Watch the Howto video on converting a $21 T8 Fluorescent Shop Light into a Studio Type Kino Flo for a total cost of $50.
We do weekly videos on tips and tricks for filmmakers and tips for actors. Jack Paar will also be doing interviews with various celebrities, directors, producers, musicians, etc.
BusyBoy Productions – Minneapolis Video Production Company
Your Minneapolis AWARD-WINNING video production creative agency. BusyBoy Productions is your partner to produce amazing digital video content for those clients that want more than a videographer. BusyBoy is here to help business owners, corporations, organizations and companies like yours. We create video solutions that help your business grow. If you are looking to make a video for your website, social media marketing, or to help put your company in the spotlight with a marketing video, then we are your partner. Get started by requesting a free quote. Call 651-230-4362
What Can We Do?
Interviews
B-Roll
Commercials
Event Coverage
Corporate Video Production
Live Streaming
Media Training
Red Carpet
Industrial
Sizzle Reel
Infomercials
Documentary
Man On The Street
Corporate Events
Broadcast Television
Focus Groups
Reality Television
Trade Shows
Employee Training
Testimonials
Training Videos
Time-Lapse Video
Medical
Sports
Panasonic is now delivering its highly-anticipated AU-EVA1 5.7K handheld cinema camera, distinguished by a pixel count of 5720 H x 3016 V (17.25 million), Dual Native ISO ratings of 800 and 2,500, and 14-stops of dynamic range.
It is tailor-made for a wide range of shooting applications, including narrative, documentary, music videos, live events and more.
If you would like more information on the EVA1, please visit business.panasonic.com/AU-EVA1.html
Few Tips to market your video production company, build your clientele!
Starting your own video production company could be tough work if you don’t have the proper production skills and most of all a business marketing background. You do need a good portfolio and a clientele list, but without having a good marketing background you may never get off the ground. I spent many years in sales and marketing before we made the decision to open up the doors at BusyBoy Productions. The principles I learned can be easily applied to anyone starting a video production company.
The tips we’ll discuss are actually practical tips. You’ll find that when you’re waist deep in the hustle and bustle of owning and running a video production company,you might forget practical things like the six tips below. There are plenty of other sources of sound advice out there, so do your research!
Market Research
Do your research. We are always doing our research to see what markets are available to us and who our competitors are.
By knowing your competitors their strengths and weaknesses, we were able to develop a solid marketing strategy. In turn, we were able to go into these new markets and establish ourselves quickly, setting ourselves apart from the competition.
Don’t undercut the competition. If you go into a market and drop your price extremely low and undercut other companies, then you’re really putting yourself at a competitive disadvantage. Your low rates could be seen as a sign of sub-standard production value by clients, and you’ll potentially lose connections with other companies. Also it typically becomes twice the work when taking on clients that don’t want to pay the standard rates. Stand strong and ask for a fair production cost. Clients definitely get what they pay for in this business. Clients should know better not to cut corners on marketing.
Showoff your Work
There are many ways to showcase your value, like a company website, social media, and streaming services that show your reel. But the key word here is value. The thing you need to market more than anything is just that, the value of your production company.
What is your value? What kind of awards have you won? Do you specialize in certain categories? So, if your company does something really well above other things, then showcase that. This has value to a potential client. And it also may help you gain a competitive advantage over your competition.
Network
Networking is another key component to creating a successful video production company. Getting out there and shaking hands and having face-to-face time with clients is a big deal. You’ll find that there are trade organizations online and in a major city near you. Join these organizations and put in the effort to connect with people at these events.
This is a common practice when starting early on. But don’t just stop there. Find potential clients through your market research and gain face time with them. Talk with them. Talk to anyone and everyone. Be personable. Engage with clients and show an interest in their product or service.
Explain the value of video. For small businesses, video marketing it is like having a moving full colored brochure. Also it makes it easier for a client to decide if they want their product or services.
Ask for Referrals and Testimonials
In this industry, no matter if you’re doing industrial, commercial or even big-budget production work, it’s all who you know and who can vouch for you. This is where client referrals come into play. If you’ve established a great collaborative relationship with your client and they’re happy with your work, then ask them to provide you a short testimonial about their experience. Being able to have this type of marketing on a website or social media page is huge for any production company.
That means you’re going to need to produce quality work in a professional manner.
Produce A FANTASTIC Quality of Work
If you produce quality work, then your clients will see this and want to continue to do business. They’ll even tell others about your professionalism and craftsmanship. This doesn’t mean that you go out and quickly produce a project with no regards to prep. If you present the client with something that was never fully planned out, they’ll notice it and choose not to use you again.
In order to make great work, you need to communicate clearly with your client. Plan and develop accordingly. Making your client happy about the work you’ve accomplished should be your ultimate goal. If you do this, they’ll spread the word about you. There is no better marketing tool than others speaking highly of you and your video production company.
Are these tips helpful to you? Do you own a production company? Do you have additional tips to add? Share them with us in the comments below.
Pexels Videos, from the creators of the wildly successful stock photography website Pexels, hosts high-quality stock video footage. Offering everything from moving subjects to landscapes, it’s a truly impressive assembly of video.
And because it aggregates videos from the other sites on this list, you can find an even wider variety than you can elsewhere.
The fact that the videos are completely free only adds to Pexel’s impressiveness.
“Pexels Videos offers completely free videos. All videos are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means you can edit or change the videos and use them free for personal and even for commercial projects. All without asking for permission or setting a link to the source. So that attribution is not required.”
If you don’t find the particular clip you’re looking for, you’ll surely find a better one.
Coverr is meant to provide covers for website headlines. It does that, while also providing users with beautiful stock video footage available for download. Since the videos are meant to act as web media, downloading a video will provide you with multiple video formats along with an image file.
What more can you ask for? And it’s all free!
“All Videos published on Coverr.co can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the Videographer or Coverr.co, although it is appreciated when possible.”
On top of what’s provided, Coverr also allows users to view the video they’ve chosen as a cover in the website. If you need a coder or a custom video, they also provide that information after you’ve downloaded your video. All in all, it’s a one-stop shop for everything a growing company would need in web video and design.
Another fantastic stock photography website turned stock video savior, Pixabay hosts a variety of free stock videos. The caliber of Pixabay’s videos matches that of their photographs: fantastic and wide-ranging.
From beautiful landscapes to cityscapes, you’re sure to find something you’d like.
“Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist — even for commercial purposes.”
You can also head to the Editor’s Choice section to view the very best Pixabay has to offer.
Videvo does one thing and one thing well: stockpile as many high-quality stock videos as they can for you to download. Not only are their videos impressive, their library size and amount of categories almost certainly ensures you’ll find what you need.
Keep in mind that while all of Videvo’s clips are free to download and use, they don’t all use the same licensing type. Refer to their FAQ page for more information concerning licensing.
“All the clips we host on Videvo.net are completely free to download — you can download unlimited free video clips and use these in your projects. The only thing we ask is that you share your experience via social media, although this is not compulsory.”
Nevertheless, most of these clips are free to download, use, edit, and share in whatever project you’re working on.
Life of Vids curates fantastic, high-quality footage of city and country landscapes via the awesome video platform Vimeo rather than hosting the video on the website itself.YouTube is great, but it’s far from perfect. Thankfully, there are plenty of alternatives around for those seeking something different. Including Vimeo, which we recommend you start using today.
But don’t let the lack of proprietary video fool you. Life of Vids carries tons of fantastic footage.
It also adds new videos weekly and allows users to contribute to the site. The creators of Life of Vids also host a fantastic stock photograph repository called Life of Pix, which delivers the same high quality as their videos.Free high-resolution images are hard to come by. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get free stock images that are curated for quality and resolution? You can!
“FREE ROYALTY-FREE VIDEOS, CLIPS & LOOPS, NO COPYRIGHTS RESTRICTIONS. HIGH RESOLUTION FILES CAN BE DOWNLOADED ON OUR VIMEO ACCOUNT. NEW VIDEOS ADDED WEEKLY! MORE ON VIMEO. HAND-MADE WITH LOVE BY LEEROY ADVERTISING AGENCY IN MONTREAL & ITS NETWORK OF CONTRIBUTORS.”
Life of Vids is yet another one of those fantastic, and still growing, resources that’s great to have when you’re strapped for footage.
Distill, though in beta mode, provides users with a fantastic repository spanning a few key genres. Some videos are so high-quality that they’re borderline cinematic. That’s how you know the curators care about releasing only the best stock videos at their disposal.
Image Credit: John Guinn via Distill
You can also sign up for Distill’s curated new videos so you’ll receive 10 new HD videos every 10 days for free. In short: Distill Beta has some of the best, free video clips available online, and it’s only growing.
It’s still in beta, so features on the site are lacking, and there’s no specific declaration of usage rights. Even so, this is one of the best sites out there for amazing stock video.
Download and Edit, Freely!
It’s tough getting around paid stock footage, not to mention obscure copyright laws. At least, it was. Now you have a list of resources which are growing by the week to provide you high-quality stock videos for free! If you’re hungry for beautiful stock photography rather than video, we’ve got that covered as well.
Royalty free music has come a long way in the digital age. There are a lot of myths however it has improved massively over the last few years with much higher production standards than ever before. In this fast paced world video production companies don’t always have the time or resources to produce music in house – so that’s where royalty free music comes in.
The quality can vary slightly from one royalty free music site to the other. Price is also an important factor when deciding, which is where licensing models play and crucial part. You can find Royalty Free music anywhere from free to $500 on certain websites, which is less the production costs and more down to the licensing options.
Obviously there are a lot of royalty free music websites out there however we have come across a few which stand out. Take a look at our favorite royalty free music websites below based mostly on price, quality and licensing.
Reasonably priced (musicians can set their own prices).
Useful search and categorizing system, allowing users to search by duration, date of upload, artist, sales, views and price.
All royalty free music is quality checked before being added to their library.
Sample the track before you buy
Option to contact the musician directly
What Royalty Free Music license should I purchase?
The two main types of royalty free music licenses are Standard (for YouTube, personal websites, non-commercial video/films/theater) and then Extended (for Television, Film & Radio Advertising). The first license is the most common and allows you only pay one single price regardless of the amount of video views and how long it’s online. The second is a little more complicated and basically includes the standard license plus a variable track usage fee (which includes an amount of plays or media copies).
Conclusion
Don’t use copyrighted tracks, they sound great but will get you into all sorts of trouble if you’re caught! Royalty free music is a great way to quickly and easily license music for legitimate use in your video projects. So, next time you purchase royalty free music, feel good about it knowing that you’re supporting your fellow freelancer!
Do you have any you’d like to add to our list? Let us know in the comments!
I have not seen the reviews thus far on the new Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K because they really don’t exist yet. The Ursa 4.6K has not shipped yet. So hold your hopes out for this model.
As far as the new Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4k there was some disappointments. The biggest thing missing from the camera was the global shutter. This really took it off the market for us professional shooters. I am a run and gun camera opp which makes that a big miss for me over here at BusyBoy Productions.
There are also a lot of other complaints coming from the Ursa Mini 4K. B&H Photo has horrible reviews on there site regarding the 4K model of the camera. The complaints are dead pixels, horizontal noise, hot spots, low light shooting issues, all kinds of bad stuff. People seem to be very disappointed which kept us from adding one to are arsenal of cinema cameras. We were very excited initially when Blackmagic announced its release at the NAB show in Vegas last year.
The footage I have seen online looks amazing but the reviews are outweighing what I am seeing. For now I will stick to my Canon C100 and C300 but would love to add another 4k camera to the mix. Don’t give up on the Blackmagic Ursa Mini yet. They have not released the 4.6K version of the camera yet and the footage coming out of it looks amazing. Feel free to post Ursa Mini reviews and footage here.
When it comes to fitness video production BusyBoy Productions can make it happen. We have been in the video production business over 25 years and have produced, directed, and branded Telly Award Winning productions.
We took Peak50 Fitness from a concept to reality in less than 6 months.
The Mission: To create a brand identity and 10 disc video series that represents Tim Feeser and the program that he designed get and stay ripped at any age.
The Look: Tim is an actuary and this inspired me to photograph him in a suit and red tie with his abs exposed with Superman stance, and that started it all. The dichotomy of the suit VS the ripped 52 year old man is what makes this so surprising and successful. The DVD look is pro boot camp, grimy like a gym and gritty sweat, but yet professional. The wardrobe was styled by me and approved by Under Armour for potential sponsorship.
The Creative: Brand Identity (including name), portrait photography, brand, DVD/CD series design, book layout design, wardrobe design, producer for video production including styling and assistant direction.
Contact Us Today
If you are in the market to get your own exercise series to the public and don’t know what steps to take, than contact us today for a free consultation. We would love the opportunity to direct you to make the right steps. If you have a small budget or a big budget we can help.
Matt Krantz, USA TODAY 8:37 p.m. EDT July 25, 2013
LOS ANGELES — Has Facebook cracked the holy grail of the new mobile technology? Investors sure think so.
Shares of the largest social media company soared more than 30% Thursday in their best performance since the company went public last May, and at more than $34 a share are now within range of its much-maligned IPO price of $38.
The reason: The company appears to have figured out how to make money on its booming traffic on mobile devices, something that has dogged tech companies since mobile became the key to the future a few years ago.
Facebook’s mobile magic led to an embarrassing reappraisal on Wall Street, which had totally soured on the company’s future.
“We were wrong,” was the title of a report by Richard Greenfield at brokerage firm BTIG, who had rated the stock a sell with a $22-a-share price target.
Colin Sebastian at Robert W. Baird, another brokerage firm, expressed a similar view. “The very negative view on Facebook is evaporating,” he says “You can’t ignore a billion users.”
Profit reported this week by Facebook not only blew away forecasts but was also largely driven by a moneymaking machine inside the company linked to mobile apps. Only about a year after redoubling efforts to make money from mobile, Facebook saw its number of mobile users explode 51% during the second quarter. But more important for a company that was created for desktop computers, now 41% of advertising dollars comes from mobile devices.
• The importance of where mobile ads appear. Nearly all of Facebook’s mobile revenue is generated by ads inserted between entries on users’ newsfeeds, Summer says. These ads are proving to be effective in getting users’ attention without annoying them, he says, at least so far. Also catching on are ads in mobile Facebook apps that prompt users to download another app, according to Summer. “They have a format that works,” he says.
• The need to keep prices up on mobile. One of investors’ top concerns with mobile ads is they tend to be priced below desktop ads because they’re so small. But Facebook is bucking the mobile discount because its users don’t seem to mind the ads, Summer says. Much of Facebook’s success with mobile, too, is a function of it getting more sophisticated at dealing with advertisers, Sebastian says. Facebook is giving advertisers better tools, for instance, to track the effectiveness of all ads, which helps attract and keep more ad dollars, he says.
• The fact that the shattered dreams of the pre-IPO era have been resurrected. Investors thinking Facebook had no limit lined up to buy at $38 a share a year ago. But the company’s luster faded along with the stock as investors assumed the social media juggernaut would have trouble adjusting to mobile. Now that it is exhibiting such prowess, shares are soaring, jumping $8.20, or 30.9%, Thursday to $34.71.
Despite the impressive turnaround, challenges lie ahead. At $34 a share, the stock is fairly valued, Summer says, so the company needs more tricks to get back to $38 a share and beyond. A key goal will be boosting the mobile ad business tenfold or more, something that Facebook’s current setup doesn’t allow and will require more breakthroughs, he says. “There are,” Summer says, “still lots of things to figure out.”
There is great potential in reaching out to email users, and some industries have an easier time in doing so than others. The automotive industry marketing is one such industry that is ideal for communicating with potential customers through email. Not only is it convenient, but for car dealerships, it is a requirement in order to recieve the desired sales and fight back against competition.
Email Reach and Device Matters
When people go throughout their day, over 50% of the emails they receive are on their smartphones. It is so critical to create emails that are presentable and effective when they see them on their computer and most of all mobile device. When the email is opened on a smartphone or tablet, if its not engaging on that device a person is not going to reopen it on their computer. Before engaging in sending email to customers, be sure to test it on a mobile device or tablet first to ensure its accessibility.
In regards to what type of email to use, try avoiding popular providers such as Gmail. Invest in an email service provider that will be able to gauge how effective the emails are. Such a provider will be able to report the percentage that opened the email, the amount of people who shared it, and what links were clicked on by the consumer within the email. Email data such as this is a powerful tool for your dealership to do followup and form new customer relationships.
You’re Not Going To Believe This
Only about 22% of auto dealerships are currently using email marketing on a regular basis, those the are, are out selling their competition. For an industry that would find great success in emailing customers, this is a major loss. In regards to gathering the people for the email lists, the majority of people were collected through leads exchanged for money. The least productive way to gain access to email addresses was through advertising campaigns at occasions such as concerts or sporting events.
More surprising and almost sickening, 75% of car dealerships don’t put their email lists into categories such as service and car buyers. The automobile industry has one of the most recognizable group of buyers. It would not be ideal to email an advertisement of a gas-guzzling truck to someone who advocates for the environmental benefits of a hybrid vehicle.
Online Car Shopping
Did you know a car buyer only visits 1.2 dealerships when making a purchase. Almost 90% of new car buyers search on average eight different websites before making a call or drive to a auto dealership. What does that mean for you and your website? You better have the best website in the region if not the nation to engage those customers because they are not going to come to your dealership without having been to your website. Remember the statistic, 1.2 dealerships visits. That customer already knows what they are going to buy before even setting foot on your showroom floor and likely they know more about that vehicle then most your sales people.
Since shopping online has a greater impact on consumers, emailing platforms would be ideal to target the audience. It would be the perfect scenario for an individual who was browsing online for a car to conveniently receive an email advertising great offers on the buyer’s specific choice in vehicle.
The Ball Is On The Green
Imagine teeing off and trying to get the ball on the green. Now think of the ball as the customer, the closer you get that customer to the hole before they visit the dealership, the more likely you have that vehicle sold. Emailing customers is prominent for advancement in sales. Focusing on the necessitates, of email, consumers will noticeably respond in a positive manner. As the world is moving towards a digital era, it becomes mandatory to keep up with online demand. Email campaigns are not just ideal marketing techniques, they are a requirement for the automobile industry to stay ahead and to rise above the competition.
