Day 1 – Friday | Film Frenzy Kickoff

• NOON – Inhale. The starting gun officially kicked off the competition. We decided to start with the interviews to serve as a backbone for our film.
• 1PM – We met at the Cognitive Films studio to shoot our initial interviews with the team.
• 3PM – We headed to the Badgerdog offices to observe their American Short Fiction editors meeting.  Here we captured office b-roll as well as meeting clips.
• 5PM – Returned to the studio for the day to encode the video footage for editing.
• 7PM-2AM – Started initial editing of the footage captured thus far, synced audio, and started pulling usable clips and sound bites into a sequence.

Day 2 – Saturday | In Full Frenzy

• 10AM – Walked 2 blocks (that was convenient) from the studio to Write By Night, where the Young Writers Workshop was being held.  We captured video of the students learning.
• NOON – Met the Badgerdog team with students at the Blanton Museum of Art to film a live reading event.  We were lucky that this took place during the weekend of the competition.
• 2PM – Interviewed various students and an AISD Elementary Principal in the museum exhibit lobby.  Captured museum exteriors and establishing shots
• 4PM – Returned to Cognitive Films studio to encode the footage and sync audio to get ready for editing.  Busted out the French press.
• 4:30 – My good friend Krystle Copulos stopped by with her 2 daschunds (last minute decision) to get a real badgerdog for the final logo screen.  Unfortunately, they didn’t make it in the final cut because we had a hard time getting the shot long enough (see photo).  Krystle is a foster for the Central Texas Daschund Rescue and VP of Platinum Realty in Austin.
• 6PM – 2AM.  Editing, editing and more editing.

• 2AM – 4AM. Still editing from the night before. Coffee #6.
• 4AM – 7AM.  Even more editing. Sun rose.  Zero sleep.
• 7AM – 10AM. Still editing.  Working in music. Coffee #10.
• 10AM.  Rushed color correction and noise removal.  Added titles.
• 11AM – Export the final movie ready to turn in.
• 11:10AM – Noticed a mistake in the “final movie”, panicked. Fixed quickly  and exported again.
• 11:35AM – Added to flash drive and ran out the door. Rushed to Alamo Drafthouse to turn in the final movie.
• NOON – Exhaled. Passed out.
• 8PM – Woke up and returned to Alamo Drafthouse for the official screening and judging.

The competition was fierce.  We were up against nine experienced video production teams working with nine other very worthy nonprofits.  In the end, I am happy with our film.  We chose to create a documentary-style video with faster cuts than usual and used a hip-hop soundtrack to give it energy.  The sound output  and music was mixed a bit low, which affected the impact, but I was satisfied otherwise.

The Winner:

So did we win?  If you mean “win” the way Charlie Sheen would mean “win”, I’d say yes.  But the panel of judges officially chose Core Media Enterprises‘ “A Unique Look at Austin Bat Cave” as the Film Frenzy Winner… And rightly so.  They did an excellent job in every way (cinematography, interviews, content, editing and sound).  A very worthy opponent.  Whole Planet Foundation’s “Clarity” was the audience choice winner.  Its Portlandia-esque jab at the Whole Foods culture really connected with people, even though it didn’t really explain how the Whole Foods Foundation alleviates poverty or touch on the microcredit concept.  It was fun.. It did the job by getting attention, and we can Google for more information if we really care.  I’d say it worked overall.

Guiseppe Taurino and the team at Badgerdog were a big help and made producing the video a pleasure.  They were articulate and very accommodating to the process.    I would also like to thank Anna Ogden, who assisted me throughout the weekend. It wouldn’t have been the same without her.  Not only did she help with lights and sound, her editing feedback was invaluable.

See you next year…

Carson

About the Reel Change Film Frenzy

On January 13-15, ten nonprofits will team up with ten filmmaking teams to make amazing cause-driven films here in Austin, TX. The contest will highlight Austin’s talented filmmaking community and the awesome organizations working to improve our world. The Reel Change Film Frenzy will start with participating nonprofits and filmmakers getting paired up at a kick-off happy hour (RSVP here) at The Highball at 5:30 on January 5. The filmmaking race officially begins when the teams convene in front of the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar on Friday, January 13 at noon to get final instructions and GO!

Films will be due Sunday at high noon and then shown before a live audience and panel of judges at the Alamo Drafthouse that same night. Winning filmmakers win bragging rights and ALL participating nonprofits win a great short film that highlights their great work.

The winning film (picked by our jury) will also be screened at the 2012 Lights. Camera. Help. Nonprofit Film Festival on September 12-14 here in Austin, TX.

What if a film challenge was not only fun, but also helped a cause?  When I found out that Lights. Camera. Help. and the Alamo Drafthouse were putting together another 48 Hour Film Festival devoted to making films for non-profits,  I was all over it.  It’s called the Reel Change Film Frenzy, and it’s right up our alley. 

For the Reel Change Film Frenzy, ten video production teams are paired up with ten local non-profits to produce a completed (under 5 minute) short film, and it must be shot, edited and delivered in 48 hours.  Although it is a challenge, we were allowed to meet with the nonprofit a week before, to hammer out any details and do the proper research.  No filming is to be done until noon tomorrow.

Film Frenzy Timeline

• The contest will start with a kick-off happy hour for the filmmakers and nonprofits to meet the week before on Jan 5th at 5:30pm at The Highball on South Lamar.
• The contest will launch Friday, Jan 13th at noon outside the Alamo Drafthouse South. The teams will have 48 hours to write, shoot and edit their films.
• Films are due Sunday, Jan 15th at high noon at the Alamo Drafthouse South.
• Then all ten films will be shown LIVE! before an audience that same Sunday, Jan 15th at 6:30pm at the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse.
• Three expert judges will determine the “jury prize” for the top film and the audience will determine our “audience choice” award.

Cognitive Films + Badgerdog Literary Publishing

I am proud to announce that Cognitive Films has been paired with Badgerdog Literary Publishing, a nonprofit group aiming to build literary communities in Austin.  Badgerdog publishes American Short Fiction, a quarterly literary journal publishing short stories from emerging writers.  Our pairing for this film festival is the perfect marriage of passionate story advocacy and video production.

Badgerdog aims to amplify the voices of the disenfranchised, the marginalized, the international, and traditional writers of all ages whose literary work should have a larger audience, whose work may not have come to the attention of, or may have been ignored by, market-driven publishing houses, and whose artistic vision can expand the vista for readers in the Americas and the world.

The frenzy begins tomorrow (Jan. 13th) at Noon at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar.

See you on the other side…

A great story can work to help potential customers pay attention, connect with your company on a deeper level, and spread your message virally through word-of-mouth. A business story can be told in many different ways.  Whether it is through text, speech or video, the elements will stay the same.

Going beyond the basics

Scan any brochure or about page online, and chances are that you will soon be greeted with a formulaic mission statement or cv-style founder biography.  If you are lucky, you’ll learn the basic who, what, where, when, why and how of the company.  It is usually very brief, and focused more on the who, what and where and when rather than the why and how.  What is wrong with that?  It’s more of a news story than a narrative, and usually it will bore you to tears.

Making it interesting

If you are attempting to market something, if you don’t at least have interest, you fail.  You may be thinking: “I sell socks, this isn’t The Lord of the Rings.”  You are right.  It isn’t Lord of the Rings… It’s Lord of the Socks.  Establishing a good business story will permeate through your company and can buffer the establishment of real company culture.  Nobody will voluntarily remember a mission statement or a set of guidelines.  They will remember a story.  Not only will they remember it, they will communicate it more willingly due to the nature of a story.

The elements of a business story

Every story has five basic elements: Characters, settings, conflict, plot, and theme. Your story may not seem too exciting, but it can be very interesting when the right elements are revealed.  In building a story for your business, it is best to start with the basic story elements, and go from there.

1. Character: Who is involved?

Who is behind the company?  Where did they come from and what characteristics do they have?  Are there any events or circumstances that helped shape who they are today or became the reason for starting the company?  If the company was a character itself, what kind of personality or charateristics does it have?  Is it old and wise with plenty of trials and tribulations behind it?  Is it out to change the world like a superhero?  Is it an enemy of the status quo, disrupting its industry at every turn. Think about how this character (whether entity or individual) has changed or had revelations in the past, and how does this change relate to their current philosophy?

For instance, your sock company might have been founded by a local entrepreneur who was originally a traveler/adventurer/mountain climber that started in the sock business because he couldn’t find a double reinforced sock to support his ankles on long trips.  The business has grown to become large but the founder has refused to change the way he made the original socks despite enticing profits from mechanized processes.  This is a stubborn, old fashioned business started by travelers, not businessmen.  There’s your character.

2. Setting: Where and when is the story taking place?

This one is easy, but can become complex very quickly.  Setting is essentially the time and place the story takes place.  Where is this business located and what area does it serve? Is it set to go global, or is it confined to the town it is in?  Where and when did it start? Where is it now and where does it hope to go in the future?

In a business story, setting isn’t always a physical location  or time.  What part of the industry does your business reside in (any niche?).  How does the “landscape” look in the industry?  Is it growing or shaking out?  How does it relate to other businesses both competitive and complementary?

3. Conflict: What problems are happening?

Every good story needs a conflict in order to be interesting and move the story along. They can be external or internal. Your customer is facing some kind of conflict.  Otherwise, they wouldn’t need you.  Your business is meant to solve a problem.  What is that problem?  In the case of the sock company, nothing was available for the traveler who needs everyday support without having to wear a special support wrap.

Your business also faces conflicts in the decisions it makes.  Should you expand or stay small?  Should you diversify your offerings, or stay focused?  Should we outsource this process or keep it in-house?  What are the pros and cons of these decisions? This is internal conflict that makes for great drama:  Socks are easier to make if automated, but too many quality issues can arise if they are not tested.  The company had to make the decision to stay with handmade, despite the temptation of healthy profits.

4. Plot: How do these problems get solved?

The plot is the combination of the above elements.  Within the setting, how do the characters overcome the conflicts? In other words, you may solve a problem in this space, but how do you do it effectively?  Given the circumstances, notions, challenges and character history, how does your company do what it does better than the competition?

The plot helps you establish your “line in the sand” and gives you an opportunity to communicate your unique competitive advantages in a compelling way.  Think about how interesting your business could be when it is fighting a heroic battle against all odds!

In a world of ill-fitting and cheaply-made socks (outsourced with low-quality cotton and non-reinforced seams, as well as no foot support), one company has recognized this (visionary leadership that came from another industry when they saw a problem) and emerged from the ashes of it’s past (a former shoe manufacturing business that went south) to change the idea of foot protection as we know it (hand-stitched socks with reinforced arc-support put through 3 inspections), and possibly change the world as we know it (Millions of people all over the world are living in pain when a simple support is all they need.).  This may seem silly, but are you starting to see where this can go?

5. Theme:  What is the point?

The theme answers the “why” question.  After your audience hears your epic, what are they left with?  This is often referred to as the moral of the story.  It really has nothing to do with morals though.  It is a principal your audience can relate to.  It can be as broad or specific as you want, but it must always be relevant to your audience. One example could be: “You can’t do everything the best, so focus on one thing and do it really well so that you can be successful.”

For the sock story, it may be: “Don’t overlook the small things (socks), because they can make a big difference in life over the long run”. The theme can run even deeper than that.  “Don’t accept things the way they are, because if nobody questioned the status quo, we would still be living in the stone age.” might be a relevant theme that someone can identify with

This isn’t a tag-line, and doesn’t necessarily need to be overtly stated.  Your story can contain much more than one theme.  This is what will make your story resonate in your audiences mind, and breeds loyalty that can’t be broken easily.  People identify themselves often by their purchases.  Give them a reason to choose you with a meaningful theme to your company story.

“Documentaries have become more popular as a distrust of mainstream media has grown…Viewers see documentarians as truth tellers. Documentaries make a different promise to viewers…A promise of a story told honestly with goodwill about something real. But the techniques used to tell the stories in fiction and nonfiction are the same. Editing, photography and sound techniques are just as important for documentaries as they are for fiction.”" -Patricia Aufderheide, an expert on documentary film at American University’s School of Communication.

Austin is home to many documentary filmmakers, and many documentaries have been filmed in the Austin area.  Here is a short list of Documentaries filmed (or at least partially filmed) in the Austin and Central Texas area.

The Unforeseen (2007)

A documentary about the development around Barton Springs in Austin, Texas, and nature’s unexpected response to being threatened by human interference.

Echotone (2010)

Echotone, a documentary about music culture in Austin, can best be described as a cultural portrait of the modern American city examined through the lyrics and lens of its creative class. Join us for the Echotone Sneak Preview Tour this Oct. 4 – Oct. 10 as we visit the west coast with the film and featured artists Sunset, The White White Lights, and Dana Falconberry.

American Drug War: The Last White Hope (2007)

Inspired by the death of four family members from “legal drugs” Texas filmmaker Kevin Booth sets out to discover why the Drug War has become such a big failure. Three and a half years in the making the film follows gang members, former DEA agents, CIA officers, narcotics officers, judges, politicians, prisoners and celebrities.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005)

Daniel Johnston, manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist is revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity, and love. The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a stunning portrait of a musical and artistic genius who nearly slipped away. Director Jeff Feurezeig exquisitely depicts a perfect example of brilliance and madness going hand in hand with subject Daniel Johnston.

Killer at Large (2008)

Killer at Large begins with a local obesity story from Austin (which made national headlines) and transitions into the epidemic of obesity in the U.S. Killer at Large 2008 An overview of the politics, social effects and problems associated with the rising epidemic of American obesity. Exploring the issue from individual, political, scientific and cultural perspectives, the film features appearances by Bill Clinton, Ralph Nader, Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona and others.

New Orleans Music in Exile (2006)

A documentary about the many well-known New Orleans musicians who were forced to leave the city by Hurricane Katrina, where they wound up, how (and if) they plan to return to the city.

Before the Music Dies (2006)

Made by Austin filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen, This documentary tells the story of how the music industry has abandoned both artists and fans in its single-minded pursuit of corporate profits, the reason why so few companies currently control the music played on the radio and for sale at retail stores, and whether corporations really have the power to silence musical innovation.

The quality score

Google’s algorithm can track the amount of time a visitor spent on your page, and uses this time as an indicator of the overall “quality” of the page. If a user spends more time on your site, your quality “score” will increase, and you end up ranking higher. Google defines quality score as “a dynamic variable calculated for each of your keywords. It combines a variety of factors and measures how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user’s search query.”

The goal of a search engine.

The goal of a search engine is to provide the most relevant results pertaining to a specific search query. If you type: “How to make visitors stay on a website” in the search bar, they want you to be able to find a relevant answer to your question. If you click the first result, and it doesn’t answer your question, you will naturally click the back button and continue searching for your answer.

Back is bad.

When you hit that back button, it tells Google (or any other search engine) that the page you clicked did not provide you with the information you were looking for. When enough people do the same thing, it will indicate that the page is not relevant to that particular keyword string, and the page will eventually be demoted due to a lower “quality score”.

If you click the page and spend 5 minutes on it, and continue to click within that site for even more information, it will indicate that you probably found what you are looking for. Therefore, that page becomes more “relevant” in regards to the algorithm’s result for that keyword string.

How can video help your quality score?

Countless studies have shown that visitors spend more time on pages that offer streaming video. An study by Comscore in August 2010 shows that on average people stay on a website two minutes longer when a video is included on the page.

“Retail site visitors who view video today stay two minutes longer on average, and are 64% more likely to purchases than other site visitors.” -Comscore

Aside from the increase in conversion rates, video helps increase the time spent on a website.  It doesn’t take a scientist to understand how this can happen.  We are naturally drawn to moving images and enjoy the convenience of being “fed” information.  A video will keep visitors on a website longer than text alone in most cases.

The longer a visitor spends on your site, the more valuable it will appear to the search engines.  Adding video will dramatically increase your average time spent and ultimately make your site rank higher in the search engines.

You may be curious about what major movies were made in Austin.  Here is a list of the top (US) grossing films, ordered by total box office sales, that were produced (or at least partially produced) in Austin, Texas.

1. True Grit (2010) $171M
2. Spy Kids (2001) $113M
3. Spy Kids 3D (2003) $112M
4. Miss Congeniality (2000) $107M
5. Phenomenon (1996) $105M
6. Michael (1996) $95.3M
7. Spy Kids 2 (2002) $85.6M
8. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) $80.1M
9. The Rookie (2002) $75.6M
10. Sin City (2005) $74.1M
11. Mortal Kombat (1995) $70.4M
12. Kill Bill Vol 1 (2003) $70.1M
13. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) $69.7M
14. Road Trip (2000) $68.5M
15. Friday the 13th (2009) $65M
16. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) $63.1M
17. Friday Night Lights (2004) $61.2M
18. Hope Floats (1998) $60M
19. Courage Under Fire (1996) $59M
20. Varsity Blues (1999) $52.9M
21. Predators (2010) $52M
22. Secondhand Lions (2003) $41.4M
23. The Faculty (1998) $40.1M
24. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) $39.5
25. Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl 3D (2005) $39.2
26. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011) $37.8M
27. The Ringer (2005) $35.4M
28. Where the Heart Is (2000) $33.8M
29. A Perfect World (1993) $31.2M
30. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) $30.9M

You may have noticed that a rather large piece of the box-office pie went to Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios, producers of the Spy Kids franchise.  Although box-office success isn’t going to get any easier, we have yet to see the best movies come out of Austin.

This is not easy, especially if you are trying to publish videos with any sort of frequency.  Here are a few ideas for publishing ongoing, relevant and useful video content that your audiences will want to watch. Disclaimer: These video examples here are not produced by Cognitive Films. They are only good examples of content, not production quality. The quality level of your production will depend on your skills, time and money invested. 

1. FAQ Videos

Create an ongoing series of videos where you answer specific questions. You can create a single short video for each answer to build a nice collection of video content you can add to your blog and Youtube/Vimeo channels. FAQ videos not only help your prospects get the answers they need, they can help free up the valuable time you or your staff spends answering them.

Lowe’s created a series of videos offering answers to common household maintenance questions. This particular video would also work well for a pool builder:

2. Products and Service Review Videos

Think of products and services you may recommend to your customers. Would a quick video review over a product be useful to them? Do a video review on product benefits and features. Don’t just read the specs… Add your real opinion in order to make it useful. If you can, find other review sites and offer a “critics summary” of your findings as well. This can help you get in front of new audiences looking for products or services that compliment your own.

BHPhoto offers detailed reviews of the more popular products they sell. Here is a great example reviewing Manfrotto Tripods:

3. Business Vlog or News Update

Create a simple and accessible setup that allows you to give regular updates on your business. Think of it as a video newsletter. Depending on how you do it, it could be much easier and quicker than putting together a print or email newsletter. Commit to frequent updates and be spontaneous. Don’t worry about perfect production quality.  If you over-think it, it will never get done.

Here is a company news update example. It’s pretty difficult to deliver this amount of information in a single cut, but kudos to this guy for pulling it off almost flawlessly:

4. Tips & Tutorial Videos

Are you an expert? Prove it. Offer up tutorials, tips, and case studies to your audience. Creating a how-to video tutorial that helps your audience learn something useful is a great way to become more engaging and relevant to them. Screencasts are very helpful for explaining how to use software or specific website features, and don’t even require a camera.  Just download screencast sofware and you are on your way.

In this tutorial, Samson Inc helps customers learn how to use the Zoom H4N Recorder that they manufacture (Warning: 80′s hair rock ahead):

5. Video Interviews

Your audience may be interested in watching interviews with key people in your industry or staff. Set up and record interviews with people your audience may be interested in knowing more about. Let the interviewee offer his or her expertise and insights. If you are crafty, you can set these up virtually through Skype or Google Plus Hangouts for group interviews remotely.  This is an excellent option if you are camera-shy but still want to produce great video content.

Salesforce.com decided to interview Google CEO Eric Schmidt to quickly give his 2 cents on the Salesforce/Google deal.

6. Event Videos

Use video to cover a local or industry event. This is also a great way to network offline, as it will give you an opportunity to meet new people. Capture the spirit of the event with b-roll, and combine it with interesting “on-the-street” style interviews.  When you publish the video online, make sure and send it to the people who may have been present.  Chances are, they will add it to their blog and you may even get a link or two.

Hosting provider MediaTemple makes its presence known at various local web developer gatherings and offers them time in front of the camera. Brilliant.

7. Testimonial Videos

If you are really charming, you may be able to get customers to offer glowing testimonials on camera. For the sake of authenticity, treat the shoot as an interview, and ask about what their experience was like when working with you or using your product.  Cut one or more testimonial videos together to make a testimonial mashup, or publish them individually. These will be dramatically more effective than boring plain-text testimonials.

B2B Bonus: Client Co-op Testimonial video

In a B2B scenario, you may want to kill two birds with one stone by creating a testimonial video that also works to promote your client’s business. This is a great way to get the full context of the product or service in use, since your customer will be explaining in detail how you really help them work better. This may take a bit of creativity to make it a win-win for both parties.

Shopify, an e-commerce platform for businesses, pulls this off well:

With a little creativity, you can come up with dozens of ideas for great video to put on your sites.  You don’t need to plan out an entire season to start a video campaign.  Start with one and go from there.  Get your first video published and solicit feedback.  You can fine-tune your content strategy from there.

Austin School of Film

The Austin School of Film @ Motion Media Arts Center is a 501c(3) non-profit independent film, art, and technology center that supports every aspect of production from idea to distribution. Our goal is to educate, train, and develop emerging artists of all ages to be active participants in shaping our 21st century culture. Learn more.

Austin Film Society Community Education

The Austin Film Society is a non-profit organization that promotes the appreciation of film and supports creative media production by teaching kids & adults about filmmaking. For more than two decades, The Austin Film Society has served as the hub of Austin’s vibrant film community. Summer @ Austin Studios offers a unique opportunity to work with local filmmakers and experience the magic of film and filmmaking. Learn more.

channelAustin

Any Austin resident is eligible to obtain a Producer ID, enroll in low-cost training workshops, become certified to check out equipment and produce programs for television. People living outside of Austin are also eligible, but pay an additional out-of-area fee. channelAustin offers digital camera, video editing, and TV studio courses, as well as a range of workshops. Learn more.

Austin Community College

ACC’s department of Radio, Television and Film envisions setting the standard for educating students in the film and digital arts in Central Texas. The goal of its training program is to enhance and inspire students to achieve their goals by the department’s use of current and emerging technology, and training. Learn more.

Art Institute of Austin

The Digital Filmmaking & Video Production program is intended for students who are committed to creative visual storytelling, effective communication, mastery of video production equipment and computer software, and who enjoy working in a highly collaborative environment. While in filmmaking school, students learn hands on, using industry-related technology and equipment. Learn more.

Austin FilmWorks

Since fall of 1993, Austin FilmWorks has offered college level filmmaking courses with the aim of providing solid information and experience that students may use to create their own film and video projects. Our students are diverse in background, practical experience, and age. They come largely from the city’s universities, corporations, and arts communities. Learn more.

Online Video Training Resources:

Although the group setting is a great way to learn, there are plenty of online resources to take advantage of as well.

Vimeo Video School is a fun place for anyone to learn how to make better videos. This is an excellent resource for DSLR video makers.

Media College is a free educational website containing tutorials, reference and other resource material in all areas of electronic media production.

StudioDaily is built on a foundation of video, rich media tutorials and daily news. It keeps readers up-to-date on critical workflow developments, product releases and emerging projects.

Lynda offers great online screen casts covering editing, color correction, sound mixing and more. Membership is $25/mo.

Canon Digital Learning Center offers instructional video to help you shoot better video with Canon EOS DSLR Cameras, shot on location and hosted by Canon Digital Learning Center contributor Jem Schofield with special guest instructors.

Final Cut King offers a wealth of video tutorials, specifically related to editing and motion graphics.  FCK has tutorials on Final Cut Pro, Motion, Adobe After Effects, Soundtrack Pro, Apple Color, and DVD Studio Pro.

Video Production Tips is a site dedicated to helping you get your video project done by discovering more about the art and science of video production.

Film Riot is a how-to trip through filmmaking from the hyper-active mind of Ryan Connolly. From how to make great effects to following Films through production, Film Riot explores the art of filmmaking in a way you’ve never seen.

Reel SEO Video Production Channel is all about creating online video and publishing video specifically for the internet. Tips on video production for internet video publishing as well as coverage of many video production companies and filmmaker networks.

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Help us complete this list! If you know of any other Austin area video production schools or training centers, please email us or leave a comment.

To my pleasant surprise, I realized – by actually reading the content of their email for the first time ever – that they have videos on their own YouTube channel showing you how to decorate your home for fall or throw awesome Halloween parties, etc.

The mention of videos was near the bottom of today’s email underneath the aforementioned photos which bring you to their main site/catalog. It seems like they’ve invested quite a bit in production quality, so why not throw the actual videos (or at least mention them) up at the top of their marketing emails? The videos are truly well done and deserve a little more attention.

I’m always happy to see people/brands producing great video and Pottery Barn gets a gold star from me today. You can certainly bet that I’ll be paying closer attention to their upcoming emails from now on and I immediately subscribed to their YouTube channel, so I won’t miss any more of their lovely videos (they’ve already made 270). – Leah D’Emilio

Pottery Barn is using online video the right way. They are providing useful, relevant, and sharable videos:

• Useful: The videos solve their audiences problems with decorating and party planning with step-by-step guides and cool ideas.
• Relevant: They published the fall party planning guides right before Fall, and  the content is targeted to what the customer is looking for at that time.
• Sharable: The videos cover very specific topics. Rather than packing all of the autumn how-tos into one long video, each topic is broken into its own, bite-sized video.

You may notice that the video is mostly comprised of stills. There are only a handful of shots in the beginning that are in motion, and with that pace set, you hardly notice the almost total reliance on stills and voice-over.

Tips, Tricks & How-to Videos

Of all the videos produced by Pottery Barn, their “how-to” videos seem to pull the most views.  These videos are a great example of how a company can help solve problems for customers through video, which makes the brand more relevant to them. How to Correctly Hang a Drape at Home has over 118,000 views in less than a year. How to Create A Vegetable Centerpiece pulled in 50,000 views, and Creating a Memory Wall has almost 40,000 views as of this posting.

Think about how you can use educational or instructional videos to solve your customers problems.  It will put your brand in a favorable light as you become a trusted resource for valuable information.

Profile & Lifestyle Videos

In addition to their popular how-to videos, Pottery Barn’s Youtube channel features a “lifestyle” series of documentary-style videos showcasing the homes of their “ideal” customers. Pottery Barn finds these customers and asks them to film their homes. These vignettes are great for readers who want an authentic peek into the lifestyle the brand promises. The video below has amassed about 10,000 views so far:

This video is noteworthy because it is completely authentic.  Without selling Pottery Barn too hard, they manage to profile the homes of real people who accurately represent the lifestyle associated with the brand.  It makes for great entertainment (think home and garden magazines) and helps reinforce the image through stories based in reality.

Who are your customers, and what lifestyle represents your brand?  Would a peek into your customers lives help tell a story that would be relevant to people?  

With a little creativity, you can come up with dozens of useful, relevant and shareable video subjects that will engage your audience. Don’t treat your video production like a commercial, treat it like a series. Instructional videos and profile videos are a great place to start. Need help? Here are some more ideas for video content.

1. Self-hosted video

Your web server probably isn’t optimized for streaming video. Most aren’t. Most businesses are better off using a hosted service such as Vimeo Pro. This will offer better accessibility, up-time and speed. Not to mention much easier implementation.

2. Ridiculously long loading time

Long buffer times may cause viewers to give up before your video starts playing. This is especially true in situations where viewers are only slightly curious about your video. Be sure to encode your video correctly for streaming before uploading.

3. Inability to stream on multiple devices/formats

Go with a video format that allows the video to stream. The viewer should never have to download your video to play it on their computer. This should go without saying. HTML 5 video allows you to embed video in your site and customize the play controls in new ways, is compatible on most mobile devices, and can be programmed to “fall-back” on flash or other formats if required.

4. Lame preview screen

Many video sites will pull a frame from your video to use as a preview screen before the video is played. You can customize this preview screen to draw more viewers in either by making a custom graphic/logo screen or choosing a more relevant frame.

5. Buried video and hidden play button

Not only will it beg to be clicked, but a prominent play button will ensure that even the most unobservant viewers will discover your video embedded on your site. If you have a great video, try to embed it (or create a prominent link to it) on your home page, rather than in an obscure menu link.

6. Antisocial

For maximum utility and reach, make sure to upload your video to sites like Youtube and Vimeo to be found and shares. This is especially important if your main site video lacks a share button (for aesthetic reasons).

7. Funky embed ratio

When embedding your video, keep the height to width (16:9 for most video) ratio intact to avoid black bars on the left and right or top and bottom of your video. Youtube and Vimeo custom embed code maker will do this for you if you supply a width or height.

8. Epic length

You may have a lot to say, but it is a cold, hard fact that the average viewer has the attention span of a gnat. Make sure to edit your video down to its essentials to deliver the core message as quickly as possible. In most cases, 3 minutes or less is a good benchmark. If you need to, cut your video into multiple parts. Yes, we are guilty of breaking this rule.

9. No call to action or payoff

Your viewer watched your video all the way through… What do they need to do now?  What it the main theme?

10. Worthless content

Your website video shouldn’t mimic a television commercial. Web video viewers are a different animal. They are not forced to watch your pitch in order to get to the season premier of their favorite show.  If they give their valuable time to you, make sure to use that time to educate, delight or entertain. If you are creative enough, do all 3.  You can offer tips, tell your story, or help solve their problems.