As networks are clammering to fill their airtime, an opportunity for infomercial, commercial and news-related programming emerges. This could be your opportunity. Airtime needs to be filled and cable stations across the country are much more willing to make a deal. With a strong product and infomercial, you may even get your airtime for free, just by offering a percentage of sales made directly from the infomercial.

Well-written news-worthy short spots have also begun filling these newly empty spots. Isn’t it time you put your videos to work for you? Recut your commercials into an infomercial and expand your marketing breadth. Or if you haven’t put together your video advertising strategy, contact us anytime for help. inspire@diacreative.com

But now we feel we should step it up a notch. So, NOW, any small business that comes to Dia Creative for their video production will get a discount on services based on the number of employees they have or their gross annual sales. The smaller you are, the more you save, and you still get the highest quality production Dia Creative offers all its customers.

Newsedit is much like a stripped down form of Avid, it’s much faster and much more simplistic. But it still took some getting used to, and quite a bit of logic altering. The logic of Newsedit is much more like that of a linear system than that of a hardcore non-linear system like Avid or FCP. But it did have it’s advantages as well and with a little practice, we are officially now adding it to our list of systems that we can send our editors to work on.
So, Dia Creative now offers non-linear editors for the following systems: FCP, Avid, and GrassValley NewsEdit

More importantly, however, a cameraperson may have years of experience and may be able to deliver crisp clear footage, but only in a controlled setting. Sometimes the best cameraman for Larry King Live may not be the best cameraman for Girls Gone Wild!

For that reason, we worked out some innovative ways to really test our industry’s standard methods of hiring. Our crew is partially found from strong recommendations from trusted individuals, but that doesn’t guarantee that we consider the newest, hottest talent. And that’s just what a strong camera, lighting or audio person is…talent. Talent just like an actor is called talent. And that’s when we figured it out. We would have our camera and audio crew “audition” just as actors have to. We’ll put them in a typical yet stressful shoot and see who comes out with the best footage and overall impression of the shooting event. If the footage is used, camera talent is compensated as if they were hired in the first place. If not, then they tried their best and we’ll give them another chance when they develop their skills further. And that’s exactly what we did when we held the test shoot for a new show Club Culture 360.
Putting together a strong crew takes more than just finding talented people, it also takes finding people that can work well together professionally. This audition also gave us a chance to see who worked well together and who faltered. All-in-all, some cameramen didn’t like the concept. But those that participated and succeeded were rewarded with more paid camera jobs, a signed stint on a world tour and more importantly a definite relationship with production company.

+ Keep It Short and Sweet. The average person’s attention span is getting shorter and shorter every year, thanks primarily to quicker Internet speeds and faster-paced MTV-style editing. One Page of Double-Space 12 point font is usually One Minute of airtime.

-TV commercials are 30 seconds long, but they are focused at the masses to grab attention.

-If you have a more focused audience they could last up to 7 minutes.

+Make Your Message Clear. It’s a good idea before starting your script to pick the three or four key messages you want your viewers to get from your presentation. Write these down first, and keep them close when writing.

-State your Main Messages 3 times each. Studies have shown that a message needs to be repeated at least 3 times to be retained for more than an hour in the brain. Despite what you’d like, your customers may not all buy right away. But if they remember that you have a money-back guarantee and 24/7 friendly support tomorrow, they might stop by again to place their order.

+Test Your Script. This is actually a two-part tip. You should test your script in two ways.

-1. Read it aloud to yourself. It may be a little counter-intuitive but there is a big difference between the written word and the spoken word. For example, Try reading Our Luxurious loafers will linger with you, or less obvious phrases like “red leather” and “judicial” can make a person sound strange if they aren’t articulated perfectly. And unfortunately, viewers will remember your slurring mascot more than your amazing product.

-2. Read it to others. Another interesting thing happens when you are writing and rewriting a script on your own…It starts to make sense to you even when it doesn’t really make sense. Fancy wording and interesting snippets may make you think you’ve gotten your point across, but it may not translate properly to others. I recommend testing it one two different people, one that is very familiar to your industry and one that is not. After reading it aloud to them, ask them to summarize it back to you. Try not to influence them or ask them leading questions that might affect their answers. You want to make sure that what they really got out of your script is what you were trying to get across.

That’s it! Best of luck! If you don’t want to deal with the complication of writing, Dia Creative offers a full staff of professional writers to help you. As always, if you have any questions contact us at anytime at inspire@diacreative.com

1. Lighting, lighting, and lighting. Lighting for a camera can be tricky and getting the right look takes practice and education. But your best bet is to keep it simple, not too bright so your shots aren’t washed out and not too dark so that details are lost. A professional editor can make your images crisper and more dynamic as long as your images aren’t too dark or too light.

2. Think dimensions! When you choose to edit your videos you don’t have to worry about getting it all in one straight shot. Think in multiple angles, think about showing every angle of your product, and don’t even worry if your promo host can’t get their lines down in one sitting. All that can be made into a great video. There are great ways to show progress or time or the multiple angles. Close-ups with voice overs, models using the product over testimonials, and then a beauty shot of the product on a nice well-lit stand, all possible. Just keep it in mind and don’t limit your possibilities.

3. Use the best lens you’ve got. Use the best camera available to you. If you’re using a camera like the one available on your cell phone, you shouldn’t expect to get a professional looking video. That being said, home video cameras have been getting exponentially better each generation. Just make sure to keep the lens clear.

4. Shoot more than you need. This is the general rule of thumb for every production. Within reason, always shoot more than you need to. It’s not a great feeling sitting in the editing room thinking, “Man, I wish I had that shot!”. Also, make sure you let the camera run for a few seconds before and after every shot you take. Don’t worry the extra 15 seconds of footage is only costing you less than 1 cent on Mini-DV tape, and worth it. Sometimes camera’s cut out too early or editing software gets picky and if your favorite shot accidentally gets overlapped by the next shot or is too close to the beginning or end of a tape, your editing program may not let you take in the entire shot.
5. Remember if you’re ever worried about how your shots may look, our best advice is to check it on a screen. BUT make sure that you keep an eye on where the tape is when you pop it back into the camera and start shooting again. You don’t want to overwrite good footage and you don’t want to start new timecode.

-Wait. What? What does start new timecode mean? Timecode is the numbers you often see in the upper-right hand corner or upper-left hand corner of your video camera. Editing systems like steady, continuous timecode. And you might like it too. Especially if you want to make notes for your editor. For example, “Editor, I like the shot at 01:05:21:00 not the one at 01:04:25:10.” This comment would become much more confusing if there were two 01:05:21:00, because the timecode restarted. This is where it helps to have that extra 15 seconds of nothing at the end of each shot. After watching the tape, scan to somewhere in that meaningless 15 seconds and your timecode stays steady.

Ok That’s it for now. I’m sure there will be more. If you have questions, jot them down and we’ll do our best to answer them. Better yet, PLEASE ask questions, let us know where we can tell you more. =)