Capture Video Blog
I love the show “How It’s Made,” in which the producers deconstruct every day objects and put them back together, showing the audience the tricks behind the magic. I was very excited, therefore, when the American Concrete Pressure Pipe Association hired Capture Video to produce an “how it’s made” type video about concrete pressure pipe.
The goal of the video production was to have a short video to show to prospective clients that highlighted the production process as well as common uses for each of the four types of concrete pressure pipe, in other words, to show prospect how it’s made.
In order to create this marketing video, or educational video, Capture Video helped write the script, left our home office in Reston, Va to videotape on location at plants in Phoenix, Arizona as well as Canada, and oversaw post production, which included editing, voice over, stock footage, 2D and 3D animation and royalty free music.
Sometimes what a prospective client wants to know is “how can you help me?” Sometimes, the best way to answer that question is by revealing the tricks behind the magic. Consider raising the veil on your production process, or how you go about creating the services that clients need from you. An educational video is a great way to give them a peek at the magic you can offer. Capture Video, fortunately, has a few tricks of our own to help make your next video production just as magical.
Tags: educational video, How it's made, marketing video, reston, va, video production, virginia
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A lot of people ask why we have a half day minimum, and partly it’s to cover the cost in time of packing gear and traveling, and partly it’s due to the time it takes to set up for a shoot. Still, a half day of shooting, plus editing, is cost prohibitive for some businesses. I often suggest that clients schedule a full day shoot and videotape multiple videos all at once, to get the most for their money. Also, the way video helps with search engine optimization, having a lot of videos is great for a business’ online presence. But, realizing not everyone has twelve videos worth of content, or multiple people within their agency who would each want to do a video, I thought I could take that same concept and bring it home to my office – inviting my clients to come to me and giving them the cost benefit of a group rate.
Contact jessica@capture-video.com for more options, or to book your shoot today.
Tags: reston, va, video for SEO, video production
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Who doesn’t love a Grand Opening event? Great then that we were able to videotape this one!
Capture Video was hired to capture all of the excitement with the Grand Opening of the Zen Apollo Building in Washington D.C. The building has been there for years, and the happy residents were interviewed about how much they loved living there over the years, while the building’s owner gave a speech about why the re-brand was important.
Our event video production captured not only the fun of the event, but also the message our client was trying to convey by hosting the event. Consider having your next live event videotaped. You can use footage of speeches for marketing, as well as get great man on the street testimonials while our camera crews are on site. Those videos can be edited and used in multiple ways for marketing your company and getting your message across.
Tags: dc, live event coverage, marketing, video production, videos
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Sometimes you don’t need to sell it to sell it. In other words, you don’t always need to create a direct sales piece – in this case, a video – to get people interested in your product. Sometimes, educating an audience on what makes your product different, better, great for so many reasons, is a better sales tool than telling them all the many reasons they should buy your widget.
The ACPPA, a longtime client of mine, hired me to create a series of videos about their products – concrete pressure pipe. The most recently completed video, seen below, explains the process by which their members – concrete pressure pipe manufacturers – are held accountable for the products they create. The video explains their audit process, and how it ensure that the concrete pressure pipe they manufacture is held to a high standard of excellence.
If your business undergoes an annual audit to ensure high standards, tell people about it. If you have won awards for great customer service, or have gotten testimonials from happy clients, brag a little. Let your audience know how great you are. Educate them on the many ways you go above and beyond or the qualities about your product that make it superior. We don’t know what we don’t know about you. You have to tell us. Creating an educational video is a non traditional way to inform people of the many reasons they might want to hire you or use your product.
If you are interested in learning more about the corporate video production process, contact Capture Video today.
Tags: capture video, corporate video, dc metro, marketing video, nova, video production, virginia
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Capture Video produces a full range of videos. In a typical week, we will edit a short informational video consisting primarily of animated titles to be used in a presentation, we will videotape a live training session and prepare transcriptions to go along with the DVD for reference, we will videotape and edit a short promo for a website with client testimonials and titles and then we will work on one of several larger projects that we often have circulating on our editing computers.
For example, every year, PRIMA (Public Risk Manager’s Association) hires us to produce their annual award winner’s video for their award gala in honor of that year’s Public Risk Manager of the Year. So that the hundreds of people in the audience can understand what made that year’s winner the right choice, they have Capture Video produce a 4 – 6 minute “day in the life” style video, highlighting the award winner and his public risk management achievements. This is more than a one day project. There’s a lot involved in producing this kind of video.
Check out the 2014 PRIMA award video here:
For example, travel. As the Capture Video producer for PRIMA, I have traveled to St. Louis, MO, Knoxville, TN, Fairfax, VA, and Conchord, NC to spend a day or two with these wonderful people. This year, I got to spend the day with Bill Kostner, in Lincoln, NE. As much as I love to travel, traveling for work does take planning. There’s my schedule to consider, the award winner and his or her colleague’s schedules, and flight schedules. The upside is I have gotten to go to some awesome locations (really – they’ve all been great!) and meet some truly fantastic people, which makes the jet lag a little more bearable. Still, next year I am keeping my fingers crossed for Hawaii! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: editing, fairfax, va, video producer, video production, videotaping, virginia
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Not every live event videotaping has, or even needs, a dedicated director, but everything that a director would do still needs to be done, so it’s important to discuss your event with your videographer beforehand.
Lighting at a live event, for example, can be complicated. Generally your speaker takes precedence, so good lighting is important. Some venues don’t have great lighting in their event space, and lights designed for video recording are more designed for a closed set, clunky and with a short range. If you want great lighting, the trick may be to have your A/V company pre-coordinate with your venue. Does the audience need to be well lit? Will there be a projection screen? What needs to be done to make sure your speaker isn’t washed out by the projector light or standing in darkness? If the video footage is intended to be more archival, none of this may be necessary, but if it’s an income generating piece, then creating the right lighting in advance will make a big difference in the end result.
Understanding the bigger picture also helps the camera operator. They will follow instructions, but the more information they have to work with, the better they can help you achieve the look you want. For example, if there are empty rows in the back, you might direct them to specifically avoid recording that to make it look more crowded. If you tell them to just focus on the speaker, you might not realize that that will translate to no crowd shots. The better they understand, the more the videographer can help you get exactly what you’re looking for.
Will there be multiple cameras? How about editing? If there is only one camera, then that operator is likely to stay with relatively safe shots – not too much panning or zooming – to be sure that the quality is consistent and reliable. If there are multiple cameras, or an opportunity to do some editing of the footage afterwards, your camera operator can be a little more aggressive in pursuing interesting action, knowing if things don’t turn out quite right they can be adjusted. Editing diverse shots together can really enhance the end video.
When you engage Capture Video, we work with you to create the end product you need, even before you start. Just give us a little direction and we can direct the video production from there.
Tags: camera operator, capture video, corporate video, dc, editor, Event Video, jessica piscitelli robinson, live event coverage, northern virginia, nova, producer, production company, Quality, va, video, video production, videographer, virginia, www.capture-video.com
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PowerPoint can be a pretty amazing tool. It allows people who have no training in graphic design or video production to create solid presentations with graphics and simple animation that looks professional.
If you’re doing a stand up presentation and the PowerPoint is intended to back up spoken information, then it is exactly the right tool. If you need to be able to control the timing of each screen and advance slides manually, then again, PowerPoint is the tool you need.
But if the visuals are the star, video might give you more of what you’re looking for.
Are you trying to attract a new high powered client? Static presentations can be a little dry. A presentation with some animated graphics, timed to match the voice over, can make a dry presentation much more fun and appealing. Combine and overlay your graphs for comparisons, and cut them in with photographs of action to keep interest focused. Add video testimonials or a speech from the CEO to add more depth to the presentation.
Are you the conference opener? If you are kicking off an event with a short presentation, then you may want fast paced animation, music, and flashy titles. Video gives you more options to create a higher level of excitement with a self running kick off presentation.
If your building has a screen in the lobby, or your office has a TV in the waiting area, consider creating a video of titles giving information about what you do and how your products or service can make a difference. Have a trade show coming up? Attract attention and draw people to your booth with 2D or 3D title animation, 2D or 3D graphic animation, or strongly impactful video of your product in use.
If your next presentation needs to be taken to the next level, Capture Video is ready to help you create a video that grabs and keeps the attention of your audience.
Tags: Advertising, camera operator, capture video, corporate video, dc, editor, Event Video, Graphics, High definition, jessica piscitelli robinson, marketing, northern virginia, nova, producer, production company, promos, Quality, va, video, Video Ad, video production, videographer, virginia, www.capture-video.com
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The Olympics is one of the all-time most recorded events. There are cameras everywhere, recording everything, all the time. It’s easiest to see this with the figure skating. If you can tear your eyes away from the skaters for just a minute, you’ll see that they are constantly passing banks of multiple cameras. These cameras represent different networks, different formats, and different angles to ensure that every mistimed landing or perfect quad is available in close up and every dramatic sweep and dance move is available at the best perspective for us all to appreciate the beauty of it. Working a camera at the Olympics is, in its own way, a gold medal event. And like the athletes, the cameras at the Olympics make the footage look easy and effortless.
It isn’t quite that easy, and most live event recordings don’t have individual cameras at every corner. Really, most events don’t require that level of detail. If you have a single speaker at the front of an audience, often a single camera will do the job you need at a price the budget will like. If capturing the audience participation is important to your end product, then your live event might require two cameras. If your speaker is extremely important, perhaps at the level of a visiting dignitary or celebrity, it’s possible you might even want a third (or fourth) camera. One dedicated to your VIP, one person zooming in and out between the speaker and the audience to capture the interaction, and one who will focus on the audience, getting footage of the reactions. If your end video will be income generating, it might be worth the initial expense of that third camera to get the variety in footage.
Multiple cameras will produce a lot of screen time that needs to be edited. At the Olympics someone is spending all their time editing the best highlight shots, the most interesting crowd interactions, the most intimate reactions of the other competitors, and putting it all together in a way that tells the story captured by all those cameras in a single presentation that winds up on our televisions. The most complete stories are caught by multiple cameras and then woven together.
So, while the Olympics is an amazing example of what the outer limits of video production capability is able to achieve, most companies, quite rightfully, don’t really want to invest that much money in their event video. Either way, give Capture Video a call and we’ll be happy to create your own Gold Medal video production.
Tags: camera operator, capture video, d.c., dc, Event Video, High definition, jessica piscitelli robinson, live event coverage, marketing, northern virginia, nova, Olympics, producer, production company, promos, Quality, Storytelling, va, video, video production, videographer, virginia, www.capture-video.com
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I enjoy my job and the opportunity it gives me to learn a variety of things I might never have known or even wondered about. Some projects just turn out to be particularly fun and interesting.
I really enjoyed shooting a “how it’s made” video for the American Concrete Pressure Pipe Association. The production involved traveling to three different plant locations, one in the US and two in Canada. Videotaping these gigantic pipes and the equipment that manufactures them was like playing with Tonka Toys, but in reverse, where *we* were the toys! The pipes towered over my head! It was very cool to see in action. I feel like I really understand the manufacturing process of concrete pressure pipe, and, furthermore, I think that that is very cool!
I had such fun making this I wanted to share it, even though it is still in the rough cut.
There were some very interesting differences to the manufacturing process between the locations. For example, in Canada, it is necessary to keep the pipes indoors while drying to prevent freezing. In Phoenix they keep sprinklers on the pipes to keep them from overheating.
Each plant visit was fun, but must admit to having enjoyed Phoenix a little better for managing to stay a few extra days to hike the Grand Canyon.Capture Video – no job too large!
Capture Video crew are available for videotaping in the Metro DC area, the continental US, or anywhere around the world – especially Paris or Hawaii.
Tags: ACPPA, American Concrete Pressure Pipe Association, camera operator, capture video, construction video, corporate video, dc, High definition, How it's made, jessica piscitelli robinson, Manufacturing, northern virginia, nova, pressure pipe, production company, Quality, va, video, video production, videographer, virginia, www.capture-video.com
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This week I’ll be speaking to the NoVa Women’s Network about my love of storytelling.
In May of 2011, I started Better Said Than Done, Northern Virginia’s premiere storytelling troupe. It’s like The Moth, only in Virginia, and, well, if I must say so myself, better! We are not an open mic storytelling troupe. We are populated with storytellers who rehearse and then perform their true, personal stories for audiences throughout Northern Virginia.
As an extension of the storytelling shows, and due to the popularity of storytelling, I have also been teaching workshops on storytelling. I am very excited to speak to this group of professional women on Friday about using storytelling to get referrals. People will forget what you do unless they’re in immediate need of your services, but they’ll rarely forget your story. Join me on Friday to learn how you can craft your own.
Capture Video was started with a love of storytelling through film paired with a thorough understanding of how to make that happen with quality results. We can help you with your marketing by bringing your story to life.
Tags: Better Said Than Done, capture video, d.c., dc, jessica piscitelli robinson, marketing, northern virginia, nova, Storytelling, va, www.capture-video.com
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