Entries Tagged 'Video Theory' ↓

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

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

Rob Gulley

Is design different from art?

I watched a presentation this morning by Ed Marsh from Night Cry Graphics, a fantastic graphic design firm in Royal Oak, MI. I distinctly remember one thing he said that got me thinking:

“In art, there is a different message for each person. In design, there is one message for everyone.”

Print graphic design is specific to Ed, but I like that “design” can be a more abstract term. As in, as a producer, we “design” videos. And because it’s within a business context, certainly our goal is to create a singular message that everyone “gets,” not challenge each person with a personal message they have to interpret.

Excuse me for a moment while I mount my high horse and prepare to possibly alienate some of you.

What I find exhausting about art films, that is, films where there is more visual “storytelling” (think Ingmar Bergman or David Lynch) is that it the visual comes at the expense of a discernable plot of a sequence of cause-and-effect events; it is story that forms the psychological basis for interest and entertainment. I’d rather be entertained than challenged (although a calculated mix of the two is fine).

And most mainstream movies-you know, the ones that make billions of dollars combined- try to do the same thing: entertain more and challenge just a little. These movies are designed. People vote with dollar bills, and this is what the people want, apparently.

It’s identical in a business / marketing / advertising video context. Design a single message and reach more people.

I’m such a sell out. If only anti-establishment 15-year-old version of myself could meet me now. *stuffs butter and popcorn into face*