I’ve heard the question a thousand times over the past few years when speaking to businesses about their online video strategy, “Where do I get premium, high quality content for my audience?” This is the critical piece of the puzzle that will help redefine online video in the coming years. There are businesses that offer this kind of content, like AOL and Yahoo! which offer online news as well as the traditional TV bureaus. However, these options can be low quality, limiting, and expensive.
Enter the recently launched NetGreen News, which focuses on delivering daily headline news covering the environment, the emergence of the clean industrial revolution, healthy eating, and Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability (LOHAS). The idea is to provide premium 1080p HD video broadcast news content to online news publishers at an affordable cost (NetGreen News charges by finished delivered minute, with most segments lasting 90 seconds). The company is focusing on something I personally feel is critical to online video: content. Not just any content, but premium, high quality, relevant content. The stories its journalists cover come from both existing print headlines that would benefit from a video version and those that its reporters find on their own. The team has recently expanded their platform to cover all news beats with the recent launch of RealNewsCo. RNC is set up to bring any print headline life with quick turn around and, like NGN, in HD that will play back on any device from mobile to TV.
I took a trip to Eugene, OR to meet with the people behind NetGreen News and RealNewsCo to learn more about their operation. They use a centralized newsroom platform and digital journalists with professional hard drive cameras in the field. This gives the company the ability to deliver news coverage that costs 90% less than most multi-national news broadcasters.
According to the company’s founder and CEO Stanley Fields, “NetGreen News currently produces over 500 broadcast news headlines per-month in stunning HD quality covering the global green and environmental beats. Since September 2010 we have originated over 28 hours of newscasts in 90 second segments (3 headlines) optimized to (work on) any smart phone or mobile device and continue to produce high quality broadcast news everyday.”
The NetGreen News Eugene, OR facility has a very large fiber pipe that ties directly into the backbone of the Internet so they can easily move large volumes of content around the world at a cost that is substantially less than any legacy broadcaster.
It’s an interesting approach to an industry-based challenge. I believe that we’re at a turning point in Online Video. We’ve proven over the past several years that it’s incredibly easy to get video online and business today have over 85 options (OVPs) to choose from to help them do just that. What Online Video has really done is created a need for high-quality, premium content and as a result we’ll start to see some real revenue derived from this type of content.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m a big believer in curated content (see Magnify.net). There’s truly an abundance of great user generated material out there, but there’s a difference between UGC and professionally produced content. Both are critically important to helping businesses realize real value from an online video strategy by increasing user base and stickiness, extending brand, promoting and selling products, and increasing revenues. As we start to see more companies that offer high quality content at more affordable prices, it will become clearer that you no longer have to be CNN or ESPN to garner $50+ CPMs from online video advertising.
Disclosure: I am a recent advisory board member of NetGreen News.
There’s a reason that Sandra Bullock said she always befriends the lighting crew when she starts a movie in her Oscar acceptance speech and it’s because good lighting makes all the difference. Bad lighting can completely change the mood of the video you’re shooting. Lighting is really an art form. The good news is that if you have any kind of photography background lighting might come a bit easier to you. If not, you’re going to have to work at it. Before you can become Sandra Bullock’s BFF on the set, there are a few essentials you need to know about lighting.
Background shots in a video are important and a crucial feature that can be overlooked when starting to shoot video. Whether you’re shooting in a studio, a conference room, or at an off-site location consider what people will be behind the subject. It seems kind of silly to think about when really what you’re thinking about are the shots you need. Yet, in reality a background is what helps highlight the subject and can easily add interest to a video. That said, don’t feel like you need to spend a ton of time on picking a background – especially when you’re shooting on the road. Although, if you’re going to be creating a studio then spend a little bit of time on it and feel free to play around with different backgrounds. Here are a few things to consider when creating a background for online video:
One of the toughest decisions you need to make about shooting video for online distribution is picking a format in which to shoot the video. My answer to this burning question: just get started with what you have access to. Sure, the 
