From The Blog

2017 Brand Film Festival London “The Brand Film Festival is a new awards event for branded content. A new player on the world’s creative circuit, it has been introduced to London this year by @Campaign and @PRWeek. Our video production company had the great pleasure to be there in competition. Beast video content company was shortlisted in the B2B Category for our Brand Story video for @CambridgeAudio…and we are flippin chuffed to have won a Bronze. Because not only does the video actually tell the brand’s story, but it was also achieved on a very modest slice of budget when compared to many of the other winners. Even a corporate video can be interesting and creative. So here is an awards festival for award winning corporate videos. Brand Film Festival 2017 – Winner Beast Video Content From left to right: Victoria Taylor Creative Director Beast Video Content, quite drunk – Jorian Murray, Founder Ampersand more drunk, Unknown Guy, Unknown position, Unknown company  – dead drunk That’s not to say that budget triumphs over good ideas. Not at all. There were some cracking films showcased last night. And to be fair another low budget and one of our favorites, being a film that trumped us and took Gold in the B2B Category. @dadad decided to raise awareness of their annual awards by stealing the Pencils from previous winners. The audience had the pleasure of seeing Creative Directors the world over spitting blood and obscenities when they realize their pencil is missing. The ‘Nothing matters More’ end line brings home just how bloody important these little yellow pencils are to the creative industry. Other brilliant work included @ladbible Brand documentary for @RNLI. A hard-hitting very moving true but tragic story about a young man called Anthony Miller. The film reaches out to young people to be aware of the dangers of open water. ‘In Da Hostel’ with 50 cent created by @hostelworld was bang on. Winning Gold in the ‘Viral’ Category the film simply speaks to its customers in their own language. Funny, entertaining, but also informative. Great work. As the bubbles flowed, the lovely Miranda Sawyer held court well as guest presenter. We drank and we were definitely merry. My only niggle was the lack of nibbles. The rush of beards and skinny jeans at finger food time meant I didn’t get one bowl of rice to sample. More food next time please!” Victoria Taylor, Creative Director – Beast Video Content Company So what was the standard of the awards? Well if the list of judges is anything to go by then pretty high. There are some real heavy hitters in the panel and a great variety too.    

Read More

Marketing techniques that boost sales Products don’t sell themselves, regardless of the demand or quality. The competition on the open market is fierce and businesses need every advantage they can get to position themselves ahead of their competition. Using video to tell your story and present your USP is critical. Many brand are recognizing this and forming ongoing partnerships with video production companies and video content companies. Marketing is a necessary evil that each financially successful business utilizes to increase sales. There is an ongoing debate whether or not marketing is a science. One thing is certain, without research it is impossible to create a viable marketing plan. There are four main principles of marketing, and they often refer to as the ‘Four P’s’: Product Place Price Promotion Each of these principles is nearly useless when used separately, but once they are combined properly, they can do wonders for any given product. It is through a combination of science and art that the best marketing campaigns are created. Art simply embodies the findings of the research. In order to create a successful marketing campaign you need to be open-minded, think outside of the box and be ready to take risks, because the best marketing solution is not always the most convenient one. If you are thinking of making a corporate video and want to use video content to increase your marketing awareness, here are a few techniques that our video production company can recommend to help you re-think your marketing strategy and consequently boost sales. Define your customer Who is the person you are offering your products to? How old are they? Are they male or female? Where do they live? How much money do they earn in a year? What do they like? These are just a few questions that you need to answer when you are defining your customer. If you don’t know who your customer is, then you will be stumbling in the dark. No information about potential buyers of the products you are offering is redundant. You need to know who your customers are before you start producing the product you would like to place on the market. If you create a product that simply doesn’t have a market, then it shouldn’t surprise you that the product doesn’t sell. Furthermore, if you know who your customers are, you will know what you shouldn’t offer them. It takes a lot effort to precisely define your target groups, but once you’ve managed to do that, the task of marketing your products will become much easier. Click here and find out more about how to define your ideal customer. Make attractive offers Even the richest among us like tempting offers. Everyone likes to get more by paying less. A skilled marketer will take advantage of this fact and make a profit on it. The trick is to set the right price for the target group you are offering the product to. The same applies to our video production company, we offer affordable video production because we know that a successful marketing campaign is based upon a constant stream of video content and not just one expensive video that tries to tick all the boxes. Setting a high price can be a good strategy because most people believe that if something is expensive then it must be good. The truth is that price doesn’t guarantee quality, and if you choose to set a high price on your products it might be a good idea to meet the customers’ expectations. Reducing price may indicate that the product’s quality isn’t too high, which is why you need to offer more quality at what seems more than a reasonable price. Offers that give more for less are a sure way to increase sales and attract a larger number of buyers. Follow this link and learn the secrets of setting the right price or click here if you want to learn more about creating offers your clients will love. Use every advertising technique available Advertising is a part of marketing that serves the purpose of presentation of the company’s products. Without it, most people wouldn’t know that some brands even exists. Investing in advertising campaigns is a long term investment that often pays off if it is done properly. Posters, online videos, TV commercials, newspaper ads are just some of the available advertising techniques that will increase the visibility of your company and its products. The amount of money you invest in advertising doesn’t necessarily guarantee the commercial success. Sometimes the best ideas are the cheapest ones, especially with video content. As a video content company we know that the budgets are less much that tv advertising, but so are the restrictions and with that comes a new spectrum of creative potential. Being different, unique and memorable is more important than the sheer amount of money you spend. A good ad will offer something more than just a simple presentation of a product. It will make people laugh, it will inspire them or make them think about a certain issue. Indifference is the greatest enemy to a good advertising campaign because it means that your potential customers will forget that they ever saw it. Follow this link and find out more about the most effective advertising techniques. Appearance matters We live in a fast-paced world in which no one has enough time. Time has become a scarce resource and people don’t give it away easily. Appearances have never been more important than today because the attention span of an average user of any product has been reduced almost to a minimum. Every detail in the public image of your company needs to be carefully planned and adjusted to your target audience. You need to know what kind of image you want to project in the world. Are you aiming more towards a corporate visual outlook or you prefer a more laid back appearance. The difference is huge and it will attract completely different kinds of clients. Follow this link

Read More

Do I need a video production company? The age of the Internet is, in fact, the age of digital images. If you browsed the Internet recently you probably noticed that the huge majority of all content is visual. Written text makes for only a small portion of what is being uploaded every day. Visual communication is more direct than words, and that is the reason why a growing number of companies chose to advertise their products through videos and photographs. Choosing a London video production company or even a local video agency can be a great way of starting a video campaign if you have a limited budget. YouTube is one of the largest search engines available that gives access to millions of viewers. What’s more, by uploading your promotional videos on platforms like YouTube, the entire world becomes your market. A single branded content video or online commercial can get thousands of views within just a few hours. Something like this has only been possible in the past, if you had enough money to afford to broadcast your visual content on a major TV network during prime time. Digital technology has made the process of producing video content much easier. An iPhone or any digital camera can be used for filming the messages you want to share with your customers. However, there is a direct relation between the visual quality of the video and the number of viewers. A study of video quality and user engagement finds that: ‘As video distribution over the Internet goes mainstream and it is increasingly consumed on bigger screens, users expectations for quality have dramatically increased: when watching internet channels on the TV, anything less than SD quality is not acceptable’. People are more likely to watch a visually pleasing material in better quality, which is why it has never been more important to hire professionals to produce video material for your company. These days you can fit just about any lens to any camera. You can even get gimbals for iPhones. Is it worth putting an expensive lens on an iPhone?   Take a look at this graphic to see the difference in sensor size from an iPhone (the smallest size in this chart and a professional full frame video camera with a standard 35mm sensor). Imagine how all that information has to get stuffed into such a tiny sensor. It doesn’t matter how good the glass is when all the information gets crushed into a tiny sensor. An iPhone is great for shooting from the hip, but don’t try to turn it into something that it can not be. But it is not the technology, which is the be all and end all. The most important factor is knowing your market and being true to your brand values. This is why having a professional video company combined with agency creative know how is crucial. The video you post online that you are hoping for great things from, can affect you just as easily in a negative way. Save time by using effective videos In our day and age, one thing is for certain, time is a valuable resource. Although you can browse websites and get the information you need, this method is time-consuming and you might end up searching for a piece of information that you can’t find. Embedding a video on your company’s homepage is an excellent way of presenting all the crucial information about your business to the website’s visitors. Promotional videos should be not too long for several reasons. Regardless of how well-crafted the video is, if it is too long the viewer is probably not going to watch it until the end. The second reason why the online ads and corporate videos shouldn’t be too long is a rather practical one. Large video files take more time to buffer and consequentially many viewers might not want to wait or will become disinterested because it takes too long to watch an entire video. A study titled ‘Understanding the Impact of Video Quality on User Engagement‘ found that: ‘The percentage of time spent in buffering has the largest impact on the user engagement across all types of content.’ Using lower quality for longer videos may prove to be counterproductive because as we already noted above, the viewers don’t want to watch the low-quality video, which makes short and concise, high-quality videos a perfect target for a business that wants to increase their online visibility. SEO and video content Just posting a video on your website or on any of the video sharing websites is simply not enough. Without a proper search engine optimization, your content will be buried below thousands of other similar videos and the number of people it can reach will be limited. If someone watches your unique ad on, for example, YouTube, they might be interested to find out more about the company before making a decision to use the service you’re offering or buy the product advertised in the video. Although just watching an online advert will certainly engage a certain amount of users, creating a link that leads to the video presentation of your company will increase the number of people who use the services your business provides. That’s why at Beast when we are asked to produce a hero film for the brand website we always tell our customers that the supporting video which is more informative and detailed is just as important and should be planned for and shot at the same time as the main video production. The extra supporting ‘hub videos‘, which can be talking heads or interview videos, as well as little 5-15 second bumpers to post across social media give you an initial spread of content that all dovetails back to the main hero film. Imagine pouring champagne into a tower of glasses. You start with one at the top and if the glasses are all correctly placed the champagne trickles over and each glass is filled. This is how to

Read More

Big brands move the boundaries Great brands are great because they always take us by surprise. Thinking out of the box is what characterizes all great brands. The constant search for innovation produces breathtaking results that change what we think is possible. Use of the latest technology in combination with amazing ideas results in products that the entire world is talking about. We live at an exciting time in which new technological breakthroughs are a common thing. The fast pace at which these discoveries take place leaves a lot of room for the creatives to market them in a pioneering way. The innovation happens when creativity and science meet, and over the last couple of years, the number of major brands that are utilize cutting-edge technology with the purpose of doing something unique is growing. There is no better way to advertise a brand than to do something truly remarkable. If you succeed your actions will be remembered forever. Here are some of the most extraordinary things major brands have done. Audi’s racetracks in Virtual Reality Virtual Reality has been around for a while now, but it is a developing technology that still has to find its true purpose. Undeniably, VR offers a lot of fun to its users, but until now very few companies have found a good way to incorporate it into their marketing campaigns or to associate it with any of their products. Audi has decided to change that. They reached out to an inner child in each of us, the child that likes to play. As a part of the promotion of their upcoming Audi Q5 model, they created the ‘Sandbox 2.0’ in collaboration with the POL creative agency. It is a Virtual Reality simulation in which users can create their own racetracks and test the performance of Audi’s new car model. Tommy Jensen, the company’s marketing manager said: ‘The Sandbox 2.0 is a state-of-the-art toy for kids and adults. It provides a platform to rekindle the joys of driving and demonstrates the assets of the Q5 and the Quattro technology in a playful and accessible way. For the Audi brand, this is a new way to demonstrate our products.‘ This may be a turning point in the way the new car models are presented to the market. You can watch the video at this link. Nike’s 2-hour marathon Nike has been known for their innovative approach and campaigns that move the boundaries of what’s possible. In December 2016, the company announced they intend on breaking the 2-hour marathon barrier, one of the biggest challenges in the world of running. They have assembled a team of the world’s leading experts that consists of designers, engineers, physiologists, nutritionists, physiologists, biomechanists and material developers that should help Eluid Kipchoge, Lelisa Desisa and Zersenay Tadese to overcome the greatest challenge in running. Their goal is to run 26.2 miles in 1:59:59 or less. The world record is 2:02:57, which means they need to be three minutes faster than the previous marathon world champion. Campaigns like these are truly an excellent advertising move that shows the true spirit of one of the world’s greatest sport shoe manufacturers. You can read more about this remarkable project here. Apple Park Apple has changed the world with its products, but also with their unique approach to advertising. More than 30 years after the historic launch of the first Macintosh computer in 1984, the company is making Steve Jobs’ dream come true. Based on Steve’s dream, the Apple park is a place for creativity and collaboration. Located in Santa Clara valley the park has 175-acres and it will be a home for more than 12.000 people. The main building on campus has 2.8 million square feet of working space and it will probably be one of the architectural wonders of the modern world. The Apple park is going to open in April 2017. This is probably one of the largest marketing moves, that will become the dream of any tech nerd on the planet. You can read more about this amazing project here. Airbnb’s and Disney’s Live There ‘Live There’ is an oldie but goldie of this list. It is one of the pioneering examples of how to use Facebook’s live stream effectively for promotional purposes. Airbnb a famous flat rental platform for travelers across the world streamed live on Facebook, dream homes from the world resembling the world of Jungle Book, during the premiere of the star-studded animation film. Jonathan Mildenhall company’s CMO said: ‘Our partnership with Disney captivates the deep connection between both brands. This flagship film marks the perfect beginning of an exciting partnership. There is no better way to live the epic adventure in The Jungle Book than a magical treehouse experience on Airbnb. This film leans directly into this creative insight.’ Projects like this, bring innovation by using the latest technology in combination with great ideas. You can watch Airbnb’s ‘Live There’ ‘The Jungle Book video at the following link. Ikea’s ‘The Growroom’ With all the talk about climate change, ecological awareness has become more important than ever. Ikea has come up with an amazing idea that allows people to grow their own organic food in their homes with a Do-It-Yourself-Garden that can feed quite a few people. The designers of the amazing ‘The Growroom’ issued the following statement. ‘Standing tall as a spherical garden, it empowers people to grow their own food much more locally in a beautiful and sustainable way.’ The structure is approximately nine feet tall and has more than enough space inside to sit and admire the crops. This amazing piece of living furniture shows how technology and nature go hand in hand while keeping in mind that empowering local communities that want to be self-sustainable is quite important in the modern world. The whole project is open source and the instructions for assembling ‘The Growroom’ can be downloaded for free at this link.

Read More

Photography and film are mostly about capturing light. Light is the one single element without which modern video productions, commercials or corporate video wouldn’t even be conceivable. The entire history of film and photography revolves around developing cameras and other equipment that can capture light accurately. So what are the pros and cons of natural light v artificial light? Naturally, in the age of digital cameras, we rarely think about such things and we use the equipment that is at our disposal to create the best visual material we possibly can. Until recently it was almost unimaginable to shoot video without the aid of lights and all of the accompanying paraphernalia. One of the early attempts to shoot an interior scene using just the light from the candles was made by Stanley Kubrick, in his famous film ‘Barry Lyndon’. This attempt, although beautiful had very few followers, and the usage of natural light was mostly reserved for documentary filmmakers. Recently, another great filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu proved that artificial light can be avoided in cinema. Iñárritu’s ‘The Revenant’ won three Oscars, including the one for best cinematography. There is just one shot in the whole film in which an artificial source of light was used, and despite that the film’s cinematography is breathtaking. Emmanuel Lubezki, the film’s cinematographer said that: ‘The idea of using natural light came because we wanted the audience to feel, I hope, that this stuff is really happening. Natural light is very complex because it’s constantly changing, which of course is a problem for continuity, but it’s beautiful. And that constant transformation of nature is a theme of the movie.’ If you can shoot an entire film without using any other source of light other than the daylight, could this mean that we are entering an era in which commercial videos can also be created without all the expensive light equipment? What artificial light offers to video productions Most interior commercial videos are entirely shot in the studio. An interior requires a lot of artificial light and allows you to manipulate it in any way you want. You can shoot day scenes during the night and you can create a night during the day without any difficulty at all. Furthermore, you can create any kind of light you need for the purposes of your shoot, and you can do it whenever you need it. It makes the organization of the entire filming process much easier, because the crew doesn’t have to worry about the factors they cannot control, thus they can dedicate their full attention to the more important aspects of the production. However, in the last half a century the video productions have often used outdoor locations in their videos. All of this video material has been shot with the aid of the artificial light. The question arises what do they gain from dragging all the spotlights to the location? The answer is rather simple, the same thing that you gain in a studio – the absolute control of the light conditions on the set. If you can control every shadow in your shot, you know exactly what you are getting, by using just the natural light you can’t always be sure that the footage you’ve captured is suitable for commercial use. While spotlights can be used to enhance the visual attractiveness of the images you are creating it is relatively hard to achieve the same effect by using only the natural sources of light. Despite all of the advantages the spotlights can offer there are quite a few difficulties they present to the crews that shoot on locations. The most obvious one is that you don’t always have the access to electricity, which is why most crews have to have an alternative access to power. The biggest problem with using the artificial light is that it often gives an unnatural look to the footage you are producing. Poorly executed lighting of a scene can completely ruin it, while even if you do your job exceptionally well, a trained eye can still spot a difference between the artificial and natural light. What do you gain from using the natural light? As we already mentioned the biggest disadvantage of the daylight is that it changes very fast. It is only a couple of hours of difference between the early morning light and the light at noon, but those few short hours make all the difference in a shot. It is very hard to achieve shot continuity if the light is constantly changing and the results are often unusable for any sort of video because the differences between the shots are just too big. For all of these reasons, shooting without any additional light is a much slower process that requires much more organization. Everything has to be on cue because being late can ruin the entire day of production, which can cause you to fall behind on your schedule and lose a lot of money for purely aesthetic reasons. However, the footage produced by only using the daylight as the only source of light looks unprocessed and more natural. Like the ‘Barry Lyndon’ and ‘The Revenant’ examples show the final version of your footage can look pretty amazing if the whole process is done correctly. Using only natural light sources for your video doesn’t mean that you can’t manipulate the light in any way you want, it just means that you must be creative in finding ways in which you can do it effectively. Reflectors are, for example, one of the best tools that you can use because they allow you to bounce the light to the precise place in the shot where you need it. Perhaps, the most important part is having the right equipment that can capture astounding images in relatively poor lighting conditions. Lenses you use will determine the quality of your footage. The low contrast, prime lenses are the best choice you can make for day scenes, while night scenes are probably

Read More

The world of web marketing and online advertising is changing rapidly. Since the emergence of social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, and even YouTube, an increasing number of companies have decided to use them as platforms for their marketing campaigns. And who could blame them? Social media platforms are an excellent tool for reaching wider audiences, thus a larger number of people are likely to see your marketing messages and in result buy the products they offer. 2016 has been a remarkable year in terms of Social Media marketing campaigns. We’ve seen some unique and quite effective ideas that have taken the Internet by storm. Perhaps the most interesting fact is that giants like NASA or Paramount have used the social media to promote their products and campaigns. This is a huge step forward because social media has been, until recently, mostly an advertising tool for smaller companies who can’t afford huge budgets and have to look for alternative ways of promoting themselves. Let’s take a look at some of  the most effective social media marketing campaigns of the previous year. NASA’s #AYearInSpace Not all social media campaigns have a commercial purpose. #AYearInSpace was a hashtag that NASA’s astronaut Scott Kelly used while he was on one of the most exciting space missions we have ever seen. Scott and his Russian colleague Mikhail Kornienko spent an entire year in space. The main objective of their mission was to widen our knowledge on the effects the prolonged stay in outer space has on the human body and mind. During one year Kelly posted videos, photos and all sorts of content on social networks. He tweeted daily about his experiences, while he posted regularly on Facebook, YouTube and SnapChat. He even had Facebook live sessions while floating in zero gravity. The hashtag #AYearInSpace allowed millions of people to follow the adventures of the astronauts live. Scott Kelly’s experiences from this mission will be featured in a documentary ‘A Year In Space’. You can find additional information about this remarkable campaign at this link. Knorr – #LoveatFirstTaste   Romantic, heartwarming, cute, original and above all effective campaign by Knorr. They asked more than 12.000 thousand people about how flavor affects their lives, and they got some remarkable results. Love at First Taste campaign started out as an online project that asked people a simple question – What does the flavor mean to you? People from ten different countries participated in the survey and revealed that 78% of the participants are more likely to be attracted to a person who likes the same flavors as they do. Knorr’s team decided to take the whole thing a step further and put together complete strangers on a romantic dinner with their favorite foods. The only condition was that they have to feed each other. The results of this extraordinary experiment were captured in a brilliant video that will make you laugh and remind you that the love at first taste is possible. You can watch the whole video at this link. Paramount – #BlueSteelSelfie Although this can’t be considered as a groundbreaking campaign, Paramount’s idea created a lot of buzz before the premiere of their hit movie Zoolander 2. The campaign encouraged fans to take selfies in the iconic pose of the movie’s lead character Derek Zoolander. The Paramount released the following comment: ‘You want to look really, really ridiculously good? Create a Blue Steel selfie and share it with the world now. Zoolander 2 is coming to theaters February 12.’ Pretty smooth, don’t you think? You can find more info about this hilarious campaign here. Disney – #ShareYourEars Wishes do come true, sometimes. The Make-A-Wish Foundation joined forces with Disney in one of the most beautiful and noble social media campaigns of our time. They simply asked their fans to take pictures of themselves wearing Micky Mouse ears and upload them on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #Show your ears. Each post unlocked a 5$ donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The final result was overwhelming because the campaign managed to raise more the one million dollars. David Williams, president, and CEO of the Make-A-Wish Foundation said: ‘We were overwhelmed by the response to Share Your Ears. The campaign not only raised valuable funds for wish granting, it allowed us to engage with both current Make-A-Wish supporters and those who learned about us for the very first time. We now have a worldwide community who is more enthusiastic about our unique relationship with Disney than ever before.’ You can find out more about this amazing campaign and the Make-A-Wish Foundation at this link. Share your ears campaign is a great example how social media can be utilized for purposes other than generating more profit and how social media marketing can be used as a tool for making wishes come true. Budweiser: Harry Caray’s Last Call Staying relevant has been more important than ever for brands that want to be successful in our fast moving culture. This, of course, doesn’t mean that each brand should just pick up any trending topic and try to gain profit on it. The trick is to recognize the moment and the audience that will ensure the success of the marketing campaign. Budweiser’s golden opportunity appeared when the Chicago Cubs clinched the spot in their first ever World Series. The Bud Man and the legendary Cub fan Harry Caray served as a perfect advertising vehicle that Cub fans can always relate to. Budweiser’s team sent a crew on the streets of Chicago to document the fans watching and celebrating the win in this historic game. The day after the World Series, when people talked about the Cubs, they also talked about Budweiser’s commercial. Within days the video became a trending topic on social networks with more than 34 million views. The power of great storytelling and the willingness to go a step further is always beneficial for those who dare to take an extra step and think out of the

Read More

In an oversaturated market, how do you tell stories that sell products? It isn’t an easy task to create a product that stands out and make it memorable. People need to find out about the merchandise you wish to sell, that is why you need to advertise the goods you wish to place on the market. However, if the story you are telling to the audience isn’t the one that speaks to them directly you will have a difficult time selling it. That is why the art of storytelling is so important. Tell the right story A good story is a neatly structured composition that takes you on an adventurous journey on which, despite all difficulties the hero achieves his goal. This hero can be a person or a small lizard, like in the Geico commercial, but the main character must be likable and the sort of character the audience can identify with. In the world of business, there is usually not enough time to produce a saga that takes you on an emotional roller coaster. Video productions usually work with short format, TV commercials are rarely longer than 30-60 seconds. All because of this the importance of a well tailored and well-told story is even greater. The story about the product you wish to sell needs to be interesting and to the point, if you fail to convey the essence of the message, your clients, and the audience will be indifferent towards the product you wish to present. This often happens when a client tries to convert too many message and doesn’t hone in and focus on the core goal. The fine art of storytelling has its own rules that can be more than useful for business that wants to boost their sales and improve the recognition of their brand. The story you tell to your audience will determine your success on the market. Just think of the Apple company and stories they told to advertise their Macintosh computers, their 1984 commercial is still one of the best ever produced and the story it told is still remembered. The public image you create through the stories you tell about the products you offer will always follow you. Chose your stories wisely and make sure they convey the messages to the group of people you want as your customers. Do you know your audience? Defining a target audience is one of the priorities for every business out there. In order to know which story to tell you need to know to whom you are telling the story to. Is your product aimed at males of females? How old are they, what do they like? What is their greatest desires? These are just a few questions you need to be asking yourself before you start to craft the story that will eventually sell the product and create loyal customers. Knowing the desires of your target group is important because it will enable you to know what they truly want and need and it will give you a clue towards how to present to them exactly what they want. To tell stories, especially commercially successful ones, you must respect the person you are telling the story to. That means that you must empathize with the listener and be perfectly aware of who they are. Failing to know the people you are addressing may result in a terrible performance of your products on the market. If you would like them to remember the products you are offering, you need to make your audience remember you, you need to give them something unique to remember you by. The importance of having a vision A brand without a vision can’t survive for a long time in a market as harsh as the one we are facing today. Your vision will guide you through the financial turmoil and it will serve as a guide to your employees and your customers. Share your vision with the world. Tell it through the stories about your products and inspire others to do incredible things they never had the courage to do. That is the best way to make sure that your products will be remembered. Make sure to let your clients know that you will be there with them every step of the way. Like the famous Nike slogan says ‘Just Do It’, we are there to set you up for success. Having a vision of your brand and knowing what it stands for and what its core values are will also help you to choose the stories that will enable you get there. The stories you tell will project the image of what your business wants to be or already is. The words you use and the images you create with those words will determine the amount of success you can achieve on the market. Choose your words wisely. Evoke emotions In everyday life, we often say things we don’t really mean. Sometimes we even say things we later feel sorry for saying. Unfortunately, there is no room for errors like these in the business world. Everything you say about your brand will influence its public image. Words evoke emotions and the main objective of every business owner should be that their clients attach positive emotions to their products. The best way to achieve this is by telling stories everyone remembers, stories that inspire or make them laugh. Something they can tell to their friends over a glass of beer. Great storytelling possesses the power of evoking strong emotions, which can be utilized to boost the sales of your products and generating more income. The danger is that bad stories and wrong words possess the same power, only they rarely improve the sales of products or the public images of companies. Make your products unforgettable by taking your audience for an emotional ride and tell them something worth remembering. The stories we tell are the only thing that differentiates one product from another and a good story that can stand

Read More

2016 was considered a year to be forgotten by most, but in the world of digital cameras and video production, it has been a remarkable year. Canon, Sony and all other major manufacturers released new models that enriched the market and made new benchmarks of performance. In 2017 we can expect the same trend to continue since Nikon, Canon, Sony and Panasonic have all hinted that new releases might overshadow the achievements of the previous year. Let’s take a walk through some of the most exciting cameras we will see on the market this year. Sony Alpha A7 III   Every video professional has felt a certain amount of excitement when they heard what the first Sony A7 camera will offer to its users. Since then, four years have passed, and in the meantime, Sony Alpha A7 has established itself as one of the best cameras for photography of video production. Particularly designed for low light conditions A7 and A7R models have been highly praised by the industry experts. Sony announced that the latest model of A7 series will become available on the market during 2017. The new mirrorless model will have 70 to 80 Megapixels, that will allow for better picture quality than any of the model’s predecessors could provide. Its ISO sensitivity features will remain equally remarkable, and its range will go from ISO 50 to 102,400. If this is the case, the difficulties that low light conditions created are now the thing of the past. Video features of this camera are its true appeal, but at the market price just under 3.000$, it isn’t the most affordable piece of equipment on the market at the moment. You can read more about the Sony A7 III at the following link Canon EOS C100 Mark III The release of the Canon EOS C100 Mark II Cinema is music to the ears of event videographers, Indy filmmakers, and documentarians. It’s rumored that the new Mark III, will be capable of recording 4K video at 60 FPS, which at this point is an astounding feature by all industry standards. In addition, the camera will have a Built-In Dual Pixel CMOS AF hardware that will make life much easier for the cameraman who searches for dynamic scenes but has struggled with keeping his focus on the mark. It’s worth noting that the ISO feature of the upcoming C100 Mark III are as good as they get with the highest ISO value at 102,444. Also, the camera offers a possibility of capturing the RAW material on an external hard drive, which can be particularly useful for the long seasons that last for hours. This model will most likely find itself on the market in April 2017. We can only wait and see if the new Canon camera will manage to overshadow its famous predecessor. In the meantime, you can look for more information about the upcoming model at this link Nikon 1 J6   From the industry’s standpoint, this is the only lightweight on this list. This isn’t the camera for the ad you are directing, it probably isn’t the first choice for the events or any other professional shooting. However, Nikon 1 J6 is mirrorless and can record both Full HD and 4K, which makes it a great choice for video enthusiasts who just wants to capture amazing images, without too much worry about the technical side of cinematography. At this point, it remains unclear whether or not Nikon will replace the 20.8-megapixel sensor, featured on the previous model J5, with a more potent sensor that will allow better image quality. The release of the new model is scheduled for February 2017, but there is no official confirmation from Nikon that this information is accurate. You can follow the updates here. Canon EOS 6D Mark II Canon’s 5D series has made more than just a little noise over the years, so it is no wonder that there is quite a lot of excitement surrounding the 6D Mark II model. There is a lot of speculation going around regarding the actual release date of the camera, but most sources agree that it is safe to say that it will happen during the spring or summer of 2017. The 6D Mark II will have a 25MP sensor along with dual card slots that allow capturing larger quantities of material in one go. Both Full HD and 4K video options are available at 60 and 30 FPS. There is a lot of talk about the introduction of a new super-telephoto lens that will accompany this model, but it remains to be seen how much of it is just talk. As the year progresses, more information will become available. The latest updates on Canon EOS 6D Mark II are accessible at this link. Lumix DC-GH5 Lumix GH4 has been a darling of the video professionals, because of its ability to produce highly detailed images. The range of different scenes it can cover made it very handy for all sorts of video productions in the widest range of settings. It is hard to live up to such a famous and groundbreaking predecessor, but Lumix DC-GH5 seems to be even more promising than its now already iconic forerunner. It can create 4K videos at 60 FPS, while its max bit rate can go as high as 400 Mbps. It features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 10-bit internal recording, 20MP sensor among countless other amazing options. The starting price of the new video production superstar camera should be around 2000$, which is more than affordable for a camera that possesses such potential. The shipping will start in the first several months of 2017, but there are no official dates yet. GH5 offers a lot of promise, but it remains to be seen how it will be accepted by the leading industry professionals. The latest updates are available at this link. Although it is too early to become overly excited about any of the cameras on this list, it seems as if

Read More

5 ways to cut expenses It is no secret that video production can be quite expensive. Creating a corporate video or a TV commercial is a lengthy process that takes a lot of time and resources. However, cutting down on certain aspects of the production can result in terrible video content, that will be a sore sight to your client’s eyes. For example, you don’t want to use the cheap, low-tech equipment because the quality of the image won’t be anywhere near what you had in your mind at the beginning. Regardless, there are ways in which video production expenses can be made more affordable while maintaining the same level of professional video quality. Create amazing concepts It all starts with an idea. There are different kinds of ideas and some of them are much more expensive than others. If your concept includes car chases, explosions or any other visual effects that take weeks to create, you are looking at a huge budget, that most of the video companies simply can’t afford. If you decide to use a simple but effective concept you are much more likely to save a lot of money while creating an engaging, amusing and above all memorable video that you will be proud of in front of your business associates. Don’t go for huge productions and stay away from the complicated scenes as much as you can, because the greatest stories are usually the most simple ones. Strive to tell the story of your product in a simple but effective way. No amount of money can make your video good if this first basic step isn’t done correctly. Go for the quality of an idea, not the flashy effects that don’t tell stories. Hire aspiring actors Face recognition can be an excellent technique for marketing products, but the fees celebrities charge for that kind of work can be overwhelming for the budget. If you have a good script, you can use young actors or even amateurs that fit into the characters of the story. By choosing the actors that fit the role best, instead of looking for the superstar cast you can save significantly and create an equally effective video. The trick is to find people who naturally look like the characters you envisioned for your video. Also by giving a chance to a young actor who doesn’t have a ton of experience under his belt, you are enabling a young person to continue moving forward in their career, while they give you the energy and hard work in return. Having a high costing actor on your budget doesn’t guarantee that the video you are producing will be successful, so if you are looking for a way to save money on your budget cutting down on talent fees from your video might be a good idea. Low-cost Locations The locations can mean the difference between a great and a miserable video. Location scouting is probably one of the most important steps in preparing the video shooting. Spending excessive amounts of money on locations can be counterproductive. If you just want to create a corporate video use the facilities of your own company, that way you won’t have to pay for the location or go through the endless stream of permits to shoot at a certain a location. It is also a good idea to spend as little time as possible in a studio. A day in the studio can cost a lot, and given the fact that it is never just one day of shooting, alternative solutions are probably better than spending tremendous amounts of money to film an actor in front of a green screen. You need to pay attention to which locations you plan to use while you are creating the concept because once the script is finished it is hard to use locations that don’t fit the script. Crew members working in several positions Large crews are difficult to coordinate and their per diem can add up to a large chunk of the budget you have at your disposal. That’s why it’s better to have crew members who are capable of performing more than just one task. For example, if you are paying a set photographer it is certainly an advantage if that photographer can also be a camera assistant or give advice on light or costume issues. An average video production team has approximately ten to twenty members. For large productions, this number is significantly higher and by hiring experienced professionals who know how to do more than just one role on the set you will most likely save some money. There are a host of new platforms aimed at helping connect crews around the world, we often use movidiam, people per hour and fiver. Smaller groups of people also have the tendency to work better together, because it is easier to get to know other crew members, which in turn lessens the possibility of quarrels and bad atmosphere on the set. Use free musical scores The invention of the Internet and digital media lowered the costs of production significantly. While using the stock footage is a risky proposition at best, using free musical scores and sounds that are available for download can save money and reduce the expenses during the post-production period. The music and sound, in general, can play a vital role in a video, even though they are mostly in the background and the viewer isn’t likely to notice them first. However, they set the atmosphere of the scenes and add to the realistic impression a video should make. If not done properly sound can ruin the video, which is why the director and the producer need to pay a lot of attention to it. The digital era has allowed the production companies to use already existing material that saves a lot of time and money. If you are not planning on creating a masterpiece, but just a standard corporate video or a commercial using the existing score and sound

Read More

The visual excellence of the work you produce can often determine how commercially successful your brand photos and video content can be. The greater the knowledge of the craft you possess, the more confident you can be that your images will impress your clients. It takes years to master the fine art of portrait photography and it is very important to be patient, persistent and dedicated. It is foolish to think that the first portrait you make will be a work of art. In order to get there you need to create thousands of images that are not good enough, and to continue working hard regardless of the difficulties you are facing on your journey towards excellence. Like most things in life, creating portraits in photographic or video medium is mostly about knowing all the right steps. The best way to learn these steps is to repeat them so many times that you can’t be sure of the exact number. Although it is very important to continue practicing even when you are an acknowledged professional, you can start creating beautiful portraits long before you can call yourself an expert in this field. There are certain requirements that every decent looking portrait must meet, and these are mostly technical requirements that don’t demand a huge amount of experience or knowledge, but they do require dedication and genuine interest. Let’s have a look at some of the tips that might help you create better portraits. Head of the FIA’s single seater commission, Stefano Dominicali, by Thomas Butler Use the right equipment Equipment matters, regardless of what some of the most prominent filmmakers of our time might say. It especially matters when you are trying to create a professional looking shot that will serve as a public image of your client’s company. Having the latest cameras and lenses isn’t as important as having the right equipment. It is ridiculous to try to shoot a low light scene of any sort with a camera that doesn’t have the features that allow you to do that. Regardless of which kind of portrait you are taking the most important thing is the right glass (lens). The most commonly used lenses for studio portraits are in 35 to 55mm lenses, but you can also opt for a telephoto lens that will flatten the space between your subject and the background. If you are shooting outdoors and want to capture as much space as possible, your first option should be a wide angle lens that can depict the space around your subject nicely. Despite the popular belief that the work of a photographer or a videographer is done once they leave the set, the most important part of creating a great portrait starts in the post-production. Maybe the camera didn’t capture the colors realistically or perhaps there is a minor intervention that needs to be made on the footage. The images we see on the billboards or in magazines or on video commercials are always edited. It often happens that the pictures get their final form after they have been edited and adjusted for their commercial purpose. The visual material we see on the websites of famous companies is never straight out of the camera. Rolling Stone cover with Green Day by Artz Master the light Regardless of all the wonderful advantages that computer programs like Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, there is little you can do with these programs if the light you used on your models was completely wrong. How the light is going to be on any particular set depends on the effects you are trying to reach. Most of the studio portraits created for corporate or commercial purposes strive to remove all shadows. This effect is achieved by using two or more softboxes and by positioning them in such a manner that they eliminate all the shadows cast by the model. Using a flash can also come in handy because it gives you another source of light that will make sure that your model is perfectly lit. Outdoor scenes can be difficult to shoot because it is much more difficult to control the light conditions. If you are shooting for several hours at one location the chances are that the light will change several times. That’s why using collapsible reflectors is almost mandatory for every outdoor photo session. Video productions are equally complicated to shoot in outdoor conditions because it is difficult to remove all the shadows created by natural light. In most cases, a lot of spotlights and other light reflecting gadgets are required to create the material that can meet the industry standards. Justin Timberlake by Artz Have a watchful eye Capturing a visually interesting shot is not always easy, as a matter of fact at times it can be quite difficult. The secret is in the patience. It takes a lot of patience to get the right expression from your model. Usually, you just need to set up a scene and wait for the right moment in which your model gives you exactly what you need. Learning to recognize that moment and reacting fast enough before the window of opportunity closes is what can mean the difference between an average and a remarkable shot. The readiness to experiment and try out different things might be of help because it will give you a wider range of angles as well as more diverse shots to choose from. Sebastian Vettel by Thomas Butler Make your models smile Being in front of cameras can cause some people to freeze. It happens even to the trained professionals. A good photographer, ad director or a cameraman must know how to work with models and make them relax. The most effective way to do this is to amuse them. By doing so you achieve several things that are crucial for the creation of the great visual material. First and foremost, no one likes portraits in which the model’s facial expression is grim. Serious, yes, but

Read More