Indianapolis Video Production

You can't skim a web video like you can skim text, so the worst thing you can do is have too long of a web video.

There are 3 major audiences that everyone needs to speak to, and coincidentally enough, their names tell you how long of a web video you can get away with.

1. Short Term Audiences need short videos (60-90 secs): Short term audiences are the people that know nothing or next-to-nothing about you.  They want to know who you are, what you do, and if you have any value to them. You have about a minute to get that message across before they check out.


2. Medium Term Audiences are hooked, give them a little more (2-3mins):  These people are into what you do, they just haven't committed yet.  They want a little more detail on how you do it, who you do it for and what are your successes. They will be willing to stick around a little longer to get that information.

3. The Long Term-ers love you! (Keep it under 4-5): These are your customers and your sneezers (a Seth Godin term).  They love what you do, and they want to tell others about you.  You have the most freedom with this audience. If your web video is interesting, they'll stick around up to 5 or so minutes because they understand you and want to learn everything they can about you. Vlogs and general storytelling thrive with this audience.

If you still aren't sure, just keep it as short as possible.  People would rather be left wanting more than boring them out of their minds.


Justin Gutwein

More about Guerrilla Video Production

Could online video become the new way to feature your products on your website? I think so. I have recently seen two different ecommerce sites use online video to showcase products. Although done in completely different styles I think they both go to show how online video and internet video marketing are changing the landscape of the internet.

enveme.com has implemented short video clips of their products on each individual products page. By showing models with the product actually on, you can see how the material flows and looks when worn. I know that some product pages allow you to rotate the product and even zoom in on it, but does this really tell you what you want?

The second company that I have seen using online video for their produtcs is WilliamRast.com and should be of no surprise since it is co-owned by Justin Timberlake and features him in the videos. The key to this example is that it's not models walking around or spinning with the product on. The videos are shot in a short film format and feature the companies clothing within each video. This approach is completely outside the box of product showcase but the ability to share the videos gives William Rast a free and quick way for their consumers to share their brand with others.

Check out this Cantaloupe.tv client showcasing their products with online video.

With the price of online video production and distribution continually dropping I look forward to seeing more and more products being presentd to the consumer in this fashion. The creativeness is endless!

organic |ôrˈganik| denoting a relation between elements of something such that they fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole characterized by natural development

They say if it looks like a duck, and it sounds like a duck, then it must be a duck.  Well, with web video, this isn't really true.  All of our marketing friends that are used to producing commercials for TV have jumped over to web video.  Unfortunately for us, instead of making real content for the web, they have brought over the commercials, and put a web video skin on them!


The Internet is about truth, not marketing spin.  The previous was nothing more than a commercial skinned to look like a YouTube web video.  What does this mean to the average business owner that wants to get some online presence?  It means you are paying for a commercial...fullout...actors, writers, sets, the whole nine yards.

Instead of faking reality, just shoot things for real. The following video is about a nurse at a local hospital.  The guerrilla video producer didn't have a script, an actress, or a set-in-stone-this-is-the-way-it-has-to-happen plan.  He had an idea of what the story should be like, and let it develop naturally, organically, you might say.

A character was chosen and documented for a few hours.  By using minimal equipment, he was able to witness a true day in the life of this nurse, and allow the story to naturally tell itself.  This saves time, which saves money, and allows clients to have more web videos and more of a presence online.



There is something about the truth that always seems to attract people.


Justin Gutwein

More about Guerrilla Video Production

Tip #3 Don't be afraid to leave the tripod behind.

This one is pretty simple.  With movies like Cloverfield, reality TV, and even scripted shows like The Office becoming more and more popular, people are getting used to a little shake on the screen.  This fact is of great value to the Guerrilla Video Producer, so take advantage of this in your web video.

It seems like time is always against us in the field.  Our clients are busy, and so are we. Setting up and tearing to down shots takes a lot of time, and it prevents the subject (who probably isn't used to being on camera) from getting comfortable.

The biggest advantage is it makes you mobile.  Now you can do an interview in a car or walking down a hallway.  This adds a subtle sense of urgency to your web video, and often adds natural pacing to otherwise potentially dull topics.


Normally a story about handing out some awards probably wouldn't be a very engaging web video, but the constant motion (and a good character) tend to keep people engaged.

I'm not saying you don't ever need to use a tripod, but don't be afraid to leave it behind sometimes.


Justin Gutwein

More about Guerrilla Video Production

If you have ever experienced dowtime at a hosting provider whether you're hosting something as trivial as a personal webiste that only your mom has ever vistited, or something as critical as a enterprise SaaS application that 1 million clients rely on every day, you know how frustrating it can be. No one can deliver 100% uptime, but they get so close that we come to expect it and take it for granted.

What is often the most frustrating is not knowing when the service will come back up or what exactly caused it in the first place. After the fact, these hosting providers are left to figure out how to best make amends with their customers and to restore faith in their hosting abilities.

This is where online video production and internet video marketing can help.

Take for instance Rackspace. Rackspace recently had two outages, one on June 29th and one on July 7th. They responded the best way they could have. They not only fixed the problem and made efforts to ensure that it never happens - they actually took the time to put the CEO on camera to explain this to us.

You can see the video below and also check out this blog post by Lifeline Data Centers.

I have been recently introduced to a website that is taking the college campus tour to a whole new level. YOUniversityTV has brought the college campus tour to online video. With campus tours in all 50 states, universities and colleges are being given the chance to engage with more potential student prospects than ever.

This is the beauty of online video production and online video content management systems, like Cantaloupe's Backlight, becoming easier to use and more affordable.

With the economy in a slump, traveling to tour a college that is 6 states aways is probably out of the question for many soon-to-be college students. With the use of a little internet video marketing and a video content management system YOUniveristyTV is taking the travel out of the equation and bringing the campus tour into the comfort of your home. They have even taken it one step further and are now letting user generated videos to be uploaded to the website, meaning that they are getting free and relevant content that they are then able to distribute.

If you are wondering how your company or organization can utilize online video to help you engage a broader audience contact Cantaloupe or sign up for our Eloupe webinar - Engaging Your Audience the Cantaloupe Way.

Guerrilla filmmaking refers to a form of independent filmmaking characterized by low budgets, skeleton crews, and simple props using whatever is available.

Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, Sin City) made this term notorious by making the film El Mariachi for $7,000, before digital editing made filmmaking cheaper.

These techniques, chronicled in the journal Rebel Without a Crew, have been very useful in the world of web video production.

The 4 steps to Guerrilla Video Production

1. Plan ahead - know what you want and how to get it before you go in
2. Be flexible - anything can and will happen, but you got to keep moving
3. Bring only what you need - equipment is heavy and expensive, do you really need a second light?
4. Get what you need and get out - be efficient, time is money

An average shoot, for me, is about 1-2 hours.  I go in knowing exactly what video and sound I need.  I bring bare bones equipment and staff, usually just one other guy. When we leave a shoot, I have everything we need to put a story together, most of the time.

By doing this, the cost of online video production is decreased dramatically. 

The look, feel and cost of web video is different than standard video production.  Don't get left behind and get stuck paying for it.


Justin Gutwein

Tip #1: Don’t Shoot into Windows
Tip #2: Organic Storytelling
Tip #3: Don't Pick up the Sticks

Tip #1: Don’t Shoot into Windows

Part of guerrilla video production is being adaptable and creative with what you have.

I very rarely get my pick of where I shoot an interview.  Most of the time, clients lead me into a interviewee's office or the local conference room, all the while beaming with pride of securing such a wonderful place for us to shoot.

In over 3 years of web video production experience, I have done lots of experimenting with shooting into windows. Usually, it's about the best option in Mr. CEO's office.  While I haven't always pulled off the look I wanted, I have continuously improved. (Keep in mind we only use 1 light, but more about equipment another time.)

                    2007  (Hotel Room)                                 2008 (Corner Office)



Playing with backlight and color balance can give you varying effects.  It's all about trial and error.

The following is from a web video I produced recently.  It was shot in a room full of windows, and my videographer thought I was crazy when I told him what I wanted to do it.

 
While there is always room for improvement, I think it turned out just fine.

What is Guerrilla Video Production?



Justin Gutwein

Cantaloupe got involved when Vontoo came to us to help with the video production portion of the project. You should check out a couple of their examples. I think you'll be amazed at how the phone call synchs up perfectly with the video. Check it out here and see even more examples here.

I have no idea how they do this. Maybe this is a feature we should consider for our online video platform Backlight? I'll have to ask our developers if this can be integrated into our online video player, ha.

It's great to see trends in internet video marketing originating right here in Indianapolis, IN. It's cooler yet to see how different online marketing technologies are coming together to create truly unique products whether it's video + voice, video + email, voice + email, email + blog, etc. the list goes on and on.

Great work Vontoo and thanks for letting Cantaloupe participate in your new product!

It seems Bluelock has found a way to establish themselves as experts in cloud computing, and it seems a big part of that is their internet video marketing strategy.

I recently wrote a post about how their videos have shown up on a social network for cloud computing. Now it seems that someone else has grabbed the embed code for their LEGO demonstration of server virtualization and embedded it in their blog.

The ability to let others grab this video and spread it around is made possible through Backlight, Cantaloupe's online video platform. What kind of impact is this video having on Bluelock's business? Well, Bluelock can see exactly how many views their getting from this video placement by checking out the online video analytics report also provided through Backlight.

Another valuable feature is Bluelock's ability to change the ads in this video, that is, to change in-stream calls to actions. Even though this video is already embedded, Bluelock can control and change the message to viewers. (Check out the 2:20 mark in the video) Now they can actually convert these viewers into prospects or even customers.

I also think it's worth mentioning this quote from the blog:

It took less than a week for two of our videos from our video newsletter to rise to #2 and #3 in Google's video search for "Indianapolis video production"

Check it out for yourself.

I have to find out if our clients are having the same results or if they're even getting the full use out of Backlight and it's video SEO capabilities. As a video management system, it's such an easy tool to use and it's the perfect answer for so many internet marketers who are trying to figure out how to use video online.

("Backlight Tip" and "Clarian" are ours and the cool thing is if you click through to the actual video, it leads you to our blog)

It's not everyday that you get to say, "My web video production company produced a video that is on starwars.com."  However, today I do. 

The Children's Museum of Indianpolis had an Obi-Wan Kenobi Jedi Starfighter heading their way for a new "Clone Wars" exhibit.  Recognizing that this was a great story (especially since they weren't sure how to get it in the building) they called upon the web video experts.  After a few hours of shooting and a very quick turn around time, Jason Drake delivered The Children's Museum a first cut, and they were excited to get it online. 

There was one more step, though.  They had to get final approval from Lucasfilm. Apprently the folks at Lucasfilm (we like to think that George Lucas himself watched it even though we know better) saw the value in authentic storytelling because not only did they approve, but they decided to post in on starwars.com com as well.

Click here to see a Cantaloupe.tv authentic story in the presence of Yoda.


Justin Gutwein

It's quite a bit more expensive to hire an actor and write a script just to simulate real people doing something seemingly real.

What I mean is, why did Microsoft hire an actor and go through all the traditional video production headaches when they could have easily found a naturally charming, attractive girl really looking for a cheap laptop?

I'm sure we've all seen this commercial by now. I guess because at Cantaloupe.tv I'm surrounded by authentic web video everday I didn't think to question whether the scenario was real or fabricated. It's so easy to shoot something like this without having an actor. We do it every day.

Why lie to us Microsoft? It would have been just as easy to do the real thing, and a lot cheaper, not just in dollars, but in brand equity.

If you're not sure how to pull something like this off, I know a great web video company in Indianapolis that might be able to help you out. They also have a great online video platform called Backlight.

There's a great post about why advertising will fail over at Techcrunch (of all places). At Cantaloupe.tv, we've often given three reasons ourselves why unscripted, serendipitous, non-commercial like online video production makes sense for the web.

1. It's what viewers want. People don't want to watch commercials on the internet
2. People use the internet to seek the truth. Being unscripted and sincere, authentic web video helps people get at the truth.
3. The internet is about long-term conversations. Interview-style shooting is more practical and cost effective and allows for producing multiple videos.

Compare ours to what business professor Eric Clemons from Wharton has to say about advertising (which very obviously includes online video advertising)

There are three problems with advertising in any form, whether broadcast or online:

• Consumers do not trust advertising. Dan Ariely has demonstrated that messages attributed to a commercial source have much lower credibility and much lower impact on the perception of product quality than the same message attributed to a rating service. Forrester Research has completed studies that show that advertising and company sponsored blogs are the least-trusted source of information on products and services, while recommendations from friends and online reviews from customers are the highest.
  
• Consumers do not want to view advertising. Think of watching network TV news and remember that the commercials on all the major networks are as closely synchronized as possible.  Why?  If network executives believed we all wanted to see the ads they would be staggered, so that users could channel surf to view the ads; ads are synchronized so that users cannot channel surf to avoid the ads.
  
• And mostly consumers do not need advertising. My own research suggests that consumers behave as if they get much of their information about product offerings from the internet, through independent professional rating sites like dpreview.com or community content rating services like Ratebeer.com or TripAdvisor

It's great to see that our indianapolis-based online marketing firm has gotten this message right from day one. We've always been about storytelling and authentic web video, and now we have an online video management software piece to make it that much easier to execute your video strategies.

Tell a story! I just spent some time watching an online video put together by Honda and from a distance it has all the makings of a corporate video...yet I eagerly watched all 5+minutes of it.

I didn't even realize I was sucked in until more than halfway through it.

I asked myself, what's different about this video than most other online video production that comes out of big businesses? It's the running storyline of "kicking out the ladder." It's also the fact that they put real people on camera talking off the cuff. If these employees of Honda are scripted, then they should quit their day jobs and become actors. They're that sincere and convincing.

Yes, Honda probably did pay more to have this one video produced than most of us spend on our entire video marketing strategy but that mainly shows up in some flashy camera effects that most of us don't notice anyway (one of my video producers pointed out that they're using some slow motion equipment that we don't have). They also have the advantage of showing some cool crash testing.

Other than that, it's mostly just people talking on camera telling a cool story.

People at your company can do that right? Before you say no, just listen next time they're talking about the latest episode of Lost, American Idol, or The Office. Everyone is a storyteller, even if they're retelling someone else's story.

Here's the video:



(By the way, there's also a shout out to Greensburg, Indiana at about the 2 minutes to go mark.)

 We've just finished the first cut of a video that gives an overview of our new online video management system, Backlight 2.0. In this video we poke fun at Cantaloupe's President Stacy Billanti, who thought it would be funny during her confessional interview to fake like she was picking her nose. (crude humor isn't really my thing, ha). She specifically said "Don't use this or you're fired."

Well we used it anyway and she wants us to cut it out, but it's such a great ending to our latest online marketing video that I'm putting up a small fight.

To build my case, I'm embedding a video shown at Bill Gates' retirement party. You'll see that throughout the video he makes fun of himself, and it comes off quite well.

A couple web video production takeaways...

• Unscripted would have been better. They obviously decided to script some of this. I think it's bearable, but I also think they easily could have captured the comments they needed without scripting and it would have been a lot better.
• Repurposing this digital video works here. I'm pretty sure this video wasn't produced specifically for the web. I think it was originally shown in a big room with a lot of people. It works for the web for a number of reasons but a couple are 1) It's not a commercial. It's entertaining so people watch it. 2) If a video is shot in high enough quality for off-internet, that means it's usually high enough quality for the internet.
• Authenticity and vulnerability make for great content. Bill isn't afraid to make fun of himself, which is refreshing. 

Look closely and you'll notice a couple things about this video:
1. This guy isn't scripted
2. He's talking about something that he's an expert in or knows a lot about
3. The fact that he stumbles a couple times or has long pauses doesn't depreciate the effect of the content
4. The video is short
5. There is only one camera and it's definitely not on a tripod

What did he do wrong? Well, if he actually owns a ski shop he didn't direct me to his website.

I'm certain this is not professional digital video production, which in this instance is okay. Think how painful this would be to watch if they tried to be scripted.

It was a monumental week in our household.  Thanksgiving was great and we survived the 10 hour drive to Washington, D.C. with 3 young children in the car.  But, when I use the word 'monumental,' it is because, after many months of waiting, my oldest daughter Ellen finally lost her first tooth.  The event unfolded on the night before Thanksgiving.  We spent most of the day in the car with Ellen wiggling that tooth.   My husband and I had been nervous because we were fearful that this blessed FIRST tooth would come out in her sleep or it would fall out at school and it would get lost. (I shutter to think of what might happen if this prize were to get lost.)  As it happened, 15 minutes after we arrived at our location, Ellen was showing the entire family the tooth.  And, as sure as anything, with a captive audience, out it popped and in to the safe hands of my husband. Everyone hugged her and it was an exciting moment.  This was great because we shared this 'event' with the family and managed to save this treasure.

This whole event highlights the importance of timing.  In business (and life) timing is everything.  Being at the right place at the right time or simply knowing how to use your time is critical.  My view of web video is that it needs to capture real actions and real events.  That is why online video production is different than more traditional "corporate" video production.  Capturing the essence of a moment versus staging something makes it more believable. And, when you looking at internet video marketing this mantra of believability is even more critical.  I don't look on-line for voice overs and scripts.  I look for entertaining content.  I want to experience the tooth falling out or hear the CEO talk about how his mother inspired him/her for greatness.  That is what web video is for- communicating real emotions and events. You can experiment more with your messaging and approach because it is affordable and interesting.  Web video stories should be an important tool for any business or organization communicating with a relevant constituency.  That is what real versus staged video offers.

In case you were wondering, the Tooth Fairy did find Ellen and her face, when she realized it the next morning, was priceless.