“Close enough for government work.”

This was another way of saying, “Good enough for those stupid people”, or “This audience doesn’t deserve my best work, or “I want to go home.”

What it said to me about that employee or colleague was that he or she didn’t care– about the audience or their own integrity. And that shortsightedness came from a stereotype of the average viewing audience: They’re impatient, stupid, and need everything spoon-fed.

Wow.

I mean, wow.

Is there any chance that these producers were right? Simply, are audiences stupid?

Look in the mirror. Are you?

The answer is no. Just because an audience doesn’t know the difference between a Red camera and a DVcam; Klieg lights vs. Kino-flo’s, or iambic pentameter from Mother Goose doesn’t mean they don’t know what is good. They are the audience. They are the biggest group of critics around, and they know what they like.

They like stories.

In Hollywood, they approve with their dollars. In business, they approve with action, commitment, or a bit of both.

They are us; we are they– if it’s too complicated for us, its too complicated for them. If it’s intriguing to us, it’s intriguing to them.

Examples? Christopher Nolan; Orson Welles; M. Night Shyamalan. Their work challenges the audience and keeps them intrigued.

Corporate examples? Videos that don”t preach, meetings that don’t pander, speeches that reduce the PowerPoint to clear, illustrative, intriguing pictorial elements.

Why simply say “We need better customer service” in a video, when kids in a Lemonade Stand can better or more arrestingly tell “the story?”

Why preach about miscalibrated machining equipment and the resultant costs when you can produce a film-noir-like mystery?

Why have the CEO of a corporation sit at his or her desk and lecture on building brand loyalty when interviews with real customers can make that case more convincingly and more humanly?

It’s the story, stupid.

Even the stupid audience knows that.

In a good documentary, the star of the interview is the person being interviewed. The interviewer is typically off-camera, and if the interviewer is really good, you’ll never see them or hear them speak. Why?

They ask questions that get full answers.

The art of the interview has been bastardized by today’s TV performer who wants not only to look handsome or pretty, but also smart. So they ask a lot of rapid fire questions. They’ve only got a minute, and they are thinking Emmy. So these questions contain major hints at the answer the interviewer is looking for.

Interviewer: Tell me about how horrible you must feel now that you’re house has burned down?

Interviewee: I feel bad.

Well, yes. But it can be worse. I often hear local cable interviewers ask the question this way:

Interviewer: The fact that your house burned down must make you feel awfully bad, doesn’t it?

Interviewee: Yes, yes it does.

Interviewer: How bad?

Interviewee: pretty bad.

Pretty bad, indeed.

In a corporate long form documentary style video, an ideal scenario is the video that can be “narrated” solely by the interviewees, through their own words, in complete and meaningful sentences. Suffice it to say that this is hard work. You must ask the right questions in the right fashion and then have the editing chops to put it together into a compelling narrative that has a beginning, middle, climax, and end. The interviewee will not be a talking head on camera, so you have no excuse to make your interviews TV style, where editing would cause unsightly jump cuts (therefore giving the producer an excuse to edit less. More gross profit!)

Some producers will pretend that TV style interviews are the right way to sell business-to-business products and services. That’s ridiculous. Looking at two talking heads blathering on without b-roll, music, or story is an absolute waste of a company’s dollars. That producer has no intention of working for his or her money.

We believe in interview style videos, just as surely as we believe in unstaged actualities to convince audiences of a product’s quality or a company’s intent or philosophy.

Yes, it takes longer, and it costs a bit more. But the shelf life can be very long, and the impact multi-tiered. Its a technique that works at meetings, or on the web. Consider this technique for your next video.

An example can be found by clicking on the image below.

Excerpt from Corporate Founder Story Video

But in the summer of that year, we were asked by Ric’s friend Mike Kiefer (with some influence from Ric’s Dad) if we’d like to produce a slide show touting their company, Kiefer Corporation. A real corporate project! Kiefer sold commercial kitchen impliments and did custom stainless steel fabrication, and they wanted something to show at a trade show.

The answer was yes, the budget cheap, and I had my first real script to write. No relying on other people’s voices, this had to be written for a narrator. And since the budget was cheap, we couldn’t afford– and for that matter, didn’t know– an announcer.

My job was to write the script and produce the soundtrack to which the slides would be edited. And, I agreed, I would read the narration as well.

From an entrepreneurial standpoint, this was perhaps the critical moment in my development as an audio-visual person. My first script, my first narrative soundtrack, and my first (and I hoped, only) voice-over read. How I handled the assignment would define our house style for years to come.

I was a mimic in those days. I did impressions of Ed Sullivan, Jack Benny, George Burns, Kirk Douglas, Johnny Carson…. wait! Johnny Carson, Johnny Carson… Ed McMahon!  Budweiser. Clydesdales. Tonight Show Commercial Reader. Ed McMahon was the answer.

Short sentences, a good theme line, a low key personable approach. Ed McMahon didn’t write what he read, but he made it sound like it. I worked on the script, maybe 3 or 4 pages,  and I remember the final line– it was a direct rip-off of some Budweiser commercial read by McMahon:

” Kiefer Corporation. All… You’ll ever need.”

No explanatories, like “This is Kiefer Corporation, your leader in kitchenware.” No verbs. No complete sentences— and a dot dot dot to guarantee the pause in the right place. Hell, even I could read that, it was so clean.

Which I did. We lived in a one bedroom apartment which was distinguished by the fact that it had one closet for the entire apartment, in the back corner of what passed for a living room.

In that closet was all our earthly possessions, which, given that this was Wisconsin, included a bunch of winter coats. I set up my tape recorder outside the closet, fished the mike cable under the door, attached the Shure SM57 microphone, started the tape recorder and closed the door. I stood in between the coats to insure no reverb or reflections, and also to help give some bass boost to my voice. And I read. And reread. Until I could hear Ed McMahon.

I never read professionally again, but what I had done that day worked beautifully. It helped me define the words I would write, the music I would use, the style of our shows, and the pace of our shows.

It made us a real company, with a real industrial demo to show. It helped put us on the map.

Thanks, Ed McMahon. Your were all we ever needed.

Tribute videos are how I got my start. (See “AVSquad” in the links.) And they remain the most satisfying of the work that we do. There is nothing like telling a people story.

A lot of people are into video these days, some as a hobby, some as a potential profession, some as part of their job duties. There is a perception that video is easy, thanks to point and shoot miniature cameras, computer editing, and thousands of tipsters on-line telling you how easy it is and selling something– usually hardware.

But hardware is only part of the problem, and hardware and editing software are covered pretty readily via training web sites, DVD lessons, and more.

No one is training people on how to tell a compelling story. How to interview, how to move pictures, how to choose music, how to pace videos, how to get a visceral reaction from an audience!

That’s where “Tribute Videos for Love & Money” comes in.

Tribute Videos for Love & Money

It’s an ebook that details my communications beliefs and systems. If you like samples of my work, and you want to know how and why certain creative decisions were made, this is the place to start. It concentrates on the “Tribute” people story type of video, but frankly, if you can tell that kind of story, there isn’t much you won’t be able to do as you grow your capability or career.

For more information, go to videostoryschool.com.

I hope you like it and find it valuable.

Audio Visual Presentations
By Jimmy Sturo

Even the best messages can be ruined by a bad presentation. To get your information across effectively and to generate the right response from your audience, you need to know how to use audiovisual technology to your advantage.

Interested in how to improve your presentation? Read on for some audiovisual presentation dos and don’ts.

Organization is the key. Forget about fancy graphics and sounds; instead, focus on making the flow of your presentation seamless and clear. It’s a good idea to first outline the points you intend to make before you even begin working on the presentation. Identify major themes and ideas so you know what to visually highlight.

Avoid clutter. Fancy animation and sounds are usually unnecessary; oftentimes, these elements only distract from the message instead of contributing to it. Brevity and simplicity work best – the shorter and simpler your messages and manners of delivery are, the more likely they are to be recalled by your audience. Too much clutter diminishes the impact of a good message. Highlight your message and not your graphics, and you will never go wrong.

Consider the physical requirements of the space where you will deliver your presentation. Are you going to use a small and private conference room with just four to five people or a big theater with hundreds in the audience? Are the room’s acoustics decent, or do you need to bring additional speakers to be heard? Is it well lighted? Can you control the lighting to enhance your presentation? You need to answer all these and many other questions in order to design an audiovisual presentation that makes the most out of what the venue has to offer.

Finally, complement your audiovisual presentation with handouts. No matter how effective your presentation, remember that your audience can only remember so much; you need to provide them with follow-through materials like a systematically outlined handout in order for them to truly retain your message. Keep your handouts short and sweet. This way, the reader only sees the most important messages.

Audio Visual provides detailed information on Audio Visual, Audio Visual Equipment, Audio Visual Rentals, Audio Visual Presentations and more. Audio Visual is affiliated with Alpha Numeric Pagers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jimmy_Sturo
http://EzineArticles.com/?Audio-Visual-Presentations&id=196786

Your video camera, that is.

Your camera– and your right to use it– is as important to many of us as our right to pack heat– uh, carry a concealed weapon, that is. And no, I don;t pack heat.

But I do pack cam, and that can be just as important. With it, you can:

• Capture a family moment.
• Witness a crime.
• Record breaking news or a natural disaster.
• Make a personal statement by pointing the camera at yourself.
• Record a coworkers moment of triumph.
• Surreptitiously record b-roll for a company video.
• Ask Grandma 20 questions for posterity before she shuffles off to Baltimore.
• Narrate your own personal documentary.
• Record something worth 100,000 hits on YouTube (like that territorial squirrel fight I saw– and missed– the other day. I forgot to pack cam.)

So pack cam. The links you gain, the views you rank, even the money you make from a once in a lifetime catch, is worth only the amount of cam you take.

We take a hard look at the “things” in our lives. We’re quicker to make judgments, and pare back frivolous things, and conserve and treasure more those things that provide the most comfort and respite. For some, they must have books. Others, perhaps movies or music. Some people must have live theater. We make our choices, we make adjustments in our budget, and we we’re happy for what we have.

This past few months created occasions where I realized the importance of one of my favorite kinds of video: The Tribute. “Tribute” is an all-encompassing name that essentially means some form of life story, family history, celebratory story, or honorary review.

It’s what got me into the business. When my father turned 50, I produced a slide show. A simple, single tray click-click that was (however) carefully timed to a full soundtrack featuring his favorite music, recordings of family members past, slides and pictures and press clippings of accomplishments, and even a part narration from a very bad imitator of Howard Cossell.

100 people were in attendance, and I was stunned by the positive reaction. I repeated the technique (this time with two slide projectors and a dissolve mixer to make the picures fade into one another) a few years later for a college event or two, and finally for my sister’s engagement party.

All of these are still dragged out of the closet and rewatched some 40 years later (they’ve been transferred to video, of course). Less and less of the original audience can be in attendance, of course, making these showings even more special. Little did I know what kind of investment they would be– an investment that grew in emotional value year by year.

Nobody lives forever. In the case of my father’s 50th birthday, well, he was gone just 11 years later. My mother died just 5 years after the event. I’m so glad I created that show.

Last fall, my brother, who has produced these kinds of videos since the mid 1990′s, called to say that he had a job he didn’t have the time to handle. Could I do it? I admit it, I asked: “How Much?”

But the how much is never the make or break in these cases. The customers (unless it’s a corporate tribute to a retiring executive) always think the price is too much, and we always think the hourly rate for the effort put into these is way too small.

Enter the recession.

The matriarch and patriarch of The Smith Family (we’ll call them) wanted to encapsulate their “story” for their four children and their dozen or so grandchildren. This was very proactive– they had an incredible wealth of pictures, and a dozen or so 8mm films no one had seen in ages, and in the case of the children (now in their 40′s and 50′s) and grandchildren, perhaps these had never been seen.

We took the approach of interviewing Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Theirs was a WWII romance, s New Jersey story, a suburban sprawl story, and it paralleled the story of the country tremendously. But mostly, there were their memories. Razor sharp, warm, and incisive.

I’m proud of the result.

Then in February, I turned 60 and for the first time ever, someone (my brother) produced a tribute video for me. I was blown away by the surprise, and even more blown away by his work.

Corporate videos come and go. This year’s “Exceeding Your Expectations” becomes last year’s news, management changes, the themes change, and the videos change. “More with the 90′s” becomes “Making it in the New Millennium”.

By families have more permanence. And yet in today’s digital world, who can make sense of, or even physically project, the film and slides and tapes of yesteryear? And beyond that, how do you make it a story?

I know how to– very well, in fact. As I pointed out– I’ve done it, and not just for families, but for corporations, civic leaders, and church dignitaries. Tributes focus on what’s best about people– their upbringing, their character, their accomplishments, their likes and loves, even what they learn from their mistakes. They become stories of character– and that is something companies should afford to pass along from department to department and employee to employee.

In the next few posts, that show the power of the Tribute– how it can emphasize love, prosperity, achievement, togetherness, and purpose.

Perfect for a recession.

A Company's Vision or Sales Concepts must be transmitted on many different levels.

But it really isn’t. What it is, really, is a manifesto of a company’s need to shift it’s marketing into “Web 2.0″ mode– a credo of engagement, involvement, and discussion, all spurred by the use of various media methods to create interest in you and what or whom you represent (product, personality, cause, service.)

It includes web presence and interactivity, from blogs and podcasts, to video casts and regular marketing videos, all offered for free as in the form of valuable information that may or may not include your product or primary message. What’s important is what the customer wants to know. In the case of a brand, it may be the brand’s history or culture. In the case of a product, it might be how the product is made. In the case of a service, it might be getting to know the people who provide the service.

All this revolves around a MIX of media, from web based, to directly marketed or presented. A website, YouTube, a blog or a forum, even Twitter and photostreams (and slideshows- remember them?) But also a DVD, a direct (snail) mail, TV Spots, newsletters (web and paper), and viral campaigns.

It’s not enough to simply hire a web specialist, programmer or a video producer. Your consultant must know how all of these activities intersect. They must have been there, and know where next to go. They have to know your story and feel your vision. They have to be able to create content.

We’ve been doing that since we were kids. But we’ve been forward looking just as long. We’re no stranger to video, meetings and presentations, audio, streaming, blogging, or  RSS feeding. We listen. We analyze. We propose. We execute. All the media, all the details. We measure, report, respond, refine and enhance. We grow your page views, enhance your image, get you applause and earn you the response you require.

What is Custom Creative Content? It’s a story, on many different levels.

• Level One: Concept. What is the plan? Who is the audience, where are they, what turns them on?
• Level Two: Words. The blueprint to all else that will follow.
• Level Three: media selection, based on the above.
• Level Four: Design. Make sure there is a common look and feel to all your content.
• Level Five: Creatively exploit each medium to its fullest, in light of your strategy. Testimonials? Interviews? Flow animations? Mind Maps?
• Level Six: Place the messages where they will be found. Web-Centric? Direct? Mass media? Auditorium? Trade Show? Brochure, free DVD, YouTube?
• Level Seven: Before paying for exposure, maximize your free exposure. Keyword optimization. Forum presence. Street Crews. PR. Speakers Bureaus. Viral Video. Word of Mouth.
• Level Eight: Track the action. See what works. Modify. Your keywords. Your creative. Your media placement. Your web presence. This is the thing…. you can make changes– even in video– overnight.
• Level Nine: Build on Your Success. Now, YOU’RE the expert. Be interviewed, appear on other people’s podcasts. Become the go-to-person locally or nationally on your subject.
• Level Ten: Never stop listening and conversing. All of tis has to be two way, whether you hand type your own responses, use autoresponders, or virtual assistants.

In the advertising business, this used to be called a campaign. But an ad campaign was simple. This is a Hydra. This is Now. And this works.

There are two ways to approach writing a script for a video: before you shoot, and after you shoot.

Before you shoot is where the majority of corporate and event videos
land; after you shoot usually indicates that you’re conducting
interviews and won’t know what material you’ll have until after the
interviews.

Let’s look at the first, and most traditional, method.

Scriptwriting is the art and craft of extrapolating a creative
approach into a working creative plan. A script is more than just the
words. It is the blueprint that indicates the structure or flow of your
video, what kinds of shots are necessary, what kinds of graphics are
appropriate, and what types of music might be used or created.

My first business partner couldn’t do wordplay worth a damn, but he
actually was an excellent scriptwriter, because he knew how to pace a
piece of communications. So whether you think you’re a writer or not,
let’s look at the basics of how you can craft your creative blueprint.

The Creative Plan

Before you begin writing, you must know what your strategy is.
Whether you’re selling widgets or telling the life story of Uncle
Teddy, you must know your beginning, middle and end.

I believe all creative plans follow some essential rules of marketing, and often follow the same basic outline for the script.

Marketing Rules

These hardly ever vary. They are called many things, have sold a lot of books, and been rehashed over and over.

But they work. It’s all centered around the person you’re trying to
sell. It’s called the USP, or unique selling proposition. Ya gotta have
one!

From the USP comes the ability to do the following:

• State a clear benefit.
• Offer proof.
• Have a unique angle.
• Show the solution.
• Eliminate objections.
• Ask for the sale (or the demo).

In the video script world, this might look like:

• Introduction or Premise
• Who we are
• What we do
• Why we’re different
• What’s in it for you
• Ask for the sale

Really. That’s about it. Remember, this is not a brochure. People’s attention spans are short.

Now, let’s say you want to create buzz so that MyCO, your new
computerized inventory management company (and its new product, “The
Docufab 5000”), can look large enough to compete with the big dog in
your field— we’ll call them BigCo.

BigCo owns the market, but they’re— big. Slow to innovate, slow to
respond to customer requests. They haven’t revised their product
offering in 5 years.

You want to eat their lunch (or, if you’re starting out, any lunch at all), and you have just the product to do it.

You have just enough money to make a video, which you figure you’ll
show to customers on your laptop, in your trade show booth (a massive
8’x10’ with a table), and on your website.

Video Outline

Let’s look at the questions to ask yourself.

1. What outcome do I want from this video?
2. What unique thing does my company offer?
3. How does this product embody that unique feature (or philosophy)?
4. What’s in it for the customer?
5. What hang-ups does the customer have?
6. How do we move to the next step?

In this case, the next step is being put on the bid list, being
asked to make a presentation to upper management, or being asked to
make a proposal. This is also the outcome you want.

You are sensitive to the needs of the industry and are a house of
ideas, moving fast, developing solutions, adapting your patented
technologies to companies large and small.

Your product offers ImageFast, a revolutionary way to reduce scan time and speed document flow over traditional Cat5 wire.

This will offer the customer a direct impact in greater
productivity, faster shipping turnaround, less time spent running
around looking for manuals, and allow the company to sell and ship more
of whatever it is they do. (The hidden bonus is the hero factor— the
person that buys this product will introduce such productivity and
profit to the company that he or she will get a raise and a corner
office— of course, this is implied, not stated.)

Now think it through— you’ve got a better product than BigCo— is
there anything that would make a potential customer NOT buy what you’re
selling?

Yes, you’re young enough to look like you just came out of high
school. Your track record is neither good nor bad— it’s empty. So you
get an endorsement from your Uncle Don who’s a well known civil
engineer (or a past customer, if you’re well established).  Maybe you
grow a beard.

And you offer a guarantee.

The Final Structure

So now, let’s look at our final outline:

• Document management is slow, and industry leaders are not keeping up with bandwidth demands.
• You have a solution that’s unique to the industry.
• You are MyCo, a company dedicated to R&D and solutions that provide productivity and profit. You never stop innovating.
• The Docufab 5000 blows the competition away. You proceed to tell how. (features)
• The Docufab 5000 will change your company for the better, is upgradable, etc. (benefits)
• Let us demonstrate our system and give you a quote. If you’re not 100%
  satisfied, we’ll (fix it, refund your money, whatever…)— we believe in
  our product and good old-fashioned customer service.

Okay, now you have to add spice, or the hook— the unique angle.
You’re dedicated to productivity, speed, and service. For a fraction of
what BigCo might quote for a new system, you will revolutionize the
customer’s business with profits, productivity, and volume.

All the customer has to do is— “Do the Math.”

That becomes your hook. It’s a good one, because it de-emphasizes
being big, established, safe, etc. It says, “If I can offer you my
unique solution to save you this much money— will you take a chance on
me?”

We’re skimming the surface, but at least now you’ve thought through
goal setting and creative planning for almost any video project, at
least those that are written before the shooting begins.

Now, HOW to write the words is another story, and one we’ll tell soon.

Want to see the video this story was actually based on? Go to http://www.vimeo.com/806538.