consumer when you think about these brands, and ultimately how you act toward these brands, i.e. purchasing/using their products and services, and telling your friends you had a positive experience as well.

This is what I’m going to refer to as “Branding 1.0″.  Because usually to establish a brand in the consumer’s mind, that meant an extensive advertising campaign, usually launched on television and then followed up by billboard, print, radio and so on.  For an example of the reach of these campaigns, imagine if the “Big 3″ car companies all of a sudden decided tomorrow that they weren’t going to run any television ads at all just on CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox.  Those four networks alone would be so devastated by the sheer loss of this advertising (automotive is still a very coveted advertising bracket) they’d have to rethink their whole business plan of how to operate going forward.

What’s exciting is now we’re in the era of “Branding 2.0″.  It started with websites, and movements like bands being their own record label and authors being their own publishers.  For an example of this check out the Time cover article on Stephen King back in 2000 ( http://ti.me/6Ldh9F ), and Time’s Person of the Year as “YOU” in 2006 ( http://ti.me/vK5y ).  You’re in charge of shaping your brand, what people think of it and how they use/react to it, as long as they can find you and your stakeout online (an important element).  Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails can give away one of his latest songs as an MP3 and receive a lot more downloads than a band that you haven’t heard of before.  So the “reach” becomes important as you establish your own brand.

How quaint the Time article from 2006 reads now when you think about the Facebook, Youtube and Twitter popularity explosion that has happened just over the last two years up to this point.  Now more than ever, companies have an entirely new set of outlets (Facebook updates, online video segments) to establish their brand without having to launch a multi-million dollar ad campaign.  And the potential for “reach” becomes greater as word-of-mouth popularity moves from telling your friends in person to telling your friends online.  And who’s to say what’s next in the online world that will work toward the development of a brand and a marketing message in a way that we haven’t even thought of yet?  Maybe that’s “Branding 3.0″.

But for now, the excitement of “Branding 2.0″ is here.  It just all depends on how you develop, market and best fit it for your own “brand”, be it yourself, a company or product, a cause, or a non-profit organization.  – by Mike Madigan, M-1 Studios

Whenever we’re talking about a potential video production, one of the strongest concepts that we convey is that with video, you’re not just “telling” someone about your product, business or service (via text online), you’re showing it to them. Whether “showing” that’s through a product demonstration, customer testimonials, or a review of a service process- its the VISUAL elements (along with music, dialogue and voiceover) that help to convey a marketing message in a way that stands out from the crowd.

When I worked in the auto industry (during the brunt of economic downturn), many news articles lamented at the time how the car companies were trying to “one-up” each other on who could offer the biggest rebates for their particular brands. The thought was that there were so many ongoing rebate deals, that soon rebates would become an expected part of the overall car-buying process (you can trace the real beginning back to when GM offered the “Keep America Rolling” campaign and rebates right after Sept. 11, 2001 to spur sales). And for the most part that prediction has come true- when you go to a car dealership looking to purchase a new car, one of the first thoughts you have is what is the rebate that they might be offering this month on this model.

Now we’re seeing what could easily be described as an explosion of “half-off” websites devoted to the art of the deal, aka half-off (or another amount off as a percentage) to try a restaurant, or a service, or tickets to a performance and so on. Just off the top of my head I can name Groupon, LivingSocial, Half Off Depot (Detroit), Fox 2 in Detroit, Hour Detroit Magazine online, and new to the national game Townhog.com, AT&T / yp.com and Google Offers (beta). What is interesting about these B2C website services (and they’re all proving to be very successful so far in terms of achieving the number of sales to get the deal) is that one of their main selling points is bringing in new customers that otherwise might not have stopped by to buy/try your product or service out.

However, none of these sites have much about the particular Company’s product or service besides usually one or two pictures, some text describing the deal and the Company, and maybe a comment board where people can ask more specific questions about the deal. None of these sites employ video as a means of further describing a Company’s product or service. Some of which makes sense since a high-quality video production takes time to produce, and these sites are offering deals on an almost-daily basis.  But could this help in terms of learning more about a business, product or service that you don’t know too much about, and could it influence your purchase?

Granted the advertisements touting sales in your local Sunday newspaper aren’t overly interactive either vs. having video content, but we’re talking strictly on an online basis here.

Therefore, one hypothesis we can make is that people who respond to these deals may not be responding based on the product or service or learning more about the Company and what’s being offered, but because they’re getting a deal that they didn’t have before, or wasn’t offered before. Which of course makes sense- as a society, we love deals, coupons, getting a good rate on our auto insurance, all these things!  And we feel good when we get the sense that we’re saving money on something (think of the logic how itunes is 0.99 cents a song, not $1.00 even though its a penny).

And it’s worth noting that there’s been many local companies that have had great success stories with their online offerings, generating new business and new customers stopping by that hadn’t before.

But I’m just wondering, does this mean that we’ll turn into an “online society” that waits for the next big “deal” for something vs. supporting the businesses and products that we really want and enjoy? And in supporting and enjoying these products and services, we’re rewarded as customers with deals and special sales vs. trying to pull in new customers that might not be as loyal to what’s being offered/sold.

At some point with the explosion of all these sites, there’s only so many deals to businesses that can be offered before the game of supply and demand kicks in.  Will parts of the service industry turn into the auto industry, where the “deal” is always expected? And if there isn’t a deal, there won’t be a purchase? And how will that affect these companies moving forward?

Maybe a somewhat big leap of logic, but interesting to think about as these service-based websites develop and grow.

- Mike Madigan, Operations Manager, M-1 Studios

By Mike Madigan

So let’s say that you’re planning a wedding and you’re looking for a florist that will be able to help you out.  Answer this multiple choice question below.  When you first decide you want to try to find a florist in your area, do you:

A. Pick up and look through the Yellow Pages
B. Do a search on Google for local florists in your area that specialize in weddings
C. Review wedding-specific websites like TheKnot.com for recommendations
D. Search on Facebook for local florists’ facebook fan pages and read what people are saying about their services
E. Ask your friend who just got married who they went with, research about them online, and then give them a call

Sorry, this was a trick question!    I bet you chose one or more of the answers above, except for the letter “A”.  The reality is- we don’t use the big paper Yellow Pages books anymore when we go looking for products or services that fit a particular need we want- we jump on the Internet first thing and start searching (Google, Bing, even Youtube!).

When's the last time you looked up a business in the yellow pages?

Right now outside of my main apartment door, there’s huge stacks of lonely Yellow Pages books, just sitting there waiting for the residents to come and pick up a copy.  And I bet you that in about two weeks the cleaning service will be by to throw them all away because nobody picked them up (hopefully they’ll recycle them!)

The reason I say all this is because in just the last couple of weeks, we’ve been contacted by two different agencies touting their “paper” versions of Yellow Page-like books specifically for businesses.  And we’ve politely had to decline even though we were told we were doing ourselves a big disservice by not being in these directories.  But guess how clients and customers many times find out about us?  By the same way you came across reading our blog- by finding us online.

Now I should say that there are groups that we belong to that create directories just for their members.  And that’s a great service, because as members ourselves, we get a benefit out of both being in these directories and looking for others in them.

And as part of our membership, these directories are online as well for us to use.  But that’s why we pay for a membership- it’s a benefit to us.

The morale of today’s story: Yellow Pages are dead.  Along with their business-related pop-ups that still exist and attempt to be “relevant”.  It’s called Google now.

Full disclosure: Blumz by JRDesigns is one of our social media video clients.  They are an excellent example of using direct interaction with their customers on their Facebook page.  And new customers that find them online see other people’s recommendations.  Can you get that from the Yellow Pages??

http://www.facebook.com/Blumz

The first correct commenter wins a $25 gift certificate to Dino’s Lounge courtesy M-1 Studios.

Rules: contest closes Dec 24, 5pm; only those able to pick up their prize in person are eligible; the correct comment must be posted here on this blog entry; no family relations or employees of M-1 Studios or Dino’s Lounge are eligible- ’cause c’mon, really.

Ok… triva time.

The following is an extra social media video we did for Dino. We had already shot what we needed for the month and we were feeling creative so we decided to come up with something to ad lib.

This little ad-libbed scene is a mix between TWO gangster movies. One is, obviously, The Godfather. What is the other influencing movie?

Hint #1: The other movie could be considered a cop movie as well.

Hint #2: Pay attention to what Dino is doing in the scene, as it is similar to a specific scene in the other movie.

Update! WINNER: April Wolak of Centerline won with the correct guess: The Departed

Here is an edited version of the scene that Hint #2 is getting at:

by Rob Gulley

I tried so hard to not open this up with some tired cliché.

When life hands you lemons…

No use crying over spilled milk…

It’s a Christmas miracle!

So we’re going to pretend I’m actually good at introductory material. Moving on-

We’re excited and proud to now be working with Blumz by JRDesigns of Detroit and Ferndale.

During our first shoot for their December Social Media videos, one of the model christmas trees they’d just decorated for use in the videos accidentally fell over:

…and blew up into a million pieces:

We capitalized on the moment and shot this video of Jerome Raska, one of the owners, improvising instead:

Sometimes you just gotta play the cards you’re dealt! quit while you’re ahead, eh?

Check out the rest of what we do monthly for Blumz at their facebook fan page!

Check us out at www.m-1studios.com or on our facebook page.