Michael, Pat, and Dave are just back from the National Association of Broadcaster's convention (NAB) in Las Vegas, and boy are they tired. We attended the conference to look in the latest in technology for production, post production, and distribution for our clients. Though an exhausting few days involving miles upon miles of walking on the show floor of the Las Vegas convention center, we learned a tremendous amount that we are already implementing. But if we learned nothing else it is that there is no such thing as a perfect pair of walking shoes.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
PWP Participates in Our 2nd MLK Day of Service
If you tried to call us at the office on January 19th, you probably noticed that no one was in to take your call. But we weren't on holiday. For the second
year in a row the staff had the option of being at the office or participating in a day of service. The entire staff and many of their family members
participated in mural painting and beautification at the Eleanor Emlen Elementary School a few blocks from our office in Mt. Airy. Besides painting, we
also documented the entire event for the participating organizations, including; Mt. Airy USA, EducationWorks, Global Citizen, and the Mt. Airy Leadership
Council. All of the photos can be seen at the Flickr page we put up for the event.
Posted by Jeff Herron at 12:09 PM 0 comments
Labels: news
PWP Captures a Client's Story for State Agency
A video project we completed in cooperation with JEVS Human Services for The Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) of Pennsylvania has been added to their website on the personal stories page. Titled “Inviting the Day,” Janine’s story can be viewed here. Janine and this project touched everyone who worked on it. We are proud to help Janine to share her story with so many others in her efforts to support peers struggling with mental illness.
Posted by Jeff Herron at 12:06 PM 0 comments
Labels: news
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Internet Video Distribution
Everyone’s talking about it, and many organizations are doing it, but most people don’t have all the information to execute online video distribution. Does it mean we put our video on our front page? Does it play automatically? How do we get people to see it? Will they watch online? What are the technical requirements to distribute video online? Do we have to keep making new videos all the time? What does it mean to “go viral,” and how do we do that?
Here’s the truth of the matter. Nobody has all of the answers to all of the questions regarding online distribution. At least no single person has them all yet. And by the time the answers seem to be more apparent, the questions will change. Everything was on YouTube for a while, and that continues to be a central focal point, but then Facebook and social networking seemed to become the lynchpin of any attempt to “go viral.” Media players and their technology keep changing. Several years ago Real Player was in the lead, then Windows Media, and now Flash delivery.
I think we’re all learning the positives and negatives of the rapidly evolving world of maintaining an online presence and trying to keep up with viewer expectations. The pitfalls of implementation are many, but the issues of never implementing are greater. Gone are the days when non profit organizations could be two to three years behind the corporate world in the adoption of technology. Two or three months can cause viewer and supporter fatigue. But how can an organization with limited funds for marketing and outreach keep up? Video production is frequently out of the price range entirely, let alone ongoing production.
We are constantly exploring new distribution outlets and learning new ways to implement them and simplify their workflow for our clients and ourselves. The goal line is constantly moving in online content delivery, but we continue to follow that progress so our clients don’t have too. But frequently our clients teach us new outlets and workflows. Its this collaborative conversation that is keeping the world of online video exciting for us.
There will be future posts that outline how we have overcome some of the problems and questions raised in this article. Many of you will help us write the proposed solutions, and we look forward to that exchange.
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Labels: blog
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
We won't cry at this funeral...
Well, its official. VHS Tape is on its deathbed. And this is one funeral the staff at Primitive World Productions won't be sad to attend. Don't get us wrong. VHS killed Betamax. It created the home video market. It made inexpensive video distribution to homes everywhere possible. But, in the light of DVD and other newer formats, it was awful. The colors drift and bleed, the audio doesn't always hold on forever, and basically the format just doesn't age that well. It's heavy and bulky and not random access. It needs real time to duplicate. It takes more room in to keep on stock. We're just not going to miss it. Maybe the headline for the New York Times Obituary will be kinder than this one.
There was discussion in the office about the halting of production of Polaroid film. Now that's a tragedy. That's a look that can only be achieved one way. Visual storytelling is just that, and the tools available are the brushes to our palettes. Maybe one day we'll long for that VHS look and try to replicate it with a digital process. As a matter of fact, we can be relatively certain of that occurring. But, until then, this is one brush we can put down for a good long while.
Here is the article that announced the impending doom as sent to us by the NAB newsletter:
Cue tape for VHS format's final moments
The VHS era is coming to an end, as the last major supplier of the format's tapes stopped shipping them to retailers in October. "It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt," said Ryan J. Kugler, president and co-owner of Distribution Video Audio Inc. "I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I'm done. Anything left in warehouse we'll just give away or throw away." Los Angeles Times (12/22)
Posted by Anonymous at 4:26 PM 2 comments
Labels: blog
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Leveraging Your Video Assets
Video is expensive. This is an inescapable fact in the creation of quality video productions. The hard work and talents of many creative people are involved in the acquisition and editing of even the shortest video productions. There is a mantra that can be borrowed from the environmental movement that can be utilized to reduce the long term costs of video acquisition and creation: reduce, reuse, and recycle. There could be some poor applications of this phrase that could damage a single stand alone video production. But, if video is part of the long term communications and marketing strategy for an organization it can be utilized very effectively.
A great case study would be Primitive World’s work with Kristen Rantanen, Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs for JEVS Human Services. Our work with JEVS and Kristen is an excellent example of leveraging a library of video assets for long term production value. There are two primary examples that come to mind in our work with Kristen.
JEVS recently opened a new campus for the vocational and technical school in Northeast Philadelphia, the Orleans Technical Institute. Kristen had the foresight to ask Primitive World to capture a time lapse of the construction process that took place over the course of a year. That video can be seen at http://www.jevshumanservices.org/helpothers/capital-campaign.html. That time lapse footage became the basis of an opening celebration video, part of a school program marketing video, as well as an asset used directly on the web page above in the completion of their successful capital campaign. By not letting a strong visual opportunity go by, JEVS has a precious video asset that can add production value to many of their videos for years to come. Not to mention the organizational history that was prevented from slipping through the cracks.
JEVS holds an annual luncheon fundraiser called Strictly Business, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary year in 2008. Each year up to four awards are given recognizing success stories in the Greater Philadelphia business community for outstanding Business Leadership, and Inspiration Awards for individuals who have overcome great obstacles to join that business community. For the event a video is created to tell the story of each award winner. Primitive World spends a full day interviewing people involved with the award winners to tell each story. On average we collect three hours of raw footage to create each four minute video.
When we were creating the Orleans Technical Institute program marketing video, we were able to go to the library of footage created over the years to use clips and interviews related to award winners who either attended or hired from Orleans. We already had campus B-Roll on the shelf from shooting these other stories. We had interviews with people who hire Orleans graduates discussing the high quality of their students. We had footage of former students working in the field, as well as discussing their experience at the school. Using previously acquired footage, we managed to create the new program marketing video with only one new day of shooting. Without the library, we would have needed three or four days of shooting to create the same piece.
There are some possible pitfalls to this method. Additional editing time is required to cull through older footage. An interview from years ago might be a little long in the tooth to match the styles and fashions of a subject today, and therefore might not cut in with new footage well. The technical ways older footage was acquired might not mesh with a new production. A VHS copy of an old video will definitely not intercut with newly acquired High Definition video, etc. and so forth.
But, there are many instances of pleasant happenstance where the library can save investment in new shooting or can greatly extend the budget of a single production. But instead of leaving everything to chance, we prefer to look ahead. If an organization is going to produce multiple videos over the course of a year are there any overlaps that can be found? If we are going to come interview your executive director about one program can we stay an extra half hour and also do the interview for that other video? The crew is already hired and the lights are already set up.
As video production becomes an expected form of organizational communication, keep your eyes open for places to extend your production dollar by creating a library of video assets that you can leverage to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
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