eTown Videos Blog

Archive for the ‘Western Massachusetts’ Category

This blog post will outline how to create a kickstarter video to help you raise funds for your project

Tips on how to make a kickstarter video and raise funds for your project

In this post, I’d like to outline production elements which are of particular importance for kickstarter video projects. If you are not familiar with kickstarter you may want review their website.

Creating and producing a video for kickstarter is an essential part of the crowd-funding process, and most people spend a significant amount of the time with their video producer to develop the script, storyboard, video shoot, and post production.

How do you create a kickstarter video to help you raise funds for your project?

1. Develop a script: The first step with your kickstarter video production is the development of a script. Whether you write the script yourself or you seek the assistance of your video production company – the creator of the kickstarter project should be involved in the script writing process. It doesn’t matter if the final run-time of the video is 30 seconds or 5 minutes, the script will be the driving engine of the video project. Consider the following script structure elements:
   • Take a step back and write the script from the point of view of the viewer. What would compel a viewer to help fund your project?
   • What problem are you solving? What need are you addressing? Typically, a basic premise of video marketing and advertising is addressing a pain point, solving a common problem, or addressing some other need. Kickstarter and marketing web videos require that the project is not only compelling but that viewers can relate to the problem which your product is solving for them.
   • Show the script to friends, colleagues, and business associates for feedback.
   • Get to the point quickly: Web video viewers tend to click away quickly if you don’t get their attention within the first 10-15 seconds.

1. Storyboading: Storyboarding is putting visuals to the script. Together the director, filmmaker, and the client brainstorm which images go with every single scene, question, or concept. The storyboard and the script become sort of “master documents” for the entire kickstarter video production. Read the rest of this entry »

Robin Bialecki, Executive Director of the Easthampton Community Center (ECC) in Easthampton, MA, during an interview with the video production team at eTown Videos

Last summer we met with Robin Bialecki of the Easthampton Community Center (ECC) in Easthampton, MA. During our visit we learned of all the wonderful ways the community center helps people in need in Easthampton and some of the surrounding communities. With today’s blog post and video, I’d like to highlight some portions of the interview with Robin again and perhaps make people aware of the ECC who may not have heard of the center.

The center provides a Food Pantry, Community Care Kitchen, a Clothing Closet, along with a meeting space for community groups, and holiday or celebratory gatherings. The building is open seven days each week with many classes and meetings going on. Since our visit last summer I had the opportunity to meet with Robin several times, in fact, earlier this year the Easthampton Community Center granted eTown Videos permission to use the large meeting hall for an all-day video shoot for which we are grateful.

If you’d like to stay in touch with the center “Like” them on Facebook or view their monthly newsletter which is now available online.

The footage was originally produced on behalf of the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce.

Kim Durand and Brett Normandeau of Normandeau Technologies in West Springfield, MA partner with eTown Videos for their online web video production

A 3-minute high quality web video can save your web visitors 30 minutes or more

Normandeau Technologies, located in West  Springfield, MA, is a business which specializes in telecommunications and computer networking. Telecommunications and data networking is a highly competitive industry – finding effective online marketing strategies means distinguishing yourself from the competition. This is a real challenge for most telecommunications businesses. Making things more difficult is the fact that these products can be rather complicated to understand for many customers trying to find a telecommunications service provider for their companies. For example, if you were to look at half a dozen telecom websites, you will find they pretty much say the same things using similar  industry jargon – not much fun for any potential customer. Some text is necessary on any website but using words, diagrams, and stock photos as the only means to communicate is simply not enough to distinguish you from the rest.

What to do?

We need to humanize the experience of researching a sophisticated technology field such telecommunications by adding online video. The reason online video productions are so effective is because they are a form of face to face communications. Our brains are wired to decode face to face communications almost instantly. The written word isn’t nearly as effective in conveying concepts and ideas. Normandeau Technologies decided to partner with eTown Videos to develop several web videos  in which the company management communicates information about the history, products, and services in a friendly and personal manner. Without further ado – take a look at the above video.

Western Massachusetts Videographer Highlights Local Hair Salon in Easthampton, Massachusetts

eTown Videos speaks with Lisa Godin of Lisa’s Hair Shop in Easthampton, MA during the filming of the monthly Easthampton Chamber member video spotlight

This month the eTown videography crew was back on the road on behalf of the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce to showcase another wonderful member business. We spoke with Lisa Godin who has been a hair stylist in Easthampton, MA for 26 years. She’s the owner of Lisa’s Hair Shop. The video highlights her beautiful and spacious hair salon as well as her delightful and charming personality. In this post, I’d also like to take you behind the scenes of our monthly video spotlight for the Chamber.

A few notes on videography and video production for this web commercial.

We try to keep to total run time to around 60-90 seconds for most small businesses. Based on our observations over the years, a 60-90 second web video commercial is long enough to deliver the concise marketing message of the business while providing the audience with an opportunity to get a sense of the personalities of its owner.

During the interview with the videogapher it is critical that the person being interviewed feels as comfortable as possible once the camera and lights go on. We pay a lot of attention to bringing out the personality of the person we are speaking with – it’s a rather important aspect of any interview or presentation. The average small business interview process takes 20-40 minutes. We try to establish an environment where the videographer, lights, camera, or anything else related to video production simply doesn’t matter any more to the person being interviewed. We are simply having a conversation, in this case with Lisa Godin, about a subject which she loves and enjoys talking about – making her clients look and feel great. Read the rest of this entry »

Beautiful time lapse video of Western Massachusetts sky and clouds

Beautiful time lapse video of Western Massachusetts sky and clouds

We created this time lapse video on May 10th, 2013 looking at the Western Massachusetts sky. Hope you enjoy it.

Is Video Production Quality Important?

Online videos come in many varieties – from dogs on surfboards and people dancing. I watch them because many are indeed fun and entertaining, you could also become an unexpected star on YouTube Many online videos are shot with low res phones or smart phones. Interestingly though, per Mashable, 9 out of the top 10 YouTube videos in 2012 were produced professionally. If you are a business considering a marketing video then quality plays an important role. High quality video builds trust and reflects on your companies or organization’s vision. As a business owner you take pride in offering the best service and products possible, therefore, your marketing video should reflect that commitment to quality and service. It is critical that your first impression is a good one. Someone discovering your business online for the first time wants to be impressed. Put your best foot forward, be original, authentic, and showcase your business with a high quality marketing video. I am not saying that you need to spend tens of thousands of dollars, a high quality marketing video can be produced even with a limited online marketing budget.

If you are a business located in Springfield, Northampton, MA or any of the Western Massachusetts communities, feel free to contact us and we’d be happy to provide you with a complimentary video marketing consultation.

How much should I spend on our marketing video?

Even the most casual Internet user is realizing that the online experience is increasingly driven by web videos and video marketing. comScore, an Internet analytics and research company, estimates that the online video audience has reached approximately 85% of the entire US Internet audience.
Some time ago, Forrester Research found that a webpage which has a video included, is 50 times more likely to make a first page appearance during a Google search.
Well, what does this mean for local and regional clients based in Northampton, Springfield, Massachusetts or any of the surrounding business communities? It simply means if you  are utilizing online marketing strategies to attract new customers then some of your marketing dollars must be spent on video marketing. If you’re wondering how much of an investment is necessary to have a marketing video produced, perhaps this blog post can be of assistance in your decision making process. Keep in mind that video marketing production means different things to different people in Springfield, Northampton, Massachusetts (or any place else for that matter).

Here are the web video marketing costs:

We produce basic marketing videos for our clients for  as low as $500-$800 per video. Typically these are small businesses with 1-5 employees. The video includes interviews, background music, basic text and title animation, some logo motion graphics, as well as B-roll footage, and of course video marketing editing services. Many times businesses use these web videos for months or even years, nonstop 24/7, in other words,  you can get a lot of online marketing mileage out of a single video marketing production. Here’s video marketing example from one of our Northampton, MA clients.

Other businesses have also requested storyboard development, script writing, professional voice-over narration, in addition to the above mentioned services and prices can be as low as $1800-$2000 but in many cases these larger web video marketing productions range between $3000 to $5000. Keep in mind, marketing videos typically require a significant amount of on-location production times as well as post production editing services. Developing a concept, telling your story to reflect your company’s vision and brand and then creating a marketing video that is consistent with your vision is indeed time-consuming. But quality matters and your potential customers to do appreciate the well produced video with relevant content.

Marketing videos are not the only type of videos which our clients in the Western Mass region have been using. Consequently, the pricing structure for video production could have a different cost range. As an example, we recently completed a marketing video production for an attorney in Springfield, Massachusetts who will be using his videos within his blogs. The videos have an average run time of two minutes, and consist of basic informational videos during which the client talks straight into the camera, more or less uninterrupted, providing useful information and advice to his audience. These two minute informational web videos may require a script which is prepared by the client. These types of videos require less post production and editing time. Much of the cost for video production lies in both the concept development, pre-production planning, and post production services.

Therefore, to be clear on what type of web video or marketing video your business or organization requires will determine how much production time, resources, and cost is required.

If it were at all possible, we would bring our little springer spaniel to the set. I can assure you she’ll take your mind off any fears that you may encounter during the video shoot. She LOVES people.

Southampton, Easthampton video production company explains what to expect during a video shoot

Clearly the most important part with respect to client expectations is the final video production result. In other words, what will the video look and feel like once it has been completed.

However, one of the other main areas of concern for web video clients is the video shoot. Clients are sometimes worried about what they will have to do on camera. It’s sort of like the fear of public speaking which is a common fear among most people.

Therefore, as professional videographers, one of the main objectives of our video production team when working with New England businesses  on  a video shoot is to make the client feel as comfortable as possible. I completely understand that once the camera and lights go on,  raw nerves can override any plans and interview preparations.  But we are experienced in helping clients overcome any discomfort.

OK, let’s get started: Read the rest of this entry »

Get a chance to win a $25 AmEx Gift Certificate. Answer the following question:

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a one minute web video worth?

A. 14,000?
B. 120,000?
C. 1,800,000?

Watch the video to get the answer.

 


LIKE eTown Videos on Facebook and write your answer in the comments on eTown Videos’ Facebook page.
We will have a random drawing on Saturday, April 20th, 2013, and the winner of the drawing with the correct answer will receive a $25.00 AmEx Gift Certificate. (You must “like” eTown Videos to be eligible for contest prize, in other words become a “Fan”)

Good luck and please “Share”

Web video is a game changer!