That was the first time I had someone confess like that and I had a few emotions.  One, I was incredibly happy that we had the type of relationship that he felt he didn’t need to hold back about his concerns and two, I was kicking myself as I had never really laid out a process for making videos.  I have talked clients through the process and made critical paths, but never a process document.  The first thing I did when I got back to the office as spend the next three days laying out “our” process.  I think it will be helpful to all if we share it with you.

PLANNING

Client contacts PHI with interest in having project produced.

Clint supplies PHI with the following information in order for PHI to understand the project and scope:

Message to be expressed within video

Target Audience details(age, gender, education, knowledge of message)

Locations which footage needs to be acquired

Any collateral material

Format of delivery

Specific people that need to be shot (if known)

PHI supplies Client with a Project Work Order which includes a rough estimate for creative, production and payment terms of video.

Client requests changes to Work Order or signs off and supplies PHI with Purchase Order (if required for invoice payment).

PHI sends deposit invoice to Client.

Client sends PHI payment on invoice.  This payment initiates the start of the Project.

RESEARCH AND CREATIVE

PHI meets with Client to discuss messaging and target.

PHI creates 1 to 3 creative ideas(treatments) to solved the messaging.  We do this by researching, interviewing, and discussing the messaging and the target.  This process is one of science and magic.

PHI and Client meet to discuss the creative solutions and Client picks one they like the most.

PHI then develops the creative into a script or outline depending on the solution and approach to the video.  Scripts are good for educational and some marketing videos.  Outlines are great for marketing videos that require interviewing real people to get statements and testimonials.

PHI presents the script or outline to client for signoff.

PHI adjusts budget to reflect final creative and gets signoff if total amounts have changed.

PREPRODUCTION

Depending on the script or outline PHI may do the following:

Storyboards (pictures illustrating the story)

Animation wire frames

Design elements

Research stock footage

Research and find key on screen interviews

Schedule and book travel.

Survey key locations

Cast for on-screen and off-screen talent

PRODUCTION

PHI hires talent and crew (if necessary)

PHI books equipment

In collaboration with Client moves to Footage Acquisition (shooting, stock)

POST PRODUCTION

PHI loads footage into edit system

PHI logs footage

PHI sends selects to Client or Interviewees for approval (if required)

PHI does a ROUGH CUT:

This is where the story is put together.  Most times it will lack colour correction (colour is off, images are too bright or too dark), mixed audio (meaning it might be louder or softer in places), music, graphics, animation.  It may also have time code (numbers at bottom of the video that indicates the frame you are watching and used for people to give us a reference time in the video).

The Client will normally have multiple times to view and make changes to the rough cut.

PHI will also start sending music files to client for review in needed.

PHI does a FINAL CUT:

All the elements come together (final cut of video, music, mixing of audio, graphics, animation, and the colour correction).

Client signs off on the final cut.

COPYRIGHT

Client makes final payment to PHI in order to receive usage rights.

DUPLICATION/USAGE

PHI delivers final deliverable (DVD’s, Blu Rays, Data Disks and/or web uploads).

EVALUATION OF MESSAGING(if budgeted)

PHI researches the effectiveness of the project messaging.

Scott Westerlaken

Scott Westerlaken

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

The first test I did was with the head mount on a camping trip at the end of November.  The light weight test passed with flying colours.  I almost forget about it being there.  It did wobble a bit on the rough ground and on jumping.  On a helmet I’m sure you wouldn’t notice it at all and it would be much more stable.

When I got around to looking at the footage I found the light sensitivity a little lacking.  At a certain point it gets a little grainy (auto exposure only on the cam) and when shooting the fire at the end of the day there was little detail in the blacks (see example of frame grab).  I’m hoping for an manual exposure firm ware update in the future, really hoping.

On the matter of the capture quality was…well ok.  Nothing really stood out when properly exposed but then again it really didn’t jump out at me like when I first used the EX1 or 5D. For its size, weight and water ability I can forgive the “wow” factor though.  I didn’t get it do to portraits or landscapes!

The one thing that I thought I did notice was subpar the battery performance. In the morning of the hike the camera died and I popped the second battery and that one I “thought” died within a ½ hour…even though it was charged for 2 hours……more on that later….

The second test I did was doing time lapse for a documentary shoot I was involved in.  The camera has a built in intervolometer (a devise used to automatically take a picture at set intervals).

I set the camera up in a couple of locations and it really worked out well.  It’s tiny, water proof and does 5mg pictures….can you say inconspicuous?!  There was never a worry about leaving it unmonitored for 6 hours or more at the top of a post.

For the next test I did was just for fun. The first commercial I worked on was in 1987 and I was the car mount assistant for the first Ford Probe ad.  Since then I have always loved doing car mounts!  This camera is PERFECT for that.  I have to say that I had blast trying to find places where I “couldn’t” mount it and how close to “things” I could place it….

The speed at which I could mount this camera was amazing… side door mount? One minute tops.  Hood mount? Same.  Bumper mount? Five minutes tops, including safety and taping the mount….

Just last week we did a really cool shoot with it for the Ice Boat club on Porters Lake.  Perfect day for both shooting and sailing! Here is where we found another little trouble.

The camera doesn’t like flares off black. If you take a close look at the highlight on the mast you will see some artifacting.  Still though, a save able shot and also shot at 720p 60 fps…lots to work with.

Now overall I love this little camera.  I really have only two issues other than the big lack of manual exposure control.

The first issue has to do with the design of the case.  To understand this the camera is in two parts, the actual recording devise with primary lens, battery and card and then the housing which protects the sensitive parts from water, dirt and impact.  The problem is with the hinge on the lock for the case.  When not engaged the hinge can fall off and once lost you need to buy a whole new case for $40.00.  Silly that they would design it that way, but they did…but they do a great deal of secondary sales!

The second issue one was a huge surprise but one we have been running into a lot recently.  GoPro customer support is very weak. Maybe the thought is they are saving money off the initial cost of the unit, but I would be more than willing to pay $5 more per until for great customer support…(I can hear past Dell owners groaning). The weak battery I experienced wasn’t really that weak (though don’t expect more than two hours of video recording).  The camera I had was defective and on the hiking trip it shut itself off.  It did come back on once I got back into the car so I figured it was either too cold or the battery wasn’t fully charged…but that wasn’t the case.  After the documentary I was going to start the car mount tests and the camera wouldn’t turn on.  I stored the camera in our studio all day, all the batteries were charged. No reason for it not to turn on.  After going to the GoPro site they had listed a solution (weird), which I tried a few times with no avail.  Sooo I did what I usually do when faced with problems with no logical solutions, I went to Google.  Google did not fail me!  Apparently there were a few people with the same problem.   The only solution was to do a camera exchange with GoPro and hope the new one did not have the same issue.  That would be ok, so on the GoPro site I submitted a support ticket explaining I had followed their solutions and had went through their procedure three times to no avail, the camera would not turn on.  Two days later no response.  Since the camera was only a week and a half old I went back to my trusty local camera shop (Henry’s) and they did a quick exchange! Done. Fixed. (god I love Henry’s) No problem since.  The next day I got an email back from GoPro telling me to go to the website and follow the instructions for when the camera will not turn on then contact them again if it doesn’t work…..hmmmm, thanks…  Ok people! As a company if you have robotic responses going it should be immediate. Submit support ticket, get a response with possible solutions based on key words.  The email I received should have gone right out away. Next, within 24 hours I should have received a response to the actual text I had sent them.  All the token response did was to a piss me off as they obviously didn’t read what I sent them and are merely trying to appear as being responsive.

Overall, I love this little camera, even with it’s faults I have found it very useful now that I know it’s going to work (very important when you bill clients for equipment!).  As for customer support I am really disappointed. Why oh why do companies scrimp when it comes to support? Worse is the outsourcing to India or the like where you know they don’t fully comprehend what you’re are communicating.  Talk about a thank you for buying our product!

But I beg to differ… there is a lot more to telling your company’s story than just the accessible equipment, images and music! To craft an effective message your communications company must know more than the latest technology, they need to understand marketing and effective messaging to create a story that enhances your brand and objectives!

Hell, they might even have some insights into you potential target audience. It’s important that your communications team looks at what your target is looking for and not just what “you” want to say. The two are different and some folks can’t get over the “what I want to say is…”

The way I like to look at effective communications is by putting myself into the target’s shoes. What is going to motivate me to take the desired action and the opposite, what will I find un-motivating, boring, and or not important in the proposed messaging.

Your communications company also needs to have the experience, training and balls to tell you what you don’t need to say or show when you ask for something irrelevant to the messaging. Don’t you love seeing the TV ads where the entire family of the business owner is used in the commercial?! That really enhances the messaging!

We did some great videos for Inland Technologies this past fall that we have been using as great examples of getting specific points across to the target, and also avoiding technical points that, although vital to the making the services work, are not really vital to the viewer making the initial decision to initiate the sales cycle. Their President really summed it up well, “the services we provide are to make the clients problems disappear”.  Funny, but I think that a lot business’ forget that is really what they do! Would love to get your thoughts.

Scott Westerlaken

Scott Westerlaken

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

There were a few surprise ads on the reel I had not seen and that blew me away, some that didn’t grab me and some that just left me shaking my head wondering why they rated so high.

The highlight 60 sec. TV spot for me was from Volkswagen. They received a gold TV win for “Dog-Fish”. I loved it on many different levels. The story telling was really well done, the acting was good, but the Visual Effects were fantastic.

Surprisingly, it didn’t win Gold for Visual Effects, that went to Evian “Rollerbabies”, which I find the close up’s of the babies looked really fake.

Truthfully the Evian ad is cute the first time you watch it then it gets more annoying each time around.

The other ad that made me go hmmm was the Nokia N96 gold winning ad “Bruce Lee-ping pong”

Interesting scene, got my attention…but really a Gold for telecommunications? It had me really wanting to see more “Bruce Lee” doing his thing rather than the two folks he was playing….Yet more Hmmmm..

There were some beautiful animation ads this year in the silver category. The Scrabble campaign “Sumo”, “Hula” and “Yoga”. All three also won a silver for original music. I like the ads but personally wonder how well they did for brand and sales.

Bakers Biscuits “Precious Biscuits” spot (silver for animation) was beautiful, but again, I hope it did something for the brand….

Another disappointment, but for different reasons was the Silver winner for Direction, Tampax, “Zack Johnson”. I really think it deserved a gold. The story telling and characters were great.

In a reverse of what the trend has been for years, the Public Service winners over all were a little week. I did like the Gold winner ECPCAT “Child Pornography”, but the silver winners Shelter, “House of cards” , Women’s Aid “Cut” and Anti-Knife Crime (OMG, really?) “Cribs” seemed weak to me.

What grabbed my attention this year was the “New” category. A “New” category?! “Entries for The NEW Category are for work that merges the power of an original idea with a relevant compelling execution. Emotionally inspirational, imaginative work, effectively creating new dialogues, creating new spaces of interaction, altering perceptions, setting new benchmarks that invite and reward at every level of engagement.”

All the winners were fantastic in execution. You got to love clients that are willing to reach out a little…The Grand LIA went to Fiat eco: Drive interesting but I loved a few others more.

“The best job in the world” by Tourism Australia really blew me away when I first heard about it and it still does.

Also the AC/DC Black Ice idea was interesting, especially the Excel spread sheet video…yup, you have to see it to believe it.

The Excel sheet can be downloaded here: http://www.acdcrocks.com/excel/

This category gave me hope that marketers are moving towards an evolution in advertising…when viewers get to a point that they don’t see advertising as advertising…..

All the winners can be found on the LIAA website, http://2009.liaentries.com/winners/ and it’s well worth a look through.  What have presented is just a very small snippet. Would love to hear back on what you liked out of the show!

SW

Scott Westerlaken

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

Scott Westerlaken

Recently I had a conversation with someone who was bragging about their camera system and needing just one more lens to have a complete kit.  I asked her if she had tried the full frame model from the same camera manufacturer she currently used.  She replied that she had that model.  Thinking that she didn’t understand, I asked her again. “Have you tried the 22 megapixel full frame version of that brand?”  She repeated that was the one she has  “BUT it wasn’t 22 megapixel, it’s a 10 megapixel, 35mm SLR.”  I started to explain the different sensor sizes then stopped…why should I?  This person shoots stills for her clients now and bills them for doing so.  She should know the gear right?

As equipment becomes better and more affordable I am clearly getting more confused over what constitutes a pro photographer or videographer, or am I?   Does act of selling or be paid for your work make you a pro? Does it mean that you can now go around saying you are a “pro photographer” or “videographer” even if you don’t know the basics taught in first year photography or film school?  Not to say these folks don’t get great shots, but I have always thought there was more to being called a “pro” than that.  If I performed CPR on someone, does that make me a Doctor?

SW

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

Scott Westerlaken

Despite popular opinion to the contrary, the Internet has not killed traditional TV advertising as a viable medium to promote products and services. In order to survive though, the network and local station approach to TV advertising that has to change in order to improve viewer engagement.

It’s no secret that ad revenue is WAY down.  Now part of this is the Pull(getting the programming you want now) versus Push (you watch what the network broadcasts) of the under 40 generation. Looking at this from a bigger picture, this is not the first time a medium has faced adversity and survived.  Think of the theatres during the eighties and the VHS revolution then radio with tapes and 8 tracks.  They all survived by figuring out the core value of their proposition, experience and entertainment.  TV can still AND IS doing that! The true reason TV is suffering is because the Networks and mostly the Local Stations are killing their own business by running bad ads, thus ruining the package for the audience.

Fundamentally we don’t mind watching for ads. Come on, think about it!  There are a number of tv shows that show nothing but the best or funniest ads from around the world.  Every year the Cannes and London International Awards reels tour major city theatres.  People will actually go to a theatre of all places to watch ads!  People don’t hate advertising, People LOVE advertising, if it’s GOOD!

Every time the networks and more importantly the local stations run a bad ad, they are in essence running a bad show.  In doing so they are forcing the viewer to look in other places for what they want, entertainment!

One quick cure for this is to treat the ad space with the same value as they treat the rest of the air time for programming.  This now puts a greater value on the space as people will want to watch (just like the show they tuned into did) and could also increase the monetary value placed ON the air time!  You are also giving the audience a complete experience rather than an incomplete one.

Unless the Networks and Local Stations put a higher value on the ad space, why should the media buyers and audience?!

SW

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

First, let’s get one thing straight.  Nothing is for free…especially in advertising!  If it is free, there are probably a hundred reasons not to get involved.

Right now there are a ton of deals being offered by the stations for air buys and they’re desperate to get your money.  The offers may range from 2x the frequency of your buy up to and including free production of the ad.  I’ll say it again…you get what you pay for!

Why?

We all know the kind of quality ads the stations normally produce, not exactly the cutting edge, cut through the clutter kind of stuff. If you are there because you get double the exposure ask yourself if it is good enough that you’d want to see that commercial twice as many time as normal.

If all you have to talk about is price, and nothing’ but price…you should be doing your ads at the local station! But, for some reason I think about 90% of the advertisers out there doing ads with the station have something more than price to offer…but it’s not coming through!

If your attitude is “I don’t care what it looks like, as long as it’s on air because if I’m on air, I’m top of mind…good or bad!”.  Remember, if you buy into the station producing your ad, you are more than likely locked into “that” station for the rest of your buys with that ad. Most will not release the ad to another station, especially if they gave you a discount (Free) to get it done!  This now leaves you with having to go through production again if you want to buy airtime somewhere else.

So what’s the solution?  The alternative to a station produced ad is using a creative production film/video company to produce your ad.  Until recently the costs for doing so where very expensive due to the cost of cameras and editing facilities. Well, times have changed. With the advancements in cameras and computers within the last two years, this is no longer the case!  Production fees are less and far better quality than that of the station.  We can produce a commercial with the same production look that used to cost upwards of $65,000 5 years ago for a lot less that that now. We can use custom cameras that shoot with the same cinematic qualities of a 35mm film camera and there have been huge advances in processor speeds for editing!  Now, add to that access to some of the best creative writers in advertising and you get a value-add that the stations can’t possibly match.

SW

Scott Westerlaken

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

At PHI, we want you to look your best.  When we go shooting real people we always get asked the same question “What should I wear?”  For some, I know they are looking for an excuse to go out shopping, but for most it’s a legitimate concern that sometimes is overlooked.  I put the following points together and share it with people I intend to shoot.  Not only does it make them feel more comfortable about the upcoming big day, it also avoids costly delays and embarrassment.

- Dress as you would normally when you have a big meeting and realize the what you wear will effect what people will think about your company.  Take into account that you want to feel comfortable as if you are uncomfortable it will be communicated on camera.

-Solid colors look best on video. Think blue, yellows, greens, grey and off white.  Red is also fine but depending on the camera, the hue and the texture has caused problems in the past.  Best to bring a back up if you dress in red…Just in case.

-Avoid white or dark clothing and instead dress in off white and dark grey.

-Avoid wearing the same color shirt & tie as…well, you won’t see your tie!

-Try not to wear anything too bright or distracting. Wearing wild colors, distracting clothing or jewelry may take away from what you want to say.

-Avoid clothing with fine patterns (pin stripes, herring bone) as they will cause a moiré pattern (a distracting wavy effect, seen mostly when Don Cherry appears on HNC) when seen on TV.  Not to say you can’t wear something with a pattern, you just need to avoid the tight, thin, contrasted lines.  Below is a quick example of what the moiré pattern looks like…note that only the image is pulling back, all the other movement is an illusion but very distracting!

-Avoid clothing that displays a brand, saying, image or logo unless you have obtained advance copyright approval (in writing) or it’s your own brand or sponsor.

-Avoid clothing that is reflective or has reflective strips unless it’s part of the interview!

-Avoid clothing that makes noise.  If you know you will be walking while being interview, wearing cords or wind pants that swoosh when you walk would not be a good idea.  Also think about leather that creaks, jackets and jewelry that also might make noise.

-If you can, or are unsure about what to wear don’t be afraid to bring several set of clothes so the director has a choice.

-If you wear eyeglasses, you may be asked to remove them if you are comfortable without them.  Remember when the optometrist offered low or non glare lenses?  Non glare free type lenses cause flares (reflections of the lights) and blocks your eyes from being seen.  If you can’t function without them, we have a few tricks to lighten the glare.

Other things to remember:
-Turn your cell phone off.  Even it it’s on silent or vibrate it can still make noise or cause electromagnetic interference to the camera and audio gear.

-Don’t forget to get a good night sleep before the shoot.  Trust us…it shows!

-Men may need a little powder to keep the skin sheen down.  Don’t be embarrassed about that!

-Women should wear their normal amount of makeup and not over do it.

- If you are prone to heavy sweating, let us know.  Even if you are not, it’s always a good idea to keep a handkerchief close by for any quick dabs.  Consider dress shields if you perspire easily.

-Don’t wear vivid red lipstick or try out some whacky new colour…unless that’s the look you are going for!

-Make up in general should be limited to softer tones and neutral overall look.

-Avoid ball caps.  They hide your face and makes lighting you very hard.

-Try and pick an outfit that we can clip a small microphone and transmitter and transmitter too, unless we have discussed other intentions.

-If you are being shot on blue or green screen it’s very important that you do not wear…blue or green!

If we have missed anything or have any other advise to share, please let us know!

SW

Scott Westerlaken

Scott Westerlaken

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

Fact is, to generate sustainable success, you’ve got to capture your customer’s attention by zeroing in on their specific product application or need, and then appeal directly to the points of pain associated with that product or process. In other words, you need to find an emotional connection and demonstrate clearly how your product will solve their concerns or inefficiencies.

In my years working in the foodservice equipment industry, I was responsible for marketing innovative equipment solutions that ultimately could provide operators with cost savings and a better quality product for their customers. The challenge was how do you convince a well-established, multi-national chain it should change the way it prepares its core product (in this case, beverages)?  Equipment is often viewed as a commodity and just another capital expense. To get a buy-in, an emotional connection was required where my product could address and demonstrate a solution to specific points of pain in their beverage preparation and delivery process.  However, demonstrating the product solution to all the decision makers, as well as the field operators,  would be a very expensive and time consuming exercise if we chose the “face to face” path. A fast, inexpensive way to reach the right people and communicate the most important points about my product, for a very specific product application, was what was required.

The solution was to develop a series of videos that demonstrated our product in action, solving a specific problem for a niche application.

The key to success here is that the videos need to be produced and delivered quickly to the customer, preferably shot in the customer’s environment for maximum effect, and they need to be short and to the point. The result? Instant demonstration of the product application in the customer’s environment that could easily be uploaded on the web or emailed to key decision makers. In fact, the process worked so well that the concept was expanded to include development of preventative maintenance and technical training videos. These videos were assembled into an easy to navigate, Flash-based user interface that enabled a customer to easily get the important information they needed about the product.

Similarly, in developing new market space for the MorSwift (www.morswift.com) rubber banding and bundling system, the challenge was to find a way to bring this innovative packaging solution to the attention of customers accustomed to using  traditional packaging methods.  Demonstrating the various niche applications for MorSwift would not only help the customer visualize how the banding system could fit into their production process, but also enables a way to communicate the key selling points of the system.  By developing short, cost-efficient videos with on-screen bullet points (see http://www.morswift.com/videos.html),  then uploading these to the web, MorSwift is able to reach customers all over the world.  Rather than promote the MorSwift system as a broad, “packaging solution”, the company is able to use the videos to promote specific, niche product applications such as rubber banding of broccoli, crab, lobster, printed material, tools, etc.

It’s important to note that this is a dramatic change in approach to the traditional use of video where most applications of video are for broad strokes of image, company brand, and sales pitches.  Instead, the specific niche application for the product and related messaging is the focus of the video. Quick, to the point, in your face!

PHI Group can help you deliver creative, cost-effective and professional-looking product application videos that will knock the socks off of your customers!  The result?  Close sales faster by offering a more relevant, targeted sales pitch to your customers and reduce your travel and marketing expenses in the process.

For more examples of using video to promote your products and services, visit www.phigroup.ca

Please share with me your thoughts on this topic, I would like to hear from you.

Chad Wiesner (chadw@eastlink.ca)

Alar Kivilo

Over the last 50 years we have all experienced incredible changes in the technology involved in presenting messages to the consumer. We have moved from an analog world to a digital world. We have moved from a film based silver halide technology through a magnoferris technology to silicon /transistor based technology. All very complicated, all very amazing and all mere waystations on the endless technology highway. For my sins I have worked in the advertising film production business for most of this self same time. I started when the first few colour TV commercials were being produced and all commercials where delivered to the TV stations as 16mm film prints by mail. So you ask or maybe more accurately “so what?”  Well the “so what” is that over this time frame and through and beyond all this technology I have formulated three basic things that are required to make great visual communication.  They are:

One

First you gotta have a script… a story… an idea … a vision.  This is simple and hard. The only problem is that without a great script all that follows is just gold plating on a turd. Part of this problem is how to identify the “great” and not get distracted by the merely OK.  The motivation must be to make something happen … we want to get people to laugh or cry, to get happy or get mad, to tune in or tune out but they must do something….. If they do nothing then nothing happens.

Two

Secondly you gotta have a great piece of glass.  This is simple and can be a little pricey. These days everybody is all over all kinds of image capture formats… disc, hard drive, HD, XD, Red, and even film. This all matters nada! What to my mind is the most important element is in fact the “element(s) of the piece of glass between the idea and the image capturing media. The lens!!! Good lenses make great images. The best lenses will allow the idea to be clearly recorded. All modification to that image can be done … post can make something crisp and clean, soft and fuzzy, BUT NOT the reverse.

Three

Thirdly you gotta have a great set of eyes. This is simple and can be very hard.  Someone has to know where the light is coming in. To get great images to support a great idea you have to have that person who sees the vision and can translate the idea to a look and execute the look by the moving the image gatherer and the lights so as to record the vision. They have to know where the light comes in. They have to know how much light they need or don’t need. After it is recorded it can, in post, be changed in almost any manner to further the idea.

With these three things any image capture device can be used… A good idea well lensed and well lit will win all the awards and more importantly move more of the merch!

James Hardie

With over 42 years experience in Canadian film and television, James Hardie has dedicated his career both to supporting the established individuals and companies who have succeeded in our industry while always fostering and encouraging emerging talent. For his ongoing efforts and dedication in the advertising industry James was honoured with The Bob Mann Award from the Television Bureau of Canada at the 2006 Bessies.  The award was created to ‘recognize an individual who has demonstrated a long term contribution to their craft’. The description epitomizes James Hardie. He has worked as an editor, a grip, a production manager, in almost every discipline of post production and currently is Manager Commercial Dailies, Independent and Student Films for Creative Post Inc.  Working with filmmakers has been the paramount driving force for James to dedicate his career to our industry, our filmmakers and their stories.  A tireless and vocal supporter of the depth and diversity of filmmaking talent across the country, James has volunteered his time and expertise throughout the years with the Academy as a juror consultant and sponsor.

I consider “Jimmy” to be one of the greatest men in the Canadian Advertising Production Industry and a true friend.   He now rests his cigar at Creative Post and can be reached at jimh@creativepostinc.com.

SW