Today, our guest instructor is Alicia Pascual who provides tips and techniques for the proper way to slate. For many that are trying to break in to filmmaking, especially in the camera department, this is must-have information. Your first job on the set could very well be slating. It’s broken into two parts below. Enjoy! For more info from the SFilms165 lessons, click here.
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,…
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…
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…

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…

Drones taking Corporate Video by Storm Drones hit corporate video by storm over five years ago. They were a video production tool that offered a fresh and different view. And they were cool. Until they flew into the client’s car or that building. And looking back five years ago, there were two levels of drones– the consumer level (DJI had just introduced the original phantom) and the professional level (custom built kits, some with eight blades that could carry the big cinema cameras). The Hurdles in the Sky Back then, there were many hurdles to using drones in corporate video. First and foremost was legality. The airspace in the US is regulated by the FAA, and to accept any money for use of an aircraft in the FAA’s airspace, you had to have a commercial pilots license. This could…

The UAV market is exploding. It is the wild west out there. The FAA is trying to come up with standards and procedures for the technology that has outpaced them. With the incredible accessibility of drones, corporate video makers have found a new tool to add to their arsenal. What drone footage gives you, is a point of view seldom seen from a camera mounted on a tripod, five feet up from the ground. The drone hits the sweet spot– 10 fee to about 60 feet– for unique visuals. But just because a video producer has a drone, doesn’t mean they can fly it well. Drone work still requires an artist’s touch. We are finding that some producers simply jerk the drone around in the air, moving it here and there, and not really getting the full production value. Can…
I get asked this by friends and family and the answer depends on what they want it for and how manual/automatic they want it. But I was asked this by someone in the industry. They are ready to upgrade to new technology and liked the setup I have for corporate video production. Camera for Corporate Video First, more often than not, I use a DSLR for my corporate work. But occasionally I need something to record long form– like a seminar or meeting. So what follows is what I recommend for corporate film– like interviews and sales videos, or marketing videos. If you’re recording a board meeting, the DSLR is not the best choice. Camera– I have the DSLR Canon 7D. My DP Ron Gonzalez has a 5D (both shown in the picture on the right). A Partner of mine…
The Corporate Video Meets the Movie At Serendipitous Films, we have a long track record of award-winning corporate video experience. But one skillset that is being utilized more and more in corporate video is our experienced in feature films. It’s not enough to train, motivate and sell through talking heads for some corporations. So we’re being asked to create exciting canvasses to communicate the client’s content. Case in point– over the years, our most awarded and successful training video was a spoof of Forest Gump. Today, that continues with a Fortune 500 company calling on us to create little “movies” with their employees to train on program and service features. Another client is asking for a promotional video in the form of a movie trailer. This generation is the YouTube Generation. Videos need to be quick, funny, sincere, sensational. And…