Yesterday, I wan an invited participant in a regional video producers meeting, hosted by the North Jersey Videographers Association. The first part of the meeting was a 90-minute State of the Industry panel discussion, and that included two associates from Boston, one from Dallas, and another from Long Island. With a 3pm start, the meeting drew about 75 attendees.
One of the issues identified by the LI associate is somewhat local to his area i.e. there are a number of photo studios that, as he explained, treat event video as a commodity, not as an art form. They sell fairly basic packages at relatively low prices, and actively do not want artistic-type shots. The Long Island associate talked about his relationship with the couples he worked with, and felt terrible that he could not deliver an artistic video. While this may not be national in scope, there is a terrific business lesson to be learned. The fact is that the photo studio owner is acting like a businessperson. He is selling video for more than the video is costing him, and keeping that client in his studio. One attendee remarked that he recently started offering photography in his video studio, which is a perfectly appropriate action. The point that I made, and others on the panel made, was that we have to act like entrepreneurs, like business people, in order to achieve business success. It's a simple formulation, really.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
A Funny Thing Happened In Minnesota. No, Really!
Last week, I spent a couple of days in the Minneapolis area. I had a presentation to the Minnesota Professional Videographers Association, meetings with vendors, and I also had to shoot some b-roll for a corporate video project. A busy couple of days, in other words.
One of the places I needed to go and shoot video was the town of White Bear Lake. It was a nice little place, and since I was there mid-day, I stopped in a local restaurant for lunch. The place was called the Cobblestone Café, and it was a family-run business.
As I walked in to get seated, a guy came in to deliver a pizza to the owners. I can’t say that I’d seen anything quite like that before. I had to ask the owners if that were a subtle message that I should go elsewhere for lunch. They assured me that they were simply bored of eating from their own menu, after being there for 10 years.
I did stay there for lunch, and it wasn’t bad. I got to sit outside in fairly fresh air, with very little humidity. And I got a good story to tell.
One of the places I needed to go and shoot video was the town of White Bear Lake. It was a nice little place, and since I was there mid-day, I stopped in a local restaurant for lunch. The place was called the Cobblestone Café, and it was a family-run business.
As I walked in to get seated, a guy came in to deliver a pizza to the owners. I can’t say that I’d seen anything quite like that before. I had to ask the owners if that were a subtle message that I should go elsewhere for lunch. They assured me that they were simply bored of eating from their own menu, after being there for 10 years.
I did stay there for lunch, and it wasn’t bad. I got to sit outside in fairly fresh air, with very little humidity. And I got a good story to tell.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Internet Radio Interview
I’ll be the featured guest on the May 22, 2008 edition of “The Frazzled Entrepreneur” program. The interview will be heard live at 8pm EDT on Blog Talk Radio, at this web address: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/frazzledentrepreneur/2008/05/23/The-Frazzled-Entrepreneur-Program-Steve-Wernick-Real-Entrepreneurs-Live.
We’ll have the chance to talk about the video production business, as well as about The 4EVER Group. Since the program runs for an hour, there’s plenty of time for a range of topics.
If you leave a comment below, and mention any topic we discuss with specificity, you’ll be eligible for a 10% discount on any new video production. I mention specificity because I want you to listen to the interview.
In addition to the live session, the program will be archived and appear on The Frazzled Entrepreneur Program website, at http://www.frazzledentrepreneur.com/, for many weeks.
We’ll have the chance to talk about the video production business, as well as about The 4EVER Group. Since the program runs for an hour, there’s plenty of time for a range of topics.
If you leave a comment below, and mention any topic we discuss with specificity, you’ll be eligible for a 10% discount on any new video production. I mention specificity because I want you to listen to the interview.
In addition to the live session, the program will be archived and appear on The Frazzled Entrepreneur Program website, at http://www.frazzledentrepreneur.com/, for many weeks.
Friday, May 16, 2008
May 10 wedding
May 10 was clearly a big day for weddings. I was working for Jillian and Chris, whose ceremony was at Old St. Mary’s, with the reception at the Radisson Warwick. This was a fairly recent booking, as they had originally contracted with a studio in New Jersey that shut down, unannounced. They came to me on a referral from their photographer, Michael Leslie. (The images here are courtesy of Michael Leslie, from his blog at http://www.michaelleslie.com/blog/?p=264).
Jillian’s biggest trouble was being uncomfortable at being the center of attention. That’s real hard to do when you’re the woman in the big white dress.
Although the day before their wedding was cold and rainy, their day turned out just fine. We had time to stop at the Art Museum after the ceremony, and that’s when we concluded that May 10 was such a big wedding day. There were 5 or 6 other wedding parties at the Art Museum while we were there (I knew one of the photographers, and two of the video producers). There were two other wedding parties near the Water Works, two more at the fountain in front of the main library, and one out front of the Union League (I knew their video producer as well).
Jillian and Chris had a rockin’ reception, with Rio, a band from EBE Talent, and about 150 guests. The wedding ended with Jillian being held up like she was in a mosh pit That’ll be a good wrap to the video.
Jillian’s biggest trouble was being uncomfortable at being the center of attention. That’s real hard to do when you’re the woman in the big white dress.
Although the day before their wedding was cold and rainy, their day turned out just fine. We had time to stop at the Art Museum after the ceremony, and that’s when we concluded that May 10 was such a big wedding day. There were 5 or 6 other wedding parties at the Art Museum while we were there (I knew one of the photographers, and two of the video producers). There were two other wedding parties near the Water Works, two more at the fountain in front of the main library, and one out front of the Union League (I knew their video producer as well).
Jillian and Chris had a rockin’ reception, with Rio, a band from EBE Talent, and about 150 guests. The wedding ended with Jillian being held up like she was in a mosh pit That’ll be a good wrap to the video.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
NAB in Las Vegas, 2008
I recently traveled to Las Vegas, for the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention. More than 100,000 people come in from all over the world. Despite the questionable economy, the convention was packed.
We ran our first NAB-week event this year, at the Monte Carlo. This was a reception co-sponsored by Adobe, B&H, Canon, Sony Recording Media, and TEAC. The event went well, but the hotel presented us with some interesting challenges, like locking the doors. We won’t be back there again.
We also presented our annual Product Innovation awards, and you can see the whole list at http://www.4evergroup.org/.
I was invited to participate in a meeting with representatives from Canon. There were five or six representatives from Japan in that meeting (see photo), and waiting for things to be translated back-and-forth was somewhat entertaining.
NAB was, as usual, a great opportunity to build and improve business relationships. One of the big players in this industry is Avid. Right after NAB last year, they had a round of layoffs. Our principal contact, Linda Croson, was one of the people laid off. I was standing in line for coffee, and there was Linda, standing in front of me. Turns out that about a month after being laid off, she was hired by Sony. So that worked out fine for her.
We ran our first NAB-week event this year, at the Monte Carlo. This was a reception co-sponsored by Adobe, B&H, Canon, Sony Recording Media, and TEAC. The event went well, but the hotel presented us with some interesting challenges, like locking the doors. We won’t be back there again.
We also presented our annual Product Innovation awards, and you can see the whole list at http://www.4evergroup.org/.
I was invited to participate in a meeting with representatives from Canon. There were five or six representatives from Japan in that meeting (see photo), and waiting for things to be translated back-and-forth was somewhat entertaining.
NAB was, as usual, a great opportunity to build and improve business relationships. One of the big players in this industry is Avid. Right after NAB last year, they had a round of layoffs. Our principal contact, Linda Croson, was one of the people laid off. I was standing in line for coffee, and there was Linda, standing in front of me. Turns out that about a month after being laid off, she was hired by Sony. So that worked out fine for her.
Another Corporate Video
I’m currently in the middle of a fairly big corporate video project. The shoot included two days on location at a conference, brief b-roll shooting at a variety of retail establishments, and a whole lot of editing. We shot testimonials at that conference in early April, and we won’t have the project wrapped until September.
The project was put out for competitive bidding, but the environment was flexible. The low bidder wasn’t automatically getting the contract, because there were going to be some creative opportunities that might mitigate an otherwise higher price.
As it turned out, we were the low bidder, with pricing in line with the company’s expectations (they’d done similar projects for several years, but wanted a new video producer). The company rep told the non-winners what the final bid price was. One of those bidders, whose original price was about double what our price was, offered to match our price. That’s from the school of “too late”. If you have that much padding in your bid, you come off as not needing, or not wanting, the work. If you do want the work, submit a competitive bid in the first place.
The entire project has some interesting dynamics. The client is based in California. The conference where we shot the testimonials was in Boston. We needed to get transcripts of all 20 interviews, so I emailed the audio file to a woman in New Jersey, who emailed the transcripts back. The editing will also be done in NJ, and the retail establishments (for the b-roll) are all over the country. The video segments from the project will be hosted on the company web site, but also will be put on a DVD for trade show use.
The project was put out for competitive bidding, but the environment was flexible. The low bidder wasn’t automatically getting the contract, because there were going to be some creative opportunities that might mitigate an otherwise higher price.
As it turned out, we were the low bidder, with pricing in line with the company’s expectations (they’d done similar projects for several years, but wanted a new video producer). The company rep told the non-winners what the final bid price was. One of those bidders, whose original price was about double what our price was, offered to match our price. That’s from the school of “too late”. If you have that much padding in your bid, you come off as not needing, or not wanting, the work. If you do want the work, submit a competitive bid in the first place.
The entire project has some interesting dynamics. The client is based in California. The conference where we shot the testimonials was in Boston. We needed to get transcripts of all 20 interviews, so I emailed the audio file to a woman in New Jersey, who emailed the transcripts back. The editing will also be done in NJ, and the retail establishments (for the b-roll) are all over the country. The video segments from the project will be hosted on the company web site, but also will be put on a DVD for trade show use.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Altoona Baseball
The Altoona Rail Kings were a minor league baseball team that lasted two seasons, starting in 1996. They moved to West Virginia before folding. As I remembered it, the Rail Kings never even played a game, so I have to attribute the facts here to Wikipedia. Although I’m a baseball fan, and I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Altoona, I never got to see a Rail Kings game. The Altoona Curve baseball team started playing in 1999, and I didn’t get to one of their games until last summer (that’s the photo here).
I have good friends, Joel and Barb, who have lived in Altoona since the mid-1970’s. Whenever I needed a break from the insanity of Penn State, I’d just take a ride down Rt. 220 to what we all agreed was the “Rest Home”.
Since I never got to a Rail Kings game, I never got any branded merchandise. Generally, I’ll only get something (shirt, glass, etc.) if it represents something I’ve seen, or somewhere I’ve been. Nevertheless, getting a Rail Kings jersey became a running joke with Joel and Barb since about 1997.
Once a year or so, I’d check EBay and Craig’s List to see if anyone was selling a jersey. No such luck. And, as it happens, the last time I checked was just a few days ago.
Yesterday, the mailman delivered a small box, and it had Joel and Barb’s return address. My first thought was that the Rail Kings jersey had finally arrived. But when I opened the box, it was actually a Rail Kings jacket! That was a really cool surprise.
Of course, I immediately called Joel and Barb, telling the story about having just checked EBay, and it was probably the day they sent it. Barb asked if there was any time limit on my request, and was 11 years too long to wait.
I have good friends, Joel and Barb, who have lived in Altoona since the mid-1970’s. Whenever I needed a break from the insanity of Penn State, I’d just take a ride down Rt. 220 to what we all agreed was the “Rest Home”.
Since I never got to a Rail Kings game, I never got any branded merchandise. Generally, I’ll only get something (shirt, glass, etc.) if it represents something I’ve seen, or somewhere I’ve been. Nevertheless, getting a Rail Kings jersey became a running joke with Joel and Barb since about 1997.
Once a year or so, I’d check EBay and Craig’s List to see if anyone was selling a jersey. No such luck. And, as it happens, the last time I checked was just a few days ago.
Yesterday, the mailman delivered a small box, and it had Joel and Barb’s return address. My first thought was that the Rail Kings jersey had finally arrived. But when I opened the box, it was actually a Rail Kings jacket! That was a really cool surprise.
Of course, I immediately called Joel and Barb, telling the story about having just checked EBay, and it was probably the day they sent it. Barb asked if there was any time limit on my request, and was 11 years too long to wait.
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