Posts Tagged ‘promotional video’

Be An Online Video VIP

April 20th, 2011

OnlineVideo.net is running an online video content contest for all of you video producers out there whom are creating original content that is creative and effective in reaching and informing users. The goal of the VIP (Video In Practice) contest is to reward companies who are harnessing the power on online video as part of their marketing strategy to promote and sell their products. I think this is a brilliant idea as I am both a huge proponent of online video and an online marketer so kudos to the StreamingMedia and OnlineVideo.net teams for coming up with the idea.

There are five categories that businesses can enter based on company size:

  • Small business –fewer than 100 employees
  • Large business- more than 100 employees
  • Local products and services
  • National products and services
  • Nonprofit/Government/Educational/Other organizations

The first round of selections will be narrowed by the general public, then a panel of professional judges will select one winner per category which will be announced on June 13. Submissions will be accepted through May 2, voting on May 9 – 23, and finalists announced (top 3 per category) on May 24.

They’ve already got some slick videos collected, check out these small business submissions, here. To enter your videos you can upload from your computer, submit a URL or post to a third party site like YouTube then email the description and company name to onlinevideo (at) onlinevideo.net.

Winners will receive some impressive (and expensive) software to help them further their video production endeavors including:

  • Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium ($1,699 value)
  • Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 Pro ($299 value)
  • Sorenson Media Squeeze 7 ($799 value)
  • Telestream Wirecast 4.0 ($449 value)
  • Wowza Media Server ($995 value)

Get crackin people, this is a cool contest!

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Lighting for Online Videos: Try not to burn down the house – Shooting Online Video Part 7

July 19th, 2010

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.

Lights can use a lot of power and depending on where you are shooting that can be a problem. When I first got into lighting I went to a video/photo store to get started. I found a sales assistant to help me and started asking questions.

“I’m shooting video and I need to get some lights. I’m not sure what kind.”

He asked, “Where are you shooting?”

My response, “In a house.”

He took me right by all the fancy lights you see on movie sets and straight to light bulbs in a box. I thought to myself, ‘this is soooo not going to work.’ He pulled a few lights (Westcott #0050 50 watt Daylight Balanced Fluorescent Lamps, and Eiko Photo Pro 30 Watt lamps) off the shelf for me and told me they should work fine.

Looking longingly at the fancy lights, I asked, “Really? Why not those lights over there. They seem better.”

His response, “Do you know anything about the wiring where you’re shooting?”

I shook my head ‘no.’ Come on’ I’m not an electrician.

He responded, “Those can fry your electrical system and burn down the house.”

That sounds bad. So I took the lights he recommended and asked about light stands.

He got me some stands and said something sort of surprising, “Next, you should go to Home Depot or a hardware store and get those silver clamp casings. It won’t cost a lot and it will work fine with these lights.”

I thought that sounds a little ghetto, but I was new to lighting and it was a minimal investment to get started. So, I took them, went to the hardware store got what he said, and started messing with the lights when I got home. Actually, turns out not so bad. Yet, still I wanted those crazy big lights. So I learned more and more about lights and now I know why the guy set me up with the ones I have.

First, those big fancy lights can get hot: I, mean, really hot. You should never touch them with your hands. You should use gloves when handling them. One reason is that they’re freaking hot. The next reason is that the oil from your fingers can actually ruin the bulbs. Second, the electricity in the house isn’t configured to support those huge lights and thus can overload a circuit. The other problem with the heat emitted is that the person those lights are focused on is going to start sweating – even start to think they’re getting a tan. I know, I’ve been under those lights a lot. They’re firecracker hot.

In short, most homes can support at least 15 amps. But you don’t see amps on light bulb boxes. Instead you see Watts and Volts. So to find out if you’re going to overload a circuit with your lights, try this equation: Amps = Watts/Volts. In my scenario I have a light that’s 50 Watts and 120 Volts. 50/120 = 0.41 – That’s well in the range of what a house will support. So circuits won’t blow, house won’t burn down. All is good in the world.

Before getting lights find out what your electrical system can support and then you’ll know what to buy. As for those tin covers, apparently they aren’t so ghetto after all. Just about every one I’ve met who does lighting has their own portable lighting kit and what do they have for the light bulb covers? Those tin covers. Why else are they so good to have? Well, they have clips on them so you can clip them to just about anything and you’ll be surprised how much this comes in handy.

Read all previous parts to this ongoing series, Shooting Online Video:

Part 6 – Camera Settings

Part 5 – Backgrounds

Part 4 – Lighting And Content

Part 3 – Picking A Camera

Part 2 – SD or HD

Part 1 – Just Do It!

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Lighting and Content – Shooting Online Video Part 4

May 27th, 2010

Now you have your camera. You’re going to need lights, backdrop and something to shoot. That sounds like a lot more to do, but the good news is that it doesn’t all have to be done in one day. Lighting, in fact, is a work in progress and believe me, you’ll make plenty of changes. There will be tons of posts coming up about lighting. Also, depending on what you plan on shooting for your online video can change lighting options. For example, did you know that there are lighting professionals that specialize in food and beyond that there are lighting professionals that specialize in shooting chocolate. By the way, you can’t shoot chocolate since the lights will melt the chocolate so you need a chocolate model. See what I mean about lighting?

Let’s start with the content of your online video. First, think about what you’re shooting. Is it a product/service? Is it a person giving a demo of a product/service? Is it a presentation? Is it an off-site shoot (meaning you’ll be going to another place to shoot video)? Will you generally always be shooting in the same area? These are all things to consider when deciding how and where to shoot a video.

Regardless of what you’re shooting or where you’re shooting, you’ll need a game plan and that usually comes in the form of an outline. Start by making a list of all the things you want to address in your online video and then prioritize them. You may not be able to get all the points you want to make in one video and that’s ok. That just means if those issues are important you can make another video. This will also help you better organize a video.

Once you know what you want to get across in the video, here’s a good rule of thumb for organizing it:

  1. Tell them what you’re going to be telling them
  2. Tell them
  3. Then tell them what you told them

Sounds redundant, right? It actually is a little, but by “telling them what you’re going to tell them” they know immediately if they want to watch the video. They’ll also appreciate the honesty upfront and are likely to come back to see other videos that do interest them. “Tell them” is really the meat of the story and what people want to see. Finally, “Tell them what you told them” is a quick wrap up and a great way to get any brand messaging across. Also, this is a good time to include any calls to action. Maybe visit a web site, make a call, or ask them to leave a comment if that feature is available on your site.

When you get your outline finished, it’s time to think about the best way to convey this information visually. Remember, people are watching a video online because they want to see something better or they don’t necessarily have the time to read about it. Take each of the points in your list and create an outline that includes the best way to demonstrate what you’re trying to get across. This will help you create a shot list and ultimately will help you when you’re editing the video.

I know, it’s a lot to take in, but a little organization and forethought can go a long way in saving time and money when shooting a video.

Read all previous parts to this ongoing series, Shooting Online Video:

Part 3 – Picking A Camera

Part 2 – SD or HD

Part 1 – Just Do It!

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Free Online Video Tips, A Case Study

January 3rd, 2010

ElliptiGO Inc. is a customer of Online Video hosting provider, vzaar. The following case study has been provided by vzaar to help illustrate the power and positive effects of online video for web-based businesses.

The ElliptiGO is the world’s first outdoor elliptical road bike. The bicycle combines the best of running, cycling and the indoor elliptical trainer to deliver a high-performance, low-impact exercise experience.

Bryan Pate, Co-Founder of ElliptiGO Inc., told vzaar that for such a must-see product, video is essential and that the “bottom line is that for our product the video is the absolute best way to communicate what we’ve created because the instant someone sees it in action they understand it.  It’s almost impossible to convey our product through text or even pictures.”

So how have you embraced video?

We primarily use video on the site. It purposefully dominates the homepage and screams play me! In addition we send out newsletters each month and many of the recipients come to the website to specifically watch the video. Whilst video-in-email remains an unchartered and unreliable marketing tactic, we do use the video on our iPhones and Blackberrys to facilitate explaining the bike in personal interactions. It’s like having a product demo in your pocket! Bottom line is that for our product the video is absolutely the best way to communicate what we’ve created. The instant someone sees the bike in action they understand it. It’s almost impossible to convey our product through text or even pictures.

Tell us about the numbers

Attributing success to one video is always hard when you first bring your website to market, but at ElliptiGO we’re not only delighted with the 133% increase in visits (doubling previous traffic) but significantly the 30% increase in average time spent on the site. We attribute much of these improvements to an initial redesign of our site and prominent placement of our homepage video.

A further website redesign in November of this year resulted in an additional 18% increase in visits and a 50% increase in average time on site which underlines the work we have put into optimizing the positioning of the video and its call to action messaging. We added a call to action “Watch the 8S in action” and customers are doing just that we’re pleased to say.

Lights, Camera, Action!

We worked with a videographer who is also a professional tri-athlete to shoot our videos. Nothing like having an expert in the field to help shape how we show the product’s benefits. You only have to watch the video to see it has been money well spent. In addition, she’s very reasonable – about $1,500 for a full day of shooting plus video production for two videos. Furthermore, this is just the start as the business has done two shoots with her now so we’re getting better at accomplishing what we want and getting the right shots and shooting at the right time of day.

This case study was provided by Jamie Parkins of vzaar.com.

vzaar

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Getting Video Content is Easy

December 8th, 2009

Obviously VidCompare is a site about online video,  yet we have none of our own video content on the web site. Well, today we eat our own dog food and present you with our first video. Admittedly, it’s a bit cheesy with my used car salesman slant but, it’s a promo video for the business and we wanted to help our users better understand the goals of the site as well as to illustrate how effective video can be to get a message across.

For those of you who don’t have your own content yet, this was a very simple effort. It started with a conversation with video production company, TurnHere. Within a day they gathered my information; company details, goals for video, location, etc. and had me hooked up with one of their video producers who was local to my area. They have a far reaching directory of producers so it was easy for me to meet with them and get started on our video shoot.

The producer reached out to me via email to set up the meeting, then off we went to the local Starbucks to shoot. My producer could not have been more helpful, a true professional. He guided me through the process, queued me, and offered guidance with key speaking points. We didn’t write a script or agonize over content, we simply let if flow. These producers are so well versed that they know how to guide you through the process in one fell swoop. He even shot me navigating through the site describing key elements which he then translated into a screen capture which was edited into the video with my voice-over.

Within an hour and a half we were done. Two days later I received an email informing me that my video was ready. I was given a unique URL to view and comment on my video. The viewing admin was clean and easy to use. After watching my video I submitted only a few minor comments asking to make some adjustments and again, within a day the changes were made and I was able to review my video again.

Once I was happy with the results, I simply clicked the “Accept” button and boom, the next day an embed code was delivered to my inbox and the video was syndicated out to YouTube, DailyMotion, Yahoo!, and MySpace.

Compare Online Video Platform Providers from Kris on Vimeo.

Once you’ve got your video content be sure to optimize it for the Web. There are plenty of resources out there to assist you with video SEO.

So if you’re one of the many businesses out there scratching your head, wondering where and how to get started you can rest assured that the process of developing video content is quite simple. Trust me, it’s tougher to make the leap than to complete the process. Dive in, the water’s fine.

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