The Corporate Video Spokesperson In corporate video, sometimes it’s beneficial to have a person talk directly to the audience. They look right at the lens to tell the story. This is called being a corporate video spokesperson. In today’s article, we talk about the skills necessary for a spokesperson on camera for your corporate video. In decades past, most people were unaccustomed to performing in front of the camera, looking directly at the camera. But thanks to today’s selfie culture, there’s quite a few budding “spokespeople” at every company. The Non-Professional and the Professional Actor However, this article is not limited to just non-professional actors (company employees). The professional actor can benefit from a review of proper tips and techniques of being a spokesperson. The non-professional actor is one defined as working for the company, has not had acting lessons,…
Video Production Apple Boxes For you new to video production, or maybe you’re a corporate client on the set of a video being produced for you, you might hear the Cinematographer or someone else call for a “half apple.” Well, he’s not asking for a previously bitten into piece of fruit. Apple Boxes have been around in the movie and film business for almost a hundred years. The history is a bit cloudy, but it’s reasonable to assume that early film crews saw a box sitting there and put it to good use. And maybe it had some apples in it. Or just looked like an apple box. Either way, the term was adopted and stuck. Where Do You Find the Apple Boxes? Apple boxes are usually part of the grip equipment. They are used for just about anything on…
Actor Auditions from the Director’s POV As a director, I have sat through some really powerful actor auditions. And we’ve discussed important things to do when auditioning, whether for a feature film, corporate video or a commercial. But today, I’m going to mention five things you should never do when auditioning. I could play you some pretty incredible audition videos, but I don’t think I could ever get the talent releases. 5 Worst Actor Auditions Face Covered By Sides – I have one audition tape where the whole time, the actor is covering up. I don’t know if it was his first time, but I hope so. An egregious error like this from someone with any kind of training is a hope killer for new work. Trouble Reading – A real painful to watch audition, is the one where the…
Are You Ready For Your Corporate Film Closeup? Welcome to another Sfilms165, corporate film help in 165 seconds or less. Let’s talk about being Hair and Makeup Ready for the Camera. If you are getting ready to do a corporate film interview, representing your company, you will certainly want to look your best and be prepared. If you don’t have the benefit of having a Professional Makeup Artist on set for your interview, you will want to take these tips into consideration. Why is Makeup Necessary for the Corporate Film? The camera and lights can sometimes wash out your skin tone. Therefore Makeup is necessary to help you look your best, cover blemishes, take care of a shiny face, and accentuate your natural features. In the olden days, the technology was fairly poor and the film running through the camera needed a lot…
How to use a Teleprompter (or prompter) for Corporate Video While shooting a corporate video, it might become necessary to use a teleprompter (often shortened to just “prompter”). And today, prompter use is much easier and more available than it was twenty or thirty years ago. The first prompter was built in 1950 and trademarked into the TelePrompTer company. The use of the word became so common, the trademark became genericized. When I first started in the industry in the late 80’s, the first prompter I used had a paper roll that we printed onto and was magnified up with something akin to an overhead projector. The principle of the prompter is to angle a coated piece of glass in front of the camera lens that will reflect on one side and not on the other. This special glass gives…
In the video industry, there are several substantially different event video types. Today, we’re going to talk about the Corporate Event Video coverage and what various styles come with that. Many people will search the internet for a video event production company. But they might be thinking of covering their child’s birthday, a wedding, or a family reunion. This article today will discuss the corporate event– the conference, seminar, corporate party, or meeting. Video Coverage of the Corporate Event Video production services for events can vary. The first service is Event Coverage. This is where we place a camera or several cameras, to record the event, which for corporate clients usually involves speaking from a stage. Occasionally, it might be an event out on location where a demonstration is taking place. We will usually provide a camera with long lenses from…

Sometimes, your client needs a quick turnaround on a commercial shoot. How can you plan and prepare for a tight deadline? In today’s blog, we go through some tips, tricks and techniques to successfully deliver a national spot in a week or less. And how do you deliver on such a tight turnaround while maintaining quality and effectiveness? The number one key to turning around a video production in a short time is Decisiveness. You won’t have the luxury of time to go back and forth. And even though we are a Dallas based production company, our commercial shoots take us all around the company. The Normal National Spot For a normal national spot, it can take months. Usually, the creatives (at our production house, the agency, the client) get together and come up with concepts. Then maybe storyboards (whether…
What is an Explainer Video? The Explainer Video has it’s root in cell animation going back decades– before the use of computers. Educational films, both for schools and industry would be an animated, cell by cell, to demonstrate the subject. Once computers became available, animation migrated over to that platform. Today, computer generated graphics is the basis for an Explainer Video. So what is the Explainer Video? An Explainer Video is a short 2D animation that demonstrates your product or service on top of a voice over with sound and music. The style can be cartoonish or text driven, and can be very simple or complex depending on what you need and how much time it takes the animators to do it. How Do You Make an Explainer Video? Script – The first step in an Explainer Video is to…

Lots of Shooting = Corporate Video Library There’s power in having a lot of footage to pull from when creating the corporate video. So let’s talk about how to build a library of footage and videos. When we start shooting for a new corporate client, it’s usually for a very specific video… maybe a training video or a web video. When we shoot, we don’t ever delete anything. That footage goes onto harddrives and those harddrives are backed up to tapes. The Corporate Office Needs a Video Then you have a short conference that needs recording. After that, the CEO wants to send a video message out to the corporate employees. And there’s that new office renovation that could use a timelapse. Oh and the corporate headquarters needs a drone shot. All that footage starts to build up. Your corporate…

Making the Feature Film “The Keyman” It’s been 17 years. 20 if you count the birth of the script—which was in the summer of 1997. I worked in corporate and commercial videography and always dreamed of being a filmmaker. The idea for the movie “The Keyman” came to me in the parking lot of a grocery store. It was a huge “what if” question to something that had just happened to me. We shot the film in September of 2000, and released it in 2002. After my first film “The Keyman” (now available on iTunes and Amazon Prime) , I went on to direct four more movies over the next decade. But the first film is usually special and it was no different for me. Here are some of the biggest things I learned. First Time Filmmaker Needs to Hire…