Video StudentGuy

Here are some thoughts I had following a business workshop for artists a month ago.

There are links to come, be patient.

Organizing your media

Consistent, uncluttered, organization of media that would allow you to return to the project 3 years later and find everything even though you've completely forgotten everything about the job. Although I didn't refer to organization of files on the desktop level, I strongly suggest that you organize all your media in the same hierarchical fashion both in your editing software and your computer's hard drive.

Something else I didn't mention it in the show which I will have to discuss it at length in a later show is that  a very important part of organization occurs on the other end of of production, when you're done: consolidation.

Consolidation is the process of saving out the project and all the pieces of media that was used in the projects - in one folder. This is done once you are finished and you're preparing to archive everything and take it offline.

Someday you're going to want to re-edit this video, include it in your reel, or a compilation, or just find a piece of footage that you used and consolidation is a critical, time saving process you can use to do that.

At the time I recorded this show there were two great new media events taking place in the middle of June. That has changed. Podcamp New Hampshire 2010 was scheduled to take place the weekend of June 20, Father's day weekend, but it has now rescheduled to a yet to be determined date in October. What a pain that decision must have been to the promoters. It's still a great event to keep on your radar and you should seriously consider this once the new date is finalized.

That leaves Podcast's Across Borders 2010, formerly held in Kingston Ontario, now relocated to Ottawa Ontario, June 18, 19 and 20. Bob Goyetche and Mark Blevis are the promoters of this even and you can find out more about them at Canadian Podcast Buffet. You can check out shows I've done in the past for both Podcamp NH 2009 and PAB 2009.

By the way, Podcamps take place throughout America and around the world and they're great places to meet helpful, knowledgeable creative people interested in media, social networking and online branding. You can check out the Podcamp.org site for listings of shows in your neck of the woods. Remember, Podcamps are networking seminar events where everyone, including you, is the teacher. Most of these events don't even charge a fee to attend. Don't let the price fool you though, these are top notch gatherings that will help you connect with the top thinkers in the social media and networking world.

The remainder of the show is about self promotion - your own self promotion. After attending a day long workshop about business strategies for the artist, sponsored by the Connecticut Commission for the Arts I came away a number great ideas to consider. I'll talk about the sessions I attended in another show. There were three separate seminars presented in Connecticut this past spring and you can hear the recordings online on their site. Recordings of sessions from the May 1st event I attended have not been uploaded yet, so keep checking.

In the remainder of the show I talked about the power of talking about your plans with other people and how that helps shape and propel your vision. Making your dreams come true is also a creative act and it begins when you speaking them out loud.

In a recent episode of Spark, the CBC Radio and podcast show, Nora Young talked with Anand Giridharadas (14:59-24:25) about the nature and perils of personal branding. It's part of a larger show about about online identities and as always the people at Spark do a great job bringing insight into the way technology is effecting our busy lives daily.


As is often the case, the segment on personal branding made me think about my own difficulties realizing my online brand and the difficulties that content producers have being their own marketers. Because of the "always on", "global nature" of online branding the burden of time to position yourself for success is greater than in the physical world. Or maybe it's just a perceived burden. That's the question I have.

Now that a lot of the content we produce, whether it's books, illustrations, animations, video or music, podcasts and other audio, is online, how much additional time can we, as producers afford to devote to marketing ourselves?

I'm trying, but I still feel like I'm just getting out of the gate. How are you using your precious free time to promote yourself online?

Other links:
Dan Schawbell - Me 2.0
    http://personalbrandingbook.com/
Krop - Online portfolio site
    http://www.krop.com/creativedatabase/

A Day in the Life of Plimoth Plantations

Hey, it's been a while. I should have gotten this out a few weeks ago but I"ve been running flat out. I think that's a sign of success of some kind. I'm not certain.I'm working on a number of different video projects in various stages of production, doing the video production internship at CDIA and producing another podcast each week, The Post-Movie Podcast.

On Monday January 25, from 10:30am to 8:00pm I started and finished a short video of a day in the life of Plimoth Plantation.

I believe the real lessons I've gained from this experience are the things the director and I did right. Creating a finished video in one day is not an ideal job by any stretch of the imagination, although I had a lot of fun - you can't approach a project like this without a sense of adventure and a come-what-may attitude.

Producing this video does force you to focus on the bare essentials and requires that you be very prepared before you begin. Storyboard or shot list was essential. Script or story also had to be nailed down ahead of time as well. All of that lead to a focused shoot and really really spare coverage. We were constantly moving, dodging the rain, shooting about 8 or 9 locations, none of which I had previously seen. Being mentally prepared and trusting your equipment is also critical.

My point is, none of the things I've just mentioned are unusual requirements for any video you need to produce. A situation such as this only demonstrates how critical they are to keep on schedule.

The deadline was real because we needed to post it to a TV station's site before midnight in order for it to be considered for inclusion in a future broadcast of a Boston show, Chronicle.

On Thursday February 18 Chronicle did a best of submissions from January 25 and I was told, thought I didn't see it firsthand, that this video did show. Good exposure for Plimoth Plantations, I don't know how much bragging rights there is in it for me. But I'm happy.

I hope you enjoy it. If you'd like any further information about the production process, let me know.

Hey I need some Help!

I've got a number of ideas for shows coming up and one of them is figuring out rates for freelance videography. I can tell you information on the web is skimpy and I'm not getting a lot of feedback from the few people I know who are doing this, just generalizations.

Could I ask you to email me at videostudentguy.gmail.com with your ideas, or experience you've had pricing jobs? I'd appreciate also if you told me what kind of video is was, such as corporate, non profit, weddings or other social events. Also any anecdotes about difficulties you had justifying your rates. In the current economy I hear that a lot of the suppositions regarding what people are willing to pay has changed drastically from just a year ago.

Let me know.