This world is full of dreamers. I'm one of them. But there are not a lot of dreamers who execute.
So you have a great idea, invention, concept, patent idea, but you think it's crazy. This blogpost
will be brief. Just a note to encourage dreamers with crazy ideas.
Ideas that are crazy, sometimes become threatening. After they pass through that stage, they become cutting edge. After that stage they become popular, then the norm. After that it's time to think ridiculous again.
You have a great idea, but can't imagine how to accomplish it. It's like eating and elephant, just take one bite at a time.
As a cinematographer and visionary, I often come up with "great" ideas in my head, and they just sit there. One idea I'm glad I didn't sit on was becoming a shutterstock video clip contributor. It took me 6 months of thinking of video scenarios, filming them and uploading them to make my first sale.
I made $20! YESSSSSS...... Lets fast forward 4 years later. I've made over $18,000 selling little 5 second clips on shutterstock.com and the rate is increasing exponentially. I'll probably make an additional $10,000 this year on clips that I've already put the work into.
I'm glad I didn't just dream about it...
Execute your dreams, you won't regret it.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Monday, September 15, 2014
Understanding your Marketing Client means Listening and Observing.
A few years ago I got a call to do a marketing video for an ambulance company that was making a pitch to the Regional Medical Center. They were pitching to be the first choice in ambulance service for the Medical Center and wanted to stage themselves above several other ambulance service providers locally. The big problem.....I only had three weeks from pre-production to delivery.
I had to understand this client very very quickly, get as much knowledge about their method of doing business, technology and their vision. This meant a lot of listening and perceiving. Making a great marketing video is so much more than having a great camera, jib, lighting, editing suite, etc... It all first comes down to; Can you understand your client and convey their mission and vision in a powerful way?
We sat down for lunch together, and I listened to what they wanted to share with the Medical Center,
"We care about people." We treat our patients like family." were sentences I heard over and over again. In addition to this, I knew that I needed to raise the bar for their image as professionals.
It's one thing to be "caring" but are you "caring professionals"? I spent a lot of time on the phone with this client asking questions: What is your average response time? Why did you start this company? What is your passion? Why do your EMT's work for you and not the other guy?
I also asked a lot of questions from the EMT's themselves. These interviews opened up a lot of deep story to this company, very powerful stories. You'll see in the video that one EMT actually became interested in becoming an EMT because much of her family was killed in a car accident and an EMT saved her sister's life in that accident.
All these questions and more helped WollwerthFilms make this short but powerful 3 minute pitch for the Medical Center. In the end, the client wanted NO CHANGES or deviations from the video we created. They saw that we understood their vision, and conveyed it powerfully, even making tears come to the eyes of the viewers.
After the presentation, people came up to the owners of this Ambulance Service and asked if they could use them as an example for their business model.....Wow, the power of a well told story!
But to tell someones story, you have to first listen to what they want to say.
Looking back on this whirlwind marketing experience really makes us appreciate the fact that God gave us two ears to listen and only one mouth to speak.
I had to understand this client very very quickly, get as much knowledge about their method of doing business, technology and their vision. This meant a lot of listening and perceiving. Making a great marketing video is so much more than having a great camera, jib, lighting, editing suite, etc... It all first comes down to; Can you understand your client and convey their mission and vision in a powerful way?
We sat down for lunch together, and I listened to what they wanted to share with the Medical Center,
"We care about people." We treat our patients like family." were sentences I heard over and over again. In addition to this, I knew that I needed to raise the bar for their image as professionals.
It's one thing to be "caring" but are you "caring professionals"? I spent a lot of time on the phone with this client asking questions: What is your average response time? Why did you start this company? What is your passion? Why do your EMT's work for you and not the other guy?
I also asked a lot of questions from the EMT's themselves. These interviews opened up a lot of deep story to this company, very powerful stories. You'll see in the video that one EMT actually became interested in becoming an EMT because much of her family was killed in a car accident and an EMT saved her sister's life in that accident.
All these questions and more helped WollwerthFilms make this short but powerful 3 minute pitch for the Medical Center. In the end, the client wanted NO CHANGES or deviations from the video we created. They saw that we understood their vision, and conveyed it powerfully, even making tears come to the eyes of the viewers.
After the presentation, people came up to the owners of this Ambulance Service and asked if they could use them as an example for their business model.....Wow, the power of a well told story!
But to tell someones story, you have to first listen to what they want to say.
Looking back on this whirlwind marketing experience really makes us appreciate the fact that God gave us two ears to listen and only one mouth to speak.
Monday, August 18, 2014
In Marketing Videos. "Don't give away what you're talking about so quickly."
How many times have you clicked on a youtube video to find an advertisement that you could
choose to skip in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1? How many times did you actually watch the video all the way through? How many times did you click on "Skip Ad" almost immediately. Well, as a marketing professional our goal is for people to be so enamored with the video right off the bat, that they will watch it all the way through. Even if they aren't the demographic for that product or service.
This may seem hard to do, but I believe there are a couple of key factors in creating videos that will engage people immediately. Hence the title "Don't give away what you're talking about so quickly".
I think back on some of the most powerful commercials I've ever seen. The ones that made me say,
"Wow, that was a powerful ad!" The ones that raised the bar in my mind to the company represented in the ad. Take for example Dodge. Dodge took a risk on the 2013 Superbowl ad. It was a whopping 2 minute commercial. Paul Harvey's voiceover with nothing but photos, very good photos shot by photographers with credentials. Some from National Geographic. Some merely edited in 2 1/2 D.
https://vimeo.com/103747053 Click Here if you can't view the video above
The commercial had me riveted. I watched with tears in my eyes when he talked about the son
wanting to follow in his father's footsteps. All the while I was saying, "What is this commercial for?" It was for Dodge?!!?! Well, kudos to Dodge, they're image was just raised in my mind 10 times! They never said "Dodge" one time in the Ad. They didn't give it away right from the start.
They played with your emotions in a very powerful way. They maximized on curiosity initially, then nostalgia, then personal family ties.
My favorite quote from a friend of mine who is a pastor of a church said. "People do what they want to do." So why do we barrage people with facts to make them move instead of causing them to feel why they should move. People begin to move once they are touched at their deeper levels of feeling.
So that's the job of a powerful director/writer; know what makes people move, then create that piece.
Don't be fooled by all high end production companies. Sometimes creativity is lost in all the people involved in a project. Just because it's expensive doesn't make it good. I've seen lot's of well shot, well lit, well paid for commercials that made me click on "skip ad" within 2 seconds. They all lacked one key component initially. (Grab-you-by-the-throat curiosity creating content) These commercials instantly let me know what they were selling before I even cared. They didn't compel me to care.
We all know the phrase "Curiosity killed the cat" Curiosity is such a strong emotion and we need to learn to as writers, directors, and marketing content producers maximize on curiosity.
Had the above mentioned commercial started with the Dodge logo, I would have turned it off.
Instead they took a risk and bet you would watch all the way through before you knew what it was about. It turned out to be pretty smart.
So the first element I mentioned was curiosity. Another element we might want to consider is
surrealism. Why don't we like watching other peoples home videos? It's because it looks like boring real life. Someone else s boring, real life. We tune out the "normal" very quickly so it's important our videos have an element of "another world". Be it through colors, camera movement, time manipulation, or whatever you can think of that is outside the box, there should be some of this within our works to compel the viewer to KEEP WATCHING.
I'm currently working on a project that the client wants to be a national campaign to compel people to understand the value of water. We're in pre-production phase so there is a lot of brainstorming happening. How to get people interested in something so normal as water. I have some ideas...
See you next time.
choose to skip in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1? How many times did you actually watch the video all the way through? How many times did you click on "Skip Ad" almost immediately. Well, as a marketing professional our goal is for people to be so enamored with the video right off the bat, that they will watch it all the way through. Even if they aren't the demographic for that product or service.
This may seem hard to do, but I believe there are a couple of key factors in creating videos that will engage people immediately. Hence the title "Don't give away what you're talking about so quickly".
I think back on some of the most powerful commercials I've ever seen. The ones that made me say,
"Wow, that was a powerful ad!" The ones that raised the bar in my mind to the company represented in the ad. Take for example Dodge. Dodge took a risk on the 2013 Superbowl ad. It was a whopping 2 minute commercial. Paul Harvey's voiceover with nothing but photos, very good photos shot by photographers with credentials. Some from National Geographic. Some merely edited in 2 1/2 D.
https://vimeo.com/103747053 Click Here if you can't view the video above
The commercial had me riveted. I watched with tears in my eyes when he talked about the son
wanting to follow in his father's footsteps. All the while I was saying, "What is this commercial for?" It was for Dodge?!!?! Well, kudos to Dodge, they're image was just raised in my mind 10 times! They never said "Dodge" one time in the Ad. They didn't give it away right from the start.
They played with your emotions in a very powerful way. They maximized on curiosity initially, then nostalgia, then personal family ties.
My favorite quote from a friend of mine who is a pastor of a church said. "People do what they want to do." So why do we barrage people with facts to make them move instead of causing them to feel why they should move. People begin to move once they are touched at their deeper levels of feeling.
So that's the job of a powerful director/writer; know what makes people move, then create that piece.
Don't be fooled by all high end production companies. Sometimes creativity is lost in all the people involved in a project. Just because it's expensive doesn't make it good. I've seen lot's of well shot, well lit, well paid for commercials that made me click on "skip ad" within 2 seconds. They all lacked one key component initially. (Grab-you-by-the-throat curiosity creating content) These commercials instantly let me know what they were selling before I even cared. They didn't compel me to care.
We all know the phrase "Curiosity killed the cat" Curiosity is such a strong emotion and we need to learn to as writers, directors, and marketing content producers maximize on curiosity.
Had the above mentioned commercial started with the Dodge logo, I would have turned it off.
Instead they took a risk and bet you would watch all the way through before you knew what it was about. It turned out to be pretty smart.
So the first element I mentioned was curiosity. Another element we might want to consider is
surrealism. Why don't we like watching other peoples home videos? It's because it looks like boring real life. Someone else s boring, real life. We tune out the "normal" very quickly so it's important our videos have an element of "another world". Be it through colors, camera movement, time manipulation, or whatever you can think of that is outside the box, there should be some of this within our works to compel the viewer to KEEP WATCHING.
I'm currently working on a project that the client wants to be a national campaign to compel people to understand the value of water. We're in pre-production phase so there is a lot of brainstorming happening. How to get people interested in something so normal as water. I have some ideas...
See you next time.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
So you own a Drone, BUT are you an aerial cinematographer?
HSI Productions called for commercial shoots. I also turned down some projects I thought would hurt my reputation, such as shooting aerials for a "Puff Daddy, King Louie" music video, or "Elephant Graveyard" another zombie flick.
Now that my background is covered lets talk about drones. Everybody has one now, and everybody
wants to be an aerial videographer/cinematographer. But does everybody have what it takes to create compelling works just because they have a tool. I'll let you decide, but I will tell you what I know.
Capturing compelling images with a drone still requires the same elements as shooting anything on the ground with a camera. These elements are as follows.
1. A subject: hmmm. You mean my aerial cinematography has to have a subject? Well if you point
a camera at nothing, and it's up in the air, does it become more interesting? It's still nothing.
So if you're flying a drone to create a video make sure you have a subject.
2. Proper lighting: I've seen a lot of aerial video shot in the heat of the day with harsh looking lighting. And even if you have improper lighting a little post production and color grading might help a bit, but that's an art learned over years of experience.
I was really happy when we shot for the Fox Sports Ad "Happy Days are Here Again" that we were the first on set at 6am and had the privilege to shoot at around 7am with a nice warm light.
Here is a screen shot from that shoot.
3. Proper framing. I know in photographs we talk about the rule of thirds, and it's not a staunch rule I follow, but when I look at the most compelling aerial shots I've done, somehow there's always that rule of thirds that seems to creep into the most pleasing aerial videos. Below is an example: Painter in lower left, sun in upper right third, horizon not quite a third but close. You can watch the video here. http://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-6899053-stock-footage-artist-painter-painting-a-beautiful-sunset-lanscape-wearing-a-long-dress-and-sunhat-cinematic.html?src=gallery:detail/jIWdjvQ7ivvL-b2Fqpc_aA:1:3
was well planned. Coming out from the porch of the house, switch to drone shot, camera is reversed going away from couple, through the trees, then suddenly rises to 200 feet revealing the landscape of their home.
Good Aerial shots are mainly comprised of ONE good camera movement, not many movements. See something in your mind then try to re-create that. But that does mean you have to be a good drone pilot. Even though these new drones with GPS, stabilization and return to home features are easy to fly you need to make sure you can make the drone go exactly where you want it to.
One final thing to consider is responsibility.
Recently we saw a drone pilot fly through fireworks on the 4th of July and the video went viral all over the internet.
My question is. Did he have permission? Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't
But one week later, I flew my drone through fireworks at a City Festival in Beaufort SC, but I
had permission from every authority I could think of. City, Chamber of Commerce, Festival coordinators. Acting responsibly is one thing most new drone pilots lack. The use of drones is becoming soured by irresponsible people doing dangerous things, flying into aircraft flight paths.
Have fun using your drones, and keep up with WollwerthFilms so you can learn how to create powerful video productions that don't crash and burn.
WollwerthFilms Website
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