Today someone sent me a link to a website that produces video. I have to confess, I’ve had the site up for hours now, looking at it, trying to figure out its appeal, marveling at the technical gaffes.
It is a site which gives instruction on how to photograph yourself with your video camera. Then you’re supposed to upload the video to them and they will edit it for you and host it on their site.
They have 11 steps for the customer to complete before he even turns on the camera. Eleven Steps! Imagine doing that yourself. With everything else you have to be aware of, then you have to be your own director! If you’re familiar with the phrase about the man who was his own lawyer, it’s the same punchline. A director will give you advice, tell you how you look, suggest and cajole, and make you do it again until it’s the best you can do.
Do you know what aspect ratio means? That’s basically the size of the screen. Most websites are using the standard 16:9 wide screen ratio. They want their customers to use the older 4:3 ratio. Then the customer has to write his script, a chore for many even with the “catchy phrases” they suggest, and either memorize it, or hold it in his lap. Oh, but we’re not through, you have to upload it so they can edit it. There’s no other way to say it : video takes a hell of a long time to upload.
There are a few websites popping up which purport to produce video for anywhere in the country. Either they have to use actors that are local to them, and consequently do not represent you and your business, or they rely on someone else to get the right shots so that they can edit them, with no thought to telling the story, or showing your business in the best light. It scares me more than a little, because the cheap looking results that come from those kinds of folks further cheapens the concept you are trying to achieve with a video on your website.
Easy to understand now why we do it all, and we do it all right here in Cincinnati.
Later this week, part two: Video and audio quality.
—That’s a wrap