Why video?

I’ve worked in almost all aspects of communications and marketing, writing, print design, social media, website design and implementation. I know first hand that people will take a couple of minutes out of their busy day to watch a quick video, and that this message has the greatest emotional impact of any medium. And if you know anything about marketing and communications, you also know emotions have greater weight than statistics almost every time. That’s right — while I’m all for using facts and figures (and telling the truth!), your audience will respond most strongly to your call if you appeal to them emotionally.

 

Video is the best medium to get your audience’s attention.

Just checking: have you looked at the video in the sidebar? I’m betting the answer is yes. Because humans naturally respond to movement, sound and emotion. And the numbers don’t lie: Facebook and Snapchat have over 8 billion daily video views and YouTube has more than one billion users.

 

Short form video is the present and future, for now.

That said, I like to make videos that fulfill multiple functions. With all the work that it takes to make a great video, it had better have a long life and be watched. So a video can be a special event video, but ideally it will then be used on a website and on social media. Maybe with a quick tweak it can be used as part of a portfolio, a pitch packet or in a fundraising email campaign. I want the video to work for you, over and over again.

I still love long form video. If you have a project that needs an organized editor to help you distill hundreds of hours of footage into a compelling story, I’ve done it, on some of the biggest and most ambitious projects for PBS. (We even did it on film!)

How video?

Let's talk about your project

 

Contact me

If you’ve not created a video before, you should know that a lot more goes into it that meets the eye. While I don’t work on years-long multi-part series anymore, it’s always best to have plenty of time to plan ahead. What’s involved:

  • Assessment of needs
  • Concept and key messages
  • Writing
  • Storyboarding
  • Location scouting and planning
  • Shoot preparation
  • Shoot
  • Logging and review of footage
  • Rough cut editing
  • Fine cut editing
  • Output and final delivery

In between almost every step there is communication and often review with the client. It’s a fun, creative and exciting process, and when done right you’ll have a video that’s very useful to you. It will get folks excited and doing what you want them to do, whether it’s buying a product, donating to a cause, spreading the word, or simply learning — or remembering — something important.