Comments on: How to produce affordable corporate videos http://mindlinkmarketing.com/2009/11/how-to-produce-affordable-corporate-videos/ Startup marketing content services, helping companies connect to their customers Thu, 23 May 2013 04:18:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Scott Olson http://mindlinkmarketing.com/2009/11/how-to-produce-affordable-corporate-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-149 Scott Olson Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:38:42 +0000 http://blog.mindlinkmarketing.com/?p=422#comment-149 It was my pleasure Stephanie! The service you provide at voices.com is really of great service to technology companies looking to produce videos in house. It enables them to accomplish things that would have simply been out of reach to them before. Thanks for your comment. It was my pleasure Stephanie! The service you provide at voices.com is really of great service to technology companies looking to produce videos in house. It enables them to accomplish things that would have simply been out of reach to them before. Thanks for your comment.

]]> By: Stephanie Ciccarelli http://mindlinkmarketing.com/2009/11/how-to-produce-affordable-corporate-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-148 Stephanie Ciccarelli Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:30:24 +0000 http://blog.mindlinkmarketing.com/?p=422#comment-148 Hi Scott et al, Thank you for sharing this interesting article! Ken sent me a link and I was thrilled to see the video and hear one of our talent in action. I'll be embedding the code for the video and linking back to your article on our blogs at Voices.com. Thank you again for telling Ken's story and also for the link! Warm wishes, Stephanie Ciccarelli Co-founder of Voices.com Hi Scott et al,

Thank you for sharing this interesting article! Ken sent me a link and I was thrilled to see the video and hear one of our talent in action.

I’ll be embedding the code for the video and linking back to your article on our blogs at Voices.com.

Thank you again for telling Ken’s story and also for the link!

Warm wishes,

Stephanie Ciccarelli
Co-founder of Voices.com

]]> By: Fergus http://mindlinkmarketing.com/2009/11/how-to-produce-affordable-corporate-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-143 Fergus Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:33:44 +0000 http://blog.mindlinkmarketing.com/?p=422#comment-143 As with so many creative tasks I would suggest crowdsourcing as another alternative to producing such videos. Although not quite for $250 you could produce similar through a number of crowdsourcing sites for well under the $6000 mark ! You can control the script the look the feel and yet relieve yourself of the time taken to produce. Earl days of any start up both time and cost are critical. Number of options wooshii.com (interest declared) poptent.com 99designs (soon apparently) As with so many creative tasks I would suggest crowdsourcing as another alternative to producing such videos. Although not quite for $250 you could produce similar through a number of crowdsourcing sites for well under the $6000 mark !

You can control the script the look the feel and yet relieve yourself of the time taken to produce. Earl days of any start up both time and cost are critical.

Number of options

wooshii.com (interest declared)
poptent.com
99designs (soon apparently)

]]> By: John Houghton http://mindlinkmarketing.com/2009/11/how-to-produce-affordable-corporate-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-140 John Houghton Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:25:33 +0000 http://blog.mindlinkmarketing.com/?p=422#comment-140 Thanks for your responses. I agree with your points and that online video is now viable for startups that have some talent and a bit of time. It's especially good for showing and demonstrating - good for product companies. For service companies, it's a little harder to show a service, but I find customer testimonial videos are effective here. Thanks for your responses. I agree with your points and that online video is now viable for startups that have some talent and a bit of time. It’s especially good for showing and demonstrating – good for product companies. For service companies, it’s a little harder to show a service, but I find customer testimonial videos are effective here.

]]> By: Ken Westin http://mindlinkmarketing.com/2009/11/how-to-produce-affordable-corporate-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-139 Ken Westin Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:10:30 +0000 http://blog.mindlinkmarketing.com/?p=422#comment-139 One thing I should point out...Webmaster as a position is dead. Nowadays think "Communications Director" ;-) Also, the best web developers I know come from a liberal arts background and not a technical one and are always learning new skills. Seriously I think some of the best programmers I know actually have history degrees. One thing I should point out…Webmaster as a position is dead. Nowadays think “Communications Director” ;-)

Also, the best web developers I know come from a liberal arts background and not a technical one and are always learning new skills. Seriously I think some of the best programmers I know actually have history degrees.

]]> By: Scott Olson http://mindlinkmarketing.com/2009/11/how-to-produce-affordable-corporate-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-138 Scott Olson Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:22:16 +0000 http://blog.mindlinkmarketing.com/?p=422#comment-138 Great comments from everyone. One thing this discussion has brought up in my mind is the skill set you might look for from your web master or other marketing employees. John is right that it does require a strong skill set to produce a quality one like I included here, but the capital investment, which used to be a significant barrier, is now almost non-existent. I can post a job requirement which places an preference for experience with video editing and FinalCut in addition to web capabilities. With the prevalence of self publishing through sites like YouTube and the relatively cheap technology that puts video production in the hands of the masses I'll bet that this experience is more available than one might think. Great comments from everyone. One thing this discussion has brought up in my mind is the skill set you might look for from your web master or other marketing employees. John is right that it does require a strong skill set to produce a quality one like I included here, but the capital investment, which used to be a significant barrier, is now almost non-existent.

I can post a job requirement which places an preference for experience with video editing and FinalCut in addition to web capabilities. With the prevalence of self publishing through sites like YouTube and the relatively cheap technology that puts video production in the hands of the masses I’ll bet that this experience is more available than one might think.

]]> By: Tony Frey http://mindlinkmarketing.com/2009/11/how-to-produce-affordable-corporate-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-137 Tony Frey Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:54:32 +0000 http://blog.mindlinkmarketing.com/?p=422#comment-137 I'm most impressed with getting professional voice overs for $150. I've helped produce videos at past companies, and by far this was the biggest failing of the video. Most companies will either use an internal resource or someone at the video production company. In most cases, those voice overs can ruin an otherwise great video. Great article, keep the "low cost tools" thread for start ups going. I’m most impressed with getting professional voice overs for $150. I’ve helped produce videos at past companies, and by far this was the biggest failing of the video. Most companies will either use an internal resource or someone at the video production company. In most cases, those voice overs can ruin an otherwise great video.

Great article, keep the “low cost tools” thread for start ups going.

]]> By: tom okeefe http://mindlinkmarketing.com/2009/11/how-to-produce-affordable-corporate-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-136 tom okeefe Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:19:25 +0000 http://blog.mindlinkmarketing.com/?p=422#comment-136 Super cool example of what is possible with common tools, some confidence and creativity. John has a right to be worried. Consumer technology is always what was once the property of "pros". Keep getting better John or become obsolete! Super cool example of what is possible with common tools, some confidence and creativity. John has a right to be worried. Consumer technology is always what was once the property of “pros”. Keep getting better John or become obsolete!

]]> By: Ken Westin http://mindlinkmarketing.com/2009/11/how-to-produce-affordable-corporate-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-135 Ken Westin Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:04:07 +0000 http://blog.mindlinkmarketing.com/?p=422#comment-135 We all agree here. To be honest if I could afford a professional production company to do a video for us I would have. I actually plan to bring on a professional company to film some clips for us once we can afford to do so. One thing this has allowed me to do is to take more of a director's role and identify the key messages I want to convey for the company. Working through this process also gave me more ideas I will implement once we can afford to do so. I would particularly like to work with professional actors as well to work through some scenarios. John your comments about bad quality productions hurting the brand are spot on. Actually, what gave me the idea to do the video is looking at my biggest competitor, they are a large publicly traded company with a massive marketing budget and here is the video they produced: http://bit.ly/1LTLcl The entire video is stock footage, I even found the majority of their footage when I was searching for clips. I thought it was pretty cheesy how it was implemented and figured I could do better, a lot better. I do wish that I could get some scenes filmed professionally to really "tell the story" visually vs. having to use stock footage and plan to do so once we can afford it. I do have some skills that most others do not, I designed and developed our website, built the backend, as well as design our print collateral and our packaging and learning Final Cut came fairly easily. However I don't think building a basic video is outside the realm of most people's capability, of course the writing, sequencing and telling the story is particularly difficult. If anything the process led me to appreciate the work that production companies do, while at the same time making sure that when I am ready for the professional production I get what I pay for and can communicate clearly what I want. We all agree here. To be honest if I could afford a professional production company to do a video for us I would have. I actually plan to bring on a professional company to film some clips for us once we can afford to do so. One thing this has allowed me to do is to take more of a director’s role and identify the key messages I want to convey for the company. Working through this process also gave me more ideas I will implement once we can afford to do so. I would particularly like to work with professional actors as well to work through some scenarios.

John your comments about bad quality productions hurting the brand are spot on. Actually, what gave me the idea to do the video is looking at my biggest competitor, they are a large publicly traded company with a massive marketing budget and here is the video they produced:

http://bit.ly/1LTLcl

The entire video is stock footage, I even found the majority of their footage when I was searching for clips. I thought it was pretty cheesy how it was implemented and figured I could do better, a lot better. I do wish that I could get some scenes filmed professionally to really “tell the story” visually vs. having to use stock footage and plan to do so once we can afford it.

I do have some skills that most others do not, I designed and developed our website, built the backend, as well as design our print collateral and our packaging and learning Final Cut came fairly easily. However I don’t think building a basic video is outside the realm of most people’s capability, of course the writing, sequencing and telling the story is particularly difficult. If anything the process led me to appreciate the work that production companies do, while at the same time making sure that when I am ready for the professional production I get what I pay for and can communicate clearly what I want.

]]> By: Scott Olson http://mindlinkmarketing.com/2009/11/how-to-produce-affordable-corporate-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-134 Scott Olson Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:28:04 +0000 http://blog.mindlinkmarketing.com/?p=422#comment-134 John, you make some great points. Wasting time when you don't have the expertise and producing deliverables of lower quality are both things that startups should avoid. I simply wanted to point to what is possible for those individuals who put their mind to a project and have some level of aptitude for the video medium. I have often found a correspondence between technical talent and a passion for video in companies I have worked with. If you have someone with those skills in your startup it is possible to produce something that represents your company well. Technology demonstrations and short product presentations are something, for example, where I believe that video can add significantly to the online experience and can be achieved by startups. At the end of the day, I was impressed by Ken's initiative and what it cost him to produce the high quality end result. I do believe that he is a skilled individual, but I also believe that there may be other startups out there that have employees with similar skills and could get good results as well. You are right that "everything looks easy from the outside." This represented hard work and skills that are acquired through experience. Thanks for adding so much to this post. John, you make some great points. Wasting time when you don’t have the expertise and producing deliverables of lower quality are both things that startups should avoid.

I simply wanted to point to what is possible for those individuals who put their mind to a project and have some level of aptitude for the video medium. I have often found a correspondence between technical talent and a passion for video in companies I have worked with. If you have someone with those skills in your startup it is possible to produce something that represents your company well.

Technology demonstrations and short product presentations are something, for example, where I believe that video can add significantly to the online experience and can be achieved by startups.

At the end of the day, I was impressed by Ken’s initiative and what it cost him to produce the high quality end result. I do believe that he is a skilled individual, but I also believe that there may be other startups out there that have employees with similar skills and could get good results as well.

You are right that “everything looks easy from the outside.” This represented hard work and skills that are acquired through experience. Thanks for adding so much to this post.

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