19Dec

This Hour Has Seven Days: The Editorial Calendar

This Hour Has Seven Days: The Editorial Calendar

I can tell you my New Year’s Resolution in three words: Shed. The. B.S.

There’s so much opportunity, so much one can do to fill a day, that’s it’s hard not to chase the shiny objects. But I’ve decided to trim the sails, unsubscribe, and focus on the core business of Hand Crank Films: connection. With co-workers. With customers. With the community.

Part of that connection is creating engaging content people care about. That people want. One thing Max said a few posts back was just ‘don’t throw it out there.’ Refine your message, polish what you want to say, then push it out for people to see and engage in.

And here’s the best trick I know to make that happen: the editorial calendar. Having a real clear idea of what you’re going to create before you create it.

Take this blog for example. I’ve got about thirty topics written down – and next to those topics a potential publish date for each one. Sure, that will change, things will come up – but instead of thinking up a new idea every time I sit down to write, I can just take a look at the list and start jamming. I can write two posts at a time, schedule them to post days ahead of time, and get ahead of the curve. I can take the pressure off.

We’ll be doing the same thing with video in 2012 as we make it a more integral part of this blog: product reviews, quick courses on video production/lighting and camera, screw-ups we’ve made, production success and horror stories. All the good stuff.

So if you want to start your own blog and content engine in 2012 – the first thing you should do is write down 30 or so ideas of things you want to talk about. This will be your road map  Take the next two weeks or so to brainstorm. No idea is too crazy. Just let it rip.

Then take an hour and plan out the next seven days of content. Schedule it. Begin creating. Start the push. One hour for a week of great stuff. Make this part of your schedule.

And remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be produced. Authentic. And shared.

Let me know when you get it out there. I’d love to check it out.

Here’s to a great New Year.

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16Dec

Video Production Philosophy – Take a Chance

Video Production Philosophy – Take a Chance

In relation to video production philosophy: (sorry, I had to add that as my post SEO software says to)

In a great new post on Forbes’ web site, Rob Siltanen, chairman and chief creative offices at Siltanen & Partners, explains how the famous Apple “Think Different” campaign originated.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2011/12/14/the-real-story-behind-apples-think-different-campaign/

Rob, who was with TWBA/Chiat/Day at the time, claims he wrote the article to set the record straight since in the recent biography by Walter Isaacson (you know the one that EVERYONE is carrying around), Jobs is reported to have masterminded the campaign wholly by himself. Rob lets us know that it was he and his team at TWBA/Chiat/Day that actually dreamt it all up and Jobs only approved it.

It is a great insider story, and you should take a moment to read it.

However, I think the real point here for me, as part of a creative company, is that regardless of who came up with it, the fact is Jobs had the balls to do it. This is what it is all about if you ask me. What is the holy grail of advertising? Connection. Here’s how you get it…

Taking a Chance + Inspired Creative = Connection

What I am saying is that it is great that the boys as the creative house came up with such a great idea, but I don’t think the article gives nearly enough credit to Jobs for say, “hell, let’s do it.”

Here’s the actual exchange from the post: (Jobs talking after shown the concept)

“I’m an egotist, and putting the Apple logo up there with all these geniuses will get me skewered by the press.” The room was totally silent. The “Think Different” campaign was the only campaign we had in our bag of tricks, and I thought for certain we were toast. Steve then paused and looked around the room and said out loud, yet almost as if to his own self, “What am I doing? Screw it. It’s the right thing. It’s great. Let’s talk tomorrow.” In a matter of seconds, right before our very eyes, he had done a complete about-face.

I can’t tell you how many amazing ideas we’d see out there if the people that push the buttons on these things, the people that pay for the campaigns, where just more willing to go with their gut and not their brain sorting through all of the reasons NOT to do something. People don’t buy that much with their brain, they buy because they WANT and they FEEL something is right. To get a connection to those places, you have to make a leap – and you have to have a place worth leaping to.

Everytime we have a truly amazing product walk out our door it is because someone like Jobs took a chance. Sure, we may have put some great creative in front of them, but instead of saying “yeah…but” they just stopped at the “yeah” and looked forward to where the ride was going to take them.

So, next time you have the opportunity, and you have some great creative in front of you, all you people who pay for campaigns, take a chance – and make a connection.

Max

12Dec

The Interview | Video Production Guide

The Interview | Video Production Guide


PICTURE: On the set for Peacehealth commercial for Baron & Company. 

Filming interviews. Gotta have it. A standard part of all video production.

So WHY are they so difficult?

Probably because they are so unnatural.

Marketing person: “Okay, we’ve got a GREAT interview person for that part of the product. They love to talk about it.”

Get to the interview. Ask the person about it. They either can’t talk, or can’t shut up. You can’t use anything they say because their eyes are bugging around the whole time. They feel uncomfortable. They hate it. For most people, this is like going to the dentist and the boss has told them they have to do this interview.

Let’s face it, having a giant camera in your face and tons of people staring at you and clackers and “QUIET!!” all the time, etc. just is not very conducive to conversation.

So what can you do about it?

Max’s Tips for Great Interviews:

1) Listen to your interviewee. So many times interviewers are so busy hunting around for what they want to hear that they don’t just LISTEN to the person they are interviewing. This leads to new discoveries (see next), to more comfort for the interviewee, and to more natural seeming answers.

2) Be open. Follow the conversation (Part of 1 – make sure you are open to moving where the conversation is going. ) If you are listening, you’ll find out angles you hadn’t thought of before by following the conversation where the person actually wants to take it, instead of where you want to force it. I know it isn’t in your script – but you’d be amazed the gold you find in these hills.

3) Keep your crew small. Try to have as few people as possible in the room when doing the interview. It is really difficult to have a normal conversation with 20 people staring at you and all of them worried that you are going to breathe into the mic wrong, etc.

4) Explain upfront the simple rules. Look right at me all the time, right to the very end, and always answer the question by restating the question.

5) Don’t give your interviewees the exact questions you’ll be asking beforehand. Half the time they’ll practice their answers and come out sounding very scripted.

6) Use soft lights that don’t fry your interviewee. You try sitting under those hot lights – it’s like getting a visit from the Gestapo.

7) Be supportive. Never fail to keep telling your interviewee how well they are doing. They never think they are, maybe they are not. Nevertheless, pepper them with support at all times. Keep offering them water. Make them feel like a star.

Using these tips will help you to have productive interviews that feel less like interrogations. Also one last thing to keep in mind:

Have the talent look OFF camera. I can’t tell you how often this little bit comes up on set. Looking directly at the camera should be reserved for PSA appeals, telethons, etc. It doesn’t work for interviews.

Good luck!

Max

 

07Dec

Inspiration: Tilt-Shift and Time Lapse in Whistler, B.C.

Spent the weekend in Whistler, B.C. skiing with the family. While waiting in line I watched their beautiful HD monitors playing videos to get me stoked about the mountain and what I was shelling out beaucoup dollaros to enjoy. Wow. Whistler has REALLY upped their video game. I’m used to watching sort of lame semi-ski videos that bored me in about 10 seconds and just wishing that somehow Hand Crank could get the Whistler account (I worked in Whistler in video in one of my first jobs, but that is a different story that ended in a tragic jet-boating accident). This time I was treated to a couple of wonderful videos.

First, this one from Switchback Entertainment that uses what is called “tilt-shift” photography. I won’t go into how it works (because I don’t really know) but basically you attach a lens to your camera that causes the focal planes of everything you’re shooting to shift and it gives you these really cool looks – often causing whatever is shot to look miniature. In this case, they were able to make a very cool video that made all of Whistler look like a little miniature town that a little girl was playing with. A great tilt-shift video from Switchback of Whistler.daadfa

The next was from Sherpas Cinema. Probably one of the coolest ski promotional videos I’d ever seen. Here’s the video from Sherpas Cinema about Whistler.  These guys pulled out every trick in the book from lots of great time lapse (one shot covering a whole day on the mountain from sun-up, to the snow cats coming out at night) to fantastic hard-to-get HD GOPRO shots that seem to have the camera everywhere. I’m so sick of ski movies and these things made want to get out there a do it all again.

In both cases these guys were using all the new video toys to great advantage. They were just toying with these wonderful new techniques and making video that is so much fun to watch. I couldn’t wait to try some of the new toys that we have at the Crank – most notably our new EPIC with the ability to do 300 frames per second, some of our great new handheld HMI lights, etc. etc. – on Monday we decided to shoot our latest video for St. Paul’s Academy here in Bellingham all at a crazy frame rate, with a weird aspect ratio, and to be constantly messing around with lens flare, to use our remote camera heads – the piece is going to be amazing. Here’s a couple of shots from the upcoming video for St. Paul’s Academy.

The moral of this story – make sure to get out and get inspiration!