From The Blog

Three Tips On How To Start A Profitable YouTube Channel If you are thinking about starting your own YouTube channel then you will probably be thinking about the following questions: How do I start a YouTube channel? Can I make money off YouTube? Is YouTube still profitable in 2020? Well in 2020 a lot has changed around how YouTube works. Knowing these changes we decided to put together this article that’s going to cover three tips on how to start a profitable YouTube channel in 2020. These ideas are going to make sure you’re doing things right and setting yourself up to make money on YouTube, things are changing all the time and you need to make sure you’re following the most up-to-date information and also avoiding the latest mistakes, that’s exactly what this article is going to teach you how to do. What Channel Categories Are Most Profitable? So let’s get started our first idea for anyone starting a YouTube channel in 2020 to make money is you need to make sure you’re building your channel within the right category. There’s certain topics that you can build your channel around and focus your videos on and these topics are going to determine how many views you get and how much YouTube pays you for the advert shown on your channel. The topics that have opportunities around them changes from year to year so you need to make sure you’re focusing on a topic that’s lucrative in 2020. One of the ways we can find out what topics have the most potential around them is we can look at the youtubers rich list of 2019 so this shows us the youtubers that made the most money in the last 12 months and we can actually look through this list and see what topics those youtubers focus on. What YouTube Channels Are Profitable In 2020? So what’s profitable right now in 2020? If you scroll through this list we can see that we’ve got a gaming channel, another gaming channel and another gaming channel, a channel that started on games and PewDiePie. The first five richest youtubers are old gamers, we’ve then got a makeup channel, a channel that has like a daily talk show, a channel aimed at kids and to top it off the top youtubers is a channel aimed at kids. Just from looking at that list we can get some ideas straight away that some popular categories in 2020, they’re going to be making people a lot of money are gaming channels and make up channels so if I was starting my channel today I could look at this list and think maybe I’m going to become a popular makeup blog, I could start making videos on makeup. We can also look at lists that show the 21 profitable YouTube channel ideas that you can follow to make the most money on the platform, we can see we’ve got makeup on there, gaming, food, yoga, fitness and so on. If you’re starting in 2020 you can use lists like this to guide you to make sure you’re starting your channel looking at the right topic. We can see UK production company is number 11 as a profitable YouTube channel idea. Finding the most profitable channel categories of this year 2020 and making a channel within that category is our first idea for you if you wanted to start a channel and make money in 2020. Can I Stop YouTube From Taking My Money Away? The second idea we have for you if you want to start a channel this year and make money is make sure you’re not letting YouTube take money away from you, so what do we mean by this? Well YouTube has a lot of rules, regulations and guidelines and if you break those rules YouTube can decide to either give you no money at all or a miniscule amount of money, so it’s important to keep track of policy changes every year and make sure that your channel is compliant with any of the recent policies YouTube has in place now. A recent example of these YouTube’s policy changes in 2020 is YouTube decided to actually blacklist kids channels, so any channels making content aimed at children is going to be heavily de-monetized. This means that those top ten youtubers from last year that had like the top spot or the third spot on the most richest YouTube channel last year may not in 2020 because YouTube is now punishing channels that have kid focused content. Check Those Rules! We would recommend to check the rules every other month just to make sure your still complying with everything, also when you choose to upload a video its best to upload it a couple of days but not post straight away as YouTubewill still check if your video can be monetised, this would save you from having to delete and re upload over and over until your video Is monetised.  Just remember idea number two in general make sure that YouTube isn’t taking money away from you by staying compliant with the most recent policy changes. Are there any other ways to monetise your channel? Our third and final tip for your YouTube channel to get you started in making money in 2020 is that you need to explore other ways of monetizing your audience outside of YouTube, so most people when they’re starting a YouTube channel they only really think about the amount of money that YouTube is going to pay them for the adverts that are shown on their channel and that’s all well and good. But there are so many missed opportunities that you’re just not seeing so to start one thing you could do is you could start offering your merchandise to your audience so you could get a graphic designer to design a logo for your channel, or like a catchphrase that you use in your channel and you

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How to market and grow content in London When starting a digital content agency in London it can be tough to get your first few clients so marketing your digital content agency is crucial, especially in the ever competitive market of London. Here at Beast Production Company London we have experience in helping all sorts of companies with their digital marketing…even other London digital content agencies! So if you want to know how to market a digital content agency in London then this is the article for you. In this article we are going to give you five tips to help market and grow your digital content agency. Create A System to grow content in London Number one is to create systems. Running a digital content agency in the London can be incredibly time consuming, more so when you’re meeting with client after client so we implement systems to make the process more efficient. An example of a system that we implemented a few years ago that just works amazingly is writing a list of seven to ten questions that we asked potential customers that come to us with video production inquiries. Having your go to seven to ten questions which is essential a creative video brief, you can either send a client through an email or you can ask them on the phone. This is one less thing you have to think about every time you do it and you’ll get a lot of information in return, questions like what kind of video are you looking for? Ask them if they have a location that they’d like to film at or if they require a studio rental, ask them if they’d like to have people speaking on camera from their company or are they hoping to have actors hired in their video.          What Questions Do We Ask? A question we love to ask is have you done videos in the past if they have created videos in the past, chances are they’re either not happy with the previous London Production Company they worked with or if the videos were created so long ago that they’re looking to revamp their image and create modern videos you can then ask them well what was it about your old videos that you didn’t like so that we can make them better that this time around. It’s also great to see videos that were created in the past because that helps you understand what quality of video production they’re looking to exceed. You can also ask them if they have a rough budget in mind. It is important to get clear on whether or not this potential client expects a big £50,000 production with a £500 budget because that does happen especially with potential clients that have never done video before. But you definitely do want to exceed your client’s expectations but you don’t want them to have unattainable expectations that you aren’t going to be able to achieve. Should You Fake It Till You Make It? A quite famous saying is fake it till you make but here at Beast Production Company UK we don’t believe in that. We are a very transparent company, we don’t give false promises to our clients as that’s just not us. However a lot of production companies in London do this so our next tip explains that you need to be honest about what you’re capable of and what you’re not capable of, don’t make promises that you know you can’t keep. A rule that we have implemented in our business is we will tell clients that something is going to take twice as long as we actually expect it to take especially with editing, that way we can pleasantly surprise them and exceed their expectations when we do deliver and edit early but we also have a little bit of leeway because you never know what could come up. Be realistic with yourself and your client about how long lighting takes to set the location how long interviewing someone on camera and getting them comfortable with the questions takes, they might need a little bit of coaching with how to deliver a sentence, they might need to do it take a few times. So be honest about how long it will take with pre-production, production and post-production to deliver those best results. Keep It Cheap? Or Splash Out? Our third tip is to not waste your money on a lot of fancy new gear, when working in london you have to compete with massive digital content agencies with all their fancy equipment so it can be tempting to splash out especially when you’re starting out, but in most cases having a decent DSLR camera with a few different lenses, a basic lighting setup and lavalier mics or a shotgun mic is going to do you great. What we do in our business is we set five to ten percent aside from every shoot and every drop that we do and we put that towards gear. You also want to consider how much you’re making if you’re making 2,000 bucks a few times a month with some video projects good for you that’s awesome, but you probably don’t want to go out and buy yourself a $50,000 camera because it’s going to take a really long time to pay that off. Should You Upsell To Your Clients? Our fourth point is to suggest more videos for your clients, as a digital content agency it’s great to get one off projects but it’s even better to get more than one job out of each client’s so if your client only hired you to do one video let’s say it’s a two-minute about video for their website page, once that video is complete and they’re really happy with the work that you did you can offer to them that you could make 30-second Instagram videos out of all the great footage that you

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What are the pro’s and cons between the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k or 6k? Which One Should You Buy? We’ve been asked numerous times by people if they should buy a BlackMagic 4k or 6k camera? Now people probably don’t want to waste any money, so when it comes to bang for your buck the two best cameras on the market right now are the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k and 6k. But which one should you buy? Well in this article we’re going to break down these two cameras and we’ll tell you the differences and why we think one is actually a better buy than the other. First Impressions Of Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera? Let’s get into this and take a look at the Black magic pocket Cinema Camera 4k versus the pocket Cinema Camera 6k. Our first impressions of each of these two cameras are that they are absolutely amazing especially in what they do for the value, in our opinion we don’t think there’s anything that’s ever come out quite like these two cameras when it comes to being able to give you high resolution such as 4k or 6k and giving you the flexibility of raw in these bodies especially for their price points. There’s really nothing that compares to them other than each other so that’s why we’re going to look in this article, we’ll cover why each of these cameras are good what we don’t like about each of these two cameras and ultimately which of these two cameras you should be picking up. Does The BlackMagic Cameras Have Good Quality? We have used each of these cameras for quite a while so we’ve had some time to really test them out and so the first thing we want to jump into and probably the thing that you’re most interested in is quality. Now when it comes to the difference between the two in terms of quality you’re not just getting 6k as far as resolution with this model but you’re also getting a bigger sensor, so you are going to be getting a super 35 millimetre sensor compared to the micro 4/3 sensor, that’s going to allow you to get a couple different things, obviously the 6k resolution but also with a bigger sensor you also have more flexibility in low-light shooting. You have a bigger sensor so it allows for more surface area for light to actually hit the sensor to allow you to get better low-light performance. In a camera like the 4k that has already had great low-light up to this point the other big benefit when shooting with the 6k sensor is if you’re shooting for a 4k timeline, you now have some extra room as far as being able to reframe your shot in post. Now that extra 2k, is it really helpful? That’s going to totally be up to you and how much reframing you’re planning on. It’s not as big of a jump from 4k to 1080p but that little bit of extra reframing room is nice to have in the Edit. Can Your Computer Handle 6K Footage? Now another big question that pops up when shooting with 6k is well. Is 6k going to just wreck my computer? Will I even be able to play back the footage? We can say that yeah you actually can and it actually plays back really smooth. Now as far as looking at the 6k footage on a regular 1080 screen, whether you’re looking at the 6k versus the 4k on a 1080 screen on a cell phone screen and honestly we really couldn’t tell that big of a difference, yes the 6k was a little bit sharper and you know you may be able to tell the difference between these shots online but after compression and putting it back on a lower resolution screen realistically the difference between 4k and 6k really wasn’t that big, and so since there wasn’t a massive difference between the two. Another question we’ve been getting is since the 6k can only shoot 6k in BlackMagic Raw is it worth editing it in DaVinci? Or is it worth using that raw workflow?  Personally we think working with da Vinci hasn’t been the easiest thing, obviously it is a brand new software and no one has really mastered it yet and we really haven’t had enough time to really give our honest opinions on DaVinci just yet but we will say that when you were taking this file or when you’re taking the BlackMagic raw file into da Vinci, da Vinci handles it very well so there’s not a massive difference between the 4k and the 6k as far as the quality of these two cameras. Do The BlackMagic Cameras Have Good Usability? How’s the usability? And this is honestly where these two cameras differ the most. If you’re getting the black magic you should definitely just be getting it for raw which we do kind of believe to a certain extent. However when the 4k can shoot 4k ProRes and 4k raw but the 6k cannot shoot 4k raw it is a little bit of a bummer. Especially when you don’t necessarily always want to shoot in 6k, as we mentioned when you’re shooting in 6k on this camera in RAW you’re going to get frame file sizes that are about seven to eight gigs for a minute, but when you’re shooting in this guy in 4k raw you’re getting file sizes that are more like around 3.8 gigs to about 5 gigs or so which is significantly smaller. Especially when you start adding them up so sometimes you may not want to shoot in 6k, you might just want to shoot in 4k for the file sizes depending on what you’re shooting. That is one of the big issues that we have when it comes to shooting with either one of these cameras. Now as far as the menus

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Here at Beast Production we have grown a Production Company from the ground up so we know it can be a struggle at first to get clients. So in today’s article we’re going to answer the question, “How do I go about getting clients for my UK Production Company?” We guess this applies to clients for any type of freelance work, so if you’re a photographer or offer any other creative video services this will apply to you as well. There are a whole bunch of ways you can go about getting new clients for your UK production company and were going to go over a handful of ways, some of which will be geared toward those of you who are beginners and want to get your first clients, and some of these will be helpful for those of you who are already experienced but want to branch out and find new clients so without further ado let’s get into some of these tips. A successful production company needs a creative portfolio The very first thing as a freelancer that you’re going to want to do whether it’s videos or photography is to set up a portfolio of some sort where you can show people the work that your UK production company has produced, and for this you will need a video hosting platform.  If you’re just starting out you can use YouTube, Vimeo, your own website or you can even use Instagram to show your videos.  A tip though is that if you’re going to use Instagram don’t make it your personal account that shows you and your friends goofing off because you don’t want clients to see that, keep it professional. Now you might be one of those people that says, well how do I make a video portfolio if I don’t have any existing videos from existing clients, and if this is the case then the only thing you can really do is to either shoot some videos for very cheap or for free. When we started out we shot tons of free work. We actually sent out emails to various small businesses and said, “hello we are Beast, a new creative force in the UK, we make videos were just starting out and we like your brand”, you now tell them a little bit about you or your production company, and then the icing on the cake is, “we would like to offer you a free video for your business and in return we would like to use it for our portfolio.” Every now and then you’ll be surprised that you will actually get a response and a lot of people like free stuff so if you’re offering a free video and your stuff is good, they will let you do it and boom you have your first client video. Throw it on your portfolio and then repeat the process again. Now that you have a portfolio and you have some stuff to show people this is where you can move onto some of the other ways you can go about getting some new clients and getting paid. One little thing we would say is a good amount of videos to have in your portfolio would be at least 5, obviously the more you have the better, but 5 is a good number when starting out. As we said now you have your portfolio you have a few videos that you can show people so that when they hire you to do some work they know what they’re getting into. You will also have gained a tremendous amount of experience in the process of those five video productions. And it will be that experience and knowledge along with your creative ability that will win you the next job. What Should You Value More, Goods Or Service? Now before you even start thinking about marketing and little tricks to find clients and things like that, you need to first structure your production company into two parts – Goods and Services. If you’ve ever taken a marketing class then you will know exactly what we are talking about. Goods are a tangible thing that someone can buy from you and they now have it and they own that thing. In this case that is the video the final product that you throw together and edit and send to them, that is the goods you are offering your clients. The service you are offering is exactly what it sounds like, the customer service, the relationship you are offering to the client and how attentive you are to their needs, how responsive you are and how you handle yourself in a professional way. This is equally if not more important than the actual video or whatever the good is itself because even if you provide a good final product if your service is bad then they’re not going to recommend you to anyone else. By the way, recommendations are very important when it comes to video production, so when you do have a satisfied customer, ask them to leave a google review. Also check Beast Los Angeles We would say a big chunk of our business comes from referrals because the clients not only like our work but they like us, they like how responsive we are to their emails they like how quickly we get back to them, they enjoy our willingness to meet up with them and discuss ideas with them and to collaborate. They enjoy how patient we are and how we can offer revisions to make sure that they get the video they want. These are the things you have to think about every time you take on a video production service in the UK for a client because in the past they’ve liked our service they’ve recommended us to all their friends, who also have businesses and do all sorts of things and we get emails and calls all the time from people that want

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There is a growing trend for online independent retail, so we decided to write an article about how to set up an e-commerce business. So many people these days are looking for a side income or passive income as some say. A great way to do this is by starting up an e-commerce business, so in today’s article we are going to be covering the six steps that you need to follow when you are starting an e-commerce business. The steps we’ll cover will be: Step One: Research Step Two: Get A Domain Name Step Three: Choose A Product Step Four: See How You Can Differentiate From Your Competition Step Five Determine Your Customer Base Step Six: Create Your Store Step One: Research How to set up an e-commerce business Read up on the subject. Reading this article about “How to set up an e-Commerce Business” is a great start. But be sure to look for other articles like: “How To Set Up An E-commerce Shop” for example. Here are a few other common search terms that could be worth looking into; “How do I start an ecommerce business with no money?” and another question people are asking is, “What are the most successful e-commerce businesses?” Step two: Get A Domain Name Our First tip is to get a domain name, it’s very important for a successful ecommerce store to have one but a lot of people want to skip this step, they want to save the twelve pound a year. Not getting a domain name is not a smart decision, you want to get a good domain name. How Do You Know If Your Domain Is Good? What is a good domain name for an ecommerce store? well it needs to be easy to spell for one, if it’s hard to spell people are going to forget it and they’re not going to know how to spell it so you might say okay my company is XYZ whatever dot-com, but if people aren’t sure of the spelling of it they’re going to make a mistake and they’re just going to give up. On top of that it needs to be easy to remember like any business name it should also be easy to remember that’s not enough though it needs to include a keyword. If you’re new to online business online marketing you might not know what that means. Let us quickly explain it so let’s say you have a store and you’re selling peanut butter, you absolutely love peanut butter so you decide to sell it online so a really good domain name would be peanut butter.com but chances are it’s probably taken or probably really expensive and unless you’re a big company you probably can’t afford peanut butter.com, so a good example might be peanut butter lovers.com so Google knows that this website is about peanut-butter, people know that this website is about peanut butter and even more so they know it’s for peanut butter lovers and if they love peanut butter well they’re going to want to buy peanut butter online obviously. That’s a great domain name because it helps Google know what your website about it, also helps people know what your website is about. Don’t make your domain name super long if it’s too long people aren’t going to be able to spell it so they’re going to forget it. It’s also really bad for ranking high up on Google search results because Google knows if you have a really long domain name you’re probably not that serious.  Step Three: Choose A Product What products should I use for my store? Your product is the solution to a problem. The first thing that you need to know when starting an e-commerce business is that you’re not just creating a product, you’re solving a problem, the world does not need more products what it does need is better solutions to existing problems. One of the most common mistakes we see new entrepreneurs making again and again is creating a solution before identifying the problem, so before thinking what product can you sell first think about what problem can I solve. What we need to do is find a problem that you know exists or better yet you’ve experienced yourself. Ideally this will be a niche that you’re truly passionate about as this is going to be something that you want to be able to do day in day out for the foreseeable future. Find Your Problem To Solve Let’s use an example we are interested in protecting our shared environment for future generations this might be because a huge environmental issue is waste. The problem we would like our brand to solve is decreasing waste from everyday disposable items, so a good way to come up with your product type here is by turning your problem into a question, and your product into the answer to that question. In our example the question would be how can we decrease waste from everyday disposable items. One answer would be to make those items reusable, so now let’s start to think of some items that are used daily that are disposable that you could make reusable, so the first few things that come to mind just off the top of my head of razors, toothbrushes, takeaway coffee cups and straws. Now you want to begin to have a think and do some research around each potential product idea and which you think has the biggest market potential and which isn’t being done as well as the others. Let’s fast forward and go for the item of those which has the least market saturation which is disposable straws then we want to focus in and start to do some additional research around our problem and solution so we want to look into some of the facts and figures that you can focus on to highlight the problem of disposable straws. An estimated 500 million straws are used every day

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Let’s just get straight into it one of the main questions that we get asked all the time. How much does video production cost? Or, “How do you price your video production?” It’s a difficult question to answer but in this article, we’ll try our best to answer, “How much do you charge for your videos?” And “How much should I charge for videos?” This article is going to address the costs associated with video production be it explainer videos, brand story video, corporate videos, online videos for social media or TV commercials.  We’re not going to be telling you all about how much we charge as a London Production Company that specialises in more high concept and high end video production. Were just going to give you all a few tips and things to take into consideration when you’re pricing your video production projects. The main things that they will price on a project is what you have to pay for your time and effort and also how much money you want to put into your pocket. We’re going to break these down in depth, these are the main things that you need to take into consideration when calculating how much will a video production will cost. Is there a pricing formula for a video production? Here is the pricing formula for a video production company. Hours spent working on pre-production Cost Talent costs and usage rights costs. Casting Location scouting Creative development Logistical Costs (Travel Etc.) Crew costs Catering Art Department Props Wardrobe Equipment costs Post-Production offline – number of editing days Post-production online – number of days for colour grading, VFX and sound mix How Much Profit You Want To Make Put all these factors together and you have a fair price to send over to your clients. Now lets make a cost breakdown for a typical video production inquiry. When we get an inquiry for a video project the first thing that we think about is the things that we are going to have to pay for. So let’s just say the client contacts you and they say they want to use Lamborghini in their brand story video that they want to shoot out in Los Angeles. They also want behind-the-scenes content, they wanted to be shot on a Red DSMC2 or Arri Alexxa Cinema camera, they need a techno crane and they also need a drone. The first thing that we’re going to get into is renting equipment, paying the crew, flights & hotels, talent, wardrobe and props. Were also going to have to contact someone out in Los Angeles for location permits and casting, so were going to also have to pay them, we are also going to need a all the equipment and specialized crew associated with the techno crane. All of this sits in the section of what we have to pay for the video production on the day of shooting. 1.How Much Does it cost to Rent video Equipment? Here are some typical video equipment rental costs: Camera Rental Prices Arri Alexxa Mini £350 RED DSMC2 Dragon X 5K £250 SONY FS55 £150 SONY FS7 £150 Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K £100 DSLR SONY A7 III, GH5 £50 Lens Rental Prices Zeiss Ultra Primes full set £450 Cooke S3 full set £500 Leica Summicron Full set £150 Zeiss CP.2 Full Set £200 Light: Small light package  £ 500 3x led panels 1x 1.8 HMI V-locks Extension lines Lightstands x 4 Frames 1.5×1.5 Frost and Gels Grip  £500 Wally dolly Kessler Slider pod Dji Ronin M Sachtler tripod and Fluid head Special Grip £5500 Techno crane Remote Head Crew x 4 Special Prop £5000 Lamborghini Precision Driver Detailing Crew Insurance     2.What are the logistic costs for a production company that needs to shoot an online video in Los Angeles? You have to work remotely with your production manager in the location where you want to shoot. When there is an 8hr time difference this results in much longer days for both sets of crew. So keep this in mind. After that you have the usual costs: Airport Transfers Flights Excess bagage Equipment Carnet Hotels Sustenance Per diems Float     3.How Much Does A Videographer Cost? For the behind the scenes video you will need to hire a videographer. Now we can’t really put an exact price on a videographer as it would depend on who you hire, but perhaps a good estimation would be £1,000 for a more experienced videographer compared to £300 for a beginner. That’s the day rate for shooting, but then you need to add on a cost for editing. So typically a behind the scenes video for a one day shoot will cost anything from £1,500 to £5000.     4.How Should I Price My Time And Effort? The next thing is our time and effort so we would say how much time and effort does this project entail? The shoot times are going to extend over a course of four days including the scouting and technical recce.  We also have to write a script for the story that the client wants to tell throughout the video.  Essentially you need to work out how many people and for how many days will be working on the pre-production. Best advise is whatever you estimate it will be more. However, if you price it correctly you probably wont be com putative and you wont win the job. So this is where you have to bite the bullet and just get it done as best as you can. We all do it. Pick a number, hold your breath and hope for the best. It all comes down to personel. Pick the best people for the job and you will get it done in less time with less mistakes – and that means more profit.     5. How Long Does It Take To Edit An Online Video? We also have to account for the time that it’s

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At Beast we often get asked, what is the process when it comes to Post-Production? There are three phases of filmmaking: pre-production production post-production. Here’s an outline, from UK Production Company Beast London, about the 12 steps of post-production in film making. Pre-Production Almost all filmmakers are in a continuous cycle of pre-production. Pre-production is the phase where you try and prove everybody that your film is about to start shooting. It’s the distressing phase where you wait for financial promises to appear in your bank, and for cast and crew to come to an agreement that they will certainly turn up. ‘Actual’ pre-production is when you’re paying for script development, casting, scouting and securing crew. To be honest, pre-production is not difficult. Production The second phase is production. This refers to the actual shooting days. Shooting days for commercials are typically 1-3 shooting days. For movie production the usual number of minimum days would be around 20days and can go up to 70 or 80 days for big budget movies. During video production everything takes place at once- the schedule, filming, coaching actors, setting up lights, preparing the camera, propping, set-dressing, hair and make up and much more. Production, although usually taken as being fun and blissful, will perhaps be the worst days your life. Like moving house, it is something that you choose to do and put all of your money and effort into but it is incredibly stressful and exhausting. But you continue. Somehow your film is ready. It’s time to celebrate. Everyone hugs everyone, and they breathe collective sigh of relief that it wasn’t a complete disaster and then they all go home. Post-Production Now you are faced with a mountain of rushes. Hours upon hours of video rushes. This is exactly when you begin with post-production. And this is when it pays off using a London video production company, with their experience and guarantee of professional quality post-production and end results. The 12 Steps of Post-Production Choose An Editing Format There are two ways in which post-production can be done. One is the old way- the film way and the other one is the digital way. The choice is completely yours and should be made wisely. The film way lets you shoot film and edit, or join film on film editing equipment. It’s rare and outdated and few filmmakers edit this way today. The electronic or digital way gets all your footages digitized (if shot on film you will have to get them scanned to a digital format). No matter which format you choose, the steps involved are more or less the same. Hire A Picture Editor Your cinematographer is somebody who’ll be able to give you decent recommendations for an editor. An editor’s work is to produce an Edit Decision List (EDL). The editor will go through your script and look at the footages, and with this info, trim the film according to their outlook of what makes the story superior. Since it’s a huge creative responsibility, it’s advised to get an editor well before the project enters into the production phase. A worthy editor is the one who advises on the types of shots he will need, and gives valuable advice on tricky post-production matters beforehand. The standard schedule for editing a feature is 7 – 8 weeks. During this time, your editor will make different drafts of your flick. The first draft is the Rough Cut, and the last one is the Answer Print. Editing is aimed towards being contented with the visuals (locking picture) and sound (sound lock). Hire A Sound Editor Now, about 8 weeks later, the visual film is ready but you need to boost the look with sound. Therefore, you’ll need to hire a sound editor and an assistant for 5-6 weeks. His job will be to: trim dialogue tracks rebuild sound effects get cue sheets done to make things easier in Step 6 (The Mix). Do ADR & Foley ADR stands for Automatic Dialogue Replacement. This will land you and all the actors in a large hollow room with a projector that displays your latest picture draft from Step 2. The actors will have to lip sync and loop dialogues that weren’t sharp and clear. Foley involves going to a room that looks like the ADR room but this time, without actors. Sound people called Foley Artists or ‘walkers’ will help you put certain other sound effects (like the noise of footsteps etc.) into your film. Lock Music For many first timers, cutting costs on music can be a tempting choice, but if you have chosen a top production company UK then be assured that music will be a top priority. First off, there are a couple of things that you should avoid while securing music. Do not fill any popular (or unpopular) old songs that you haven’t obtained the rights to. Do not use any pre-cleared CD-ROM music as it won’t be good enough on quality. Hire a musician who has his own studio to compose original songs and tunes that you have the copyrights to. The Mix (Re-recording) Once you’re left with 30-40 tracks of sound, which include all the dialogues, ADRs, Foleys and music, you must cover them on top of each other to falsely create a sense of sound with immense depth. This is called the Mix or the re-recording session. Get Music & Effects Somewhere in the near future, you will hopefully be selling the rights to your film to foreign nations. The distributor/buyer in that nation would want a sound track with no dialogues so they can dub the dialogues accordingly. Get Your Titles Your editing is almost done. All you need are the final pieces for the answer print. The first three pieces to get are your 6-8 Opening Title Cards followed by Rear Title Crawl. These titles are then attached to the master track. Create A DCP You will need to create a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) in order

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Did you ever wonder if you could shoot best videos with just an iPhone? Well there’s a little computer tech company called, Apple, they shoot almost all of their video content marketing for their iPhones on the iPhones themselves. In fact one of our favourite videos from Apple from 2019 was this brilliantly shot snowball fight, “SNOWBRAWL“. As technology has progressed over time the number of new apps to help someone create content has gone up. Not only can people just edit a photo for their instagram they can now animate, film and edit a whole video production. But just how can you do it ? Well below we’ll show how you can create a video production with your phone (These tips don’t just go for iPhone they go for any phone, although some app names may change,) There are so many examples of great projects made using just an iPhone, a YouTube search is all you need to do to see what people are capable of. A lot of the iPhone adverts now claim to be made on only iPhone however Apple never mention if there has been any additional equipment used. The best way to film on an iPhone is the apple standard camera app, while some features are limited it has the basics there to get filming done, the only problem you may have is that some sliders are limited which means if you need to change anything mid shot, whether that’s brightness or something similar, you’re incredible limited, there are a few ways around this however. There are apps on the app store that allow you more control over the camera. An example of something like this would be ProCamera, this app provides a more detailed interface in which the user can have more control of their videos with controls ranging from iso & shutter to histogram and white balance. You can also export files in a RAW format. The app also has live filters which may be more suited to fun projects however if you are filming any professional videos i.e. corporate videos, it would perhaps be something to skip. While the app does cost $5.99 with a rating of 4.6/5 stars it’s definitely worth a punt. Whatever app you use, if you get it right the quality of your filming before editing will be second to none. To film footage on an iPhone it’s not hard at all. All you’ve got to do is press the record button and capture what you want. A tripod is a great addition to any setup and just because you are filming on an iPhone, doesn’t mean that you should be lazy. When it comes to audio it’s quite easy to capture crisp audio, the audio recorder on the normal camera app is alright, it does the job well but don’t expect too much quality if your in a windy environment. For the best quality it would be recommended to use a mic with a filter on it, one mic that works with a phone would be the rode videomic me L. It’s an affordable mic that works with all iphones with a lighting cable. An alternate to this would be a lavalier microphone, however one flaw to this would be the wires however there’s plenty of ways about it. One app that may help you with your audio is AudioShare while it does not have the necessary editing tools such as cut, copy and paste functions. If you want to edit your audio and add effects, you have to do it in a different application then import to Audioshare. But for the organization of your tracks and audio files, it’s the best application to do that. When it comes to editing your productions there are a plethora of apps to help you edit your footage. One example would be imovie. It comes with iPhones now so won’t cost you a penny, its set up like your usual video editor with a timeline. Its easy to use with a simple drag and drop format with pre loaded effects and transitions, however whether you choose to use these just depends on the type of production you’re making, like most things mentioned though it is still relatively basic and you will never have the same amount of options as you would on a desktop project. Another alternative to iMovie would be Adobe Premiere Rush, this is essentially a sister app to the main premiere pro cc. Again it comes down to the problem that it’s not as in depth as the main app, this is because the app is mainly marketing towards social media stars so it has a simple workflow so it’s more fitting for simple projects like corporate videos as these require less cuts and next to no effects. When it comes to exporting your final project it’s really easy and you have quite a few options, should you choose to upload it straight away to either Facebook twitter or YouTube or export it in many of the usual file types (MP4,Mov etc.) If you don’t want to upload your project straight away just export it in the setting you like and it’s possible to upload it to any social media at a later date, the only apps you need for that are the files app and the social media app that you want to upload the video to In conclusion it’s really simple to create your own video production using just a phone, while your still able to create a production of very good quality it still won’t be up to the standard of a full blown professional production, but If your just getting started off on your videographyjourney it’s a great way to get clients and build up your portfolio before you can afford better equipment. Making content productions with an iPhone is better for some genres then others though, as previously mentioned with the editing side of things, corporate videos are great to make

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We decided to find out what is the best viral content of 2019  Having a video go viral in 2019 is a great way to increase the reach of your video marketing campaign. Of course it all really comes down to luck to make your video go viral. But there has been plenty of campaigns that have gone viral this year, heres a few of our favourites. Gilette  ‘We Believe: The Best Men Can Be’ Gilette changed up their typical video marketing campaign in the January of this year, moving away from the typical style of TV advert Ising campaign and instead focusing on the social responsibility around negative behaviour of some men, more so sexism, bullying and toxic masculinity. Gillette also committed to donating money towards organisations that help men achieve their best. The campaign gained a lot of traction online, with numerous news channels all over the world covering the campaign. It had a lukewarm reception so to speak as it was applauded by some people for speaking out against toxic masculinity and other issues, while it was slammed by others for being unfairly stereotypical. The two minute content production has become one of the most disliked videos on the whole of YouTube. Gillette also created a mini site where they explain the inspiration behind the  creative campaign – “…turn on the news today and it’s easy to believe that men are not at their best. Many find themselves at a crossroads, caught between the past and a new era of masculinity. While it is clear that changes are needed, where and how we can start to effect that change is less obvious for many. And when the changes needed seem so monumental, it can feel daunting to begin. So, let’s do it together. It’s time we acknowledge that brands, like ours, play a role in influencing culture. And as a company that encourages men to be their best, we have a responsibility to make sure we are promoting positive, attainable, inclusive and healthy versions of what it means to be a man. With that in mind, we have spent the last few months taking a hard look at our past and coming communication and reflecting on the types of men and behaviors we want to celebrate. We’re inviting all men along this journey with us – to strive to be better, to make us better, and to help each other be better.” The Egg The egg on Instagram was an account called @world_record_egg. The account was started by Chris Godfrey a 29 year old advertising creative. He was joined by two of his friends, it started off with just a picture of an egg with the caption “can we make this picture of an egg the most liked photo on Instagram?” That worked incredibly well by smashing over 50 million likes eclipsing the previous most liked post by Kylie Jenner that had 18 million likes. Once it broke the record the account posted a few more pictures showing the egg with cracks in it. This was then followed by a short video showing how the egg had cracked and promoted a website for mental health and getting talking about your health. The campaign was taken universally well as it spread a great message. The mental health campaign was a productionby the streaming app Hulu. It is reported that at its peak the egg could fetch 10 million dollars in advertising money however this was claimed as false with a figure closer to the $250,000 mark being more realistic, this shows just how much money is in going viral these days. Since the egg account blew up it has had a partnership with the happy egg company USA which has bought in an undisclosed amount of money. The egg isn’t at its peak anymore but is still getting millions of impressions per post. British Army  The British army recently ran a campaign inspired by the famous ww1 poster “Lord Kitchener Wants You.” But instead of using that famous slogan it was changed to “snowflakes, we want you!” and “selfie addicts, we want you!” this campaign was made to increase the number of british army soldiers. The Defense Secretary (as of the release date of the advert), Gavin Williamson, said “a powerful call to action that appeals to those seeking to make a difference as part of an innovative and inclusive team. It shows that time spent in the army equips people with skills for life and provides comradeship, adventure and opportunity like no other job does. Now all jobs in the army are open to men and women. The best just got better.” The creative agency  knew the campaign would get a big reaction, but this was their plan, as only 10% of media spend was spent on that part of the video production. They knew it would go viral so it was used to their advantage, with the production company using this to increase the reach of the campaign, before releasing a set of TV adverts. The TV adverts have been produced incredibly well, with the videos focusing more on people abilities i.e. Perfectionist. The resultswere quite good with the army reporting 1000 more soldiers starting training in the following months of the campaign. Nick Terry from capita mentioned “Both Capita and the Army have been working tirelessly over the last 12 months at least in terms of how we bring this overall recruiting effort to deliver the numbers needed to fulfil the Army’s requirements on its operations around the world,” he says. “All that effort has been in making sure candidates are nurtured through the process in the right way, reducing the time it takes on average. We’re now starting to see some really positive signs in terms of conversion from those that are applying to start basic training.” Like the examples we’ve mentioned, having a video content campaign that goes viral has numerous benefits for your brand, not only in terms of reach and

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There are over 15,000 production companies in London alone, so if you are starting out, how do you scale a small Company in the UK? In this blog article we are going to go through the process of scaling a small production company in the UK. This article doesn’t just apply to production companies, these tips can really help in any industry. We spoke with Beast director Lawrence Jacomelli, who knows what it’s like to scale a small London production company from the ground up. Serve Clients You Can Help The first thing Lawrence recommends is to only serve clients you can actually help. So we don’t mean take on catering clients if you’re a London video production company, we really mean specialise in certain types of video productions. Beast London was opened in 2015, but Beast creative video agency was first started in Los Angeles and both offices are still open to this day. Perhaps up until now if you’ve been offering a wide variety of services you say yes to the every project and now all of a sudden you’re a full service video content company that you didn’t even plan to be in the beginning, just because you needed the revenue. Did you know that actually that’s going to prevent you from growth, that’s going to prevent you from building a business that runs and generates revenue consistently. It’s time to start saying no to the clients that don’t fit your skill set and instead get clients that create a standardized repeatable process that you can specialise in. And in order to do that we can only serve the clients that we can actually help get that specific outcome.  Is It Worthwhile To Get Feedback on your video productions? Our second tip is to create feedback loops. What we mean by that is a lot of people just deliver their service. They never try to optimize it or make it better in any way shape or form. We want you to create a client experience where you have opportunities to get feedback from your clients as you’re presenting the finished video or film. The thing you need to do is create opportunities for your client to share how it’s going, you also need to create opportunities to find out if there’s something missing, or maybe if they’re being overwhelmed and something needs to be removed. The only way that you can actually deliver video production services that continue to get better each and every time you deliver it, is by measuring the success of your video productions. You need to create iterative feedback loops to get that constant information coming in so you can improve each and every day. Start Simple The third thing that Lawrence recommends is to start simple then get complicated later, right now the thought of maybe simplifying your business is a little bit scary because most likely you work with a bunch of different types of clients. Here’s the thing, the more different types of clients you have the more variables there are in your delivery. The more variables there are the harder it is to create a system and make it repeatable. You need to actually simplify your video production service. London is a tough marketplace for video production companies and digital marketing, so try to start simple and really narrow down what type of client you want to serve, and what problem you are going to solve and the outcome you are going to get them and get really good at doing that. Try and get at least a year of serving that same type of person under your belt. If there’s other types of marketing videos for businesses that have those same problems get traction before you go and serve the other market. For right now really narrow down and start simple. Find Recurring Revenue Number four on our list is to add recurring revenue on your back-end. Now if you’re a creative agency you might have retainers already, you might be like us, we had retainers out of the get-go and didn’t offer just one-off projects. After a while we moved to one-off video projects and moved recurring revenue streams onto the back end of our production company, which created a lot of predictability and stability and allowed us to keep growing our business. The larger influxes of revenue on the front end were supplemented on the back end from recurring revenue which added stability. So if you don’t have any recurring right now you want to start moving towards having some sort of recurring revenue stream coming off the back end of any front-end projects that you’re selling. Perhaps an example of a recurring revenue stream would be to work on a weekly or monthly video production that has the same pay every time. This could be social media videos which are created and edited by one person rather than a whole film crew. Define Lawrence says you should define and sell an outcome, say goodbye to proposals, say goodbye to one on one, say goodbye to custom projects, you need to sell your prospects and clients into a specific deliverable that you’re going to give them. That specific deliverable is going to be a specific result or an outcome, no more giving them a menu of services and letting them self-select what they want to do. Find and sell an outcome. Do You Need To Know Your Numbers? Our penultimate tip is to know your numbers. So many video service providers literally don’t even know if they’re profitable, or if their cash flow is dialled in correctly and a lot of this has to do with not knowing where they’re trying to go and what they really want out of their video production company. First you need to create a vision but you need to be tracking your numbers so you understand if you are profitable. Can you make these investments into growth, can you

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