As a business leader, it’s likely that you’ve heard of the need for perfecting your 30-second elevator speech. And while there are scenarios where that’s all you need — dinner parties, networking events, when you’re literally riding in an elevator with someone chatty — you know there’s so much more to your organization than what you cover in those 30 seconds.

It’s the same when creating marketing videos for your business, nonprofit or foundation. At Denver Film & Digital, we will happily produce a one- or two-minute centerpiece video giving your audience the basics on your organization. But what’s even more powerful is when we can take the time to produce multiple videos that cover each aspect of your organization and what it does, helping you to connect with your audience stronger and more clearly.

Not only does this allow you to get into the details with viewers without forcing them to “sit through a long film” about your organization while you hope they care enough to make it to the end, but it gives you control to share details about specific facets of your business on your terms.

When you break down the various parts of your organization across multiple videos, you:

have flexibility in what you want to share on social media, allowing you to pair a video with a written post covering something specific instead of a general message about your organization.

• can have multiple videos on your website, using each video to supplement relevant copy on a particular page.
• may have ready-made videos for when you want to create online video ads
• have videos prepared when you want to share a specific topic with a prospective client, donor or investor.
• can cover more virtual space online with multiple videos while increasing the chance that you’ll pique someone’s interest. After all — while one specific part of your business may interest someone, it might not be prominent in your centerpiece video and they might pass you by. That’s not good!

When our clients opt for multiple videos to show different parts of their business, some opt to use testimonial snippets while others have their experts explain specific topics.

For The Paisley Project, a Denver-based nonprofit that supports widows, we did one centerpiece video that explained why the organization was created. From the initial half-day shoot, we had enough material to go into more depth about individual programs and specific topics including coaching, a book club and retreats. Each of these videos shares more about The Paisley Project, and helps viewers and potential clients connect to the organization and the women it helps. One video even addresses the reluctance a widow may have for joining Paisley, and we hear from women who overcame their reluctance and how they benefitted from doing so.

Whether your organization’s services or products are simple or complex, there are always benefits to going into more depth with multiple videos.

To discuss your organization’s options for marketing videos, contact Denver Film & Digital today at 303-274-9319 or ssealy@denverfilmdigital.com.

You’re familiar with green screen, right? The now-ubiquitous technology that lets the person on camera appear to be anywhere in the world (or beyond)? What you’ve probably also come to expect as the norm — outside of action movies, at least — is the video being shot from the waist up with the subject sitting stationary. But that’s just the beginning of what green screen technology is capable of. That’s why, at Denver Film & Digital, we are thrilled to tell you that we’ve got the newest technology that lets us film green screen video showing — you guessed it — legs!

We’re totally geeking out over our new green screen that allows the virtual location of a video to go beyond the shoulders to include the ground. But it’s about more than Steef just loving any new video tech that he can get his hands on; it’s about giving you endless options for an economical yet professional video where there is no limit to the locations you choose.

The new green screen means that you don’t need to build a set or be anywhere particularly compelling to look like you are right where you want to be. You can look like you are sitting or standing in literally any setting you want to be in for your marketing or music videos. Take our friend Ed Atkinson of Liberty Home Loans. In his marketing, he describes himself as his clients’ “mortgage Sherpa,” so we had some fun putting him in a fitting setting to create unexpected videos that are sure to make him stand out above other mortgage brokers.

The green screen is especially valuable if you want to produce marketing videos for your business or nonprofit, but have a small or less-than-interesting workspace. With our special technology and know-how, we can put you in the midst of an entire set of your choosing, whether that be outer space or another office space.

If you want to keep it simple, your video can have a clean and sleek white background, which is great for a modern website style and lets the edges of the video blend in with your site’s page for a seamless look. The options really are endless.

While green screen lets you look like you’re on location, shooting video with this technology is convenient because you don’t have to scout for locations or travel to them, and you can have endless options for where it looks like you are, yet the cost is no more than if the video were actually shot on location.

To learn more about our fancy new green screen and what it can mean for you and your organization, contact us today at ssealy@denverfimdigital.com or 303-274-9319.

You are probably familiar with the feeling of visiting an e-commerce site that is all about the products but leaves you wondering who’s behind them and if the company really is reputable.

One way to combat the perception of an e-commerce company being run by robots or people with suspicious motives is through a video on your website and social media that shows the real people behind the organization. As with this video we produced for Keystone Water, you can put a face (or a few) to your e-commerce business, helping instill trust with current and prospective customers.

The Keystone video doubles as a testimonial for the company’s top-notch customer service and seeing a person behind the business. We meet Director of Operations Michelle Brozovich and she walks us through several of the company’s products and the benefits of using Keystone over competitors. She then addresses the paramount topic of customer service, explaining that it’s what sets Keystone apart from other providers of water dispensers and accessories. Finally, we see real customers providing testimonials about how Keystone Water excels at customer service.

So not only does this video show us a real person behind Keystone, but it shows the social proof of satisfied customers, taking away any potential mystery about what this company is about and who runs it.

According to one study, 65 percent of 1,000 people surveyed said they’ve “cut ties with a brand over a single poor customer service experience,” and you probably don’t have to think too hard to come up with a company that makes you relate to this stat.

With a video like Keystone’s, you can show what your company is all about and connect with potential customers while showing that you do care about customers and how they perceive your company – you want them to know you and feel comfortable buying from you. If you can also show that you provide stellar customer service, that’s a big bonus.

If you want to learn how Denver Film and Digital can help your e-commerce business put its best face forward to get more sales, contact us at ssealy@denverfilmdigital.com or call 303-274-9319.

Although we create compelling, impactful and entertaining videos with fresh footage, the inclusion of archival assets can be an affordable way to make a video dynamic and bring it to life in a way that new footage alone might not.

Not only does the new complete video become more vibrant, but old photos and videos can get a whole new life and a chance to make an impact in a way that they hadn’t when being looked at as a single still or video, or sitting in a filing cabinet or collecting dust in a basement. Thanks to the latest video and editing technology, they get to be viewed as a piece of a bigger story.

A recent video we produced for The Listen Foundation (http://www.listenfoundation.org) is a great example of how to combine elements from a variety of sources with our new, professional video footage, for a single video that tells an emotional story spanning decades.

For portions of the video, Listen Foundation parents sent us videos of them explaining their stories of how the organization impacted their hearing impaired children and their families. Viewers see the parents talk about the early days with The Listen Foundation, and along with those videos, we wove in still photos of the children through the years along with videos of their early therapy sessions from more than 15 years ago. The children — now ranging from young adults preparing to go out into the world to having children of their own — also sent us video testimonials recorded on smartphones, in which they provided a powerful, firsthand look into how the therapy helped them find success as they grew up.

The ability to electronically transfer a smartphone video to be part of a professional video is particularly useful when scheduling and locations are issues for those involved or if there are budgetary constraints. Giving people the option to provide their own video for parts of the main video is a way to keep production costs down, while ultimately producing a professional piece. While the format may be different than how we would shoot, we can smoothly transition between the various videos and photos, making them all support the overall video.

For the professionally shot piece, we talked to Listen Foundation therapist Nancy Caleffe-Schenck who worked with the children in the video, beginning at when they were as young as a year old. She gets emotional as she thinks about these clients and all of the hard work the children and families put in, and viewers get a sense for how committed Listen Foundation therapists are to their clients’ growth and success.

With all of these elements combined — old video on VHS tapes, family photos, smartphone video, and new, professional video footage — we created a powerful video that tells the emotional story of how the Listen Foundation’s work affects families in a way that viewers who aren’t necessarily familiar with the organization can feel and understand. Watch the video for yourself to see what we mean!

If your business or nonprofit has a story to tell and old photos or videos to help tell it, give Denver Film & Digital a call today at 303.274.9319 or email us at ssealy@denverfilmdigital.com.

Even those of us who consider ourselves an open book still find that we may struggle to discuss particular issues or talk about something difficult with certain people. It might be because we’re dealing with a painful topic or because there’s some kind of stigma around talking about whatever the issue is. Video can be extremely helpful in breaking the ice when it comes to opening up about these tough issues in a group setting.

A powerful example of using video for this purpose is the 10-minute video Denver Film & Digital produced for the Carson J. Spencer Foundation < http://www.carsonjspencer.org>. The video was used to supplement training Denver Fire Department’s 1,100 employees on the topics of mental health awareness and suicide prevention. It was used as a conversation starter on the difficult subject.

Utilizing video for this purpose is ideal because it provides consistent messaging every time. This video was used in dozens of training workshops and helped ensure continuity across each one.

As we see in the video, firefighters and commanders talk about how they are trained to help others, and to analyze and put out fires. Traditionally, they aren’t trained to care for themselves and their own well-being. Instead, they learn to not show emotion or let things get to them so that they can go on from one site to the next, doing their job.

However, we’ve learned that this kind of mentality is detrimental not only to the firefighter, but to the company and his or her family.

The CJSF works to change that.

In the video, we see multiple firefighters discuss challenges of the job and how beneficial it is to have peer and professional support to help overcome challenges, both personal and professional. But while they stress the importance of a support system for mental health, they express the difficulties of talking about their mental state. Firefighters, like police and other first responders, are taught be the strong ones, after all.

“I do feel like showing too much emotion may hinder the way people look at you professionally,” said firefighter Juan Vigil, expressing his struggle over how much to discuss the hardship of losing a friend and colleague to suicide. He added that he was even uneasy about doing the interview for the video. But, he said, “It’s important to hear these stories, because we need to tell them. We need to get them off our chest. Keeping them in isn’t the way to heal.”

It was clearly difficult for Juan and his fellow firefighters and commanders to talk about mental health, but they did it. And they exemplified behavior that trainers wanted others to emulate.

Doing the in-depth interviews in a safe, quiet environment made it more likely that the officers would speak their minds openly. It almost certainly produced a more powerful result than having the officers speak in front of a room of their peers where they would feel compelled to put on a brave front.

When the video was used in training, their candid reflections gave permission to other firefighters to admit their struggles, and even consider asking for help.

This type of video can be useful to any nonprofit or other organization dealing in difficult topics including loss, mental health, addiction, abuse or lack of economic stability. To learn more about how a video can help your organization start conversations about tough topics, contact Denver Film & Digital at ssealy@denverfilmdigital.com or 303-274-9319.