Can you tell me how to get, how to get to… I don’t even have to finish that sentence. Most of you already know how that sentence goes. I’m betting at this moment you’re thinking back to some of your favorite Sesame Street moments.
Branded Storytelling: Build Your Destination
Now that you’ve got their attention and they’ve stopped the car, the last thing you want to do is set up a tourist trap. Lots of color and flash, but no substance. Cheap, chintzy trinkets are fun for a few minutes and maybe some selfies to post to your friends, but not someplace you want to visit again. That’s going for the quick buck, not long-term audience engagement. You’ll need to continually lure a new audience to make the tourist trap work. To do that you need a connection.
Branded Storytelling: Social Media Is Like A Billboard.
“Selling” today and for the foreseeable future is about building a story. Actually many stories. Stories that entertain, stories that inform, stories that educate, stories that connect with the audience you are trying to reach.
Workfront LEAP Conference - WOW!
Building on the launch of Workfront at Georgia-Pacific in January, I was fortunate to attend the annual Workfront LEAP Conference in Nashville this past week at the world famous Opryland Hotel. I simply knew Workfront as a job tracking system as it relates to creative production. A central job tracking system to hold all communications, notes, documents and centralized proofing of all work. So I was not prepared for just how extensive Workfront truly is.
Price Waterhouse Cooper offers a lesson in responsibility
The 2017 Academy Awards offered proof of the classic television adage, “Anything can happen on Live TV.” And it did, in absolutely incredible fashion. The wrong envelope was presented to Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, and while it’s obvious from the video that Mr. Beatty sensed it was the wrong envelope, the incorrect winner was announced. Confusion and chaos ultimately led to the category winner being corrected and “Moonlight” won Best Picture for 2017.
Steven Moffat (Doctor Who) offers a Free Writing "MasterClass!"
teven Moffat offers a free Masterclass on Writing. Don’t know the name? He’s the Executive Producer and Writer for some very small shows for television. “Doctor Who” and “Sherlock.” It’s offered as a free podcast download from the BBC.
The Start of my "Good Eats" Journey
The very first panel of my very first "Good Eats" animation.
This morning I'm going through my old, OLD emails to finally clean up a lot of the clutter that has remained over the years and I found a great trip down memory lane. The original email inquiry as to whether I could create animations for Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” or if I could refer them to someone else.
I Can Do That! (How am I going to do that?)
I've been working on a new e-Learning proposal for the past few weeks. Didn't know I could do that? Well, I can and can't.
See it's a video centric learning program but just showing videos and scenarios isn't enough. We really need to test the employees at each step along the way to ensure they're getting the material. Years ago I established a relationship with a really good e-Learning partner for these very situations. For this project we're going to work together with them taking point on the educational design and me on the video production. We'll work together on the overall project management and development.
Moral of the story? Work on your network of connections for really good and really honest partners you can bring in so when you get a call that says, "Can you do that?" your answer can be "Absolutely!"
My "Video Budgeting" course is now available on Lynda.com
I'm proud to announce my first training product from Lynda.com (and LinkedIn Learning) Video Budgeting.
Whether you own a production company or you’re a freelancer, we’re all independent contractors and it’s important to understand and document the full scope of work and fees to be charged for a project. In other words, creating an accurate budget.
Adobe moves to support ProRes natively on Windows
Recently security reports came out noting that Quicktime Player on Windows machine is a major security issue. This creates a quandry for those editing professional video using the Apple ProRes codec since installing Quicktime is required to use this codec. Apparently Adobe is now working to natively support ProRes in the application without the need for Quicktime to be installed. Cool move.
#WallyCam NAB Show 2016. The Casual and Relaxed Tour
It was another fun NAB Show for #WallyCam though this year was decidedly more low key. Fewer videos and most all of them from the Media Motion Ball. It was a much more casual and relaxed time for me this year spending more time actually chatting with folks and less time getting the camera out at every opportunity. So this year you’re getting more of the family reunion, social networking vibe of what it’s like at NAB Show.
Evolution of the Creative Professional
As someone who first edited video in 1986, I have borne witness to a wholesale revolution and evolution of the creative industry. Well actually, just creativity as a whole. Amazing creative work now comes from all corners of the globe, all age groups and all skill levels.
Creative professionals used to have very defined roles. Producer, Director, Writer, Camera, Lighting, Sound, Editing, Graphics, Animation and so on. When I started at CNN in 1990 I was a video editor. That’s it. I arrived at work each day and when I left 9 hours later, the only task I did all day was to edit video. In Hollywood, New York, Georgia and other locations were major film and television project are happening, those roles still exist on set, in part mandated and governed by unions. For the rest of us, however, being a creative professional is wholly different.
"I'll Do The Work If You By the Tools" What?!?
There’s a trend I’ve seen developing, at least I see it here in Atlanta, whereby video editors will agree to take on a project, but ask the client to pay for the tools. I don’t mean going to work for someone else in their shop, I mean as an independent freelance editor, they will ask the client to pay for the tools because they don’t have a system big enough to do the work. And the clients do it! As in the client purchases the system, the editor edits on it, and when the project is done, the client has a video editing system they’ll never use again. When in the heck did this become acceptable?
What is the Purpose of your Video?
On the other end of the phone is a very smart, intelligent marketing leader for a corporation. “I really need a video as soon as possible.”
Me: “What’s the purpose of the video?”
Silence, and then….”Um what do you mean, ‘the purpose?’ It’s a marketing video is that what you mean?”
All videos should have a purpose just like every message a company puts out has a purpose. Read the Rest of the story in my Post on LinkedIn.
Whatever Happened to Common Courtesy?
We have more communications tools available to us than our forefathers could have ever dreamed of. Within your pocket and on your wrist is more computation power than what sent astronauts to the Moon. Yet despite the ease at which we can communicate with each other at any point on the globe, I find that Common Courtesy has declined, especially in business.
5 Days. 4 Principal Locations. 127 Scenes Filmed!
Our 5 days of principal production has been completed on the Gwinnett County Water Science project featuring 3 scripts inspired by Bill Nye Science Guy! After 3 days in our main ‘studio’ location in a high school laboratory, we spent a full day at Lanier Islands Resort utilizing their PineIsle location.