Thinking about making a video?

The first thing you might think about is making a financial budget, but it is also important to consider how you want to spend your time resources as well.

There are many initial factors to consider, two important ones being:
1) When does the video need to be completed?
2) What type of video are you making?

Large company scenario
Let's imagine that you're presenting at a large annual conference in January, and you think, "We should make a video to show next year!" You share this idea with your colleagues, and everyone agrees. At the end of your spring fiscal, the video is approved for the next year's budget - great! There's still snow on the ground; it is really time to start planning the video?

Well, consider how many people would be involved with the creation and approval process. Does one person have the authority to write the script, or will many people need to read and contribute before it can go to the next stage? Consider that summer holidays are coming, and it may be tough to collaborate when people are on vacation.

Now it's fall, and your script is completed. Still plenty of time ahead? Well, this might depend on the type of video you are creating. Are you using a lot of live action filming? Will individuals from your organization need to be filmed? Or, will you be using animation or special effects? All of these elements take time - even more so if the end product is expected to be longer than five minutes.

Keep in mind that each step of the film may require multiple levels of approval, and holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas can slow things down - not to mention the day-to-day operations of your organization. The last month of the project will be crucial for obtaining final approvals and for completing final edits and sound.

You're back to your January conference, and your film is a bit hit - congratulations! Considering how to budget your time during the film creation process has hopefully made the work less stressful on your organization, and resulted in a product that your whole organization is pleased with and proud of.

Small business scenario
You're looking at your text-heavy website, thinking, "Something feels missing. I need a video to help showcase what I can do for my clients."

If you don't have a set deadline, consider your own time and availability - in your business cycle for a year, what are some slow times that you could easily fit a video creation process easily into your schedule?

Also consider what type of video would best illustrate the type of services or products that you provide - live action? Animation? Or, a combination of both? Would you want to create one video alone, or a series of videos?


Whether you're a part of a large or small business, we are happy to help you create a time budget that will work for your needs!

Nordstrom Dental video

Dr. Nordstrom contacted me mid-October to assist him in making a promotional video for his brand new clinic in Rimbey, Alberta. Having viewed a video I had made for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (see it here), he thought I would be a good person to make a video for him. He has built a beautiful new clinic with a lot of charming country motif elements. As appealing as the building is, I thought that we should focus on the people who will be visiting this facility. For the video, we enlisted the help of his family and staff to create a glimpse of how a new patient would experience the clinic: the play area for kids, the comfortable chairs by a fireplace in the waiting area, and the pristine oral care rooms - all clad in reclaimed barn wood and exposed wooden beams - really come to life with our actors in the foreground.

A few weeks after first contacting me, Dr. Nordstrom flew me out to Alberta for a video shoot that ended up taking just under three hours. The shoot went very smoothly and was a lot of fun! Within a few weeks I had a rough cut of the video ready to be viewed using a private YouTube channel. Together, we decided on music, a final voice-over script, a voice-over artist, and discussed editing choices. We had a lot of great voice-over artists to choose from using Voices.com About two months after the video shoot, the final video was ready to be launched!

Here is the final video:

 

Visit Nordstrom Dental online at: www.rimbeydental.com

Azara Effect Productions is Turning Two!

Another September rolls around, and we find our little company is now another year older. Like any fun ride, it was a bit bumpy at times, but we survived and year three is already looking exciting!

We started the year off with a launch of our first music video for the fantastic Matt Patershuk. The video for "Gold" even had an official launch party all the way up in Grande Prairie! I was in attendance, sort of, to introduce the video and mingle afterword: a mannequin, dressed up with a tablet duct-taped to the face was constructed, and I was live streamed from my house in Victoria. The future! We are excited for Matt as his album "Outside the Lights of Town" has been nominated for Country Album of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards, to be held at the Breakout West Festival in Winnipeg.

Shortly after the video launch, we wrapped up a series of videos for the Canola Council of Canada including "Blackleg Disease, Canola and Bees and Disease Scouting". We are especially proud of how the Blackleg video finalized, given the challenges of the material that needed to be depicted – why do fungus lifecycles have to be so complicated?!

Next up was a fun video for the live painting competition, Paint Blank. 20 minutes is not a lot of time to paint a picture, but it was a fun event to film as the contestants are throwing paint - and caution - to the wind.

Somewhere along the way, I also squeezed in a new demo reel and gave the logo a bit of a spruce up.

The latest animation project I undertook was a short informational video for VidTime Online, a Victoria startup company.

Throughout all of this, I was also working with the wonderful fellas at Pulp Studios in Edmonton on several exciting projects.

A big thank you to all those who have helped Azara Effect Productions. I am reminded of the saying that "it takes a village to raise a child" well, I also think it can be said that it takes a village to raise a startup company.

Cobble Hill Fair!

We had a great time at this year's Cobble Hill Fair. I love looking at the old-timey machinery and technology. One amazing sight was this foot powered bow lathe.

The children's vegetable sculptures are also a favorite of mine. I used to make a pretty respectable car sculpture out of cucumber, carrots and beets when I was a kid and I love to see what kids are making now. This one is quite clever.

Voices

Filmmakers often talk about how sound is half of your film, meaning the quality of the audio track can propel or destroy the visuals. A great visual film will fall flat with weak or poor quality sound, but a rich audio track can support and invigorate an otherwise dull series of visuals. When both are vibrant, responsive, and dynamic, then the film really comes to life.

With my latest film about Blackleg disease in Canola, we decided to have only music and narration, with no additional sound effects. The video is heavy with information; meaning a subtle background score is all that would be needed, save for the intro, so that it doesn’t get too acoustically busy, which leaves a substantial burden on the shoulders of the narrator to carry half the film. 

Who could we find that would be right for delivering this message? To the internet!  We wanted the narrator to sound confident, compassionate, intelligent and articulate with the scientific lingo.  There are a plethora of choices when it comes to auditioning voice talent, as well as a broad range in prices.

Luckily, I stumbled upon Voices.com, which has an effective platform for finding talent with such qualities. In a short amount of time, I had narrowed the search to about ten narrators and decided to initiate a project on their site.  I was astonished to receive audition clips from the ten narrators, each with a price labelled, that same day.  It was interesting and revealing to hear the narrators read a segment from our script. What at first sounded like the perfect choice, based on their demo reel, was quickly ruled out when we (the producers and I) heard the audition. They were all good, but we had to choose one so we had to get picky. Too slow, too fast, too nasally, too sexy, too car-salesy, too dull.  I suppose I was also so picky because I am also the film editor and would be spending countless hours working with whoever’s voice we chose.  Within a few days, the full recording by the talented Alison Matthews was complete and ready to be cut into the film. The audio quality was excellent and when a pick-up was required, they were happy to oblige. Every step of the way the team at Voices.com was in communication with me to ensure I was getting what I needed and that I was satisfied with the results. I am pleased and appreciative of the product and treatment I received from Voices.com and will be sure to seek their help again for my next film. 

For post-production of our audio, we went to [Root]Chord Sound, which has done all the sound mixing for all of our films. The importance of a good sound mix can’t be overstated, as they take the raw audio materials and weave them into a clear and appealing track that can support its half of the film’s weight.

Scott Gillies

Director at Azara Effect Productions.