Our new client had been paying to staff his call center with people who can answer this question. Of course, this is both expensive and time consuming. He finally decided to have a professional video created to explain how to install their duct system. Before deciding to hire us, he tried creating this instructonal video himself. After a week of working on the instructional video, he ended up with a poor quality video that really did not do this system justice. If anything, the video was a poor reflection on the quality of this company’s products. We were so glad that he decided to invest the money to have a video production crew create this video for him.

The first step in this video production project wss to develop the script. We worked with our client to write the script in a way that highlighted the great features of this system as well as demonstrating clearly how to install it. The second phase of the video production project was to shoot the installation. We broke the script down into a shot list. It took about 4 hours on location to record the footage that we needed. Next, we hire a professional voice-over talent and had the script narrated. Lastly, we edited the shots to the script and exported the final video.

Some of the great things about this video are:
1) K&B Duct has a professional video that truly reflects the quality of their products.
2) They can add this video to their website which should help reduce the number of calls coming into the call center.
3) The call center can now email or text a link to the YouTube video to the installers who have questions about how to install this video.
4) The sales people now have a new tool that they can use to sell this system. All they have to do is to tell their potential customers to watch this short video. It will do most of the selling for them.

Our client is very pleased with the end product. We are very pleased to have the opportunity to create an instructional video for his company that will help his customers, reduce his call center load, save his company money and increase his sales. We really believe that there is no better marketing investment than video!

Here is the K&B Duct Forever Clamp System Instructional Video:

Would you like us to create an instructional video for your company? If so then give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form. We offer a free consultation.

Many of our clients have had us produce a company, product or testimonial video for use at a trade show.  Video played on monitors or projectors at a booth is definitely an attention grabber and equates to more visitors to your booth.

We recommend that our clients use the OPlayer HD app available through iTunes. The nice thing about this App is that it will play your video in HD compared to the Standard Definition available through a DVD. We actually have to downgrade the HD quality of a video project to put it on a standard DVD. We hate to see our videos loose some of their beautiful quality when we know that this is avoidable with this app.

When paired with an Apple 30-pin Digital AV Adapter (Which can be purchased at an office supply or consumer electronics store) the OPlayer HD App will output video content in HD quality through an HDMI cable. Most newer monitors and projectors have and HDMI input.  For a trade show use there are also kiosk stand units available that mount your iPad at waist level for easy interaction.  This AV adapter also allows an iPad AC adapter to be used to continually power it from an electrical outlet.

We created a video (of course) that goes through the steps of how we send large video files to our clients through YouSendit and how to go about downloading that video file and putting it on their iPad OPlayer HD App.

Here is an outline of the steps.

Steps:
1. You will receive an email from YouSendit that contains a link to your video file.
2. Click on the “Here’s the link to this file” link and your browser should open.
3. If not, then copy and paste that link into a web browser.
4. Right click the “Download” button, and click “Download linked file as…”
5. Save the file somewhere on your computer (remember where you save it to).
6. Connect your iPad to your computer and open iTunes.
7. Under “Devices” click on your iPad. It should bring you to the “Summary” page.
8. Click on “Apps” button to the right of the “Summary” button.
9. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to “File Sharing.”
10. Under “File Sharing / Apps” click on the OPlayer HD App (Which you should have already purchased.
11. Click the “Add” button, navigate to the location where you saved the file.
12. Click “Open.”
13. iTunes will copy that video file to the OPlayer HD App.
14. When completed that video file will appear in your iPad OPlayer HD App “Documents” folder.

Would you like us to create a video for your trade show and tach you how to play it at your booth? If so then give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form. We offer a free consultation.

Just in case you missed Part 1 of this series:

Would you like to communicate with customers through video? If so give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form.

We initially planned to create our basic 3 to 5 minute video about their organization. In the end, the video production project turned out to be an entire series of videos about their organization. We were so moved by what they were trying to accomplish that we ended up donating our video production services to them!

The first video in this series focuses on Jeff Storment, the co-founder of Power Cross. Power Cross is an organization that works with inner-city youth of Statesville by involving them in sport, educational tutoring and bible study. This organization started because Jeff kept having the same dream. Check it out:

We shot his interview in their bating cage room. We blocked all the windows, used their big chair from their home, covered it in a white sheet and hung one of our lights over the chair. We though it created a great video effect that really pulls the viewed into the video. What do you think?

Do you need to get your message out there in your community? If so, give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form. We offer a free consultation about your video production project.

The video production was simple. We showed up with our crew and equipment. We decided to interview Courtney in their conference room. We set up some props in the background, all of our lights and camera and did a quick 20 minute interview with Courtney. She talked about what makes her company unique in terms of providing promotional products to her clients. After her interview, we recording some video footage of her and others working in their offices. We packed up and were out of there in less than 3 1/2 hours. Our video shoots can actually end up being “fun.” Many of our clients dread thinking about actually being in a video but they know they have to do it because doing video equals growth for their business.

Back at the office, we edited together clips from her interview along with some of the b-roll shots to create this effective video about her business. She can now use this video on her website, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, other video sharing sites, as part of a cold call, in emails, at presentations, at tradeshows, etc….. Here is the video that we created for Pura Vida Promotions:

How can we create an effective and affordable video for you? Give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form.

The next bird that we captured during this video production was to create a video about the conference as a whole.  We set up an interview room where we interviewed a few of the participants after the conference.  We will use their testimonial comments as well as clips of the conference throughout the day to create an overall video about the conference.  This video will be used to promote this conference and to attract attendees to this event in the future.

The fifth bird that we captured with this video production is that one of the presenters wanted her coach to see her entire presentation. She wants to become an even better public speaker. She will use her video presentation in her coaching sessions to improve her public speaking skills.

The final bird that we got with this video production is that we created some head-shots for the presenters and their staff. One great thing about our video footage is that we can grab any frame and make a high resolution image of it.  We had the presenters and their staff sit in front of our camera for a few seconds.  I decided to use the opportunity for a head shot for myself:

So, in this one video production, the three presenters received a video that showcases their presentation style.  They have a promotional video to promote this conference in the future.  One of the presenters will be able to work with her coach by using the video of her presentation. Plus, they all now have great head shots that they can use on their websites and in their promotional materials.  

When we plan our video production with you, we will try to get as many birds as we can from each video production project.  In this way, video production can actually be the most affordable thing that you do to promote your business. Would you like to talk about how you can use video to grow your business? If so, give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form.

One alternative is to make several different versions of the same video and key each video for just one search word.   This may seem time consuming and expensive but programs such as Animoto (Animoto.com) can make it fairly easy.  We recently used the pro version of this program to create two extra videos for our client, Clothes Befitting.  The main video that we created is on their website at http://www.clothesbefitting.com.

It is possible to upload both video clips and photos to Animoto.   We went through her full length video and edited together some 10 second clips and uploaded them.  We then created some frame grab jpg images from the video footage of the ladies modeling their clothes and uploaded those images.  After that, we selected a style and music and let Animoto do their thing.  Here is their new video.

We edited together some other clips, selected different music and a different style template.  In a short amount of time, they had their third video.  Youtube allowed us to upload this video even though the content was similar.  With a small amount of effort, we were able to create 2 new versions of their video.  The main message was the same but the content was different enough so that they could be uploaded to YouTube.

Our client has three specific key words that they are targeting in their SEO efforts.  Each video can now be optimized for only one specific key word.  That means that there is a really good chance that their videos will come up in searchers for each of their key words.

This is just one great example of how video production can go a long way in helping your business grow.

Would you like to talk about how you can use video to grow your business? If so, give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form.

1.) A video producer helps you to develop the content of your video. As a video producer myself, I will help you figure out what you want the viewer to understand about your business when they are finished watching your video. I will also help you to figure out what you want your prospective customer to do after they watch your video.

2.) A video producer makes sure that everything goes smoothly during your shoot. I make sure that everyone knows where to show up, what to bring, and what to do. This part of a video production is like being an event manager. I work with the video crew to make sure that we are setting up the camera in the best place possible. Once I get everyone on location with our gear, my main focus will be you. My job is to make you comfortable and to make sure that you enjoy the video production process. So far, everyone has told me that their video shoot was easy and enjoyable. This is great news to me because most of our clients go into a video production feeling nervous.

3.) The third thing that a video producer does is oversee the editing of the video. I know what content we want in your video. I understand the message that we want to create. I communicate this to my editing team and oversee their work to guarantee that the final project captures the essence of your business or product.

4.) Finally, my last responsibility as your video producer is to help you use your new video to grow your business. I teach you all about how to use search engine optimization techniques to use your video to drive traffic to your website. I show you how to upload your video to all of the video sharing sites and how to post it to all of the social media websites.

The best part of my job is hearing my clients say that having a video made for their business was the best marketing decision that they have ever made!

Are you ready to discuss your video ideas for your business. If so, give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form.

So without further ado, we give you Christopher Brown and the “12 Ways Video can Help you Business Grow.”

It seems that Christopher thinks that his video will go viral. Can you help make his Christmas wish come true? Please share this video with all of your friends and help spread the word that video can help your business grow!

Would you like to talk about the 12 ways that video can grow your business? If so, give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form. I promise that I won’t have Christopher sing!

His grand plan was to shoot the video during the Piedmont Club’s Christmas Party. We had him sing the song in different places throughout the club. We had an absolute blast on this video shoot. Even though we have never done anything like this, it was so much fun to get everyone at the Club involved with the video shoot.

When I explained this project to my 23 year old editor, she look at me like I was crazy. She said, “You don’t know what the Gangnam style is?” I was trying to show her the actual Gangnam Style video so that she would know about it before editing Peter’s video. She informed me that she dressed up as a Gangnam Style girl for Halloween. Then, she look at me with a strange expression and said “Maybe it’s because you have kids. Maybe that’s why you don’t know about the Gangnam style.” She just couldn’t figure out how I had never heard about it. I felt so middle-aged sitting there with my 23 year old editor. I just had to laugh out loud about all of it. So, for a company who has only done corporate videos, here is our first music video:

Do you need a music video or any other type of video to grow your business? If so, give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form.

The Center for Creative Leadership recently completed a rebranding process and chose video as a key element to promote their new brand. They used the power of video to communicate their new message to their employees and to prospective clients around the world.

Yesterday, they had a company wide meeting to reveal their new brand to their employees in Greensboro, Colorado, California and Brussels. During the event they premiered four new videos created that we created to show during the meeting. The first three videos were short one-minute videos about the three main attributes of their new brand.

A couple of weeks ago, we interviewed some of their board members to find out what their new brand means to them and to CCL. We were able to take these five interviews and edit them together to create the final, three-minute video that closed the meeting.  It was great to see CCL use video to communicate their importance and impact of their new brand.

Here is one of the videos shown at the event:

Video Production at CCL from Sarah Holmes on Vimeo.

Of course, we were there capturing this live event using three different video cameras. Our goal today is to take the footage from these three cameras, the four videos that were created for this event and create one video that showcases yesterday’s live event and the rebranding experience. CCL will use this video to share the experience with their employees around the world who were not able to attend this event either in person or by satellite.

We are very excited for CCL as they launch their new brand and are proud to be a part of their journey!

Now, if Linda had introduced herself to Marviette and said that she worked for the Shaklee Corporation selling products from health to cleaning, she would not have gotten Marviette’s interest. It was my testimony that sold Marviette. It made her want to talk to Linda directly. That is the POWER of someone speaking about their experiences with your products and services.

Check out this video where a few clients spoke about their experience with Redding Communications:

There is such POWER when your prospective clients hear from those that have used your products and services. It makes them want to talk to you. Your customers can talk about you to those that they meet or we can put a few of them on camera and let them talk to the world. Are you ready to discuss your testimonial video? Give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form.

We were hearing about the workout and nutrition program that Chris does to stay in shape on the road. I can definitely relate to that. Eating restaurant food and living out of a hotel room for 10 straight days is rough. I’ll try to use some of Chris’ simple but effective workouts.  It was great working with KPSR to get some video footage that will be used to promote Chris’s fitness challenge as well as his nutrition program.  Plus, it was really cool to hang out with Chris Daughtry for the day.

This got me thinking about video. When a video project becomes an extension of someone’s business, then it becomes very inexpensive to do it when you consider the ROI. Let’s take the video that we did for Action Coach as an example. We created an introductory video for Mary Ann Hauser. The goal of the video was to introduce her business coaching services to prospective clients. Here’s the video:

Let’s see how expensive this video was for her. She put her video on YouTube and tagged it with her google key search words. Someone was on YouTube searching for a business coach. That person saw her video, was impressed with her, called her and eventually hired her as a business coach. The video was not only paid for from that one client but it made her money. Now, that is not the end of her story. The video remains on YouTube for anyone else to see who might be looking for a business coach. She also includes this video in emails to prospective clients. Many times, these emails have lead to prospective clients wanting to have a meeting with her to discuss her business coaching services. She has her video on Facebook where she has over 300 fans. She has it on LinkedIn where she has over 500 connections. She has her video on her website. She has it posted on other video sharing sites tagged with her key words. These external links back to her website are crucial in google rankings. She has shown her video at networking events. In other words, her video is an EXTENSION OF HER BUSINESS! Thus, the ROI on this video continues to amaze her. If you ask her if video production is expensive, she would say that it is the best investment that anyone can make in their business.

Now, let’s say that you have a video created for your business and use it at one trade show. You may have great success from showing it at that one show. But, let’s say that you don’t know how to get it on your website or don’t know how to get it on other video sharing sites. Let’s say that you don’t know how to get it in an email for prospective clients. Let’s say that you only use the video at this one trade show. For this client, video production is very expensive due to the lower ROI.

A great benefit of working with us is that we are passionate about you using your videos in as many ways of possible! We really want your videos to become an extension of your business. We take the time to teach you everything you need to know about how to use your video to get the greatest ROI possible.

Are you ready to create some great videos that will become an extension of your business? If so, we would love to hear from you. Give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form.

I always say things like “You will look great on camera. Don’t worry about what you say. We will only use about 2% of what you say. The power of editing is amazing. Just talk about what you love about your job. Just tell me what you want people to understand about your service or your products.”

We have a documentary approach to videos. What this means is that we sit our clients down in front of our video camera and all of our lights and just talk to them. We ask them all sorts of questions about their business so that we can edit together an amazing video that really allows our client to connect with their potential customer.

We recently completed a video for Bernadette Trinidad with Crutchfield Advertising. She was one of those clients who simply dreaded the thought of being in a video. This was her response after she saw her video for the first time:

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU AND YOUR TEAM ARE MAGICIANS!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

APEX VIDEO IS MY TOP RECOMMENDATION FOR ANY VIDEO PROJECT IN CA’s FUTURE!!!!!

After all that dread and hesitation, she had a a great time during her video shoot and loves her video. If I could only convince all of my prospective clients that I promise that they will have fun during the shoot and will be thrilled with the final product.

Here is her finished video:

Crutchfield Advertising: Your Marketing Partner from Sarah Holmes on Vimeo.

Are you one of those people who understand the power of video yet dread the idea of being on camera? If so, I would love to hear from you. Give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form.

What if you could offer them a free video??

This is exactly what happened for the sponsors of the recent Piedmont Club’s Business Expo. As part of the incentive package, our video team offered to create a video for each company that sponsored the event. Needless to say, this offer was a big hit and helped attract really great sponsors for this fundraiser.

The plan was two fold. First, we wanted each business owner to describe their business. This part of the video would be all about promoting their company. Second, we wanted to end each video with the business owner talking about why they were sponsoring this event and what it meant to them. The goal was to edit together a 90 second video that the Business Expo Committee could use to promote the sponsor as well as promote the fundraising event.

As we were making plans to start shooting these videos, I thought “Wouldn’t it be great if we could make a video that each sponsor could use after the event?” All it would take would be a different ending to the video. Thus, we decided to create 2 versions of each video.

Here is the ending where the TCS is promoting the Expo:

Here is the new ending that allows TCS to use this video for their own business:

There was minimal cost involved with re-edting the video with a new ending but a big pay off for each sponsor. Now TCS has a great video that they can use on their own website and other video sharing sites to help educate potential customers about what they have to offer. Here is their video:

Would you like to bring in more sponsors for your fundraiser? Give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form.

Check out part two of the documentary and hear what Neil and Sarah have to say about the future of our marketing campaign. We know that the first month was a fantastic success and we can’t wait to see the results of month two! So check out the video and follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and of course our blog!

Brown Advertising Documentary Pt. 2 from Sarah Holmes on Vimeo.

This event also showed how easy and effective it is to utilize video production for your business or organization. Our Apex crew took less than 30 minutes to set up our lights, chair, and back drop to interview the Arts for Life Executive Director, Shea Godwin. Our interviews are also unscripted and documentary style which makes them very stress free for our clients, because anyone can talk about why their business/organization is special and important and their passion WILL transfer to video. After we interviewed the Executive Director we filmed the rest of the event and finished the day by interviewing Arts for Life Director of Development, Don Timmons as he talked about what he expects from future events after the success of their first princess ball.

The finished video is a perfect example of how using video production can be a simple, effective, affordable,and most of all impactful way to get the word out about your business or raise awareness for your organization. The finished Arts for Life Princess Ball video will now be used to to bring in volunteers and sponsors, in press releases and in social media. It is a powerful tool that will get the word out about a very important organization and hopefully light a fire that will spread across the country and inspire other Arts for Life branches to sponsor similar events.

So check out the video for yourself and witness how video production can be a powerful tool for your business:

Here is the first video about Apex Video Productions’ new inbound marketing campaign with Brown Advertising! In the short video, Sarah from Apex talks about what it’s like to embark on an entirely new style of marketing for her company. Sarah admittedtly doesn’t really use Twitter, Facebook, or the other social media outlets; and expresses doubts about whether an inbound social media marketing campaign will work.

Cameron from Brown Advertising is handling Apex’s new marketing campaign and in the video she expresses her optimism about how internet searches and social media sites are the best ways for companies to get the word out about their business. We know Brown Advertising is going to do an amazing job at advertising for Apex and we are so excited to see the results of our collaborations with them!

Follow along (on Facebook, Twitter, or our blog) as we embark on our new journey into 21st century advertising!

Click here to see our first month’s results!

We broke this project into four phases in order to address each specific goal for Lexington City Schools.  Read below to learn more about each phase:

Phase #1: Goals and Objectives

The first step in any project is meeting with their team to discuss their goals and objectives for this video. My main question for Lexington City Schools was “What do you want the viewer to understand about your school system after they finish the video?” We used the answers to this question to help develop the purpose behind the project. For this team, they wanted the viewer to be impressed by the quality of the education, the excellence of the staff, and the camaraderie of everyone involved in Lexington City Schools.

Phase #2: Timeline and Pre-Production

After our initial meeting, I was able to develop a detailed proposal, timeline and budget for the project. Once these details were settled, we began the pre-production phase.  This is where we identify the students, faculty, and parents who are going to be interview ed for the video. Once a decision has been made, we scheduled a shoot date and work out all of the details involved with scheduling.

For this project, we arrived early and got some footage of children getting off of the school buses. Later that morning, we set up our lights and camera for the morning interviews. We interviewed Mr. Kriesky and three students at 45 minute intervals. In The afternoon, we interviewed three parents and got some shots of children in the classroom. We came back for a second day of shooting where we interviewed three teachers and got some more footage of children participating in different activities. We came back for a 3rd time to record their high school graduation ceremony.

Phase #3: Editing

It is hard to believe but this is the phase where the real work of a video project begins. With beautiful footage and great interviews, we begin the process of building the story of the Lexington City Schools System. We approach this process using the following steps:

1. Selection and Editing – After we have the interviews transcribed, we take them and spread them all out and start selecting different sections to be used in the video. We start these different sections and import them down into our editing program. From 3 1/2 hours of interviews, we start boiling it down into the most compelling parts. We start pulling put different quotes about similar topics. (For example, we have a section on the quality of the teachers. We read through all the interviews and pull the best quotes out.)
2. Timeline – Once we import all of the best clips into our editing program, we start creating a timeline of the video. Typically we will have at least 10 minutes of clips that we will need to edit down to 4 minutes.
3. Animation – Once the content is worked out in the timeline, the n we create the animated opening logo, create animated lower thirds (the person’s name and title), and start selecting the shots of the children that we will use in the video.
4. Music and Rendering – Lastly, we will add a music track and render out the video. This means that we take the raw timeline with all the different elements and process them into an .mp4 file that we upload as a private video on YouTube.

Phase #4: Rough Cut

This is the final phase of a video production project. We send what we call the “rough cut” to our client as a YouTube link to their video for their review. We call it a rough cut because our clients have the chance to let us know what they think of the video and to ask us to make any changes to it. We were super excited when our main contact at Lexington City schools said “I don’t know what we were expecting but this video is absolutely terrific!” In our field, it is a good day when a client is completely happy with the first cut of a video project.

After any changes are made to the video, the video is finalized and decisions are made as to how the video will be used. For Mr. Kriesky, he wanted to show the video at a breakfast meeting with his staff before school started. Since he felt most comfortable using a DVD for this meeting, we created a DVD of his video project. This DVD is like any other DVD with a menu and a play button. The video was a huge hit at this meeting. We also created a file that will be used on their website and uploaded the video to their YouTube Channel.

One of the best things about working with our company is that the client owns all the footage that we record. We will be able to use this footage for all of their future video projects.

At the end of the day, our client has this wonderful video that they can use in all sorts of ways. They all really enjoyed working with us and had a lot of fun creating this video for Lexington City Schools. I can’t wait to see what they decide to do next!

How can we help you?

We provide a free one-hour consultation where we can discuss your video needs and how you might use video to grow your business. Give us a call today to schedule a time to meet, (336) 403-9273 or fill out our contact form.

Don’t forget to contact us if you are looking for a Video Production company Greensboro.