Video Production Archives - Page 14 of 80

Are Phones Suitable Replacements For Video Cameras?

I’ll be the first to admit that video cameras in phones are getting more advanced. The visuals are looking good. But when it comes to production, it’s a different story.

I know that I had a post a couple of months ago on how to use a phone’s video function effectively. That was in the case that if an organization couldn’t afford a videographer to create the elements needed. Now this article I came across recently, in which a Swiss television station got rid of all of their cameras to replace them iPhones, tells a different picture. Well, let me dissect this one for you.

First of all, not only did they replace the cameras with iPhones, they added a selfie stick and there are camera men who now don’t have a job.

Secondly, a phone does not replace the overall quality and robustness that a video camera or DSLR can do in the hands of a professional camera person. You can have the best quality of video in the world, but if not in the hands of an experienced individual, it just will not look good.

Thirdly, you severely hamper advanced storytelling techniques. There are a lot of extra things you have to do to make this work the way you need it to, similar to a DSLR, without half of the quality. It’s also built to be a phone that can shoot video, not a video camera that can answer calls.

I’m very skeptical that this Swiss station will find the solution it is looking for, as this has been tried a couple of times and it didn’t last because of quality control issues. That’s the best reason of all to really nix the idea of an iPhone being your main video capture source. No matter how good the picture it can capture under optimal conditions. The life of production rarely is optimal and a professional will not choose a phone over a better video capture tool.

Not only that, but would you take my company seriously if we showed up with phones to create a video for you organization? I didn’t think so.

Paul J Schmidt is owner/production director of UnoDeuce Multimedia, a full service video production company based in Lansing, Michigan that specializes in creative visual storytelling for small businesses and non-profit organizations. You can connect with them at www.unodeuce.com

Guest Post: Charity Spotlight – Helping Women Period.

Helping Women Period removes barriers of self-sufficiency that many homeless and low-income women face daily. They provide feminine hygiene products such as sanitary pads and tampons to women in and around Lansing, Michigan.

In this charity spotlight, I spoke with the Founders of Helping Women Period, Amy Stephenson and Lysne Tait.

Origin Story
Early in 2015, Amy and Lysne discovered that WIC and SNAP (food stamps) cannot be used to purchase sanitary pads and tampons. They were shocked that such a basic need was not supported by state and federal aid programs. This was also a matter of dignity. Homeless and low-income women without running water had no way to take care of basic feminine hygiene.

The two friends decided to organize a fundraiser. They hoped to raise $500 to help provide women in need with feminine hygiene products. Their small fundraiser blew up when it was announced on Facebook, though.

Suddenly facing over 100 attendees, Amy and Lysne had to find a new venue. With so much support, they also decided to start a nonprofit. Within five days they had gone from fundraiser to founding Helping Women Period.

Today
Helping Women Period now provides feminine hygiene products to charities in the tri-county area for distribution. They have a great partnership with MichCo that allows them to purchase products at the best price, and they hold regular fundraising events and product drives.

In addition to pads and tampons, Helping Women Period provides handmade bags that allow products to be carried discretely. They also have donation boxes at various businesses in Lansing.

Big Wins
In their first year, Helping Women Period raised $14,000 and donated $8,000 worth of products. Considering the original fundraiser had a goal of $500, providing this much aid to women was a major victory.

They also partnered with several local charities to help distribute the products they acquire. These partnerships will continue to be vital to the growth of Helping Women Period.

To Nonprofits
If you are starting a charity, start something you believe in and make sure it is needed. Be organized from the very beginning and be accountable for your work. Leverage your strengths, collaborate with others to leverage theirs, and take care of your volunteers. Make it fun for them and thank them when they’re done.

Goals
Going into their second year, Amy and Lysne are confident that Helping Women Period can raise $20,000. This would be an extraordinary 40% increase over their first year.

They are also working on a handbook that would open up a Helping Women Period affiliate program. These affiliations would be a great way to provide aid to women in cities beyond Lansing. Long-term, Amy and Lysne would also like to help women in other countries.

To Donors
If you like a charity’s cause, reach out to them! Try volunteering. Charities really appreciate volunteers and they will take care of you!

Another way you can reach out is to ask your employer about sponsoring a charity. A business sponsorship is a big deal for many charities. Sometimes it’s as easy as starting a conversation.

Erik Gillespie is a software developer and semi-pro advocate of amazing things. He founded Giving Jar, a blog and upcoming donation platform for Lansing charities, and helps people learn how to create websites and other software at Lansing Code Lab. He’s kind of obsessed with board games, too.

#BetterCallPaul – Fake News

2nd Brain Collective Podcast: Tashmica Torok of the Firecracker Foundation

Guest Post: 8 Beginner Blogger Mistakes to Avoid

Even when it comes to blogging, no one is perfect. If you happen to be a freshie in the world of blogging, it is realistic to commit mistakes due to the considerable lack of experience and some knowledge in the new adventure you have decided to take. It is not surprising to mess things up a bit during the early stages of your blog’s development.

Luckily, there are resources like this infographic to help you avoid those mistakes most beginning bloggers commit to make it more convenient for you to sort them out. All you need to do is go back to your reference material and get yourself back on the right track for times you may have gone through the off beaten course of things.

Some of the typical errors that new bloggers are prone to make include writing too much stuff about themselves. In this case, just put yourself in the place of your readers. Will you be interested to read stuff that will not involve you or help anything that you are dealing with your life right now? A selfish sounding blog would certainly turn off readers in time.

Your thoughts and strategies must stay organized all the time, or, well, just strive to do so to the best of your ability. This way, you and your readers will always find yourself in the same of thoughts, feelings, and ideas. When you are in this kind of place, it is then easier to connect and establish a relationship with them.

Check out more of the follies you can avoid as a novice blogger in the infographic below:

Sarah Smith is in love with the written word, She herself a blogger and voracious reader who occasionally spouts Leaves of Grass to her pet cat.

5 Apps That Help Our Productivity

We produce a lot of content. So, not only to we have to keep track of the content we publish, but what we are out producing as well. To keep track of the production pipeline if you will. There are several tools that we use to help us with that. Tools that we could not possibly live without at this point.

The best part of these tools as well is they are cloud based and so they can be used both by mobile and desktop. Some are just web and mobile apps and others can be stand alone applications. They send all of us notifications when things change. Which makes the constant communications key to know where we are and what needs to happen next. Let’s get into these apps.

1. Dropbox. This is the most indispensable tool that we use. We use this as an interface with clients to get feedback on videos, files to send to my accountant and general storage internally. We have a certain folder structure set up so that we know where to get files and where to send files from.

2. Wunderlist. This tool allows you to know what tasks are coming up and what tasks have been completed. The sharing function of this tool allows you to be notified what’s been done and when. I love this tool.

3. Evernote. We use this all the time for transfer of notes and to create something on the fly for different departments. It also houses all of our processes for quick reference and the sharing option is key for that. We keep all of our meeting notes on here for quick reference.

4. Trello. This is where our pipeline sits. This allows us to know what projects are coming and where they sit in the process. This works for both production and publishing. We constantly are in this tool creating notes for corrections and keeping abreast of where the video should be published next from week to week.

5. Slack. This is our quintessential communication tool. No matter if you need to communicate with an individual or as a group. It has supplanted any other group texting tool. It also aggregates notifications from our other tools, such as Trello and Wunderlist so that you get pinged there as well to know what else has been going on. This tool has been the MVP since we put it in play earlier this year.

So that is the comprehensive list of tools that we use to help with our productivity needs. What tools do you use to communicate, plan and succeed with?

#BetterCallPaul — Video Newsfeed on Facebook

2nd Brain Collective Podcast: Phil Denny

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What is Our Future With Apple?

First, a disclaimer, I’m an Apple fan boy. Always have been. I’ve used an Apple computer since I was in elementary school when they allowed each classroom a day with the computer playing Oregon Trail. Now, that’s going way back. Ever since then, I’ve been more comfortable doing whatever I needed to do with a computer on a MacIntosh. In fact, I’m typing this post on an iMac. Maybe, a bit of overkill, but it gets the job done.

Macs are made for the creatives.

7158_1477725337 When I started my career in television and video, everyone said that since I was a creative, that’s what having a Mac was best for. Creating video, doing animation, doctoring photos, etc. everyone assumed I used a Mac because I was in the creative field. They weren’t wrong, completely. I, and everyone, I worked with and my colleagues who were doing creative work was using a Mac. When Apple started developing professional video software like Final Cut Pro, it just seemed that I was destined to continue using this company that not only supported software in which I made my living, but also the hardware. I continued using Macs for when I started my business and the immense amount of software they developed. So even administratively, I switched to using their productivity apps and iCloud to run business.

So, when they developed for mobile, my staff went with iPhones, because of the ubiquity of the device to plug into our ecosystem. Even at home I have two Macs and 2 AppleTVs. It just seemed natural. I felt that I was on a roll with a company that has been a part of my success and growth for the past 20 years. I bought into their changes and upgrades and enjoyed the advancements in technology that has help ushered major changes in my industry over the last 10 years.

The confusing keynote

Then the last keynote came out. And it hit me. Is Apple, the company I know and loved changing enough that it is phasing itself out of what we are doing? I sat and thought about that for a minute. It hasn’t really upgraded any of its desktop hardware in years. We haven’t yet upgraded to the last two iterations of the OS due to legacy software that we still use. This is weird. The new keynote didn’t go into any new hardware upgrades aside from the laptop, and I’m not interested in that as a main editing machine. The highlight was the the reference to a new Final Cut update. That’s great, but what about machines to put around that new interface? I was dumbfounded. Do I have to look to another platform to continue on what we have built? Administratively, that’s easy. The Google platform would be easy to transition to. As well as the Pixel is an interesting mobile device. Creatively, I know Adobe makes software that is cross platform, but do we really want to support a Windows 10 environment? I don’t know how to troubleshoot that one as well as the Mac.

There are a lot of questions that need to be answered when we decide to do a full upgrade of our systems next year. Let’s hope that in those 12 months Apple has some better answers and solutions for going forward.

#BetterCallPaul – November 2016 Recap

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