Our 2012 1st Qtr. Ad - Making People Read Lots of Boring Stuff - Rehab Specialists

Just watch and enjoy...

The never ending discussion about frame rates and lots more...

Not too long ago I was involved in a discussion about frame rates and this and that with a local "Indy" guy. He was showing off his T2i and some home made rig stuff. He talked about what they were shooting etc... and then he said the words that to me sounded like someone was pulling their fingernails across a blackboard. "We shoot at 24 frames for that cinematic effect." - Huh? Are you kidding me? So I asked for him to explain the "cinematic effect" to me. Basically, what does the "cinematic effect" look like? Or, what do you mean by "cinematic effect"? I waited.

Demo reel for commercial stock footage and production work - Part A

Well I suppose it is about time, eh? This demo reel shows not only some goodies from my stock footage libraries, but also some of the capabilities I have in regards to effects creation, logo manipulation and all around "eye candy" generation. The simple fact is that in today's world, one must get super creative and set the bar higher and higher. (That last phrase could be some new lyrics for a pop hit.) - In any case, hopefully this does the job of showing off some of the skill sets right here and now. 100% created by me, from graphical coolness to footage galore. :)

Rules? What rules?

Every once in a while I get a challenge from a client. Many times as in this case, it was a fairly new client. Hence, there was not much to work with. So what does one do in such a case? You have to step "out of the box" so to speak and break just about every rule. Of course, I love breaking rules anyway. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even tell you the rules to be followed if my life depended on it. But having spoken to many producers, production houses, directors, actors and, well you get the point... they always seem to talk about rules. Yet, I never get a clear answer about what these rules should be, look like, or even remotely resemble.

Advertising has rules. I think. But again, I am not so sure. Having paid much attention to all walks of advertising, I see quite plainly that there are no rules except for one. No. Make that two. And even these are not always really clearly used or implemented. But, they are probably the best I have been able to come up with.

1. Get the message out of what you are trying to say, and keep it short.
2. Finish up with a "call to action".

Wow. It's really that simple? I suppose so. I would imagine that the difficult part is to squeeze things of this nature into that short little 30 or 60 second thingy you watch on TV, the web, your phone or whatever other Steam Punk device you can think of. So what do you do when you just are getting started and don't really have a lot to work with... you cheat. But heck, if it gets the point across, then do it.

I thought, not bad considering I only used one picture and simply created a finishing logo to help make the point. It's simply "twisted".



The point: Even with very little, very big things can be created. If you see yourself in this predicament, and need a new "flavor" or approach, drop me a line and I will put on my creative cap for you.

Or, if you produce stuff, show me what you have. You know - the comment section here. Who knows, maybe we can even bounce some ideas off of each other.

By the way, the last two paragraphs were an actual "call to action".

Widgets and Gadgets for selling stock footage...

In the world of stock footage or should I say royalty free stock footage there are numerous sites available to get some. VideoMaker magazine just did an article on exactly that in their last issue (June 2008).

Now comes along Pond5.com that didn't get into that particular article because, and sadly to say VideoMaker wasn't aware of them, yet. This of course is for a simple reason. Pond5 is pretty new and as in my last "frog" (OK, silly, I know, it's a "frame" with "blog" or or as it says "blog frames" in the title of this blog, but "blames" isn't as cute even though sometimes it may be appropriate) I introduced them by doing a simple comparison to another such site. They do have a certain appeal that others don't. But I won't get into that at this point.

So simply put, Pond5 now is starting to focus on marketing. In my humble opinion, perhaps not being in an article with everyone else may actually benefit them. They are not just another former stock photo site that is trying to force their software to fit the video model. They do only stock video at this time. That is their focus and they do it damn well. Being a submitter, ease of use is always a question. Efficiency is also a big deal. They seem to have that pretty much handled.

Now back to marketing. These guys have created some pretty innovative tools for that purpose. And these tools can be used nicely by submitters of such footage. But most important of all, it gives us, the submitter a chance to get focus. Now I am not talking about camera focus. I am talking about using these tools to send potential clients or buyers to the Pond5 site vie a pretty nifty "widget" and all while keeping them focused on the particular photag, (me for example) and his or her footage. This is cool. This is extremely cool. This, for the first time, actually gives me a shot at control should I decide to drive traffic to their site! It lets me drive traffic, show my goodies and if they buy anything, whether mine or not, still get that famous referral fee. Super cool.

This is a great way to do community marketing. These guys are ahead of their time. Now that may sound really cliché, but it is true for several reasons;

1. A photag may be known for a specialty - shouldn't that be just as important and shouldn't a client that sought out such a specialized photag be presented with his or her specialty only for starters? Of course! This is focused marketing - some even call it SEO and SEM. Duh.
2. If a photag goes through the trouble of uploading, clipping, describing, editing, etc, etc... should he or she have rights to the first shot of a sale?
3. And finally if a photag is really known for their specialty and quality and drives traffic to such a site, from a really cool site that they took the time to build (hint, hint), shouldn't they be well rewarded in any case? After all, the entire community of any such site benefits from such driven traffic.

So here's my widget, cool huh?: