Video Production
A Few Recent Projects:
Having high quality videos is an important aspect in the design of any website that wants to rank at the top with the search engines like Google. Nothing adds engagement and pop to your website like a well produced video. That's why Marin Web Design offers in-house video production.
At Marin Web Design our videos are shot by Hollywood trained professionals. We use the latest filmmaking tools and technology from DSLR cameras to Final Cut Pro. At Marin Web Design we make videos that absolutely ROCK! You can visit our video gallery to see more of our work.
The Marin County Video Production team here at Marin Web Design have been producing, shooting and cutting film and video for over a decade. A tremendous amount of work goes into creating high quality videos and it's refreshing for us to see that consumers are demanding higher production value of videos online. Although there are a few other Marin county video production companies that can make fairly nice videos, there aren't many who make great ones. Below is a list of the key ingredients behind most successful video or film shoots. Hopefully this will help you in determining which team is best to hire for your next video project.
The Budget: Having an allocated budget for your video production is not only recommended but essential. Like most business endeavors Video and Film production budgets can easily skyrocket. Having a budget made by a seasoned producer will ensure that your production is completed on time and on schedule without any surprises. A real producer will budget for contingencies which should be able to absorb any surprises that may arise during production. In short - Set a budget - and hold the producer to it. If they are good they will hold the line - because that is what good producers do.
Pre-Production and Planning: I can't stress enough the importance of pre-production in the film and video business. It is crucially important to take the time to plan and consider all possible scenarios, hire the right team, make any tweaks or changes to the script, scout locations, audition and book the cast, assemble the post production work flow and the list goes on. The planning phase of any film or video project usually takes place in a large open office where all department heads can interface and plan. As a producer I like to have open communication between all departments. I feel this really sets a pace for the production and creates a mini culture if you will. Often I will set up a large calendar with a count down of days til production, and one indespensable tool I recommend is a pad of paper with a list of to-do's and check boxes next to them. With a dozens of questions pouring in from every department daily - few could effectively remember and address each of these in a day without taking a moment to write them down and place them in the queue. As with any project, planning is very important. Before hiring a production team to produce your video ask the producer how she plans for a project like yours and you will know if your prospect is on-point or fresh out of school.
The Technology: Many technological advances in the film and video industry have happened in the last decade. Video cameras for one only shot 29.97 frames per second for many years whereas film has always been 24 frames per second. A very exciting moment for me was when Panasonic introduced the DVX-100 24p camera. This camera which had a Leica Dicomar fixed lens on it and shot 29.97 frames per second re-compressed to 24 frames per second - Video was now able to mimic film. I say this because it truly was a powerful moment in independent film history. This was several years ago - around 7 or so...Now that little leap of faith that Panasonic took has become a strong new industry. I have seen the video gear rental houses in Los Angeles and San Francisco go from having two or three employees in a 1000 square foot space to employing 30 to 40 full time employees and growing into 30,000 square foot warehouses. Credit is due to the amazing people at Panasonic like Jan Critenden for the growth of this amazing industry.
As a producer I have a very strong feeling that the production quality of your shoot has much to do with the equipment you choose. Now - of course if you don't have the right team in place the equipment can only do so much but there really is a certain look that can be achieved with the right tools. What do we currently use? I can tell you a few of our favorites - But first a little history - Canon and Nikon have taken there SLR still camera bodies and upgraded them to a new line of cameras called DSLR's (Digital SLRs) These new cameras are small, reasonably priced and with the right cinematographer behind them, absolutely powerful. They shoot true 24 frames per second - allow for interchangeable lenses so you get true depth of field and your director and director of photography can set up shots by selecting different lenses to tell the story in the most cinematic way possible.
Our team prefers to use the new Zeiss CP.2 lenses and the Canon 5D Mark II DSRL. Above are some examples of videos we produced using this exact same setup. I won't expand further on the importance of technology - I just wanted to take a moment an stress the importance of your video production team being with the times from a technological standpoint so that you can get the most production value from your project as possible.
The Producer: Producing is hard work, it is a mental and physical game that is unlike any other industry. A good Producer is worth his or her weight in gold. They carry the burden of responsibility to deliver a complex product on time and on budget. When you throw a bunch of personalities into a creative process it can be mayhem but the producer is the glue that holds it all together, a therapist to the whole cast and crew at times, a leader, a confident individual that will see to it that the project gets completed by the force of her will. There are many parts to a successful video production, enough to write a book about it. If you are in the SF Bay Area or Marin County and looking to hire a film or video production company give us a call. We'd love to hear from you.