How To Choose A Production Company For Your Video Product

The tools for creating a video product are so inexpensive today that anyone can be a producer and broadcaster. If you’re serious about producing videos to generate additional revenue streams for your Internet business, or if you’re planning to launch an Internet site dedicated to the sale of video products, you need to learn how to do as much of the work as you can. Video production can be very rewarding and enjoyable work. On the other hand, if you have decided to outsource the development and production of your video product, there are many production companies online and in your area with talented and experienced personnel.

I have successfully completed several video products with production companies. Working with industry professionals has been a wonderful learning experience for me, and I have found that people who work on your projects are happy to teach you what they know. To quote a price for your video product, the production company will need to know the following:

* What is the target audience?
* Do you need to use on-camera actors or will you record voice overs?
* Will you write your own script, or will you outsource it to the production company?
* How many locations will you have?
* What is the length of the video?
* Do you need animations or graphics added to your video product?

The production company will provide the crew for your video. The crew for a simple video will include a producer, camera operator, and a sound technician. For small projects the producer will double as director, and for the simplest projects a one-man company can take care of all the aspects of creating and producing your video product. If you plan to create a more sophisticated video with on-camera talent, you will need a production assistant, lighting directors, make-up artists, and possibly other technicians.

Make sure that the production company can complete the entire production project; your video will cost more if you hire one company to produce it and another company to edit it. As with any outsourced project, you will want to get quotes from several different companies. It’s important to do the planning before you talk to the production company-they can’t give you a quote without a clear idea of the scope of the project.

Here are the questions you should ask production companies:

* What type of productions do you specialize in?
* Do you have experience in the type of product I’m planning to create?
* What will I need to contribute to the project?

The production company may need to schedule and coordinate different phases of the project with you or someone else from your company. Share your vision with the production company when you talk to them the first time. Good producers are experts in the technical aspects of production, but great producers are also passionate about the projects they work on. When you find a production company that can get excited about the vision for your video project, you need look no further.

August 26, 2008 · Filed Under Video Product Creation

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How To Create A Great Video Product – Writing Your Script

If you’ve been thinking about creating video products for sale on the Internet, you’ve probably been throwing around more ideas than you know what to do with. This is an easy trap to fall into. It’s important to do some brainstorming for concepts initially, but always be sure to put a limit on your concept development stage. If you let it drag on, you’ll never get anything done.

Set deadlines for yourself even when you think you don’t have to. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you’re making progress toward your goal when in fact you haven’t gotten anything done.

The failure to focus on one project and carry it through to successful completion is a clear sign that you’re procrastinating. If you get a brainstorm for creating a different video product every day, but you still haven’t created a finished product to sell on the Internet, make up your mind to do something about it today.

Narrow your focus and set a day to shoot
Suppose your friends all say you’re a natural comedian. You’ve been playing around with the idea of creating a comedy routine or skit. The only way to get it done is by setting priorities, sticking to a plan, and setting deadlines.

Set a day to shoot the video. You have to do this and stick to it. Approach this as if you were doing a project for hire. When you force yourself to get things done, you’ll start to notice a big difference in the results you get. How much time you give yourself depends on how much time you can actually spend working on the project, of course. If you’re doing this at night or on the weekends, you obviously need more time than a full-time Internet marketer who is planning a promotional video for a web site. Get up one hour earlier if that’s the only way you can find time to do it. Approach it as a job for one month. Set your shoot for one month from today. Stop thinking about it and start writing a script.

People who get things done know that there is never a perfect time to start. People who wait for inspiration before they start a script never get started. As Jack London said, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” You have to get something down on paper to trigger connections between ideas. My best ideas always come during the writing process-never in the “thinking about what to write” stage.

Experience has taught me to just start writing and get it all down on paper. When I have a first draft in front of me, I get inspired. I see all sorts of things I never would have seen without the stimulus of the thoughts that came seemingly out of nowhere as I was working on the first draft of my script.

So stop thinking about it and get a script on paper. Then revise, shoot it, and put it up for sale on the Internet. But get started today.

August 25, 2008 · Filed Under Video Product Creation

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How To Create Great Inspirational Video Products

The revolution in Internet video has been triggered by video sharing sites like YouTube, where amateur content producers have the same power to broadcast their products as major media corporations. Individual content producers and Internet marketers are connected to potential customers as never before. “Welcome to a network where anyone can be famous,” says the voice over in the Cisco promotional campaign. “Welcome to the Human Network.”

All right, so now you’re convinced that you need to create video products for sale on the Internet, but you don’t have any ideas. Where do you get ideas for concepts that can be turned into video products that customers will want to pay money for?

The best ideas come from your own experience. If you know how to do something that can add value to someone’s life, you have a concept for a video product that can generate a revenue stream on the Internet for many years. If you have ever solved a problem that vexes other people, you have the material for an inspirational or motivational video that can generate revenue over and over again through your web site.

If you are confronted with a problem today, you have an opportunity to create a video product that can earn revenue on the Internet for years. Think about a problem you had with a product or service. Can it be improved? Can you think of a way to help people do something better, faster, or cheaper? Any of these questions can be the starting point for developing a concept for a successful how-to video.

To see what I’m talking about, check out Sanders Says (www.sanderssays.typepad.com). Tim Sanders is a marketing and product development expert who hosts this advice blog that concentrates on business and relationship management. Tim has developed video projects for clients at Yahoo (and at broadcast.com, before it was acquired by Yahoo).

Visit Tim’s site and listen as he tells the story of Paul Galvin. Paul was a hard-working man from a small town who wasn’t afraid to make mistakes. In fact, Paul learned early in life that wisdom is born from mistakes-his first three business efforts ended in failure. You have never heard of the first three businesses that Paul Galvin founded, but everyone has heard of the fourth one: Paul called his new venture “Motorola.” The rest is history; the company founded by the man who refused to give up gave birth to everything from wireless phones to one of the earliest computer chips.

Tim Sanders is a wonderful storyteller, and he uses this story to illustrate how great leaders inspired others. (You can also find this video on YouTube: just type “Paul Galvin story” in the search window on the YouTube home page.)

As the story of Paul Galvin illustrates, all great leaders inspire. Think of stories you can tell to inspire people. Use these concepts to create video products and start to reach a bigger customer base for your Internet business today.

August 24, 2008 · Filed Under Video Product Creation