One of the most important goals of any small business is to be discovered by people in their local community that are searching for the very products and services your small business provides. In today's world people are searching the web using search engines, which play a huge role in helping consumers discover the businesses in their local area that provide the products and services they need and or desire. While there are a number of ways for your small business to increase the search engine rankings of your website, which can cost thousands of dollars up front and then hundreds of dollars a month thereafter, video is an under utilized and very effective tool, not to mentioned dramatically less expensive one.

There are three very important goals your small business can achieve using video to help marketing your small business online.

Adding Depth and Personality

Many times e-mails and web content don't do a very good job of conveying the proper tone or creating an emotional impact with their message. If you've ever wondered about the tone or emotion the sender meant with their words in an e-mail or on a web page, then you already understand how sometimes the message can get lost in translation. In today's highly competitive world it is vital for your small business to leverage any advantage you can gain in the pursuit of customers searching for a local solution to their needs or desires. Video enables your small business to move beyond text to add depth and personality to your marketing message.

Demonstrate your Expertise

Using video enables your small business to add a face and a voice to your message that connects your small business with potential customers in an engaging way. Video enables your small business to build trust by demonstrating to potential customers that there really is a person behind the business that can answer their questions and solve their problems, which help potential customers feel more comfortable about doing business with your small business.

Gain a Competitive Advantage

In today's highly competitive market place gaining a competitive advantage is a big concern for any small business. Optimizing your video search engines ranking enables your small business the ability to increase the chances of being displayed on first page results, for search terms that are important to your small business. Each time your video is displayed in search results you are effectively taking the place of your competition. If utilized property, video listings can take up room that would normally be available by your competition.

Amateur or Professional Producer

Having a video produced for your small business doesn't have to be a big Hollywood production, and many professional video producers can make the process quite simple from their many years of professional experience. However having a video produced for your small business by an inexperience armature, just to save money, could have some unintended consequences that could cost your small business, not only the cost of the video's production, but a huge impact to your small business reputation.

Imagine what would happen if your video went viral, not because it was really good, but because it was severely ridiculed online. With more and more consumers turning to reputation rating web sites and social media, the backlash from such ridicule could cost your small business, not only your local reputation but your entire business it's self.

Just ask yourself, who would you want at the controls of an air plane your flying in, an amateur with a few lessons under their belt, or a professional pilot with many years of successful experience? The choice is obvious, we would all want the experienced professional pilot, especially if your life depended on it, as it does when you fly. While a Hollywood production is not required to create a video for your small business, utilizing the services of a professional video producer is the preferred option.

If your small business is looking to increase it's chances of getting first page search engine rankings, add depth and personality to your marketing message, connect and engage with your targeted audience in a meaningful way, then contact us today and we'll be happy to work out a cost effective solution to help your small business achieve your goals.

We can also help your business by promoting your new business video to several video hosting sites to insure your new business video gets maximum exposure.

Don't have a Youtube Channel, no worries we can setup and configure a new Youtube channel for your business.

What ever type of video you need, we can provide a solution for almost any budget.

• Customer testimonials

• Business overview video

• Product introduction video

• Sales and or promotional video

• Training video

• Executive / owner interview video

• Branding video

If you want or need a bigger production, with on location shoot, sets, props and the like, we can do that too. Contact us today to see what we can do for you.

Producing a concept music video is not about just running out with a camcorder and capturing footage. Producing a concept music video is a "Process" and the following is intended to help you understand a basic process. Note, different companies do different things and this is not an end all be all, just an attempt to educate, communicate and facilitate your understanding that making a concept music video is not to be taken lightly. There really is a lot of work involved.

Overview - High Level Process

• Development

• Pre-Production

• Production

• Post Production

• Delivery

Development Phase - The Development phase could be considered as everything that happens before a contract for a music video is executed. So this would include “idea” gestation, brain storming, and conceptualization. Sometimes this is left up to the music video director, a lot depends on various factors, like what kind of budget is available and the video commissioner or it could be the band's decision. Also the development phase isn't only one particular step in the over all process.

The development phase can be comprised of several mini-steps or phases depending on a host of factors (budget, time-frame, resources). But the first step in almost any music video development phase, is developing the idea or concept of the music video in the form of what is called a “treatment” . The treatment for a music video is kind of like a set of architectural designs for a new home. Just like when you build a house, you hire an architect to perform the "architectural design" of you new home. For a music video, you hire a music video director.

Developing a set of architectural designs for your home can be a very iterative process in an of it's self. You might not like the first couple of initial designs (treatments) by the architect (Director, me). So you have to pay them to make perform more designing or make changes to a design. (depending on the "deal" you made w/ them, make sense?) Just think about what would happen if you built a house without a set of architectural blue prints. Same holds true with a concept music video.

Pre-Production Phase - Pre-Production is where we define all the necessary "production requirements", estimate their costs, develop a shot list (from the treatment), plan, estimate and schedule the necessary equipment, crew, locations, actors. the Pre-production process is relative to the development and the treatment requirements. If the treatment calls for a lot of "production requirements", pre-production could take a bit longer because you have more requirements to plan, estimate, schedule and secure.

And just like our treatment is like the architectural, the pre-production phase is like the engineering design phase of building a house. This is also when crew and personnel are offered "deal memo's" and they are actually hired for the production.

Production Phase - The Production Phase can be broken down into 3 smaller sub-component phases of PREP, SHOOT and WRAP. PREP is where crew are spending the necessary time and effort "prepping" for the shoot day(s). PREP requirements are defined from our production requirements. Each department (Art, camera, grip, electric, wardrobe, make-up, craft service etc..) will all typically have some prep work to do before the SHOOT. The SHOOT day(s) is when you actually shoot the video (film it).

This is the only day most people ever hear about. Most never know about all the development, pre-pro, prep that's gone into to getting to this point. If you've done you home work and hired a good crew, your shoot will typically go pretty smooth. After shooting WRAP is the part of production where you return everything, rented equipment, production vehicles, props and backdrops, costumes, wardrobe and the like. In keeping with our home building analogy, "Production" would be considered "construction".

Post Production Phase - The Post Production Phase is where all the elements of the production come together, are assembled and edited into the music video. In post production you have the editor's version, the director's version, the producer's version and then the label's version. It's typically the label's version that get's all the airplay.

Delivery Phase - The Delivery Phase is where all the "deliverable's" (master tapes, master video, etc..) are delivered to the client (label, management etc.) in their respective, requested formats and media. (DLT tape master, glass master DVD, master video tapes / film reels).

Please note the above descriptions are an over simplification for some shoots and to much for others. Each production has it's own set of requirements that must be defined, designed, developed and delivered. It is through this general "production process" that we achieve our intended goal, make a bad ass concept music video!

Take the time to get to the club early and adjust the lights to actually shine on the band. Let the band know the light is good to them and it will help make them look like rock stars. (The light is good, the light is good). Always bring at least two good-sized lights (500-750 watts) with stands, scrims, screens and barn doors and dimmers if you can afford them too.

Set the white balance of your camera if it has this feature. Find anything that's in the same light and is as white as you can get, white balance to that and you should be good to go. If you have multiple camera operators, set your white balance together and on the same object and make sure your temperatures are all the same.

Set your IRIS function to a manual mode and adjust, as lighting requires. This is a bit tricky especially if you are working a manual lens at the same time. It just takes time to develop a feel for it. If your going to use single chip (tiny hand held) camcorder, use a tri-pod or if you have to go hand held then use a mono-pod and get pretty close to your subjects. If you don't have a mono-pod or tri-pod use both hands. Steady shots look good, herky jerky shots look bad. (unless that's what you going for of course.)

Learn about framing and composing a shot. Just like you compose a lyric for your songs, we compose shots for our video. Frame by frame at 24,30 and 60 frames a second. Watch a lot of music videos and TV commercials and observe their production values. Read a lot about photography. More practice.

Learn to use the manual zoom & focus functions and try to stay away from auto focus. A sudden change in lighting and your all out of focus. This is where working the IRIS comes into play. By working the IRIS and letting the focus remain you can adjust the amount of light entering the lens and re-adjust your image (no zebra stripes) with out affecting your focus.

If your shooting with multiple camera operators take some time and discuss who is going to shoot what, when and where the heck are they going to be. (Stake out camera positions early!) Stay aware of what and or who is in your lens. If you see another camera operator then re-frame your subject and cut the other camera operator out of your frame. Simple to do, but so many forget. Know who is going for close ups, mediums and wide shots.

If your going to plug into the venues sound board, tip the board operator enough to make it worth them worrying about your audio and you should come out on the plus side with great live audio from the boards mix. Many times if the sound guy experiences any major problems, your audio feed is the first to go in his frantic scramble to fix the problem. Reasoning being, everything was working fine before that video guy asked to be plugged in. If they have a CD burner to burn the mix, tip the sound guy and treat them with respect and you should get a great recording.

Have each camera operator adjust their sound for their respective locations. If they are near the speakers, turn the capture volume down so your sound wont be all distorted. You can do some interesting things just like you can in a recording studio. Lets say you have 3 camera operators. One operator on the left, one on the right and the last one in the center. Camera left records panned left and camera right records panned right and the center camera centered. When you get into post you can combine all 3 and if you tipped the sound guy have 4 audio sources to build a killer live audio track for your video.

Always try to visit the venue before the shoot to determine where the sweat spots are for capturing both live video and audio. (Otherwise known as a tech scout).Contact the venue and let them know your coming or at least have the band put you and your crew on their guest list. You might show up early and shoot a little of the venue and surrounding area, maybe the bands name in lights on the marquee, or as the band arrives to the venue in their tattered van. (B-Roll)

It's always a good idea to have parking arranged for your crew. You really don't want them walking with all that expensive gear a few blocks. They may not capture what you asked them too at worst or may not work for you again at the least, especially considering what your paying them (wink, wink). Label your tapes properly, your editor will love you for it.

Well, take what you like and compost the rest. Happy Shooting!