EC Come, EC Go

DVD Duplicator Copy Protection No Good

2011-12-11T23:37:00.000-08:00

You’re an independent video producer and businessperson and you want to do something about all those pirated copies of your DVD productions, suspected or confirmed, that clients are creating, distributing, even selling, cutting into your profits. Is there an effective, affordable protection scheme available to prevent people from ripping you off?

The short answer is NO.

THE REALITY OF COPY PROTECTION FAILURE

The reality is two-fold:

1.) The resources, tools and information for cracking copy protection for just about any DVD, at any level, for any commercial or independent production is out there. Two trusted associates, one relatively amateur but dedicated, the other technically very knowledgeable, were able to crack the copy protection scheme used by my recently-purchased DVD duplicator in no time.

Coupon for 25 Percent Off Funeral Resource Guide

2011-11-23T00:22:00.000-08:00

Lulu dot com is currently offering a 25 percent off coupon code good for maximum savings of $50 off any of my publications. The offer is good through December 14, 2001, offering significant savings off the Funeral Video Marketing and Production Resource Book:

“They Shoot Funerals, Don’t They: Complete Guide to Funeral Video Production & Marketing”

Simply go to Lulu and register for a free account, if you don’t have one already, and enter coupon code BUYMYBOOK305 at checkout. According to the Lulu promotion guide for discount coupon application you may use the code at checkout, but you can only use the code once per account and it cannot be combined with any other coupon codes.

They Shoot Funerals, Don’t They will be featured in the classified word ad section of Videomaker magazine beginning with the January 2012 issue and continuing through the March 2012 issue, but the current Lulu coupon code discount is a good chance enjoy significant savings off the regular publication price. The January Videomaker magazine issue is slated for release sometime in December, 2011.

After purchasing your book, send an e-mail notification to echessher@hotmail.com providing proof of purchase and mailing information to receive the accompanying DVD/CD resource disks at no additional charge.

Slated for publication between the end of December and first quarter of 2012 are new resource books in an ongoing series, including:

• The Complete Guide to Montage Marketing and Production

• The Basic Guide to Wedding Video Marketing and Production

• The Complete Guide to Website Video Marketing and Production for Small Businesses

• The Book of Blogs, featuring updated and revised articles from E.C. Come, E.C. Go since 2004

More than 20 years experience in marketing, publishing and video production support this series of resource publications, backed by accompanying DVD/CD resource disks and my philosophy that marketing sizzle should also include the STEAK! You’ll get a lot more than kisses and promises as each publication will offer solid information, practical real-life experience backed by more than just theory.

Also, coming soon to the blog is ... FINALLY ... the REAL information behind DVD duplication towers offering hardware-based copy protection. Are they really worth the extra premium? Can you depend on this kind of system to help boost client copy sales?

And another upcoming blog will focus on CISS (Constant Ink Supply Systems) or bulk ink systems for today’s available printer models.

Create I.D. Tags to Smooth the Way

2011-10-17T01:04:00.000-07:00

In her recent and most excellent post on the Videomaker forums, magazine editor Jennifer O’Rourke started an active series focused on “Your First Amendment Rights as a Citizen Journalist” and as such things will do the post took a life of its own, drifting on- and off-topic but essentially offering up some interesting comments, advice and stories. It continues.

“We decided to create this Legal Issues forums page because many video producers are discussing legalities like copyright and fair use, as well as access.” she wrote, noting, “There are encounters with public officials that can get you arrested.” This was O’Rourke’s opening paragraph. See the complete post and responses at the link above. And, while you’re at it, this is a great forums site to join and participate.

In the process of this series of posts active forum member and fellow independent professional video services provider Charles Shultz, Missouri, C Shultz Media, also Video StoryTellers!™ associate, suggested I post or offer an example of my video producer I.D. card, where I got it and positing it “Might be a good idea to have one.” I referred to having one during a somewhat stressful moment with local officials.

Here’s a trumped up sample I’ve often used as a template for developing I.D. cards specific to the program, project or public event in which I’m involved. I created mine using Photoshop and will often use a different image depending on the type of situation I’m in.

For example, awhile back, when my associate and I were working with the California State University at Dominguez Hills we needed photo I.D. that would allow us access to various areas of the campus and ongoing activities related to the project event. While the campus official involved with the project graciously provided for parking, we worked up an I.D. similar to the sample here and it was deemed to be acceptable for the purpose. That one had me in a suit, no sunglasses.

All this might seem to be a bit elementary but sometimes we don’t think about using something as simple as a handmade I.D. card to help smooth the way around things. I’m sure I’ve often been able to move about a bit more freely during even public events because I took the time to put something together. I’ve created these for high school grad night events, church bazaars, homecoming activities and various youth sports groups that have allowed me to produce their games. Much better if they’re “authorized” but they don’t always have to necessarily be sanctioned, so to speak. Use your best judgement based on the circumstances.

TYPES AND STYLES AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

Probably the most common I.D. card carriers are those clipped to a lanyard and hung around your neck. They’re probably also the cheapest method. I’ll provide sources for purchasing bulk but you can obtain smaller minimums at most any office supply center or sports shop. This usually involved two pieces: the lanyard (many types and styles) and the pouch, sleeve or case.

Here’s what a lanyard looks like. I find the flat and somewhat wider ones to be the most comfortable but you can get them in virtually any width. They also come in various braided, flat and rope; beaded chain, string, chord, cable and nylon.

They also come with an assortment of styles of clips and attachments from rings, to alligator clips, clamps to snaps. Take your pick. And, of course, they’re available in a multitude of colors, with or without branding or customized logos, slogans or website URL's ... my personal favorite when I decide to purchase a bunch of branded ones. I can see this useful in some way for marketing.

Many of the available pouch or protector styles allow for multiple ways of using your I.D. card. The most common includes holes or punch outs for chain-style (think dog tag chains, or the old style bathtub stopper chains), a slot to attach the lanyard clip and even die cuts that allow for insertion of safety pin-like connectors that leave nice holes in your shirts or stick you.

There are also reel-type holders that can be pulled out from their case, then allowed to rewind back in leaving your I.D. dangling from your belt. (think of those round, often silver-colored, devices security, maintenance and janitorial services employees often wear with a bunch of keys) And there’re temporary stick-on style I.D. card holders, molded rigid frames and magnetic ones where you peel the two strips apart and place one inside your shirt pocket or fabric while the strip attached to the back of the I.D. card holder magnetically clings to it from the outside.

If you’re not particularly fond of hanging stuff around your neck or putting holes in your shirts and blouses, there’re also elastic armband-style I.D. card holders.

Pictured below are probably the three most common: clip gripper, pinned and armband holder.

If you want to check out the possibilities or think you might sometime need more than a few, for a crew or special event calling for a bunch of guys representing your operation, shooting video or not, there’s plenty.

CHECK OUT THESE PLACES

for some interesting choices, prices and combinations. Lanyard Supply is a cluttered mess but has a lot of stuff to look at and I.D. Card Group is a bit more pleasing to browse. You can find cheap lanyards starting at $25 for bundles of 100; basic badge holders starting at $23 for 100.

Check out USA Lanyards, Alpha Card, I.D. Wholesaler, Lanyards Now, West Coast Lanyards and Custom Lanyards 4 All, to see more of the same but get a better idea of the range of options and pricing. There’s also ebay and Amazon. So there you are, with information on how to make, acquire and utilize I.D. cards to help you move along with the crowd at most any event.

ANOTHER POST COMING SOON!

Find out about The Book of Blogs, coming soon on E.C. Come, E.C. Go.

DVD Burners, Copy Protection, Inks Part II

2011-10-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well, three months is a bit of a wait, I agree, but hey like you guys I’ve been busy surviving, marketing, working and taking care of business. Well, yeah, this blog is part of all that and that’s why I’ve not totally abandoned it. Nor will I ever. For as long as I live and function there will be an E.C. Come, E.C. Go blog on marketing and producing video.

First things first, however, so I want to wrap up or at least deliver on the promise of Part II, of “Burners with Copy Protection & Printing Secrets” then later you can scroll back up and read about where E.C. Come, E.C. Go is going in the near future and why it makes sense, or should, for me to offer the complete series, in publication since 2004, in a published book as well as downloadable PDF and eventually an eBook format. I plan to post that sometime in the next few days.

A recent response to one of the posts on a Videomaker Forums venue generated a valid request from fellow video producer, Charles Schultz, Missouri. Charles’ question is a simple one and I thought it might be fun to respond with information and illustrations in a blog here. More on all that later.

In Part I, published July 3, 2011, I noted that regardless of opinions positive and negative about using a DVD burner tower that provides copy protection (effective or not based on fact or opinion) I was going to find out by purchasing one. It took me a bit longer than I intended to make the purchase, but I did, from Super Media Store. Sadly, I’m still waiting for test results from an IT friend I know and trust who promises “great delight” in telling me “how many seconds it takes me to break it” — what would I do without my friends, right?

FIRST LET ME TELL YOU THIS ...

Manual feed DVD duplication towers for standard DVD duplication for 1-to-1 (you really need something more, trust me) start at $150 depending on source, hardware, etc. They can run much higher but let’s say you CAN get something that works well enough for that starting price. Do a search on Google.

I’ve made it for several years with my old Reliant Digital 3-up manual unit, including Pioneer burners and a hard drive, diagnostic programs and more but that unit is growing long in the tooth though it still does an outstanding job and I did spend close to a thousand for it. The RD people are now called Denver Disc and they still offer GREAT customer service and quality products. Ironically, I could have purchased a 4-up unit from them now that offers copy protection for about the same price ... currently at $995. On the other hand is is software-based copyright and compatible with Windows XP or Vista PC. I use a Mac and I didn’t want to “go there” with software copy protection, licensing fees or no.

Anyone having a need to burn/duplicate more than one copy of a DVD (most of us, probably) however can acquire a basic manual tower system for a low investment. In fact, there are 9-up units out there priced at well south of $500. Check out Super Media Store, ebay and Amazon as well as Media Supply, Pro Duplicator, American Musical, Meritline and a host of others. Again, do a search on Google. The field is HUGE!

You’ll spend significantly MORE when you add copy protection, software or hardware or “otherware” based. My unit from Super Media Store is a 5-up Spartan Fortress, balancing between budget and production needs, and ran me $979 ... at the time it was the best buy I could find in a non-software, no license or key required, copy protection system.

This system has other benefits including auto-start recording, options to record different types of DVD and CD media blanks, with or without copy protection written onto the duplicates and a hard drive for storing various projects. In my research most of these type of duplicators ONLY provide their copy protection when duplicating from DVD-R master to DVD-R blank. Duplicating from other formats or from the hard drive negates copy protection being included on the resulting DVDs.

So, I balanced the trade-offs, costs, budget, etc. and WANTING copy protection to whatever extent it might prove effective (keeping “honest” people honest, for example) I went with it. I’d also interviewed others in the industry who I knew were using copy protection either way ... software of hardware. For the most part these professionals posed no regrets and all cited an uptick in sales over previously non-protected duplication DVD productions.

BOTTOM LINE IS

I went with the non-software based units because I didn’t want to have to be concerned with the ongoing expense of licensing and key purchases, nor did I want to contend with decisions based on my computer platform. The vast majority of the software-based copyright schemes with licensing or otherwise is PC-based. Nothing wrong with that but I use a Macintosh and simply do not see going to another platform ... good, bad or ugly.

These fees can range from per project to per DVD. They can require purchasing 50 or more at a time and rarely offer an emergency purchase of one (to get the job done that you’re right in the middle of before remembering you need to acquire more licenses) ... that sucks.

And, given time, overall effectiveness of the protection being equal, I will spend as much for ongoing licensing regardless of what I might have saved up front by purchasing such a unit, as my unit cost. On that basis, if it lasts half as long as my old reliable Reliant, I’ll do better than break even. Not to mention the possible 2-to-25 percent uptick in DVD sales due to keeping honest people ... well, you know.

MY ADVICE IS TO BUY

your duplicator tower, once you’ve justified and established a real need for one (with or without copy protection, depending on the volume of sales you now generate or expect to generate in the near future, from a known dealer. Don’t dabble with weird places on the web whose creds you cannot confirm or establish.

This by no means will restrict your choices as there are a number of places such as and similar to the ones I’ve already mentioned where you can either obtain references from people you know, resources you trust, or already have an ongoing personal/business relationship with over the years.

I’VE ENJOYED DEBATE

with folks on the various forums who insist I’m mistaken about the range of speeds to record (I suggest 8X or less, plenty fast enough and safer than rushing it with today’s higher speed rated blanks, regardless of the equipment used); and also insist that I’m being ultra narrow minded when I say that nose grease and fingerprints, skin oils and other substances take away from the appearance of those glossy or semi-glossy surfaces.

In addition to practical experience from years of duplicating and printing on all sorts of stock, I’m personally and knowledgeably aware that the glossy finish blanks and even the waterproof blanks, while they might be great in defense against moisture damage with inkjet systems, do not look that great after a bit of handling. And, contrary to others’ findings, MY findings are these oily residues, fingerprints and nose grease occurrences DO NOT simply wipe off with a damp cloth. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. You’re mileage and/or preferences may vary.

While there are certainly people and those other wonderful creatures between the ages of two and 18 who mishandle, toss, grab both sides of or otherwise abuse DVDs and CDs by leaving them out to collect dust, wiping them off with t-shirts or GASP! paper towels, storing them on dashboards, window sills and anywhere else the sun shines, there’s the rest of us.

Those who keep them in cases when not in use. Handle them by the edges. Prefer to not leave them in the player tray. Keep them safe from sun, moisture and baby fingers. These people do not suffer the damages experienced by spills, sweaty glasses or hands, or play them outside in the rain. Therefore, my hundreds of clients through the years have rarely contacted me for copies due to damage of the graphics. They also don’t have to deal with unsightly smears and fingerprints that glossy surface and waterproof DVDs quickly accumulate.

PRINT FIRST OR BURN FIRST

stems from some of the same thought processes as do matte or glossy finish. Again, mileage may vary, but for me I prefer to burn, then print unless I’ve printed my blanks early enough to give them sufficient drying time ... 24 hours usually works, but sometimes depending on the humidity, it could take twice that or more.

It’s not a question of if but when you’ll begin to notice weird little striations, actually tiny cracks that radiate outward from the center hub area where centrifugal force and motion have caused problems with your pretty graphics. And even though others claim, practical experience based or theory based, that the fast drying glossy and waterproof finishes eliminate this problem, my personal experience (hands on, not theory) has been otherwise.

Trust me, it’s safer to print any type of stock after burning but also acceptable if you give your printed stock sufficient time to thoroughly dry.

FINALLY, THE BRANDS THAT IMPRESSED ME

in DVD/CD duplicator towers with copy protection include the Fort Knox by Applied Magic; Systor systems Disc Master series; Pro Duplicator systems; Denver Disc mentioned previously; and also a system from the makers of the original Casablanca standalone editor, from Gary McNally of McNally Productions, McNally’s Plug and Play. Gary carries not only the Spartan Fortress but other units that require the software licensing.

TO SUM IT UP

The jury’s still out on just how effective copy protection is on the system I acquired. As soon as that report comes in from my IT friend, there’ll be a blog article with all the details. He’s promised me a thorough report.

Burn slow and burn first, print last. In most cases this is the safest way to ensure fewer print problems or client issues. Stay with Verbatim, JVC's Taiyo Yuden, Disc Makers brand. For the record, JVC/Taiyo Yuden is rated number one on many forums, blogs and columns offering opinions on the best DVD stock and Super Media Store, mentioned previously, is named as one of the best low cost resources for purchasing this product.

WATCH FOR MY BLOG ON

Constant Ink Supply Systems, CISS, coming soon. I will provide relative current information on printer brands that use them and resources for the systems as well as the printers they serve. On average, a printer using a CISS will cost you about $125 initially, with costs of $70, given or take for replacement ink of good quality. The supplies generally equals 10-to-11 full 6-cartridge refills for printers like some of the Epson series. Do the math.

DVD Burners with Copy Protection & Printing Secrets

2011-07-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

Most video production professionals, or amateurs for that matter, have an opinion regarding the positive/negative aspects of investing in and using a DVD burner tower that provides for copy protection. The number one response I usually hear is that it won’t do any good and is a waste of money because “anybody” can break copy protection. Well, the real answers are true, and not true!

What I do hear from many professionals who deal in a hundred or more (or less) real time DVD duplication and delivery per event productions is that it pays off. Many who produce multiple-day or daylong competition events such as regional- and state-level band, cheerleading, track & field and similar scholastic events are unanimous. They say that in spite of the ability of virtually anyone with a little confidence & technical prowess being able to break copy protection codes, it keeps the “honest” people honest.

The multiple sales category would include dance recitals, martial arts reviews and demonstrations, youth sports game videos, school and community drama and/or choral performances, band reviews and more. This would be any event where you work once with the anticipation of selling many.

There will always be consumers, young and old alike, who will attempt to break the copy protection of a commercially produced DVD or the limited-run duplications offered by independent professional video services providers. On the other hand, while the percentage of these folks is small and the overall effect on your sales of copies of productions is not always huge, it can have a significant effect on your bottom line (profits) over time.

This is more than a personal opinion

Again, when asked, a number of professionals have said that the additional $200 or so increase in the cost of a tower DVD duplicator with hardware or software (more on THAT difference later) is “well worth” the investment. They tell me the difference in total sales of any given multiple orders DVD production MORE than makes up for the original duplicator investment. All confirmed a noticeable increase in total orders received per event.

Why? Because, on average, the above-mentioned exceptions notwithstanding, honest people are, well, honest. If it proves more challenging to simply make a copy of your production on a branded silver blank with hand-written titles using a blank DVD marker (and not always a DVD marker ... there ARE markers they shouldn’t use as they can and will effect playback) or purchasing your reasonably-priced professionally packaged duplications, they’ll opt for buying from you!

A TRUE STORY

I lied to some of my past clients.

During a “test” period some while back I started putting a small “This DVD is copy protected” notice on some of my productions. When asked by my clients if they could make their own copies, I would say: “Sure, if you can figure out how to break the copy protection.” Yes, my orders increased significantly during the “test period” once or twice by as much as 30 percent. Then some kid took up my challenge and discovered there was no copy protection and called me on it. I stopped testing.

WHAT SOME PROFESSIONALS SAY

is that they “get around” the issue simply by making their copies ultra-cheap ... I’m talking about $10 or less, printed, packaged and using commercial or custom color inserts. Or, in the case of single sales events such as weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and other celebratory events, simply giving away a number of copies, avoiding the issue of pirating altogether. Ostensibly this also generates “good will” some claim.

They also claim to have “factored in” the cost of this. Question: how do you “factor in” these costs when most of you have not factored in all the other relative costs of doing business? There are insurance premiums, pens, pencils, paper, meals, rent (even if you operate out of house) and the other variables that virtually NEVER see their values subtracted from the bottom lines of independents’ P&L sheets.

I beg to differ. Good will, repeat and renewable business, return clients and referrals are generated by quality production, reasonable turnaround times, reasonable but fair pricing and professional decorum. Rarely does good will, and never does loss of profits by giving product away, generate healthy business levels. Loyalty is not earned nor received by giving product away. Loyalty, unfortunately, is also not something upon which most of us can depend ... sad to say.

These approaches, my friends, do not constitute good or profitable business practices, and they dilute the value of the product and our industry. Like it or not, that is a verifiable fact. Whatever happened to the marketing adage “never give away something you can sell”?

There are real costs you must cover to survive

At best, depending on the grade and quality of the media used, the variety of price levels from various resources, ink, your time and all the other cost factors, you’ll spend somewhere between a couple of dollars and possibly a whole lot more, for the blank, the case, the insert, the ink if you design/print your own, and the wear and tear of your equipment. I don’t know what your time is worth, but I have to make something when I’m working.

Or maybe you also invested hundreds of dollars (often $1K or more) on an automated burn-and-print device, saving time, but still with ink, materials and wear-and-tear costs. Somewhere, somehow, you need to recoup your expenses. Selling below your actual costs, including labor, equipment investment, replacement and other variables, or giving the product away WILL NOT generate profits.

To be continued ...

In Part 2 I will talk about my personal research into various model DVD duplicating towers offering copy protection. I will share pricing information and point out the differences in software- and hardware-based protection and why I will pull the trigger on one over the other.

I will also offer some real life experiences in the world of duplication regarding speed of dubbing, whether to use the hard drive or a direct-from-master-DVD duplication, and whether to print first or burn first.

I will share information from others who have found ways around some of the print or burn first issues and what my personal experience has been both ways even using their approaches.

And I will provide links to the various companies and resources for any readers interested in moving into DVD duplication either of their own productions or the home productions of their clients from other services. I do not plan, however, to share or divulge information regarding how to break copy protection code of personal or commercial productions. That information is readily available for those who wish to engage in pirating.

If You’re Not Working It’s Because You Don’t Want To!

2011-07-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

Anyone with a decent camera and a few essential, basic pieces of equipment, and a general understanding of how to use them to create video, and isn’t working, doesn’t WANT to!

It’s summertime folks! I know many of you want to go out and play, put the boat in the water, prepare the skis and jet-skis, maybe do some golf, surf if you're close to waves, party, barbecue, toss flying sports disks, attend car shows, county fairs and other community events. It’s human nature to want to enjoy the moment, have fun and live a carefree life, but hey, most of us also have bills to pay ...

... unless somebody gifted you with that boat, those skis or the dune buggy you ramp over the local dunes.

There are actually ways to do both: enjoy life and make money, and I’ve casually referred to it as guerrilla marketing. Take your equipment with you when you attend these events, functions or go to public places to soak up some summer sun. With today’s lightweight rigs and portability, there’s few places where you can’t take advantage of opportunities.

Here’s a short list, but I just bet most of you could add another two or five ideas of your own:

• Car shows

• Volley ball tournaments

• Bike (bicycle) club tours, competition, runs short and long

• Bike (motorcycle) club ... see above

• Kite flying competitions

• Hot air balloon excursions

• Surfing competitions

• Skiing competitions

• Youth baseball

• Youth Soccer

• Equestrian (horses ;-) events

• Parades

• Fourth of July fireworks exhibitions

• Skateboard events ... competition or impromptu (there’s some great boarders out there who love acquiring GREAT video shots of themselves)

• Golfing events (get in good with course management and you’ve picked up awesome ops)

• Open public exhibitions & activities

• Martial arts demonstrations

• Those live band performances at malls and pavilions everywhere (ask first)

It takes a will to work and some gumption to approach some of these, but I’ve shot something to do with pretty much all these categories over the years. Some will require a bit more finesse while others are wide open to walking on and cranking up the equipment.

Avoid turf wars with other guerrilla marketing video strategists. Sometimes I’ve actually been able to work alongside a competitor, one shooting primarily for one soccer team, me the other. There’s usually always compromise. The coaches, most vocal parent on the sidelines or the guy who pretends to know what he’s doing with that palmcorder waving around in the air are good people to connect with.

By the way, picked up more than 20 orders from yesterday’s car show, and will likely get more through the mail or via e-mail. This brings to mind another strategy that a lot of companies already do but that is going to eventually be important to all of us who shoot a lot of events:

Developing a website where people can order backyear event DVDs from a website catalog or listing. Easy, virtually free, money for a work once, sell many approach to marketing. My article on doing JUST THAT coming soon to E.C. Come, E.C. Go.

Remember: If you market, you will make it! © Earl Chessher 2011

Fear It! Or Embrace It!

2011-06-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

Hello, Video StoryTeller!™ Associates! And those who would, are thinking about or hear of this awesome global branding and marketing program focused on the sharing and preservation of people's personal stories and memories.

Just in case you’re wondering about the potential, viability and popularity of our worldwide branding program, I thought I'd share a link to a TV station feature with you. Interestingly, this is one of three senior communities fellow VST Associate Jim Nicholson sent information to last year during a marketing drive introducing his VST program, the brand, and offering his professional production services.

While Jim didn’t manage to gain entry to these particular prospects, they certainly seemed to like the idea, taking it and doing their own thing for the residents ... getting local television station coverage of the drive to preserve people’s stories.

We can fear this, or we can embrace it!

I think such situations are “embraceable” because they validate our program to the max! This is why I’m sharing the link with you and urging you to share it with your fellow video producers and prospective clients. To inspire you with the prof and knowledge that there is a massive, broad interest in the sharing and preservation of people’s stories. Our slogan is so true: EVERYBODY HAS A STORY!

It is especially invigorating to realize that VST is the catalyst behind this Lancaster group’s thrust to preserve community resident’s stories. And, while their interest is self-serving, to the extent they’re doing this ONLY in their local community, it means WE can utilize the reality of this small news channel special to underpin our own programs ... not only to other senior communities, using the clip to support the fact that people desire to preserve their histories, stories and memories, but with countless other clubs, groups and individuals as well.

Take a look at http://www.wgal.com/video/28102497/detail.html?af=lan and share with me, and our other VST Associates, what strikes you about the movement we helped generate, how we can utilize this movement to the mutual benefit of our VST program, and for those who join us in perpetuating the brand around the world.

Nicholson is currently our Pennsylvania VST Associate. He continues to promote and market Video StoryTellers!™ throughout his service area, as well as among his fellow video production and independent business contacts. He is a true and very active VST disciple. It is through his personal marketing efforts that the Lancaster group kicked off its own effort to pursue story/memories preservation.

Jim is working toward developing a way to take advantage of the community’s “in-house” attempt and generate interest with other communities, clubs, groups and families in the VST Program approach. Nicholson also “discovered” this human interest feature, and another that he’s trying to locate so it can be shared with the rest of us.

Thanks Jim!

Three Steps to Making More Money with Video

2011-05-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

MONTAGE PRODUCTION IS PROFITABLE!

I average $300 a week producing music/photo video montages.

I’ve been doing these for years now and have honed the process down to the point where, if I had three of them a day, I could easily create these productions and still have time to take care of other business, enjoy getting out, reading a good book or even occasionally going to bed early.

I have three basic creative montage levels, each of them offering a different approach to the standard montage production, or a mix of one, two or all three, depending on the number of images used and music selection length.

The GREAT thing about producing montages and offering a range of creativity is that I can start with a really GREAT product at an affordable and popular price level, then ramp up with other elements that many clients are willing to pay extra for.

The Complete Guide to Photo/Music Montage Marketing and Production will be released this year. Watch for announcements here, and on Twitter and Facebook, as well as several video related forums where I participate.

FUNERAL VIDEO PRODUCTION IS PROFITABLE!

I average $500 a week, spread out annually, in Funeral and Memorial Video Productions. After quite a few months of developing direct-mail letters, DVD samples and direct-mail post cards, I’ve managed to generate good relationships with a number of funeral/mortuary/cemetery establishments, funeral officiants and church officials. Many of these now use my services as their preferred/referred vendor for end of life, celebration of life and memorial video production needs.

While developing this business program can be a challenge, it is absolutely a do’er and anyone putting some effort into developing a valid funeral and memorial video production service can average $25,000 or more a year. Combined with memorial photo video montage production services, an independent video services provider can average $40,000 or more a year, working alone and full-time.

The book that tells you how: “They Shoot Funerals, Don’t They” is now available and has received solid reviews for its quality and content. It truly has everything you need to know, including real-life stories, forms, direct-mail examples and more. Check it out today at http://lulu.com/spotlight/Earl and order this resource publication that will help you approach a seriously under served market with confidence.

BASIC WEDDING VIDEO PRODUCTION IS PROFITABLE!

I average $10,000 a year with easy-to-produce, basic wedding video productions that don’t eat up all my spare time, weekends and holidays or make me pull my hair out during a 60-hour editing marathon.

You can be a video artist or essentially an independent wedding video businessperson and make good money without having to work as hard as some in the wedding video production business do. You just have to learn how to keep a firm balance between your Michelangelo and “Business-angelo” sides, focusing on good shooting, editing and production techniques that don’t take you 40 hours, several weeks, months or years to deliver.

There are many in the 80 percent wedge of the bridal community pie who don’t even WANT a wedding video, who could be convinced if the price, services, turnaround time and quality were more in line with their budgets, their expectations and their real video production needs.

Instead of fighting over the 20 percent or so group of brides who are sold on video and want it, and sometimes will do whatever it takes to get it, take a stab at convincing that HUGE other source they might like to have a video production of their wedding event after all.

The Basic Guide to Profitable Wedding Video Marketing and Production will provide you with some concepts that are already in play but either over used or under delivered, along with several approaches that are overlooked by many in the wedding video production industry. This valuable video business resource will be released this year. Watch for announcements here, and on Twitter and Facebook, as well as several video related forums where I participate.

Another GREAT resource for video ideas, tools, marketing hints and suggestions is In the Viewfinder, a video business blog by Jay Michael Long of JML Multimedia, Mississippi. Check him out at http://intheviewfinder.blogspot.com

Also, check out Bill Mecca’s popular Video Quick Tips series, a LOT of good, easy, quick and affordable approaches to improving your video production abilities.

Why I’m a Video StoryTellers!™ Associate

2011-05-19T00:13:00.000-07:00

by Jim Nicholson

When Earl invited me to write a brief article for his blog about Video StoryTellers!™ (VST) I immediately wondered if it would be possible. I know I can type a few lines but that would be the challenge. He made it perfectly clear the article had to be objective, unbiased, truthful, and for my sins it was to be written using proper grammar.

All kidding aside, I knew I would have a hard time with the “unbiased” condition. Having been involved with Earl on the ground floor of VST makes it very hard to be unbiased but I’ll try my best.

I first discussed VST with Earl some time ago. As a newbie at that time in the video profession I found myself turning to Earl often to learn and gain lots from his years of experience both as a business person and also in the field of video production. We tend to talk too much on the phone but for me that’s OK because I feel I always come away with more from the conversation anyway.

We happened to be speaking about one of my usual issues with video and after I was done beating myself over the head for missing the usual easy solution that Earl was always willing to provide me with, we got off on a side conversation, as we do many times. It was about VST and Earl was in a groove for sure. As we talked I started to envision possibilities for my company if I were to give VST a whirl, and like we often do, we fed each other many scenarios about what a VST business could do for someone like me. I was trying to build a video business in a down market and it looked to me like VST would fit right into a need I had to get something rolling. I agreed to give it a whirl.

I may be a little different from others looking at VST because I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed. I will let my love of video lead me, and although I know I need to earn with my business, when something comes along like VST that I feel strongly about I tend to let my love for video take over. That being said, I jumped in with all three feet. From the beginning I knew I was going to take VST through a wide range of possibilities, utilizing a number of different marketing formats. I tend to always see the big picture and find myself focusing in on specifics later. VST was no different and I compiled a long list of situations where I could present it to the public.

Nursing homes were the first because I think that was Earl’s first thoughts and I agreed. Having been around nursing homes since my wife works at a very large one, it was very clear to me that the residents love to talk and tell stories. I can remember one Halloween, we took our two-year-old grandson to the nursing home for trick or treat. Every year they go crazy for the local kids with dressing up and handing out candy. The whole complex is into it. This one is roughly 100-plus acres so that is loads of candy, but it relates to a ton of residents too.

As we made our way through the halls and candy stations that were set up where the residents were sitting in full costumes with boxes of candy, handing it out, it became clear to me these guys love to tell stories. It was impossible to stop for candy and not have to stand and listen to several stories the residents would share from tales of their trick and treating as kids, to little tales of what happened that day as “Joe was trying to get his mask on and scared his cat with it.” These were all their important personal stories, and believe me we were not leaving that area until we listened and acknowledged we understood that.

What’s my story?

My story is that VST has some teeth in it. The older population is a great place to start. I did run into a few hurdles trying to get past those dreaded gate keepers when I tried to set up a VST session in this very same nursing home. I thought I was a shoe in since my wife worked there and was a trusted employee for 11 years. This is when I found out that people responsible for these residents are very cautious because so many scammers have robbed this population. It becomes part of the social director’s job to protect the residents.

At first I was a little bummed, thinking I was looked upon as a possible scammer, but if you think about it they really do need to protect these folks. My next move was to find a way in, a work-around for the gate keepers. It became a challenge for me to accomplish this. I know Earl has tips for this but I can share how I did it. I used a “side door” approach.

This nursing home has many separate clubs for the residents. I found one that I was familiar with, a train club. They have weekly meetings and a public open house once a month. I chose to attend and I sought out the head honcho and just being me I started talking about the trains. I wonder if you can guess what happened next. In case not, this guy started telling me one story after another. If I’d had my camera I could have shot those stories and completed a session right then and there. We did talk about VST and when I left I had the contact number for the president, and all it took was a call to get the word to them.

I tend to run into things, and if I’m alert (to the possibilities) I grab onto them and run with them. This is what happened when I was shooting a demo for my website. I have a friend in his 70s who just happened to work at Three Mile Island atomic power plant in Pennsylvania, back during the meltdown scare. He was actually on shift when it happened. I’d heard many stories from him in the past about it, so when I needed a demo I naturally asked him. He jumped at the chance to tell his story and I shot my demo.

When I had it all ready and on DVD, of course I gave him a copy. He watched it with his wife that night and the next morning my phone was ringing. Ron was so excited. He could not believe he was on a DVD. You might say he was star struck. He wanted to know if I could make him a number of copies for his family. I told him I would have to charge him for the copies and he was totally OK with that. Here’s where I ran into another idea for VST.

I was joking with him because he was so excited. I said Ron, now that you’re a star you need to sell these videos. He came right back and said, “I know. I wanted to ask you about that.” Here is another opportunity for VST stories. If you run into one that is out of the ordinary, and you will, it can be sold and your business can make a tidy little profit. You can offer marketing help in the form of a marketing package where you charge a fee for getting the production out onto the Web and either you can package deal a shopping cart or help them do it if they’re computer savvy. This is not confined to older people. This can work for anyone. Ron has sold hundreds of copies, all that I duplicated for him. What started as a demo turned into a tidy sum for my business.

Since I started with VST I tend to listen for stories and I’ve not had any trouble finding these special ones. I just found one last week while talking to a painting contractor appraiser. He was writing my estimate and in general chitchat he started telling me of his home in Brazil, and proceeded to tell me a story of how eight of 10 people at some point in their lives there are robbed by drug or other gangs. He told me of the time he was robbed in his house with his wife and kids there. To skip right to the end, one of the robbers seemed very bothered by the deed, he told me. The homeowner said to him if he did not hurt his family God would forgive him.

Later on, roughly a year later, he met this same person in a church. After talking to him, he learned right after the man had robbed him he’d remembered the statement about being forgiven. He sought out a church and now was a beneficial member helping other gang bangers to give up crime and seek the church. The whole story was very moving. This is a true VST story. One that can easily be sold and could be targeted to a church-related market.

The biggest thing you need to come to grips with is you MUST LISTEN to people when you talk to them. I think so often we’re in such a hurry that we converse with people to be polite but we do not really listen to them. If you listen, VST will gleam with possibilities and that equates to profits for your business. I can fill this blog with ways to make VST work for you. The key word is “work”. You must work it for it to work for you. It is a two-way street and does require commitment. If you’re like me and love to talk, or listen to other people’s stories, VST is just part of who you are. It can be an extension of your personality. If you’re alert (to the possibilities) and if you listen, the rest falls into place.

There are so many possibilities with VST I’ve not touched on. Fairs, libraries, schools and veterans. One of my passions is the fact that so many veterans from WWII, Korea and now Vietnam have so many stories to tell. Their stories are really bits of history and as they pass away their part of that history is lost forever. I have run into many of these while doing other work and I see they are VST stories. There can be a link made to schools and education too.

I had an editing job before VST was known to me. I had a client that had made a video of a friend who was the owner of the business he worked at. This fellow was a WWII veteran and he was retiring so the office staff decided they needed to get his story on videotape and turn it into a nice video for him. I was hired to produce it. I guess you can say this was a VST job before I started with VST. I edited and cleaned up the footage the best I could since I did not shoot it, and produced a DVD.

While the project was at the duplicators, I got a call and was asked if Charlie, the WWII veteran, would mind if his DVD was used by a local school for history class. The teacher who was a friend of the fellow who duplicated my order at the time asked if she could use the DVD in her history class. I duplicate my own DVDs now, but you can see where this was headed. Not only is VST a story for the owner but can be marketed to any organization that deals with history. I guess you can tell I like this side of VST.

I promised Earl I would be brief but I find it hard to be brief when there are so many possibilities with VST. I have not even scratched the surface yet and I think it would be a long time before I could exhaust every way I can make VST work for me. Darn, that nasty word again: “Work!”

Editor’s note: Jim Nicholson is the owner and operator of Nicholson Video Productions, www.nicholsonvidproductions.com and is an independent professional video services provider operating throughout the New England region, as well as the southern states, including Florida. He is an original member of the Video StoryTellers!™ associates group.

How Much Do You Love Doing Weddings?

2011-05-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

Tell me again, how much you LOVE doing weddings. Tell me how “easy” they are to market, videotape, edit and produce. Tell me you NEVER experience frustration, burnout or other cycles of mental fatigue as a result of too many (or too few) weddings over non-specified periods of time.

And tell me again why it is that you focus all your energy (part time or full) on marketing, acquiring, bidding or begging for them; spend hours of your lives each year preparing for, schlepping equipment to and working weekend bridal fairs; buying vendor, DJ, wedding planner or photographer lunches; constantly revising and updating your website, website samples and related marketing materials such as business cards, brochures, full-production demo DVDs; why you spend all that time, energy and money to produce (what? maybe?) a couple of $2K wedding events a weekend?

Why are you working 10, 12 or more hours on a Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday, attending pre-event rehearsals where absolutely NOTHING that is rehearsed happens the WAY it was rehearsed at the actual event? Why are you bargaining with the bride and groom who KNOW they WANT a wedding video (some of you call it, your productions, “film” even though not one second of your work is actually produced on FILM) but do not value it enough to not haggle with you on price, or attempt to get you to “match” a price given them by their cousin who just got a consumer camcorder for Christmas?

Why are you putting in 20, 40 or 100 or more hours editing what has become a “labor of love” (REALLY?); spending time devising replies as to why the production hasn’t been delivered as promised? Why was it promised (in some cases even I used to make a four-week delivery guarantee “or your money back” to set me apart from my competition.) in weeks, months or years, only to take months, years or NEVER to get done?

Why are you taking on more, advertising and marketing for MORE business when you cannot even begin to reduce your current backlog; when you fight that endless vicious cycle of burnout, frustration and LIFE, juggling a REAL or full time job, family, illness, and all that beautiful, warm, wonderful and fabulous wedding video editing with all those kind, considerate, loving, patient, unassuming brides breathlessly waiting for months, even years, to see their video? Why all this, at no profit whatsoever; all this expense and work for an underpaid, under-appreciated production that has created ulcers, caused prominent headaches and sometimes divorce or failing partnerships?

Why are you putting forth all this effort, money, time and uncompensated hours of fast food, dirty coffee cups or empty RedBull cans, and battling against a HUGE, HUGELY competitive market where EVERY person with a camcorder, if nothing more, is attempting to claim a sniff, a smell, a touch, much less an actual TASTE, of the roughly 22 percent wedge of the bridal community pie that actually WANTS a video (er, uh, “film”) of what so many of us remind them is “The most important event of your life!”?

Diversify! Expand your focus. Even if you’re ONLY a weekend warrior (or “worryier”) putting in evenings and weekends in an effort to get your productions delivered, there’s millions more birthday, anniversary and milestone event celebrations held on a daily basis than there are weddings. The pie is much larger and I can assure you that the size of the business pie wedge of people who will pay reasonable fees for quality audio/video productions is is HUGE compared to the roughly 22 percent wedding video business wedge.

And if you’re full time. WOW! Think of the shorter, quicker, easier, less complicated, higher profit generating events you can now market and acquire!

Wedding video production is BAD?

No! But a part time or full time independent video production business based on a blend of wedding gigs you WANT and can be selective about accepting based on profitability rather than bargain basement competition (yes, YOU accepting instead of the other way around), combined with the awesome amount of potential event video production business held OUT THERE on a daily basis is a much less severe and overwhelming crunch on your bottom line and the life you try to live between gigs.

P.S. Well, saw where my Marketing Challenge had no takers. Good to know that business is booming for everybody but me ;-)

Marketing Challenge for ALL!

2011-04-23T15:26:00.000-07:00

This is nothing I’ve not written about before, here or elsewhere, but as all of you who follow my articles know by now I am a strong believer and proponent for low volume (small batch) special interest postcard direct-mail campaigns.

This time, however, I’m issuing ALL WHO READ THIS A CHALLENGE! I want and expect commitments of 30-, 60- 90-day, six months or one full year from each of you. I DARE you to do this and at the end of your exercise tell me you gained nothing from your participation. That you failed to get one phone call, e-mail inquiry or website visit. More, that you failed to get at least one gig from your campaign.

Ignore what you’ve previously experienced, read or heard (except here, of course ;-) about direct-mail marketing. Open up your minds, engage your willingness to suspend disbelief, and THINK about what I’m asking you to do ... fairly and objectively. Then, let’s see how many of you are willing to commit to a specific period of time by responding NOW in “comments” below, and occasionally for the duration of your exercise. Let’s see how many will seriously accept the challenge.

Then, bring on the comments! Let’s share and learn from your individual experiences by either e-mailing me direct reports, or posting comments here. I will commit to providing blog updates as the program grows and continues. Let’s hear the results, positive, negative or neutral.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

Any of you who’ve read my articles know I’m a firm believer in small direct-mail postcard campaigns focused on specific areas of interest: dance schools, school events, youth sports groups, and other clubs, groups and organizations from community playhouses to community center activities.

What I mean by “focused” and “small” is less than 100 units per campaign and as mentioned above, postcards designed to appeal to a specific area of interest.

HERE’S THE CHALLENGE!

Do a Google search or use any other method of identifying ANY facility, school, organization, club or group(s) of interest within your service area. Get addresses and as often as you can GET NAMES! Someone to address that postcard to: the counselor, owner, director, choreographer, events planner, organizer, pastor, etc.

DESIGN A POSTCARD with minimum wording, a call to action and a promise you CAN keep: special price, introductory offer, no minimum sales, etc. — something that appeals to the ever-present question “What’s in it for me?” EVERYONE you try to sell something to will ask, and not always aloud.

COMMIT TO MAILING a minimum of ONE postcard a day, on average, (that’s right JUST ONE, although MORE is better) and stick to the commitment. It takes just a few minutes to come up with 30 or so viable addresses, and often names, for most active events. Ten minutes, or less, a day if you ONLY look for one, identify it, address the postcard, stick a stamp on it and put it in the mailbox.

KEEP A RECORD of what happens. What interest group(s) you select. Who you mailed to. How many you mailed. How many responses you get. How many sales, gigs or opportunities you received. Then come here and share your “updates” with the rest of us for the duration of your commitment.

YOU WILL ENJOY a better than five percent response. I’ve been doing this for years and I’ve averaged an eight percent or better response to each and every direct-mail campaign and batch. I’ve ALWAYS done better than break even when factoring in my costs and time, always getting MORE business income than what I invested. Yes, a REAL R.O.I. (return on investment)

THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS

Persistency, consistency, commitment WILL generate responses and business. You ARE gaining eyeballs, and TELL yourself this until you believe it, even if you DON’T receive even ONE response over a 90-day period. People WILL read your postcards, many of them will save them for reference purposes because even if they don’t perceive a need today, they will want to keep it as a resource for tomorrow’s, next week’s or next month’s special party or event. They often find themselves in need of a replacement vendor either because they’re displeased with them or they had one flake out on them at the last minute.

These reasons and more have resulted in my getting gigs over the period of many of my direct-mail postcard campaigns.

Keep records, because you WANT to repeat mailings, either with the same direct-mail piece or a new one, but still with your prominent business name and branding present so you continue with the association, visibility and linkage, and familiarity that comes from repeated exposure.

DON’T however overdo it by getting rambunctious and saturating your address lists with something akin to SPAM or JUNK MAIL. That is counter-productive, guaranteeing a negative return and 100 percent direct-to-trash response.

Make your postcard content simple, compelling and ALWAYS include a call to action: “Call NOW!” or “ACT NOW!” or “E-MAIL TODAY!” or “BOOK TODAY!” so on and so forth.

Just do it! And share your results with the rest of us. I personally look forward to many glowing reports of positive limited run, direct-mail postcard, special interest campaigns over then next 12 months.

Preaching to the Choir

2011-04-13T04:48:00.000-07:00

This post isn’t for everyone ...

... well, yeah, I guess it IS for everyone! Me included. It’s about marketing and what drives us, what compels us, what moves us into action. It’s also about what prevents us from doing what it takes, going where we need to go to accomplish success, make positive things happen not only in our personal lives, but our business lives as well.

Throughout this blog, over the years, I’ve focused on aspects of business ranging from new concepts, tried and proven new ideas and programs, with emphasis on marketing and “working the program” to accomplish something, anything, in your personal business. Specifically, my articles have primarily focused on these subjects as they pertain to video — marketing, production, development, creation, sales, promotion, business.

Generally, the blog articles that have been published here since 2004 contain principles that, while specific to video, can be applied to not only ANY business but to our personal approach to life as well. I often refer to a calendar my late Mom once gave me as a present, one of those with the pithy sayings and encouraging comments shared daily to help inspire the reader to new lofty goals. The ONE page that stuck with me more than any other said: “Great ideas won’t work unless you do!”

And this is true! Sadly, it is counter to human nature to follow through with the actions necessary to make those “great ideas” work. Many of us stop just after having a Great Idea, satisfied that we’ve managed to have one at all, but not willing to go the distance needed to carry such an inspirational thought to fruition or success much less existence. And this tendency, my dear readers, is what today’s article will focus on.

Great ideas truly will NOT work unless we do. A rare few humans in the world have the determination, self-motivation, belief, drive, ambition, energy or personal stamina to pursue a great idea to the point of accomplishment. We are victims of fad diets, temporary inspirations, fleeting ideals that kick up our adrenalin levels momentarily before we slip back into our safe comfort zones and relax in a state of stasis.

There are literally thousands of self-help publications, Internet articles, make money, lose weight, get healthy and more sources of information that inspire yet languish. An idea or concept gets hot, goes viral and millions (sometimes) invest, copy or borrow from the latest craze only to peruse the cover, delicately test the waters, then save it to a file or place it on a closet shelf or in a junk drawer — never again to be sought out, read or referred to.

Our general lethargy and laziness makes success difficult for the majority of us. Our tendency to find good, even GREAT ideas, concepts and programs, then begin to justify why we do not pursue them is overwhelming. So many of us spend MORE time avoiding than confronting.

I have a son whom I often accuse of expending more time and energy to figure out how to NOT do something than he would if he simply DID it! To a degree the vast majority of humankind is of this nature. We work harder to avoid than we ever would if we actually took on a Great Idea and tried to make it work. We all spend a great portion of our time seeking get-rich-quick schemes, lose-weight-fast fad diets and diet concepts, and spend-a-little-to-make-a-lot concepts, and proportionately very little time, effort, energy or money actually developing an active, aggressive approach to such accomplishments.

MARKETING

The single, most affordable and simple solution to business success is marketing. Specifically, direct-mail marketing. When was the last time you mailed a postcard, letter or sample DVD of your work?

When was the last time you sent more than one? One a day? For three months, six months, a year or more? Thought so. I even lapse into periods where for no logical rhyme or reason I slack off doing this persistently and consistently, and when I do business falls off rapidly and sharply.

When was the last time you updated your website, checked to be sure all the links and connections still work, added some new materials and removed old, outdated content? I recently researched a boatload of websites where the “last updated” or latest copyright notification was as long ago as 1999, many in the 2004 range and a huge number haven’t been changed in any significant way, based on update or copyright notice since 2007.

In this day and age of multi-level marketing and Internet, along with social network options, a day is often too long between adding fresh, new materials, updating and removing old, outdated content, or simply establishing a new sense of vitality to your business presence. I plead guilty to the same ... look how long it has been since my last blog post on E.C. Come, E.C . Go. At minimum I should have something weekly, but I’m a long way from that reality. With the current load of personal and business marketing, production and program development I do good to post monthly.

Consistent and persistent focus is difficult to sustain ... human nature.

I promote and offer two vital programs for folks wanting to get into the video production business — “They Shoot Funerals, Don’t They” a book on funeral and memorial marketing and production, and a global branding and marketing program called Video StoryTellers!™ (VST) as well as a host of other and forthcoming resources, along with a huge number of informational articles on this blog.

Many have inquired, a few have purchased or invested, none ... well, other than Artis White, Flex Media Productions, and probably Nishi Dias, both self-motivated professionals who have purchased the funeral and memorial marketing and production book ... have taken their efforts to the next level.

Pamela Dahlgren of Michigan, John McDaid of Arizona, Fred J. Claus of New York, Mike Schiedermayer of Wisconsin, Jim Nicholson of Pennsylvania, Heidi Mueller of Canada, Luis O. Maymi of Puerto Rico, and others have invested money, time and/or energy into developing Video StoryTellers!™ both individually and as a brand and program for new independent professional video services providers (IPVSPs). They all are at one stage or another in pursuing and developing their VST marketing and production strategies.

WORK THE PROGRAM

There are possibly two approaches toward life, business and success in either — make it happen or let it happen. A large number of people in the world fall into the latter category ... they “let” things happen, then react, or not, and see where it gets them.

It is my personal opinion that those who operate from this perspective find fewer satisfying moments in their pursuits. I strongly believe that folks who work hard, invest time and money and energy into “making” things happen, to take the initiative and establish the directives that get something going, get something done, achieve a higher, more consistent and satisfying level of success than the others.

Even an on again, off again approach to “making” it happen is better than a full-time philosophy of “letting” things happen. Action vs reaction — there’s something awesomely powerful in taking action and seeing your focus, your efforts bring fruition.

Anyone remember former John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not ...” speech? Well, the same can be applied to programs purchased, resource materials borrowed and read, investments made and efforts expended. It isn’t so much what these elements can do for you, it is what you can do to make them WORK for you.

Whatever it is you desire. Whatever it is you believe in, work at it — make it happen! When you make a decision to purchase “They Shoot Funerals, Don’t They” don’t simply buy it and read it, then put it on the shelf. Take this valuable information to the next level and TRY some of the proven techniques offered, LEARN from the real-life experiences shared by the author.

And when you run into a wall on your first try, don’t stop there, accepting defeat. It is a proven fact that consistency, persistency and tenacious application of proven techniques and approaches DO work, but ONLY if you stay with it. Repetition, visibility and linkage are the secret to success.

Kenny Rogers sings “you gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em ...” but there’s a HUGE chasm between an effort in futility and the futility of further effort. What’s that saying? The cliché? “No pain, no gain?” Well, it doesn’t necessarily have to HURT, but you should feel some degree or combination of exhaustion/exhilaration in the process of reaching for success in any program or adventure — most especially in business as an independent.

When the information from which you’re working is solid and based on proven facts and strategies, then working the program will ensure that the program works for you. After all, Great Ideas won’t work unless you do!

Delivering Video on Thumb Drives

2011-02-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

There are a number of ways to present your video on a thumb drive instead of a DVD, Video CD or on hard drive. Your method will depend not only on what operating system you use, or want to provide your product for — linux, PC, Mac, etc. — but what type of playback quality you want to deliver.

Many clients are still satisfied with standard definition. Others will want, desire or demand high definition or Blu-ray capabilities. Some will have the means for playing from a thumb drive on their computer via an available USB input. Some will have one of several choices of systems for playing from their computer and viewing on their television. And, of course, many televisions are beginning to come equipped with an USB input.

There are also a number of players capable of utilizing thumb drive playback ability, one of which is the WD TV by Western Digital that converts your USB drive into an HD media player. Again, this is not the only choice. Some clients and video producers will have higher needs and expectations, others ... well there are choices for playback and compatibility and it is beyond the scope of this article to address all the specifics and specifications of delivery for USB or thumb drive on video.

Many who have already developed an approach for ripping DVD content to a hard drive using one of many available programs, such as Mac the Ripper, HandBrake, etc. Being Mac centric myself, I will basically provide general information here for preparing DVD content for presentation on a USB thumb drive. Similar, even identical information is available for other computer platforms, formats and operating systems. Just be aware that it can be done, and the most popular formats are platform universal. People just need to download the preferred player for their computer.

Other programs include VLC Media Player, DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter, all creating a VIDEO_TS folder and a number of files ending in .vob. Programs are available to then generate the more compressed formats you might want to try using. Again, it all depends on the quality and capacity of your USB drive. For purposes of conversion from one video format to another Wondershare Video Converter Pro is an affordable commercial alternative.

For quite sometime now companies like Disk Makers have provided not only duplication services for creating branded thumb drives for content delivery of more than just video. Disk Makers and others also offer multiple USB drive duplicators much like the older DVD tower duplicators, making in-house duplication of video and other digital product a reasonable, but still way more expensive, alternative for independent product developers and video producers.

Thumb drive delivery is still expensive when compared to the cost of DVD duplicators and blanks, the USB thumb drive has continued to grow in use to the point that virtually anyone with a computer knows what a thumb drive is, uses or owns at least one or more of varying capacity. It was inevitable that this media would find its way into the delivery mainstream for video and the video production market. There are even companies developing, or who have announced technology that they hope will enable commercial movie download and delivery to not only thumb drives but SDHC flash memory cards. Naysayers, however, predict that this unique delivery system is far from being commercially viable, or practical. But for the independent producer, it is easily done now.

To provide product on this media you will need to decide how you plan to deliver. There’s a wide range of format options from MP2, MOV, AVI and more. For my clients who are Mac users I can simply save a QuickTime movie file to USB and voila, done! At least for computer playback. Would that all could be that simple, right? Not gonna happen.

Larger capacity thumb drives can handle bigger files. Of course you know that, but one-to-two-hour productions and movies can fit on a USB drive as small as a gigabyte (1GB) if compressed to MP4, variations of H.264 or AVI. The length of your production is key to quality playback success.

Everything depends on factors such as desired playback quality, storage capacity of the drives (more expensive) which calls for bigger budgets on the part of your clients. And while it is nice to have branding of your company name or logo or website, etc. that too will increase the costs for delivery. If you have, or can develop, the market you can work out the cost issues based on your client needs and their ability to pay. For a fortunate few, cost is no object.

Using HandBrake, for example, pretty much all you need to do is rip the contents you want to install on your thumb drive. Convert to MP4, if that’s what you desire, by selecting the iPod option under presets. You select your USB drive as the destination and the video will save to the thumb drive.

There’s a lot more to it, if you want there to be a lot more to it. You’ve got decisions that include development of product from Flash (FLV) files and a host of compression ratios that can factor in, as noted earlier, depending on drive capacity, program/video length, desired playback quality and cost considerations.

What you deliver on a thumb drive, product-wise, is more of a concern than how you deliver on one. When you’ve decided on the variables just know that there’s an even chance of finding a suitable compromise between quality and costs, convenience and compatibility if you want to consider delivery on flash drives.

Delivery on USB, thumb drive, flash drive, whatever you want to call it, can be as simple as exporting a movie to MP4, saving it to your USB drive, plugging it into a compatible television or auxiliary player/converter, or properly connected computer, finding and selecting USB from the source command and hitting play.

In my humble opinion, however, while delivery of video product on a USB drive can be novel, convenient, perhaps even desirable, it still is not economical. And not really all that convenient compared to DVD delivery, or the widely-available capability of conversion to any number of formats for storage and playback access on everything from a cellphone to a popular game product such as the XBox.

Economically speaking: you spend a half-dollar, or less, for a DVD blank, and burning Blu-ray now comes in under a couple of bucks, both with significantly greater capacity than a comparably priced thumb drive. Even if, or when, thumb drives get to the buck or less per gigabyte cost, that’s still way more than what you pay to deliver on disk, notwithstanding all the other elements to consider — duplication, branding, and the fact that these puppies are a whole lot easier to lose than a DVD or Blu-ray disk in a nice library case that not only carries your branding (easily done in-house for pennies) but some pretty sophisticated custom graphics personalized for the client as well.

So, if for whatever reason you want to do it, by all means go with a minimal “wow” factor with branded (or not) thumb drive video delivery, but if you’re still looking at quality of presentation, value and cost-effectiveness, a printed case containing a quality product with printed graphics is still the market and delivery king. You can either be miles ahead of your time with something that isn’t guaranteed to be universally adaptable, and can result in client complaints or other problems, or be assured that you’ve got many more years and good mileage left in your disk delivery system.

Oh, and keep in mind that it’s usually going to take you longer to get the product ready for thumb drive delivery and ready to hand over to your client than the more conventional and universally accepted and player friendly DVD disk. I have to say, however, that today’s systems and thumb drive quality, notwithstanding costs, will often meet or beat the time it takes to burn the same video content onto a disk. How much sweat and experimenting went into getting the files ready, and of the desired quality, however, might be the tie-breaker.

A Roadmap for Beginners, Part 4

2011-02-06T00:12:00.000-08:00

Practical Business Aspects of Video Production

Introduction

In the previous article we covered the general business concepts as they apply to videography. You may well ask, why should I bother with all these business concepts, can I not just do video? Of course you can. But by becoming a formal business, it will bring in money and will save you money. That alone should make being serious about your business worthwhile. In this article we will focus on the practical aspects of a video production business.

Your Name

Your business, whether incorporated or sole proprietor, must have a name! It is how the world will identify you. The name you chose for your business will depend on the image you want to portray and also your target market. If you want to specialize in legal videography, your approach will be more formal, but if you plan to specialize in training videos for kids your approach will be less formal.

You can make your name reflect the type of services you provide, e.g. ABC Wedding Videography, or J&J Legal Video Services. Another option is to build your location into the name, e.g. Vancouver Video. All the above examples have “video” included in the name so there is no doubt about your kind of business. It is not always easy to find a unique, unambiguous name, so you could opt for something like Penelope Productions, if Penelope is the name of your cat.

While you are considering names, it helps to consider if the name will work for your future website and e-mail address. “Northern California Video Documentary Productions” is really too long to be a domain name or to fit on a standard business card.

If your preferred name is on the long side, you might consider an acronym. For example, International Business Machines became IBM and the website is www.ibm.com

Along with your business name, it pays to also think of a tagline that describes your business further. Say your company name is Denver Docs and then a tagline of “Your Day in the Life Video Specialists” will clarify, assuming that you’re doing legal videos. The tagline will be an important part of your business presence and will feature on your business cards, website and promotional materials.

Getting the Essentials

What are the essentials? Once you've selected a business name, and it has been approved by the appropriate authority in your state or province, the next steps are to get:

1.) a business card

2.) website

3.) e-mail address

And start using them! That will go a long way to getting your business known in the community.

Before you can get the essentials, you need to come up with a logo and a color scheme. This is a rather specialized endeavor and unless you have strong graphic design skills, it would be worth spending some money to get a professional graphics designer to help you. Often you can get a graphic design student at your local college at a reasonable rate. This is not something you want to skimp on! Get your graphic designer to give you the artwork both in high resolution eps format, and in jpeg format for general use.

Once you have your logo and color scheme sorted out, you should now turn your attention to your website! The starting point for getting your website and e-mail is to register a domain name and set up a web hosting account. If this is Greek to you, as it is to most of us, then you should hire the services of a web designer. We do provide a training course that will take you through the steps of designing your own business website — it requires quite a bit of learning new concepts, but will be worth the investment in the long run.

Bookkeeping

In the introduction we mentioned that formalizing your business will save you money. How so? Well, as a business, you will be entitled to write off business expenses as a tax deduction. So paying for a graphic designer and a web designer = tax write-off; meeting a new client for lunch = tax write-off; having your work vehicle serviced = tax write-off; buying a new HD video camera = tax write-off! You get the message ...

Talk to an accountant in your area about what possible tax write-offs are available and what records you need to keep so that you don’t have problems at tax time.

Business Community

You are now part of the business community. One of the first things you need to learn is that you do not save money by trying to do everything yourself. It is a trap many beginning IVSP’s (Independent Video Service Providers) fall into. Indeed, you save money by spending it — buying services from other businesses in your community. Remember, in the long run it is a tax write-off! For example, don’t try and design your own business cards. The local printer in your community can do it faster and better than you can. How can you expect people to use your services if you’re not prepared to use theirs?

But there is another advantage in using the services of other businesses. You become known as a real, serious business. Don’t be surprised if the local printer, who has just printed your XYZ Video business cards, does not refer one of his other clients, who happens to need video work, to you!

Another big advantage is that it frees you up to focus on your business. Use the time to do marketing of your business. If you market, you will succeed. We have a very practical course on marketing.

Contracts and Costing

Just how much should you charge for your work? How do you make sure you get paid? Valid questions for sure!

Here’s a simplified explanation of how to cost a project. Assume that you need to earn, after expenses, $3,000 per month. Then assume that you only work 50 percent of the time on video work — the rest of your time is taken on administration things such as marketing, learning new skills, etc. That means you need to bring in $6,000 per month. Add that to your expenses of, say $1,000 per month. While a month has about 160 working hours, you will be doing 50 percent productively i.e. 80 hours. That means you need to charge $80 per billable hour.

That might sound like a lot, but realistically, you will pay about $100 per hour at the hairdresser, and even more to have your car serviced. That means when you are costing a job for a client, you need to estimate the number of hours the task will take and multiply that by the hourly rate. There are several other factors to consider, but that’s the overall concept. We go into more detail in our course on the contractual aspects of videography.

Your Equipment

At the end of the previous article we advised against investing in more professional equipment at that point. Part of the reason was that you should only do that once you have formally established your business. That way you could benefit from the tax credits when you buy your equipment.

You are now at the stage where, funds permitting, you could consider investing in professional equipment. There are many factors to consider. For example should you buy, lease or rent your equipment? Always get the best equipment you can afford, the pleasure of using reliable professional equipment will last long after you have forgotten the pain of the cost. Besides, much of it is, yes you guessed it, a tax write-off! We are in the process of putting a training course together on how to go about getting the right equipment.

A great place to check for equipment, information and pricing, if you’re not already familiar with it, is B&H Photo Video. Start here, or check with the many advertisers who support Videomaker Magazine.

Conclusion

It is impossible to cover in a short article like this, everything you need to know about the business of video production. Hopefully we’ve highlighted the important concepts that we’ve learned after many years experience in the field. We wish you all the success and do let us know how you make out.

Heidi Mueller, New Westminster, BC, Canada, is an accomplished video producer, web site developer/designer, writer and course developer for adult classes on a variety of subjects. She is a frequent contributor to E.C. Come, E.C. Go and was recently the featured contributor of a four-part series on WordPress for web site creation.

Future articles will continue focus on the business aspects, and business concepts, plus proven business ventures for developing successful marketing niches in the wide world of video production. NOTE: a number of products and programs to teach and enhance your video production experience were mentioned in this article. Become an “EC Reader” today by clicking the link and you will receive information regarding their release as they become available.

For more great information about the world of video production be sure to visit J. Michael Long’s blog at In the Viewfinder. There’s a bounty of good input at the following forums as well: Videomaker and DV Professionals.

A Roadmap for Beginners, Part 3: Videography as a Business

2011-01-28T18:02:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Congratulations! If you’ve followed the roadmap as described in the first two articles, you are now a graduate of the real life school of videography. If you add up the number of hours you’ve invested you really deserve a degree! You’re now a professional and can rightfully earn money for your work. So in this article we will look at the business of videography.

Types of Videography Business

There are basically two main types or categories of videography business: the independent video service provider (IVSP); and the vid

eo production company. Which one is for you? Of course, that depends on you.

Video Production Company

A video production company specializes in making and selling movies. In the old days this was called film making as film was used rather than digital video. Many movies are still shot on film, but increasingly movies are shot on digital video equipment. To make a movie typic

ally requires a team of people: the producer, director, camera crew, sound crew, actors, gaffers and more. A movie takes many months to shoot and produce, and then some more time to market and distribute. That means you need a lot of money to carry you and your team for about a year before your movie starts earning money, assuming that it is good.

If at this point, you feel that movie making is the

way you would like to go, that is wonderful. It is a big step however, so before you do, we strongly recommend three books that are a must-read for you. One is Making it Big in Shorts by Kim Adelman ($3.46 at Amazon), and the second is The Guerrilla Film Makers Pocketbook by Chris Jones & Genevieve Jolliffe & Andrew Zinnes ($32.66 at Amazon). The authors describe in some detail what it takes to shoot, produce and market a movie. (Editor’s note: You might also check out The Documentary Film Makers Handbook, also by Genevieve Jolliffe and Andrew Zinnes)

The third book is Jumpstart Your Awesome Film Production Company by Sara Caldwell ($15.56 at Amazon). Sara interviews many videographers who have successfully started production companies.

Independent Video Services Provider

The second type of videography business is the IVSP. This is typically a one-person business. The IVSP can provide a wide range of video services and the video projects are usually of short production duration as opposed to a movie project that takes months or years to complete. The advantage is the IVSP can expect to earn a steady stream of money more quickly. The IVSP will b

e the focus of the remainder of this series of articles.

From a business perspective, the IVSP is not any different from any other type of small business and will face many of the same issues such as financing, cash flow and so on. You’ll find many articles on small business on the Web and at your local library. We will instead describe those aspects that are unique to a videography business.

Video Business Concepts

Company Issues

Before you can run a business, most municipalities require you have a business license which you have to renew annually. It is basically a tax but it is a good thing to always be on the good side of your local officials.

Then there is the question of the type of your company. You need to register your company with the government. It will either be a limited or incorporated company, or a simple sole proprietorship (the terminology varies from region to region and country to country). If you are registered as a limited liability corporation or incorporated company, the liabilities of the company are separate from you as the owner.

This means if the company fails, then the creditors cannot come after your personal assets (like your house for example). This is clearly a good thing, but it does cost additional money and requires more administration. It also gives your company a little bit more credibility in the business community. Your local chamber of commerce wil

l be able to advise you on how to go about this.

Many IVSP’s opt for a sole proprietorship as it is cheaper and a simpler way to start a business. You can always incorporate at a later stage when you are more established.

Whichever model you opt for, make sure you comply with all the legal requirements. You do not want to start your business on the wrong foot.

Legal Issues

As a videographer, you’ll face a range of unique legal issues. For example, you shoot a video and there is an original painting in the background, do you need to clear the rights? Whether you are a movie maker or an IVSP, you need to own a copy of The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers by Thomas Crowell ($19.47 at Amazon). Surprisingly, the book is an easy read, probably because the author is both a lawyer and a videographer. It covers many legal aspects that you ought to know.

Insurance

Insurance costs money and there’s a temptation to ignore it — don’t even think of it! Even basic video equipment costs money, make sure that it’s covered by insurance for theft, loss and damage. If you lose your equipment, you also lose your means of earning an income. You might also have to cancel some contracts, which is not good for your reputation.

It is as important to have indemnity insurance. As an IVSP you typically will work on a tight budget. If you’re on a shoot and a little old lady trips over your tripod and breaks her hip, it would be good if you are covered.

If you’ve started your videography business on the side while you keep your day job, you need not worry too much about unemployment insurance. However, as a full time IVSP, unexpected illness or an accident can mean that you have no income until you are well again. It’s possible to get affordable unemployment insurance for small businesses but you need to shop around.

Conclusion

For most of us as videographers, these basic business concepts are dry as dust, we just want to get to the business of shooting video. Though dry as dust, they are important if you’re serious about earning money as a videographer.

In the next article, we will discuss the more practical aspects of running an IVSP business. We will look at such topics as selecting a name, branding, how much to charge for your services, building a website and much more.

Legal Note: Do be aware that having an LLC or INC. company is no guarantee that some creditors in some instances will not try to make claims against your personal assets. It is important that you seek legal counsel regarding these matters. Comments contained in this article are not intended to imply or provide legal counsel, nor are Earl Chessher or Heidi Mueller licensed legal practitioners. Information contained in this article does not claim to be based on legal fact. Anyone using information contained in this article does so at his/her own risk and Earl Chessher and Heidi Mueller are not libel for any claims real or perceived as a result of action taken based on this information by any reader.

Heidi Mueller, New Westminster, BC, Canada, is an accomplished video producer, web site developer/designer, writer and course developer for adult classes on a variety of subjects. She is a frequent contributor to E.C. Come, E.C. Go and was recently the featured contributor of a four-part series on WordPress for web site creation. Future articles will continue focus on A Roadmap for Beginners, as well as information for intermediate level videographers, and ideas for developing successful marketing niches in the wide world of video production.

A Roadmap for Beginners, Part 2

2011-01-17T12:18:00.000-08:00

Introduction

In Part 1 of this article series, I introduced a method for becoming a professional videographer without having to go to film school. The method depends on two key aspects: learning from books, and going out and doing small scale projects. If you’ve worked through the first suggested book, The Little Digital Video Book, (Michael Rubin, author) you will now be familiar with your video camera and have a reasonable sense of what it takes to produce a video.

You may also now already have some sense of what type of video you’d like to focus on: documentaries, weddings, short films, and so on. You may of course decide that you are quite happy to continue with small projects like family events and that is quite OK, at least now you know how to make really good family videos!

But if the bug has bitten you and you have decided that you really want to make the investment in time and money to become a money-earning videographer, the remainder of these articles is for you.

Key Aspects

What? Did you say invest money and time? Yes! And I should add commitment. The approach we are describing still requires you to invest and to learn, there is no shortcut to becoming a professional videographer! However, our approach will spread the costs over time to make it more affordable — and cheaper in the long run. You’ll have fun while learning and you’ll start earning money sooner.

We have already introduced two key aspects to the approach: books and actually going out doing projects. In this article we will introduce a third key aspect: video about videography.

Books

We recommend that you aim to purchase at least one book a month. That is a reasonable investment and pretty soon you’ll have a valuable reference library. You’ll find that as you grow in knowledge and experience, many of the books will repeat things that you already know. Of co

urse, a little bit of repetition doesn’t hurt.

In this article we will recommend a number of additional books that still cover principles of videography, but the more advanced aspects of videography.

The first book is The Complete Digital Video Guide by Bob Brandon (Penguin Books, $26.95, B&H Photo-Video; $14.75 Amazon). This is a huge, full-color book that repeats the basic principles and then goes intogreat depth on how to tackle specific video projects. Besides being useful, it also makes a lovely coffee table book. The late Mr. Brandon’s book remains a current and informative reference.

The second book is Video Shooter by Barry Braverman ($17.24 Amazon). This book really goes into the technicalities of digital videography and is probably the definitive guide. It is also a full-color book, well worth the price.

Projects

Books are OK, but in the long run it is experience that counts. Remember success comes from doing, not talking about it. By now you know enough to tackle more advanced project and you’ll start to identify your own projects that you’re interested in. To assist you we will recommend two books that give guidance on how to select and tackle projects. Both are written by seasoned teachers of videography for high school and college students, but they cover different styles of video: documentaries and short films.

The first book on the face of it is not interesting and has no colorful illustrations but don’t be fooled. It is also a gem of a book. Making Real Life Videos by Matthew Williams ($19.95 Amazon). This book covers the steps in making documentary-style videos in great detail and has many suggestions for projects that you might want to tackle.

The second book is Making Short Films by Jim Piper

($24.95 Amazon). Short films are a genre that is becoming very popular at film festivals. It is different from the previous books in that it describes projects where you write the script, i.e. the story, before producing the project.

Both these books will cover important topics like project outlines, treatments, scripts and storyboards — fundamental concepts every videographer should know.

Videos about Videography

Most of the books we’ve talked about make valiant attempts at explaining how to use, for example, basic video editing software. It can be quite difficult to visualize the concepts — it would be so much easier if you had an expert that could actually show you

how. Well, you can through the power of video!

Our first recommendation is that you subscribe to Lynda.com. It costs about $25 per month and will give you access to training videos that you can watch and re-watch as often as you like, 24/7 every day of the week! There are training videos on practically all the major video editing software for the PC and the Mac, as well as training on DVD creation software. Having access to these training videos is priceless, it is like having an editing expert on hand whenever you need one.

Video Editing Software

In the first article, we said that any computer and any of the free video editing software products that are included in your computer’s operating system (iMovie or MovieMaker) would be OK to begin with. By now you will have discovered the limitations of that statement. So at this stage we would like to encourage you to invest in more advanced video editing software.

But what to recommend? If you’ve already invested in one of the more advanced editing products we mentioned in the first article, then that is fine, and by all means stick with it and become good at it! However, if you have not, we’re going to make a specific recommendation and explain the reasons why.

We would like to recommend the combined Adobe Premiere Elements and PhotoShop Elements. This software costs just over $100 ($113.92 Amazon) from Amazon.com.

The reasoning? Besides that it is inexpensive yet very powerful, the software is available for both Mac and PC. Most importantly, there’s extensive training available on Lynda.com. This alone would be a clinching argument but there’s more! Many videographers ind that these two programs are all they’ll ever need. However, you can at any point move up to the full professional Adobe Premiere and PhotoShop programs (that will cost you several thousand dollars) and still use the projects that you’ve created previously with the Elements versions of these programs.

Why include Photoshop? In practically all video projects you will include still photos nd other graphic elements. This is particularly true for the design of DVD menus. Having an easy-to-use program like PhotoShop Elements will soon prove worth its weight in gold!

If you’ve followed our recommendations, we would like to suggest another gem of book: Creating Hollywood Style Movies by Paul Ekert and Carl Plummer ($34.19 Amazon). This wonderful book gives many step-by-step instructions for fun editing

projects using Premiere Elements that will give your video projects pizzazz beyond anything that you had imagined possible! All the video material you need for the projects are included o the DVD that comes with the book. You will learn how to create night vision video, shrink the kids, green screen projects, typical newsroom videos and much more.

Paying Projects

Are you ready to charge for your work? By now you’ll probably be only too ware of what you still don’t know. But don’t underestimate what you already know. That said, you probably don’t know enough, and don’t have equipment that would allow you to charge a full professional fee. But that does not mean you cannot charge at least something. Earning something for a project is a real confidence booster!

Events like school plays are a good place to start. Weddings can be a real trap in the beginning. The starry-eyed couples have a vision of a Hollywood-style production but have a budget of next to nothing. If you make it REALLY clear that you’re just starting out but are willing to help them get a realistic video at their budget, this is a possibility.

At this point by all means make it clear to all you approach regarding doing work for them that you’ve started a career in videography and are looking for projects. At the same time be very realistic about your capabilities. We will discuss the business side of videography in more detail in upcoming articles.

Summary

In this second article we’ve suggested more books to help you on your way to becoming a professional videographer, i.e. earning money using your hard-earned videography skills. We’ve also introduced the third important key aspect of our roadmap, video about videography.

In the next article the focus will shift to specific types of video production, as well as the business side of videography.

Endnote: At this point you might be tempted to invest in a more professional, more expensive video camera. Please do resist the temptation, there will be time enough soon! The reality is that the end result of most of your projects at this point will be a DVD or a video on the Web, and for that, standard definition video is all you’ll need. There are other pieces of equipment that are more important to you to invest in, and THAT we will talk about in an upcoming article.

Heidi Mueller, New Westminster, BC, Canada, is an accomplished video producer, web site developer/designer, writer and course developer for adult classes. She is a frequent contributer to E.C. Come, E.C. Go and was recently the featured contributor of a four-part series on WordPress for web site creation. Future articles will continue focus on development of A Roadmap for Beginners, as well as information for intermediate level videographers, and ideas for developing successful marketing niches in the wide world of video production.

A Roadmap for Beginners

2011-01-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

Introduction

A few years ago I decided to become a videographer and make a living at it. As I knew nothing about videography, I thought it would be as easy as buying a video camera, spending an afternoon reading the instruction manual and then getting started — which I did. In a way I’m glad I was so ignorant, because if I had known the very steep learning curve that lay ahead, I would probably never have started. But I’m glad I did.

So just how does one get to know the videography business? You could of course go to film school if you are young enough and can afford it. However, in this short article I will describe a more practical and affordable approach. I am assuming that you are starting out and, as I did, have no knowledge at all.

Make no mistake, the learning curve is enormous. You need to master several main topic areas:

• the video camera itself and all its technical things including different types of

camcorder technologies and accessories

• shooting video and related issues such as lighting, sound, framing, storyboards and

• editing the video footage into a useful and pleasing end result

• the business side of videography including the many legal issues

• the different types of videography including documentaries, weddings, events,

commercials, film-making, and more.

But the beauty is that you do not need to know everything all at once, you will learn (and earn) as you go. My practical approach is based on two key concepts:

1.) read books

2.) go out and do little projects

Why books, you might ask? Well, it is by far the most cost-effective way of learning. A typical book costs about $20 - $30. Yet it represents the equivalent of several hours of “listening” to an expert explaining a topic. Not only that, once you have bought the book, you have that expert on hand all the time. Always have a book with you, so while you wait in the doctor’s waiting room or at the hairdresser you can whip out the book and learn more exciting things about videography. You will go back and reread your books because you will probably miss many of the points made in the books as you still did not have the necessary experience to appreciate all the points.

The second key is to do smaller projects that can be completed successfully in a day or two. Success breeds success. It really feels so good to have completed a project, even if the video is not all that good. But having more ambitious projects that are unfinished because they become so daunting will really get you down!

Getting started

So let’s get started. I am assuming that you are starting from scratch as I did. Maybe you got a video camera as a present or you’ve always been fascinated by video and are thinking of buying a video camera.

Before we even worry about getting a video camera, I would suggest you buy the following book and read through first: The Little Digital Video Book by Michael Rubin. This little gem of a book is available from Amazon for less than $20 (currently $17.09) and it’s worth every penny.

The book does cover much of the basic videography information that you will need to know. But most importantly, it describes a series of small practical projects that you can do easily and complete. The author refers to them as “exceptionally finish-able projects”. In addition you can visit the author’s blog where he has posted the finished results of the projects he recommends in the book. (To find out a bit more about the author you can view a podcast interview of him with Nancy Ruenzel)

Once you have read the book, you will have an overview of what you will be doing in the next couple of weeks on your exciting journey into the fun and challenging world of video production.

What you need to get

Now what will you need to actually do these mini projects? You will need:

1.) a video camera (also referred to as a camcorder)

2.) a computer, and

3.) video editing software.

That sounds simple enough, but it can be very overwhelming for a beginner as there are so many choices for each of the three items and we “experts” have our own strong opinions on them. The good news is that at this point it really does not matter what you get. Any camera, and any computer, and any editing software will help you become familiar with the concepts of videography.

Should you get a PC or a Mac? It does not matter, the one you are most familiar with is the right one for you. One caveat is that editing video is quite demanding so a relatively new computer would probably be better.

What about a video camera? Again, if you already have one, or can borrow one from a friend or family member, that is the way to go. Once you have had more experience using a video camera you will be in a better position to buy a camcorder that is right for you. (If you have to buy a camcorder, see the endnote for some guidance).

What about editing software? It depends on the type of computer that you have, both the PC and the Mac have free basic video editing software included — MovieMaker on the PC, and iMovie on the Mac. To start with, these video editing programs will do just fine.

The Next Steps

So at this point you now have a book that describes a number of projects for you to do, you have a camcorder, and a computer with editing software.

Get to know the video camera

You first have to learn how to use the camcorder. If you borrowed it, ask the friend to show you how to use it or go through the operating instructions. For the first projects you only need to know how to turn the camcorder on, and put it in “auto mode” where the camera will adjust the focus and exposure for you automatically.

Get to know the editing software

For each project you would typically have about 20 minutes of video footage that you will edit down to about 3-5 minutes in a finished production. So you need to know how to get the video from your camcorder into your computer and then do the editing. Clearly here is your first major “learning curve”. Some of it is described in Rubin’s book. If you do a search on Google for whatever video editing software you have on your computer, you are sure to find video tutorials that will show you how to capture the video into your computer and how to do the basic editing. (One resource featuring affordable lessons and even free sample tutorials for many popular programs is at Lynda Dot Com)

You need to set aside a weekend or two for this getting-to-know-your-basic-videography-tools phase. Don’t rush it. You can watch the video tutorials you found through Google as many times as you like. Remember you are learning a whole new discipline, and you are having fun while doing it! Don’t be afraid to experiment or even mess things up altogether.

Once you have a working knowledge of your camcorder and editing software, be sure to do the projects in the book. Set yourself a target of starting and completing at least one project every weekend.

Conclusion

Once you reach this point you will know, and know that you know, what an establishing shot is, and a close up and point-of-view (POV) shot, and much much more. And your investment will have been the $20 for The Little Digital Video Book and your time. What an inexpensive way to have fun and to prepare for a new career!

In subsequent articles we will discuss the next steps in the Roadmap for Beginners, and recommend more books to read as well as other resources.

Endnote: If you find that you do have to buy a video camera, keep in mind that you do not have to buy the most sophisticated camera. Sales people will often try and get you to purchase something rather more expensive than you really need. If you stick to the known brands like Canon, JVC, Panasonic and Sony for example, you can hardly go wrong. Avoid the point-and-shoot varieties like the Flip and the Kodak Zi8. They have their place for sure but at this point they would limit your learning.

At this point you do not really need high definition (HD) either. It would be helpful to get a camcorder that allows you to use an external microphone. A GREAT resource for identifying affordable camcorders is the camcorder reviews and information provided by forum users at Videomaker Forums.

Heidi Mueller, New Westminster, BC, Canada, is an accomplished video producer, web site developer, writer and course developer for adult classes. She is a frequent contributor to E.C. Come, E.C. Go and last was featured in a four-part series on WordPress for web site creation. Future articles will continue focus on development of A Roadmap for Beginners as well as information for intermediate level videographers and ideas for developing successful marketing niches in the wide world of video production.

Are You Serious About Your Video Business?

2010-12-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

HOW SERIOUS are you about your video operations? Do you limit yourself to video as a hobbyist, or are you attempting to “work” your enthusiasm into a business? To what degree? Are you going to settle for being a part-time independent professional video services provider or will you pursue this more actively, aiming toward a full-time business? Will this become a career-changing move, or simply augment your current job/position or retirement income? Is it time to assess your desires and ambitions, or do you simply wish to continue along a non-committed path of serendipity?

HEAVY QUESTIONS, for sure, but it might not hurt to take a good, long look at what you really want, what expectations you have at the top of your thoughts, or subconsciously — somewhere in the back burner of your mind where you rarely check to see what’s cooking. Not all of us take ourselves or our businesses so seriously. But maybe we should, especially if we actually expect something to come of it.

THE FIRST and foremost question is “How can I get a job (start this business) without experience” quickly followed by “How can I get experience (make this business work for me) withoug getting a job?” The answer, especially in the video business, is actually very simple: “Just do it!” In any career or business effort there is simply no shortcut to getting there. You have to put in the time and effort, invest the money and take chances in order to accomplish any goals in life.

Starting out with this realization will help keep the depression and disappointment of perceived failure at a minimum, and keep you focused on the long road — the road that leads to success. Keep in mind also that “success” is not only a state of mind as much as a reality of life, and perceptions have a lot to do with whether you, your friends, others in the business or your clients consider you successful. So consider the term generally, but don’t hang a lot of specifics on that tag. It’ll drive you nuts.

WHAT YOU NEED RIGHT NOW is some degree of knowledge and some basic equipment. For everything else there’s Google :-) and keep this in mind: You can learn a lot by reading material such as the articles on E.C. Come, E.C. Go, visiting other video related blog sites such as Lorraine Grula’s and Jay Michael Long’s, paying the price for a few lessons (but first check out the free samples) at Lynda Dot Com, not to mention viewing the literally millions of video production samples by independent (as well as commercial films) video producers.

THE CLASSROOM CONCEPT of education for film and video production has proven value, but a lot of that environment is based on theory, if not unproven concepts, and carved-in-stone “rules” that don’t always provide the needed answers once you’re out there in the trenches. Contrary to general opinion having a degree alone isn’t all that and a bag of chips. You need to immerse yourself in the effort and that means going hands-on.

SIMPLY REALIZING THE ESSENTIALS you might begin to ask yourself if it is worth the effort, the expense, the time ...

... We’ll take a look at that during the next segment of this ongoing series on E.C. Come, E.C. Go.

Remember: If you market, you will make it! © Earl Chessher

Make Your Plans NOW!

2010-12-18T12:06:00.000-08:00

You’ve got plenty on your mind this next few weeks, but it’s not too early to start making plans for your video business operations and marketing strategy for 2011. As soon as you read this, and if you feel ANY inspiration at all, pick up your iPad, laptop or other computer, open your Circus Ponies or other planning software, or grab a pencil and a tablet and start your outline.

Before simply continuing with what you already are doing, think about new paths and directions. For some, what they are doing is perhaps enough, for others more will be needed to continue to survive the coming year, much less anticipate or consider growth, even expansion of your video business operations.

There will ALWAYS be weddings, or maybe not. But let’s just say your wedding business operations are where you want them to be and the referrals are pouring in. Whether you’re full time or part time in the video business, there are things you can plan for now that will help you achieve your 2011 income and business goals.

STEP ONE

Go through your 2011 production calendar and note all the holidays and special days: Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, Tax Day (just kidding), Easter, Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and all the other days of observation. Copy them to your planning program.

Aside from weddings, what other possibilities are there for these special days?

• Video greeting cards

• Personal documentaries

• Day in the Life productions

• Community programs & observations

• How to videos on unique Easter egg decoration, cake creation or sugar molds

• Patriotic themed productions

• Small and independent business promotions and web video

• Video StoryTellers!™

STEP TWO

Do some research to identify where, how and to whom you can market for these and other video production/product concepts. A good Google search will generate an abundance of opportunities, groups, clubs, organizations and even generate some new ideas for marketing and potential clients that you never thought of before. Go with the flow and develop some concepts. You don’t have to flesh them out now, simply get them down so they will not elude you later.

Make your list and check it twice ... LATER.

• Potential new businesses that might be receptive to video in their marketing

• Groups, clubs and organizations that could use video in promoting their programs

• Those small businesses that might have never pursued a video or Web presence

• Church groups planning for their silver, golden or 100th anniversary celebrations

• Memorial themes recognizing members who have died

• Other potential avenues of video need that might often be overlooked

STEP THREE

Jot down some quick notes as they pop into your head. They don't have to make sense, but believe me when you begin working on some freestyle thinking like this little nuggets will get discovered. These can often wind up being nothing more than fool’s gold but a few are diamonds in the rough, if you’ll kindly overlook the cliché. Decide your best approach after the holidays.

• Develop a direct-mail strategy

• Expand on this, or that idea or concept

• Can I make this happen

• Is this too big for my operation

• What can I do NOW

• What do I need to work on long term

• How saturated is the market for this

Within the first 10 days of the New Year you’ll want to visit those notes, concepts and ideas and make an actual action plan for 2011. Action can often accomplish more than reaction, so YOU be the one to get things started.

It is never too early to begin a campaign but we often start too late. February 1, is not the time for mailing out promos or social networking or advertising for Valentine’s Day special proposal DVDs (relationship photos put to music and ending in “Will You Marry Me?”) or for developing and selling personal Valentine’s Day “Roses are red, violets are blue ...” video DVD cards.

It may, in fact, be too late already, but if you get something going during the first half of January, before heads and hearts start leaning toward February 14th and boxes of candy, you can probably open up a whole new approach to speciality video production.

Remember: If you market, you will make it © Earl Chessher, 2010

New Wedding Marketing Approach

2010-12-06T17:40:00.000-08:00

This one is experimental, but not without precedence. And the concept isn’t without a foundation in my personal wedding market experience either. It is most evident in many of the ethnic weddings I’ve produced, and it’s an option for all but the most snooty social upper crust. Well, maybe a few of them as well.

Some Call them Sponsorships.

The activity is a little like a gift registry, something like gift cards or certificates and I’ve come up with another concept that just might take this approach to funding a professionally produced wedding video another step forward: announce acceptance of sponsorships, gifts or donations toward purchase of a professionally produced wedding over the social networks.

Why Not?

People are already posting on just about everything else in their lives: where they eat and shop, who they like or despise, where they’re going for their vacation, what they’re going to do with that discretionary money. So, how about letting your Facebook “friends” and Twitter “homies” and other social network contacts know how badly you want and need a professional wedding video producer for your upcoming event?

Brides-to-be already e-mail their contact lists with notice of intent to get married, where they can go (or participate online) to utilize a bridal gift registry, and get updates on the planning and programming for that special event. Might as well utilize those effective networking strategies everyone keeps posting, blogging or bragging about.

Socially Unacceptable or Incorrect?

Very little these days, fortunately or not depending on what side of 50 your age lies, is considered socially intolerable. Where it used to be taboo to serve champagne in a Dixie cup or even do wedding dinners cafeteria style, this is no longer the case. They’re even “trashing” REAL wedding dresses nowadays for goodness sake.

So tell me, what’s so wrong with suggesting to your budget-impaired bridal prospects that there might be an acceptable and potentially successful way to fund their professional wedding video production without cutting into the ice sculpture and live band funds.

The implications to or reflections upon independent professional video service providers certainly can’t be any worse than those found on Craig‘s List: “do my wedding for free and I’ll put you in touch with all my friends who are getting married,” or “videotape my wedding for nothing and I’ll brag about you on my social network.”

Over the years I’ve had a degree of success in the bridal market with lay-away payments, monthly payments and gift registry video. I think I might start suggesting the social network fundraiser approach and see what happens. Why not? It’s been working for politicians.

Remember: If you market, you will make it! © Earl Chessher

They Shoot Funerals, Don't They? Production Outline

2010-11-09T12:22:00.000-08:00

Production Outline for

“They Shoot Funerals, Don’t They”

release date Dec. 15, 2010.

They Shoot Funerals, Don’t They: The Definitive Publication & Resource Program for Independent Professional Video Services Providers Seeking to Expand their Business

I. Introduction

A. Synopsis: It’s a Funeral, Get Over It!

1. Professional Video Services for a Seriously Under Served Market

B. First Things First: Marketing Funeral Video Services

1. A Story: Edit Out His Girlfriend!

2. Marketing to Funeral Services Facilities

a. Funeral Homes

b. Mortuaries

c. Cremation Service Providers

d. Pastors, Ministers, Rabbis, Bishops, Deacons, Priests, Officiants

3. Marketing to Churches & Synagogues, Temples & Chapels

4. Marketing to Individuals

5. Other Marketing Options (Necessities)

a. Your Domain Name

b. Your Website

c. Using Your Social Network Connections

C. Establishing Competitive, Reasonable, Profitable Fees

1. A Story: Taps, Fly-overs, Bikers and Military Escorts

2. What is Your Competition Charging

a. Do You HAVE any Competition?

b. What is Fair Value?

c. Adding Extras

d. When it Becomes ‘Nickel & Dimeing’

3. Competing with Funeral Homes & Places of Worship

4. On Location VS Multiple Sites

5. Rosary, Viewings, Visitation, Wakes & Receptions

6. Graveside & Committal Services (What‘s the Difference?)

7. Extreme Customer Service: Success Means Going the Extra Mile

8. Keeping Your Business Profitable

D. Family Clients Don’t Know What to Expect

1. A Story: Sometimes They Do Wail

2. Yes, Uncle Charlie Also Operates Here

3. “Edited” Doesn’t Mean Leaving Out Anything

4. Mostly It’s Another Celebration of Life

5. Let Those Attending Know You‘re Videotaping

II. Establishing Relationships

A. Get to Know Who Manages the Counselors

1. A Story: Most of the Time They Celebrate, Sometimes Wildly

2. Get to Know the Family Counselors

3. Get to Know the Service Directors

4. The Officiant Can be Your Best Friend or Worst Nightmare

B. Your Word is Your Bond

1. A Story: Hallelujah It’s Raining Men

2. Make NO Promises You Cannot Keep

3. You MIGHT Get One Pass, but That‘s Probably It

4. If You Mess Up, Fess Up

5. Politics: If “They” Mess Up, Don’t Tattle

6. It’s Not My Job! Be Helpful

III. Working Well with Others

A. Musicians, Soloists, Doves, Bag Pipers & Processionals

1. A Story: There‘s No Business Like Show Business

2. Other Vendors are Your Friends

3. Keep it Upbeat. Don‘t Gossip, Grumble or Gripe

4. NO! You Absolutely May NOT Eat Unless They Insist

5. How Relationships Can Work for You: Networking

B. How You Dress is Important

1. A Story: It Helps if You Know There‘s a Theme

2. Ethnic Funerals

3. Formal Funerals

4. Informal Celebrations of Life (Still a Funeral)

IV. Putting It All Together: Producing Your Video

A. Videotaping

1. A Story: Tell the Guy on the Pipes to Quit Playing

2. What You WANT to Videotape

3. What You DO NOT Want to Videotape

4. Ask First, But Probably Videotape the Casket

a. It’s a Casket, Not a Coffin

5. Get There Early

6. How Long Does a Funeral Last

7. Standard Definition or High, 4x3 or 16x9

B. Audio

1. A Story: I Know it was a Compliment, but Leave it Out

2. Redundant Audio Backup

3. Your On-Camera (Built-In) Mic

4. Other Audio Recording Needs

5. Speak from the Podium, or Else

C. Lights, or Not?

1. A Story: Masons, Knights, Cops & Mariachis

2. When to Use Them

3. When it’s Better if You Didn’t

V. Putting It All Together: Editing Your Video

A. Basic Shoot, Deluxe Production & Unedited

1. A Story: This is Why People Hire a Professional

2. What Goes Into a Basic Production

3. What Goes Into a Deluxe Production

4. Do you WANT to Offer RAW Footage

a. Clean it Up First? (That’s Editing)

5. What Gets Left In, or Left Out

a. Do I Need the Family to Fill Out a Form

VI. Other Services You Can Offer

A. Photo-Music Memorial Montages

1. A Story: Facilities Don’t Always Get it Right

2. Production Levels & Styles

3. Scanning the Photos & Digital Resources

4. Remember: It’s the Photos

5. Keep It Short for Service, Longer for Reception or Family Only

6. Fast or Overnight Turnarounds Often Necessary

7. Offering, Giving Away, or Selling the Scanned Jpegs on CD

8. What Should I Charge

B. Satellite Feeds

1. A Story: Monitoring the Feed Guerrilla Style

2. What Does it Take to Do This

3. What if I Add Videotaping, Other Services

4. What Should I Charge

C. Audio Recording Only

1. A Story: OK, I’ll Take a Video Too

2. Back it Up for Security, Sales

3. What to Use for Audio Only

4. What Should I Charge

D. Memorial Montage Projection

1. A Story: Twenty Minutes Until Showtime & No Lamp

2. What Do I Need to Offer This

3. Have a Second System, Lamp (Know How to Replace)

4. What Should I Charge

E. Other Options & Opportunities

1. A Story: I Want to See My Memorial Montage Now

2. Heritage Productions: End of Life Testimonies

3. Personal Documentaries: Full Production Treatment

4. Something Special for Alzheimer’s & Hospice Families

5. On-Site Family History or Short Documentary Kiosks

VII. Support & Resource Materials

A. Direct-mail Postcards

B. Direct-mail Letters

C. Art & Graphics

D. Release Forms

E. Agreement Forms

VIII. DVD & CD Samples & Resources, PDF files

Advance orders are now accepted at a substantial savings over regular and special pricing. Inquire via e-mail to echessher@hotmail.com

Current pricing set at $49.99 plus S&H advance orders; $79.95 plus S&H for orders received between Dec. 15, 2010 and Jan. 10, 2011; Regular price $129.95 S&H included.

They Shoot Funerals, Don't They?

2010-11-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

Provide Professional Video Services

for a Seriously Under Served Market

(Excerpt from “They Shoot Funerals, Don’t They” publication by Earl Chessher, to be announced for publication, release and purchase between December 15, 2010 and January 10, 2011. Advance orders accepted.)

by Earl Chessher

Videotaping and producing funeral and memorial events is not for everyone, and not everyone is interested in acquiring this service. It has been my experience over the past 20 years, however, that everyone who is made aware affordable professional videotaping service is available has at least considered the opportunity to preserve a very personal and meaningful end-of-life experience.

Primarily, with client families, the decision is based on finances, and not so much on emotions. If they can afford to do so the majority of them will. Contrary to the opinions of many, most funeral services providers (funeral homes) are not offering videotaping services in an effort to “squeeze” another dollar out of a grieving family, but to offer a valid service for the preservation of special memories, eulogies and moments during this celebration of life.

“They Shoot Funerals, Don’t They” will correct much of the misconception and misinformation that exists today regarding funeral videotaping. A lot of what you read and hear is myth, or misconstrued “fact”, heavily based on personal opinion but not much experience. Not everyone has faced an end-of-life experience with a loved one, but until we have each of us has developed a personal scenario based on emotions, and bad information.

This resource will help you not only understand the very real need for funeral videotaping, as well as photo-music memorial montage, end-of-life heritage video, and personal documentary production, it will provide the information you need to pursue this market. Even if you aren’t seeking to specialize or actively expand into the funeral and memorial video production business, the information contained here will enable you to comfortably say “yes” should a request be made, knowing that you can in fact do what’s right and do it right.

To expand on your awareness of what goes on, and what can happen, during a funeral I’ve taken the liberty to share some of my experiences. In the interest of protecting the privacy of my client families I’ve either used fictitious names or none at all, but every vignette shared throughout this publication is real. These events actually happened. Reading them, along with the practical information, will prepare you for rewarding real-life opportunities in funeral video production.

You will learn what to expect, and what is expected of you. You will be surprised that much of what you’ve thought and heard throughout your life is not relevant to the business of funeral video production. You’ll become aware of the very real value placed on your services, and the deep sense of personal reward doing so provides.

You’ll be amazed at how often people who are mourning the loss of a loved one, families who have paid you to professionally videotape this private, often very personal, event will thank you for doing so. They will hug you, hold your hand, share a special personal story and say ‘God bless you,’ for being there. And your heart and soul will burst with feeling, empathy and emotion you never thought possible while in the middle of a bunch of strangers.

Editor’s note: Availability date of “They Shoot Funerals, Don’t They” will be announced Dec. 15, 2010. Advance orders are being accepted. Contact me via e-mail at echessher@hotmail.com regarding how to order.

This resource guide will include valuable informed and accurate information based on the author’s many years of experience in producing funeral, end-of-life and celebrations of life videos. Chapters will contain the information you need, from developing and marketing, to production and recommended equipment.

“They Shoot Funerals, Don’t They” will include templates, sample letters, direct-mail graphics, samples of funerals from basic coverage to fully edited, military honors events and more. There will be PDF and document files you can revise for your specific purposes and needs, as well as release and agreement forms, brochures and instruction sheets.

Wichita Video Works Posts Interview

2010-10-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

Video StoryTellers!™ associates Pat & Judy Handley, of Wichita Video Works, have recently conducted some great interviews for the Video StoryTellers!™ program in Kansas.

Check out this interview for now (other VST producers will soon be featured): the quality, the content and the production value. Yet another reason for being a part of the program and for hiring professional video producers to help share, save and preserve stories and memories. Everybody has a story!

Check out other links at this blog to find out more about how you can increase your income and market reach, as a startup business in video, or an established video professional looking for a way to expand your business.

Also, see John’s story, produced by Wichita Video Works, featured below. These two great Video StoryTellers!™ interviews will be the featured “StoryTellers of the Month” on the official VST website.

Video StoryTellers!™ Gains Exposure

2010-10-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

Video StoryTellers!™ (VST) will be the main focus and thrust of my video business for the remainder of this year and beyond. Why? Because this global program is going to become one of the most popular video services in the world, surpassing even youth sports and wedding events. And, it is going to MAKE ME MONEY!

While I’m conducting a major thrust with this program, brand and marketing now, I anticipate that this will develop into a significant portion of my 2011-2012 business strategies. I expect to be too busy producing people's stories on DVD to do much of anything else!

Use this link to see an intro-promotional video clip for Video StoryTellers!™ now!

Based on the very real fact that everybody has a story, I’ve moved full-throttle into a major direct-mail campaign, guerrilla marketing strategy and business promotion program for VST during the remainder of this year that stands to generate $300 to $500 a day, building toward an unimaginable figure over the next couple of years. All I have to do is work the program.

While I maintain a solid business market with event and Celebrations of Life! videos ranging from memorial and photo/music montages and projection, to funeral videotaping and production, youth events, dance recitals and school performance video, I plan to continue an aggressive campaign with VST.

Some have joined me in this venture and others will come onboard during the next quarter 2010 due to the special 50% savings being offered through December 31, 2010. With the momentum that is continuing to build, still others will gladly invest over the next two years to become a part of this valuable worldwide branded service.

Thanks to the ongoing inspirations shared by VST associates Heidi Mueller of H Mueller Design, Canada; Jim Nicholson of Nicholson Video Productions, Pennsylvania; Bill Mecca of Mecca Video Productions, New Jersey; Luis O. Maymi of Xeneuxe, Puerto Rico; Chris and Val Harding of Softweigh, Australia; J. Michael Long of JML Multimedia, Mississippi; and a host of others, Video StoryTellers!™ has developed, grown and evolved into a significant brand representing professionals who offer an affordable approach to the sharing and preservation of personal stories and memories.

Next to come will be news and magazine articles, a unique website (under construction at VSTWorldWide.com) featuring private and public forums, blogging and live chat for associates and the many storytellers who will be seeking our services around the globe. Development of marketing strategies and materials, news releases, articles and more will be ongoing.

For more information check out the related articles on this blog, send me an e-mail or call using the information on the VST site linked at the beginning of this article.

50% Off Global Program Through December!

2010-09-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

“Everybody has a story!” Think about that for a second. Where have you been with another individual, group, the family or friends that someone, or all, have failed to share one anecdote, one story, relate one memory or synopsis of an occurrence. Whether it happened this morning, yesterday or to their great-grandfather, you’re going to hear somebody’s story today.

Even while recently conducting “Person-on-the-Sidewalk” interviews during a recent live marketing activity I had no problem getting total strangers to share their recollections of what they were doing and where they were during 9/11, The Challenger Explosion and JFK’s Assassination. Many of them shared more personal recollections as well and freely gave me permission to feature them on a website for worldwide preservation and sharing of stories — Video StoryTellers!™

It’s THAT easy! Video StoryTellers!™ is a global marketing and branding program for the preservation and sharing of people’s stories and memories. And PEOPLE WILL PAY YOU for this service, starting with the totally affordable base price for receiving their precious memory or story on DVD.

Find out more by checking the links throughout this blog. There is an extra added bonus for anyone coming onboard with Video StoryTellers!™ during the next few months. From NOW through December 31, 2010 you can become a part of this worldwide branding and marketing program for 50 percent off the standard investment price.

Sign up today for your service area, or go for state or country associate level and offer others in your “territory” their own franchise and service area for extra income.

A minimum effort, IF YOU WORK THE PROGRAM, based on eight hours a week (working part- or full-time) will bring you more than $26,000 a year ONLY producing stories — one at a time!

eCommerce with WordPress

2010-09-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth and final installment in the “WordPress for Videographers” four-part series by guest author Heidi Mueller, of New Westminster, BC, Canada — an accomplished commercial video producer, website developer, editor and writer.

IN THE WORKS! Heidi will be developing and offering an up-to-date “how to” video that takes you through the necessary steps for developing a WordPress website using a “real world” project. Watch for the announcement here, and also on Twitter, Facebook, Videomaker Forums and DVProfessionals as well as the Video StoryTellers!™ Facebook Pages.

1. Overview of WordPress Article Series

So far in this article series we have explored WordPress as a possible website platform for a videographer or videography business. But what if you want to sell products on your website like DVDs, stock footage, movie posters, t-shirts and so on? Can this be done on your WordPress site? This is what we will discuss here.

2. Overview of eCommerce

Before we talk about the actual implementation, let’s do a quick review of what ecommerce is all about. In order to sell products over the Internet, you require essentially three components:

A Product Catalogue

This is essentially a list of all your products, typically stored in a database of some kind. For each product you would have at least a title, description, photo and price. You could also include additional optional information like size, colour, shipping, and so on, depending on the type of product.

A Shopping Cart

The shopping cart temporarily stores the information about products that a shopper has selected on your site. When the shopper is done selecting products, he or she can click the Checkout button to make the actual payment.

Payment Gateway

This is basically a system that allows a shopper to make a payment by providing the credit card information over a secure Internet connection. Commonly used systems include PayPal and Google Checkout.

While each of the ecommerce components are quite complex, with WordPress it is easy to add ecommerce capability to your website.

3. The Basic PayPal System

If you have only a few products to sell, say two DVDs, you can use the basic PayPal system. That way you don’t have to set up a product catalogue - all you need is a Products page in your website listing your DVDs. You then use PayPal’s shopping cart and buy now buttons.

I have set up a Our Products page and listed one (fictitious) DVD as shown below:

The Products Page with no ecommerce features

The next step is to log into your PayPal account (more on this later) and go to the Merchants section and select the Create Buy Now Button link as shown below:

The PayPal Merchant Page

Enter your first product details and click the Create Button Now button at the bottom of the page.

The PayPal product description page

PayPal will now create the button embed code. Select the code and copy to the clipboard.

The PayPal embed code

Back in your website, go to the Products page and, in the HTML editing window, past the button embed code close to your product area:

Pasting the code on Products page

And voila, you have a PayPal button!

Your Product page with PayPal buy now button

I have only done one DVD product. If you have several products, repeat the above steps to get a button for each product, and then finally to also get a Shopping Cart button.

Now when someone clicks the buy now button on your Products page, the product is added to the PayPal shopping cart. When the shopper checks out, PayPal manages the credit card transaction and you are informed by email and then you have to ship the product to the shopper. PayPal will transfer any monies in your account to your personal bank when you request it.

4. The PayPal Account

Whether you use the basic system that I have just described or a full ecommerce system, you will need a PayPal Account. There are many videos on YouTube that will take you through the steps of setting up your account, and PayPal has a useful Getting to Know PayPal help section.

5. Full eCommerce

The basic PayPal system described above can quickly become tedious when you have a large number of products, especially if some are products that need to be downloaded by the client (eg video clips). Fortunately there are several excellent plug-ins that will turn your WordPress site into a full-fledged ecommerce site. Perhaps the most popular plug-in is WP e-Commerce which, amazingly, is free!

These ecommerce systems are quite sophisticated and beyond the scope of a short article like this. I would recommend a new book "WordPress 2.9 e-Commerce" by Brian Bondari. He goes into how to set up and manage a WP e-Commerce site in great detail, and also discusses the other available plug-ins.

6. Conclusion

In this series of articles I have tried to show the WordPress is indeed a viable website platform for a videography business. It allows the videographer to easily create and maintain a professional website. The tools in WordPress allow you to showcase and market your products and services. In addition there is an extensive collection of plug-ins that allow you to add extra functionality, such as ecommerce as we discussed in this article, to your website as your business needs expand. The main benefit of using WordPress is that everything is fast and easy to implement, leaving you free to focus on your video production business.

“Easy” is of course relative. If you stick to the basics it is easy. But if you want to dig into the guts of WordPress, there is a learning curve. A final warning: there are so many fun things you can do in WordPress - it can become addictive.

“WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.” – www.wordpress.org

H Mueller Design

# 206 - 56 Merrivale Street

New Westminster, BC V3L 2P6

Canada

604-523-1523

hmuellerdesign.com

twitter.com/hmuellerdesign

WordPress for Videographers Part 3 - Including Video

2010-09-04T18:09:00.000-07:00

Editor’s Note: This is the third of a four-part series on “WordPress for Videographers” by guest author Heidi Mueller, of New Westminster, BC, Canada - an accomplished commercial video producer, web site developer and writer. The final article will discuss adding “eCommerce” to your WordPress website.

Introduction
In the first two articles in this series we looked at reasons why a videographer would consider WordPress as a website platform for his or her business and what the process is to do that. In this article we will look at how to include video in your website. These days this is really easy.

Hosted Videos
If your video is already on a video host like Blip.tv, YouTube, Vidler, Vimeo, etc. then you can display that same video on one of your website pages or in a post in your blog. These sites will allow you to copy some embed code representing your video that you can use on your page.

The advantage of this approach is that the host company’s server does the heavy work, rather than the web server where your WordPress website is hosted. And as part of the embed code, they provide the video player.

Another advantage is that your video is promoted both by your website and the video host. The downside of course is the time it takes to prepare and upload the video to the video host.

There are basically two ways of using hosted videos, embedding and “shortcodes”. The end result is the same. I prefer to embed because then I have a bit more control over the position and look. We will use YouTube as an example. Here is my webpage without any videos as yet.

Screen with no video

The next step is to go to YouTube and obtain the embedding code for the video that you want to place on your website. On the YouTube screen you have options for the size of the player, as well as a colour scheme. I chose red to go with the H Mueller Design colours of course! Once you have chosen the options for the player, you highlight and copy the embed code as shown in the screen capture below.

Getting the Embed Code from YouTube

Next, switch back to your WordPress website, and open the Videos page in edit mode from the Dashboard. In the little edit pane where you normally put your text is where we will past the video embed code – but you have to do it in the HTML view as shown in the screen capture below:

Pasting the embed code in HTML view

That’s it! Click the Update button and admire your handiwork.

Uploading Videos to WordPress
If you do not have your video hosted on a video service, you can upload the video to your WordPress website. It does mean that your web server will have to serve the video which can slow it down if your video is large. The most common formats for video on your own server would be .flv (Flash) and .mov (Quicktime). You not only have to upload the video file but you also have to provide an appropriate player which can be a bit tricky.

But don’t worry, that’s why you chose WordPress—there are plugins for the tricky stuff! In fact there are many video plugins to choose from. If you need a solid, easy to use plug-in, consider the Viper plug-in. The player will also allow you to play hosted videos as well as video files uploaded to your own website. This is an important feature as it will give you consistency in how your videos are displayed no matter where they are hosted.

Video Galleries
This is definitely a step up in sophistication. A video gallery page is basically a page showing a series of thumbnails of the videos in your gallery. When a visitor to your site clicks on a thumbnail, the corresponding video plays in a player. Again there are many plug-ins to choose from. The plug-in will do all the heavy lifting for you. But they can be a bit more tricky to configure and only worth the effort if you have many videos to show.

Summary
In this article we discussed how to embed hosted videos from YouTube and similar hosting services. This method is easy and quick to implement, and will not load your own web server. We also discussed other video display options briefly should you have need for them.

In the next article we will discuss the possibilities of adding ecommerce to your website in case you would like to sell video stock footage, DVDs, and so on.

“WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.” – www.wordpress.org

H Mueller Design

# 206 - 56 Merrivale Street

New Westminster, BC V3L 2P6

Canada

604-523-1523

hmuellerdesign.com

twitter.com/hmuellerdesign

WordPress for Videographers – The Process

2010-08-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a four-part series on “WordPress for Videographers” by guest author Heidi Mueller, of New Westminster, BC, Canada - an accomplished commercial video producer, web site developer and writer. Future articles will feature “The Process,” “Using Video,” and “eCommerce” with WordPress.

Introduction
In the first article in this series we looked at reasons why a videographer would consider WordPress as a website platform for his or her business. In this article we will look at how to go about implementing a WordPress website. It is not a step by step article, but rather its objective is to give you some sense of what to expect when you decide to use WordPress.

Prerequisites
Website Planning
As you will see in a moment, before you know it your website will be live. But there will be no content! It pays to think before you commit what pages you want on the website and what text and pictures you want on the pages. It is helpful to have a Word document for each page so that you can copy and paste the content into the WordPress pages. That way your website will not be live without content for long. Typical pages to start with would be Home, About Us, Portfolio, Our Blog, and Contact Us.

Basic Website Stuff
For any website one has to have a webhosting company to host your website on their web server, and then you need a domain name (e.g. www.videoco.com) that points to the server. WordPress recommends a number of hosting companies. You might want to consider a local company so that you can go and talk to them if needs be. Once you have set up a hosting account with the company of your choice, they will create a folder on the web server for you. It is referred to as the “root” folder.

WordPress Stuff
For WordPress to work, you need three things on your web server. Firstly there is the WordPress system itself (it is a collection of files and folders). Then your server also needs PHP and a MySQL database.

Installing WordPress
This basically means that you have to download WordPress from their website, and copy it to your root folder on the web server. So just how do you do that? I have no idea!

No really, there are different ways to go about it depending on the hosting company that you have chosen so you need to ask them first. If you Google “installing WordPress” you will get many articles and how to videos on the topic.

As we mentioned in the first article, all the content that will make up your website will be stored in a database. Part of the installation process is to link the MySQL database to your WordPress so that it will be able to access your website content.

Using Notepad to link the database to WordPress

Administration
The last step of the installation process is to set up the administration. You will be the “administrator” for your website which will give you the right to create pages, add or edit content. In this last step, WordPress will ask you for a Title and Description of your blog, i.e. the name of your company and your business tagline respectively. It will also ask you for a username and password that you would like to use. When you have entered the information and clicked to confirm, your website will be live!

Your browser will display the “Dashboard” which is your control panel from where you can now add content to the site.

The Dashboard

Website Is Live!
If anyone enters your domain name in their browser, they will see your new, as yet content-less, website. At this point your website will by default have two pages, home and about. Your company name will appear at top of the web page, which is nice. Below that is a beautiful but inappropriate banner image, which you can ignore for now.

The Opening Screen of the New Website

Your first step is to add the additional pages you need, and paste the content into them that you have prepared beforehand. As you create pages, WordPress will automatically create links to them on the menu bar! So how do I create pages, you ask? As administrator, you will have access to the control panel for your website. In WordPress lingo it is called the “Dashboard”.

New site, with some text and a custom banner image

Google Connection
Once you have created your pages and added content to them, you need to let the world know that your website is ready. That is easy. You go to http://www.google.com/addurl and enter your URL (e.g. http://www.videoco.com) and it’s done.

More Tweaking
At this point your website is on the Internet; it looks good, and has content. So for now, give yourself a pat on the back, and take a well deserved break! But soon you will probably start to think of the further tweaking that you may want to do. It will require a little bit of learning but there is no immediate rush. For example, you may want to replace the default banner graphic with something more appropriate for videography, and perhaps include your logo. These are easy to do but outside of the scope of this short article.

For more information you can go to the official WordPress website which is very comprehensive but rather overwhelming I have found. I do recommend an excellent online tutorial by Lynda.com. The tutorial covers the installation, use and maintenance of your WordPress website. Then there are many books on WordPress that you can order through Amazon.com – just make sure that the book covers WordPress 3.0!

Upcoming articles will focus on:

• Using Video - one would expect to see video on a videography website. Article 3 will discuss the ins and outs of showcasing your video on your website.

• eCommerce - Article 4 will look at adding ecommerce to the website for videographers who would like to sell products such as stock footage, how to videos, and more.

“WordPress is web stofware you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.” — www.wordpress.org

H Mueller Design

# 206 - 56 Merrivale Street

New Westminster, BC V3L 2P6

Canada

604-523-1523

hmuellerdesign.com

twitter.com/hmuellerdesign

WordPress for Videographers

2010-08-23T22:48:00.000-07:00

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a four-part series on “WordPress for Videographers” by guest author Heidi Mueller, of New Westminster, BC, Canada - an accomplished commercial video producer, web site developer and writer. Future articles will feature “The Process,” “Using Video,” and “eCommerce” with WordPress.

Introduction

Having a professionally-looking website is important for any business, and particularly for a visual business like videography. In fact, visitors to your website will judge your company, and even your ability to do video, by the appearance of your website! If it looks amateurish, there is a risk that they will simply move on to the next website in their search for a videography company. This series of articles will explore a way for videographers with limited web design skills and limited budget, to get the necessary professional image and Internet presence by using WordPress.

WordPress Advantages

Professional Appearance

While as videographers we have some artistic flair, most of us have no specific skills or training in graphic design. WordPress is a web design platform where the look and feel of the website has been separated from the content creation of the pages on the website. The appearance is determined by a theme. What that means is that you don’t have to worry about the appearance of the website, i.e. the layout, colours, font styles and sizes and so on – that has already been taken care of by the graphics professional who designed the theme. Which frees you as the owner to focus on the content of your website’s pages. In a follow up article we will discuss themes in more detail.

WordPress is Free

WordPress is free in the sense that it is available at no cost. It is also free in the sense of being open source, so not subject to the whims of a single corporation.

Easy Creation

WordPress makes it easy for someone with no web design skills to have a beautiful website up and running in days. Then adding or updating your website content is equally fast and easy.

Control Over Content

With WordPress you have full control over the content of your site; you can add or change content any time you please. That means that the brainwave for a new promotion campaign that came to you in the middle of the night can go on immediately – you don’t have to wait until the next day to ask your web master to put it on.

Access to Resources

There are literally millions of WordPress users. What that means is that there is a ton of resource information on the Internet. If you have a question, simply “Google” it, somewhere someone will have the solution for you.

Growth Potential

Over time you are bound to discover that you would like to add some additional functionality to your website, like eCommerce that we will discuss in a later article. Well, no problem. WordPress has developed a system of easily added plug-ins and there is an extensive library of available plug-ins. So expanding your website’s functionality is almost like building with Lego™, you simply add blocks as you need them.

What is WordPress

We have said above that it is a web design platform, which indeed it is. But more correctly, it is a content management system (CMS). In non-technical terms, it means that you do not create traditional HTML-based web pages. Rather you enter your page content into a form and it is then formatted using word processor-style tools as shown below:

When you save the information, it is stored in a database. Yes, behind the scenes your WordPress website is linked to an associated database.

When a visitor to your site requests a specific page, the web server will get the content for the page from the database. WordPress will then create a corresponding HTML page from the content and your website’s theme. So it is a regular HTML page that is returned and displayed by the visitor’s browser.

Marketing Tools

This could go under the section on Advantages but it is so important that we are devoting a separate section to it. Built into WordPress are many, many tools that will help you to promote your products or services. We have already mentioned plug-ins. Another valuable building block is Widgets. What if you would like to conduct a poll to see how many of your clients have flat panel TV’s. No problem, there's a widget for that. Or you want to create a discount coupon for a promotion – there's a widget for that too, and many more!

Perhaps one of the most exciting by-products of using WordPress, is that a powerful blog tool is included. That means that you can keep your clients informed about new projects you are working on, new products that you might be launching, and so on. It allows you to build a relationship with your clients and get their feedback.

Not a Magic Bullet

In spite of all the positive things we have said above, WordPress is complex and there is a learning curve! But the learning curve is not anywhere near what it would take to learn web design principles and the tools like Dreamweaver™ or Expression Web™. Furthermore, you don’t have to learn everything up front, or ever know all the technical magic that happens behind the scenes. As we will show in the next article, you can start very effectively with the basics, and add to your website as your knowledge expands.

Conclusion

In this article we have shown how WordPress is a tool that can make it possible for a videographer to have a professional web presence, at virtually no cost. In addition to the many advantages we mentioned, WordPress allows you to get up and running in a short time, allowing you to focus on the videography side of your business. In upcoming articles we will look at:

· The Process – so you have decided to go with WordPress, how do you get started?

· Using Video – one would expect to see video on a videography website, this will discuss the ins and outs of showcasing your video on your website.

· eCommerce – this article will look at adding ecommerce to the website for videographers who would like to sell products such as footage, how to videos, and more.

“WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.” – www.wordpress.org

H Mueller Design

# 206 - 56 Merrivale Street

New Westminster, BC V3L 2P6

Canada

604-523-1523

hmuellerdesign.com

twitter.com/hmuellerdesign

Benefitting Both Sides of the Lens

2010-08-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

I’ve carried on a bit over the past few months about a global branding and marketing program that will not only benefit a huge demographic presently not being reached, but will represent a major addition to the bottom line and business operations for independent professional video services providers around the world. That program is Video StoryTellers!™

The Video StoryTellers!™ program is now gearing up for major marketing and a solid awareness campaign supported by several associates serving Florida, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Northern and Southern California, as well as Australia, Canada and Puerto Rico. Thanks to all of you who have had the vision and taken the initiative to help grow Video StoryTellers!™ (sample clip) throughout the planet. Visit the Video StoryTellers!™ associates page and see who is moving ahead with this fantastic business opportunity.

I have independent video services professionals in South Africa, Ghana, England (U.K.), Mexico, Spain and Germany considering participation at this time, as well as Oregon, Missouri, Texas, Louisiana and Arizona in the United States.

Plenty of room remains as the scope of VST is to not only offer and provide support for continents, countries, states and major geographical regions, but to expand services via independent professional video services providers to virtually every city and service area on Earth. That’s a lot of representation, but there’s a LOT of people on this planet with stories to tell, share, preserve and hand down to their future generations.

In the U.S.A. alone there are some 39 million persons over age 60, and that number will increase to 100 million by 2029. The numbers world wide are staggering. If EVERY independent professional video services provider on Earth joined today there would not be enough of us to oversaturate this demographic. Add to that the significant number of others from all age groups and life experiences and you have a whole new scope of outreach. EVERYBODY has a story to tell, to share, and worth preserving.

While there are certainly video producers who offer to videotape and produce stories or documentaries for individuals and families - ranging from tributes and memorials to full-blown complex Ken Burns style collections a MAJOR BRANDED GLOBAL organization of like-minded video producers did not exist until Video StoryTellers!™

The program is based on a very basic concept: That people who enjoy sharing their stories with others often do at their various social events; that VST is and can be an integral, entertaining and important part of ANY social event, or create one of its own with any group of people, anywhere.

The basic program allows for the professional lighting, audio reinforcement and videotaping of stories in an comfortable and/or social environment and their preservation on DVD at an affordable starting price. The program allows for a starting value of $70 per hour for multiple story productions, and a wide range of up-sell, referral, renewable and expanded business opportunities that will greatly increase the base level rate per production or event.

With the visibility and linkage, branding recognition and awareness potential behind VST and its global agents, the program will expand beyond your capacity for imagination.

I appreciate the support, participation and enthusiasm of Jim Nicholson, Heidi Mueller, Chris Harding and his wife, Val, Bill Carnicelli, J. Michael Long, Jennifer Nagel, Luis O. Maymi and Michael Wright in the development and promotion of Video StoryTellers!™ A new associate has joined the ranks, Steve Baty, of Massachusetts. Check these people out, both for acquiring Video StoryTellers!™ services, and for information about opportunities to franchise your own state or country, or a city or service area in a state or country represented here.

I invite and encourage other independent professional video services providers around the world (established or just getting into the business) to visit the website and read about the program, then to drop me an e-mail at either echessher@hotmail.com or theearlofcalif@yahoo.com and request access to the PDF file (link provided below) that has pretty much the entire program clearly spelled out. I am available, of course, to answer any questions or concerns regarding participation in Video StoryTellers!™ so do not hesitate to ask.

VST is a great way for helping people preserve and share their many stories and memories on DVD - affordably. It is important to me because I have a personal interest in this resulting from the loss of my sweet Mom two years ago after her 12-year battle with Alzheimer's Disease and her resulting memory losses. I've always been interested and involved in the preserving and telling of people's stories, both as a veteran journalist and newspaper publisher and a veteran professional video services provider.

VST is the first, and commercially focused, part in an eventual 3-part program that will include outreach and services for Alzheimer’s Disease and Hospice families and victims around the world. More on that soon. Also forthcoming will be a VST forum and blog for public and open/private associate participation.

It bears repeating that this program begins on a small note but its potential is HUGE, leading to new business, referrals, repeat business and renewable business, as well as full-scale documentaries and other “opportunities” along the way in its development. What will make it so powerful is that there will be world wide branding and name recognition for a mutually supported program with a solid base of independent video producers everywhere on the planet.

It also bears repeating that the productions can be as simple or as complex as the individual and producer want to pursue, but with solid branding and recognition established on a basic product and price. If you have not yet visited please take a moment to do so. ONLY THEN, when and if you have read the powerful opportunities such a program can offer, should you take the time and energy to request and read the PDF file. It is FULL of information and is a MUST READ in order to get the gist and scope of VST’s potential. Even then, as have others, you will have questions and need clarification. Do ask. I will respond and answer any questions and/or concerns you might have to the best of my ability.

Remember, EVERYBODY has a story! Many of them more than one, some boring, others exciting, but that first story is a good place to start. Once the idea of telling stories in an “event” or “social” setting is grasped (something all ethnic groups, races, religions and peoples have done through the ages) then the concept will grow easier to promote each day.

I respect and appreciate your interest and look forward to hearing from you regarding your desire to participate in Video StoryTellers!™.

Special Interest Videos

2010-08-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

by Heidi Mueller

Making special interest videos is another high income business opportunity based on the principle of shoot once, sell many times!

It is different from How To videos in that they do not give step by step instructions on how to do something. However they do address a specific topic that someone could be interested in. Topics could be quite varied: Butterflies of the Amazon, The History of the VW Beetle in Canada, The Role of Railways in Apartheid South Africa, The Contribution of the Holocaust to Music, etc.

How are they different?
How do special interest videos differ from How To videos? For one, they require a lot more research before you can start on the storyboard phase. In general the video shoots are more complicated, possibly with many shoots involving different locations, interviews, and exterior video shoots. This takes a lot more time than the one week I suggested for How To videos.

In many cases the topics are broader and take more time to address fully, sometimes even requiring more than one DVD.

The Challenge
So rather than one month, you may need to allow several months before your DVD hits the market. If money is no object for you, this is not a problem. But for many it may be a limiting factor as we could not afford to spend several months without an income. There are two approaches to address this need for financial support while you develop the DVD. One is to do other projects that earn you money, while you work on the special interest video on the side. This is quite feasible but frustrating and often the special interest video never gets done!

Another approach is to look for sponsorship to give you some financial support while you work on your special interest video. This is not much different from shooting a documentary but as it is a special interest video, there typically are companies, organizations and individuals who have a specific interest in your topic and would be more willing to give you financial support. You can offer these organizations and individuals exposure in return for making a contribution. And we are not talking about millions as with making feature films, but typically several thousand dollars.

Getting Sponsors
For a special interest DVD project, you would eventually create a website to promote it. If you are looking for sponsorships, you can offer sponsors exposure on your project website, on the back cover of the DVD case, and in the credits at the end of the DVD. The key is to make potential sponsors aware of your special interest DVD project. You MUST create the website even before you start the project – if you cannot afford to do a website, you are clearly not serious. In addition to promoting your project on the website, you must explain what sponsors can expect and how they can contribute. Follow this up with posts on relevant blogs dealing with your subject, as well direct emails to interested parties, describing your project and directing them to your website.

If most of the potential sponsors are in your local area, you should consider hosting a sponsor party! It would be money well spent. At the party, you can do a presentation about the project and show some sample clips that would be included in the full DVD. Of course you will be on hand to answer any questions – and to receive the many welcome cheques!

Selling the DVDs

Be sure to offer your sponsors free copies of the final DVDs, several for the big sponsors and fewer for the smaller amount sponsors. The DVD copies cost you only a few dollars, but with the sponsors handing them out to their clients, it is valuable, free promotion for you!

Otherwise, marketing and selling Special Interest DVDs is similar to How To DVDs. But that is a topic for another blog post.

Earl is a moderator and writer for Videomaker Magazine and forums, owner and developer for Video StoryTellers! (click link for info on participating in VST) and owner/operator of CorElAnn Video Productions in Southern California.

Wedding Videos: Creativity or Preserving Memories?

2010-07-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

by Chris Harding

The current trend for the production of wedding DVD's seems to be heading towards the creative approach with more “film-like” images, slow motion shots of just the bride and groom set to romantic music.

This, of course, produces very pleasing asthetic results when first watched and the wedding memories are fresh in the couples mind, and provides the newly-weds with an extremely professional and visually pleasing result of their special day.

However, are we maybe losing sight of the most important reason a bride decides to have a wedding video, preserving memories ? On a recent survey of “Why would you have a video of your wedding” almost all participants said “memories”.

A wedding day is one of the most important occasions in your lifetime, that should forever be remembered in the hearts and minds. Yet with each passing day human memory drifts away and some things are not as lucid as they were the day of the event. A video will allow you to relive the magical moments of the day for many years to come.

Without video the vows you made to each other, the first dance, the speeches, and the whole wedding day can never be seen or heard again, they will only exist in your mind. Yet wedding trends and cinematic style filming that replaces priceless sounds and vision of people who are perhaps no longer with us often now means that all the wedding wishes, speeches and toasts will be forgotten forever, often along with the people that made them!

Picture yourself 10 years from now flipping through your wedding album. You find a picture of your chief bridesmaid giving her speech. You remember that it was so funny and nice, but cannot remember what she was saying. Look for the picture of your Grandfather proudly telling the guests of all your achievements, he has regretably passed on now. Wouldn’t you want to let your children see and hear what nice things he had to say about you ?

So many wedding DVD’s seem to now consist mainly of slow motion footage set to music (seemingly to show off the videographer’s camera skills) and the real emotion, human element and atmosphere are lost.

Surely by ensuring that your wedding is carefully documented rather than made into a creative work of art, you get meaningful visual memories that you will cherish for the rest of your life.

Chris Harding is the owner-operator of the video production company, Softweigh Multimedia, specializing in event video productions. He is located in Perth, Australia. The author is also an associate and Australia representative for Video StoryTellers!™ an international video services and branding program that focuses on the preservation of stories and memories. He is a guest writer for E.C. Come, E.C. Go a video marketing and production blog by Earl Chessher.

Coming soon: Another great article by Heidi Mueller focusing on Special Interest DVDs.

How To DVDs, Great Potential

2010-07-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

by Heidi Mueller

In this post I want to show why I believe making How To DVDs is a video business with good income potential.

Basic Concept

Basically you take a topic that you are an expert at, break it down into 6 to 10 sections covering the different aspects of the topic. You then videotape yourself explaining these aspects. Finally you put the resulting 6 – 10 short video clips on a DVD with a menu allowing people to either view all the sections in sequence or view just the specific section they are interested in.

The DVD is then packaged in a library case with proper professional graphics and offered for sale over the Internet.

Income Potential
The videography is very basic, mostly shot in one location so it is very easy to do. In general you would spend one week to develop and rehearse the storyboard, i.e. writing the short sections. Then allow another week for videotaping, and another week for editing and creating the DVD and graphics. Give yourself a week to put a sales page together for your website. So this amounts to about a month’s worth of work.

Now assuming that your topic is of sufficient interest you could expect to sell about 1000 copies. If you made a net profit on each DVD sold of $20, that would result in $20,000 for a month’s work – not bad!

The principle involved is shoot once, sell many times.

Caveats
One downside is that you will not be earning any money during the month of making the DVD – the money will only come in once you start selling DVDs.

The success of the concept will depend on your choice of how to topic. The more specialized the topic, the smaller your potential market. Your success will also depend on how much effort you put into marketing your DVD.

The estimate of one month will depend on your experience. If you have never created a DVD with menus, it might well take you a bit longer than a month. But as you gain experience, you will probably take less time on your next projects.

Special Interest DVDs

A somewhat similar concept is to make special interest DVDs. Again, it is a matter of shoot once, sell many times. However, special interest DVDs have other challenges that I will address in a future post.

Heidi Mueller is the owner-operator of HMueller Design in New Westminster, BC. The author is also an associate of Video StoryTellers!™ an international video services and branding program, and a guest writer for E.C. Come, E.C. Go a video marketing and production blog by Earl Chessher. Earl is a moderator and writer for Videomaker Magazine and forums, owner and developer for Video StoryTellers! (click link for info on participating in VST) and owner/operator of CorElAnn Video Productions in Southern California.

WorldWide Branding Program Under Way

2010-07-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

NOTE: If you are an independent video services provider anywhere in the world and think the equivalent of $70 US per hour is a reasonable income starting point for participation in a worldwide branding program with much more potential than that, keep reading!

ALSO, PLEASE READ: Business Opportunity Update, just re-updated today, July 20, 2010!

With Australia and Canada on board, along with U.S.A. associates in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Mississippi, Florida, Northern California and Southern California, the world-wide marketing and branding program is well on its way to fulfillment.

Among country and state associate representatives considering participation in this new video production business that focuses on a HUGE demographic with a proven need are Mexico, Puerto Rico, Germany, South Africa, Virginia, Missouri, Oregon and Texas.

There‘s a need for qualified independent video producer representation in countries throughout the world, as well as the U.S.A. While the ground floor base is fairly established, independent video producers seeking to expand their business operations into a currently under-served video market can certainly do so for a minimal investment.

The potential for R.O.I. in a very short time is huge. The opportunities for new, renewable and referral video business — along with visibility, linkage and name recognition through association with a world-wide branding program are outstanding. This program focuses on a demographic KNOWN to appreciate the basic service it offers.

Refer to previous articles: New Business Opportunity and Business Opportunity Update! here for additional information. Contact me at theearlofcalif@yahoo.com for further information on how to become part of a business plan, branding strategy and marketing program that is going to become very popular in every geographical location on the planet.

Business Opportunity Update!

2010-06-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

SPECIAL UPDATE ANNOUNCEMENT

As of today, Tuesday, July 20, 2010 this is the final notice to anyone who may be interested in participating at the ground zero level on this worldwide marketing and video services branding program.

EFFECTIVE August 15, 2010 core associate level assignments will no longer be available for a zero-dollar entry investment. While the next phase of this new business opportunity will require a monetary investment, the minimal amount and huge marketing potential of this program will provide a R.O.I. many times greater.

ANYONE wanting to be considered for "core group associate level" inclusion needs to check the related blog links, study the program, apply and receive/read the available PDF file thoroughly. Ask your questions and join while the bargain is greatest.

THE ORIGINAL POST UPDATE FOLLOWS...

Since posting “New Business Opportunity” here on Sunday, May 30, 2010 there are now eight independent video services providers onboard with the program. The presence of Australia, and east and west Canada, along with Florida, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Northern and Southern California has established that this business model has potential.

I am about four shy of having the dozen core group associates I need to ramp up for a huge kick-off of this program. After that it will cost money to get in and share in a brand that is sure to become an international hit among a HUGE target demographic.

Essentially, this update is a “last call” for enterprising video business opportunists who have the potential and vision to create a solid business brand, and want a chance to get in on the core level of a major business opportunity.

Refer to New Business Opportunity to find out more. Then send me that e-mail.

New Business Opportunity

2010-05-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

I need about a dozen video production professionals to participate in what is going to be a HUGE world wide business brand opportunity. I need either professionals seriously looking to expand beyond their current specialized business focus, or newly-established video business people who have invested in equipment and education, and are committed to creating a viable business - expand their knowledge and skills.

I am NOT going to simply divulge my business strategy to anyone who casually responds. This branding, service and product concept is FAR too big, and way too solid to simply give away the farm. But for up to a dozen people who are willing to invest time and energy, support and promotion for making a huge potential prove out, I WILL be virtually giving away the farm.

I'm NOT looking for casual inquiries. I'm NOT looking for folks who want to rip off an idea.

I AM looking for honest, professional, personable and energetic enthusiasts who are driven to develop their current business and expand into a broader, brand-recognized, scope. Those who qualify WILL find a unique opportunity to expand their market and their exposure, reaching a demographic that in the U.S. alone will reach 100 million by 2029. On a world wide scale that figure will increase ten-fold.

If every independent video producer in business today, and every new independent professional video services provider who starts a business in 2010, came on board with this brand, service and product TODAY we could not collectively reach market saturation.

E-mail me at theearlofcalif@yahoo.com and tell me WHY you MIGHT be intrigued or interested, why you were compelled to reply, what your general business goals are, why you want to diversify and not specialize, where you are, how long you've been in business, or if you have just invested and hung your shingle, and your video business URL.

If you compel me to respond, I will. And if you qualify for inclusion in this ground-floor opportunity you WILL be glad you agreed to participate. This is going to be HUGE for us all.

Upon fulfillment of the "chosen few" participation in this program will cost money, but still at an incredible entry-level investment that stands to boost your image AND your business beyond anything you can imagine.

So, You Want to Make Money Doing Video

2010-05-30T12:40:00.000-07:00

WHAT COMES FIRST?

Get a camera, any camera. You’ll need lights, mics and a tripod. And it wouldn’t hurt to have an editing system you feel you can be comfortable with. When you DO get a computer platform and operating system/editing software you’re comfortable with - work diligently to become as proficient with it as you can.

BUSINESS IN PROGRESS!

Study, work hard, pay your dues and learn as you go. By no means do you have to wait until you, or others (those pesky mentors ;-) think or decide you’re ready to work for money. This business and pretty much everything that goes with it will always be a work-in-progress.

Looking at doing business as an independent video services provider any other way will make you a frustrated artist at best, a quitter at worst.

WHEN YOU DO WORK...

Dress appropriately for every meeting every gig, every session spent with other persons. The way you look and present yourself truly does make a serious difference. At minimum a nice skirt and blouse with sleeves, or women’s business suit for the businesswoman and slacks, shirt, tie, and POLISHED SHOES for the guys. (If you have NO idea what “appropriate” might be, do a search on Google for “business attire”)

Learn to listen to what people are saying, what they want, then learn to be honest with them about what it costs to create their vision, and what you can create using their budget instead.

Deliver quickly, with quality and affordably - people no longer have to settle for two out of three.

Move as quickly as possible from a price-based competitive structure to a quality-based, or turnaround-based or some combination that mostly includes price as an incidental.

Do your research - the competition, the current trends, your demographics, packaging and marketing.

SOMETHING TO SHOW!

Focus next on having something to show when your most important “next step” takes hold - a demo reel, or sample clips.

What's this about my "most important next step" - uh, that would be direct mail and whatever other marketing strategies you need to gain eyeballs, visitors, callers, potential clients and people who use your services or help you develop video product.

Of course if you build it they will come - but ONLY if you let them know you built it.

The single, most important element of getting business is not advertising.

IT’s MARKETING!

It is not running 30-second radio spots or cable or broadcast ads. It is not building a website and doing all the things you've read about search engine or social site optimization, posting videos on YouTube, or blogging in the hopes that people will FIND you.

Identify the market, and demographic, that interests you most. Find good addresses and design an eye-catching 5 1/2” by 8 1/2” page postcard - not too dense, good basic information and complementary graphics - and start mailing. This is the most affordable, effective and rewarding (if you’re consistent and persistent) strategy for gaining eyeballs to your website, blog or business location.

Yes, you want to develop a solid referral base business, but first you need people who use you and hopefully become referrals. You are NOT going to get that by print ads, radio and/or TV ads, spots ads, phone book ads, or even your website - tell me again, what's your URL?

People do not (on average) find YOU. There are exceptions, but not enough to make your new video business take off. YOU have to take the necessary steps to HELP them find you. YOU have to FIND them FIRST! How? Direct mail. Direct mail focused on a specific area of service or production. Do it constantly and often. Repeat as needed.

THIS drives traffic to your blog, to your social sites, to your websites, to your business.

Oh, and don't forget business cards. Also, return your inquiries in LESS than 24-hours (folks won't wait THAT long anymore - in fact, as soon as they hung up from leaving YOU a message, they're dialing the next number in line) trust me on this.

Most have already waited until the last minute to try and find you, and now that they're convinced they actually DO want video services for tonight's event, they're going to dial or e-mail and chances are the first responder gets the gig.

This concludes your "Make Money Doing Video" mini-seminar.

Any questions?

Focused Direct Mail Gets Gigs

2010-05-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

I've hammered on this before, but it bears repeating: A focused and consistent direct-mail marketing strategy will get you video business. I will say that a strategy utilizing virtually all marketing approaches is best, but the single, most effective and affordable way to get business, establish branding and gain eyeballs is through "focused" direct-mail marketing.

By "focused" I mean selecting the specific area of interest you want to pursue and developing an attention-grabbing visual marketing vehicle (a postcard specifically) that addresses that need and how your services or products provide the solution.

Depending on your studied focus area you can be more general with your address resources, or tighten it down to ONLY graduations, grad nights, specific youth sports events such as soccer, baseball, t-ball, football, basketball, swimming. I might rotate my images to reflect specific sports, mixing soccer and basketball photos for example, and going with a more general postcard that might appeal to ALL youth sports groups.

On the other hand I'll research via Google and identify all the youth basketball or soccer groups/clubs in my service area and hammer down only on them.

What is effective, and what works, in using focused direct mail strategies is consistency and persistency. Mail a minimum of one piece every day, or seven a week, 30 a month - you get the idea. Set a budget of $40 to $50 a month and do it consistently for one year.

If you only send out ONE piece a day for 365 days, you've spent less than a buck a day (counting ink, supplies and postage, on average) and you WILL get more traffic, more name recognition, more calls, responses and replies, a higher brand recognition...

...and, most importantly, you WILL get business.

This approach is accumulative. It will bring eyeballs to your website. It can be used in conjunction with a Twitter/Facebook and LinkedIn and other social strategies, as well as your blog (You do blog about your business and your clients and the resulting productions, right?)

One postcard a day. Even if only one gig a year comes of it you've likely broke even. Not only that but you've gained visibility and linkage, name (brand) recognition generated traffic to your website and blog.

Take it one step further. When you keep, maintain and utilize an ongoing direct mail list for focused areas of interest don't let it rest. Don't send each address a postcard then never use that address again. The whole promise of a focused direct-mail strategy is developing traffic, eyeballs, recognition and business. You achieve this by rotating your lists - direct mail a minimum of every 90 days to every good address you have.

Don't let them forget you. Keep a soft, general (but focused) information only approach and you will upset fewer people by far than when using e-mail blasts, SPAM, marriage or junk mail, hard-sell approaches or telemarketing.

I've had clients call a year later and ask if I still specialize in youth soccer, or whatever, telling me they kept my postcard(s) on file in the event a need developed. That is a GREAT shelf-life for your relatively cheap postcard mailer.

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