What we're up to

Here's the latest



Learn a Marketing Lesson from Online Dating

In A good idea!,
  • Posted on December 3, 2018
  • Author: ,
  • Comments: 0


Andersen Law PC, Estate Planning Documents from Denver Film & Digital on Vimeo

Running a small business these days is kind of like online dating: The competition is fierce and you rely on standing out and building relationships to get you to the next step.

And if you’re a business owner, chances are you feel that competition growing. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of businesses with 500 or fewer employees (including solopreneurs) rose from 27.9 million in 2011 to 30.2 million in 2015. And if you’re part of a nonprofit, you know that every dollar you can capture is critical to your mission and that your competition is strong, too, especially around giving season. That’s why it’s more important than ever that, whether your organization is a small business or nonprofit, you get creative in thinking of ways to stand out above the crowd in the New Year. Just like couples who’ve used videos to connect on dating sites, videos that humanize your organization are a great way of standing out and making connections, too.

Build Relationships and Trust With Video

Do you know how your potential customers or donors decide who to support? If you’re a small business owner, you have likely found that you grab customers and clients by forming relationships. You network to share info about your business or your happy clients refer their contacts to you. And if you’re a nonprofit, you probably have development team members who get out in the community to build relationships while other donors lend their support because they are or know someone who’s benefited from what you do.

Video allows you to multiply the benefits of relationship building because you can extend your reach. You and your team can only be out in the community so much. But you can supplement those efforts with one or multiple videos that show the human side to your organization.

Take this video example for Andersen Law PC. Owner Beth Andersen prides herself on the fact that she is extremely accessible to current and even potential clients. She is always available to answer questions and lets them decide how they work with her firm rather than having strict rules about it. She could simply state these things on her website, but in addition to that, she had Denver Film and Digitalshoot a series of videos that actually show her offering beneficial advice to viewers as she walks them through how to handle various issues like estate planning and filing for divorce in Colorado.

Over the course of these six, brief videos, viewers get a sense of Beth’s calm, confident and friendly demeanor, while they also benefit from her expertise before they ever meet her. People who want to learn about these legal issues can find her videos on her website within blog posts as well as her YouTube channel, and Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

In a highly competitive industry like family law, Beth has stayed ahead of most in her field by leveraging videos to let people understand that she is trustworthy and to feel like they are working with her before they even call.

How One-Camera Testimonials Humanize Your Organization

We can develop a video that humanizes a company or nonprofit in a variety of ways. While Beth displayed her expertise herself, nonprofits often opt to have clients who have benefitted from their services give on-camera testimonials of the organization. A combination of testimonials with maybe information from employees or executives can help tell the organization’s story in a way that compels viewers to action.

In general, testimonials provide powerful social proof — the fact that others influence our decisions. In fact, 2017 stats showthat 85 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation from a friend. Reviews and testimonials are powerful. And here’s why video is especially key: Viewers can see and hearthe genuinely happy customer or client. The skeptical part of their brain can be satisfied in seeing a real person show what they sense to be real emotion rather than wonder if someone provided a review under less than ethical means. They see that a real person took time out of their day to come speak on camera in support of what your organization does because they feel that strongly about it.

If you are ready to see how you can use video to humanize your organization and show others what you’re all about to stand out from the competition, contact Denver Film and Digital today at ssealy@denverfilmdigital.comor 303-274-9319.

 


The Gimbal: Tool Creates Smooth Shots Inside the Action

In Uncategorized,
  • Posted on July 16, 2018
  • Author: ,
  • Comments: 0


You know how we love to tell you about the new tools/toys we getthat make shooting videos for you even more impressive and fun. Well, we’re excited to tell you that we’ve added another piece of seemingly magical equipment to our toolbox — a gimbal! OK, that’s not a term you know from everyday life? Trust us when we tell you it’s cool!

A gimbal allows us to get smooth, handheld shots that used to be challenging and expensive to achieve. Our gimbal is just 12 by 6 inches and cradles our compact 4K camera(last year’s cool new tool/toy). Thanks to this awesome tech tool, we can fluidly show a more intimate view inside the action. It lets us get steady shots that look like the camera was floating. No bulky tripod necessary!

With the gimbal, we have already moved around horses during a roundup, followed someone walking to the stage at an awards ceremony and moved seamlessly around a classroom while capturing a training session.

Since we’ve recently taken up tai chi, we love this description we found online: this gimbal is a robot tai chi master!

If you want to see firsthand what the gimbal can do, contact Denver Film & Digital today at ssealy@denverfimdigital.com or 303-274-9319and let’s discuss your project ideas


Denver Film & Digital iPhone Video Workshop

In A good idea!,
Tags: , ,
  • Posted on July 16, 2018
  • Author: ,
  • Comments: 0


When you look around your organization, do you see great potential for powerful storytelling? Stories that you feel need to be told? Stories that, if told to the masses, would help further your message? Chances are your answer is yes — because you’re doing amazing work!

Professional videos aren’t as costly as they used to be, and we believe an organization benefits from having at least one strong, professional centerpiece video to tell its story. But maybe you don’t have the budget for a whole bundle/gaggle of professional videos. What if your team had the skills to put together those supplemental videos you could be proud of on the fly — with an iPhone?

iPhone videos can’t quite replace top-notch videos that pros with high-tech equipment create. But with the right skills and training, you just might be surprised by what the iPhone can do. Take the above video we shot for the Newborn Screening Technical Assistance and Evaluation Program, or NewSTEPs, a collaboration between The Association of Public Health Laboratories and the Colorado School of Public Health. They asked us to show what the possibilities are for videos shot with an iPhone. You can check out the results for yourself! The average viewer would have no idea that this video was shot with a smartphone.

This is where we have to note that we have decades of professional experience to pull from to finesse iPhone footage into what you see here. But that said, we want to help your team see what is possible for you too. Because yes, you can create compelling videos that build on the professional centerpiece video to take your story further and tell it in more detail.

That’s why we recently launched a new iPhone Video Basics class that will give your team the tools it needs to make quality videos when you need them fast and want more than selfie footage.

Here’s what you need to know about the Denver Film & Digital iPhone Video Basics workshop.

It’s two hours long or can be a half-day session if you want more participation opportunities.

The ideal class size is six to 10 participants.

You’ll learn the basics of:

  • Video production, including how to get good audio and steady shots
  • Story construction, including how to think about the key components and flow of a story
  • Interviewing
  • Shooting
  • Editing

In addition to learning whatto do and howto do it, you’ll learn what to do itwithin a cost-effective way. We’ve researched and assembled a list of gear to shoot and edit with — beyond the smartphone itself — that gets the DFD seal of approval and totals less than $400.

Whether you want to create most videos in-house or hire a professional production company, the most important thing is that you get beyond thinking about video on your website and social media and actually get the videos posted.

Why? Well, in case you haven’t heard, marketing videos — all videos, really  — are not only the future, they are the way people get information. According to a recent Forbes article, the average user spends 88 percent more time on a website with a video, and viewers retain 95 percent of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10 percent when it’s in text.Don’t ignore those stats!

Whether you work at a nonprofit or a business where you want to shoot your own videos, your team can benefit from our iPhone Video class. Your marketing team may be the ideal group to participate too since they are already charged with creating new ways to share your message.

To learn more about how your organization can benefit from an iPhone Video workshop and for more details, contact Denver Film & Digital today at ssealy@denverfilmdigital.comor 303-274-9319.


Rethinking the FAQ with Videos

In A good idea!,
Tags: ,
  • Posted on March 13, 2018
  • Author: ,
  • Comments: 0


If someone finds your website, they’re ready to hire you, right? Wrong! In fact, 96 percent of visitors to your site aren’t ready to buy. That’s not to say that they won’t ever be interested; you just have to help them get there. Assuming you already have a great website design in place that’s kept them on your site past the initial 6 seconds you have to grab their attention, you need to nurture that lead from the get-go. A great way to do that is to anticipate questions they have and address them right away with video.

Take for example speaker and business coach Sarah Krivel of Kleriti Business Solutions. When she rebranded her company in late 2017, Sarah worked with a Web designer to address the most common pain points she hears when people consider hiring Kleriti. They considered the frequently asked questions and the should-ask questions, and decided the best way to address them was via a series of videos.

The idea was to focus on each of these key questions in individual, brief videos that could be sprinkled throughout the site. In these 10 videos, which we shot over a few hours, Sarah speaks directly to her target audience. So before she ever speaks with a prospect, Sarah has addressed some of the most commonly asked questions she gets.

Here’s why that’s beneficial.

Thanks to the videos, a potential client already knows what to expect when they work with Kleriti. This means they’ve already been able to identify whether they and Sarah’s team are a good match — before a phone call or meeting ever happens. So when someone contacts Sarah for the first time, there’s a better chance that they’re a qualified lead. You can imagine that a business coach is all about efficiency, and taking these steps to qualify a potential client before you even speak to each other certainly helps improve your company’s efficiency.

The FAQ videos we produced for Sarah are great tools for more than Kleriti’s website too. They can be used to do the following:

Help explain the business during presentations. Now Sarah can present short, polished videos that outline the basics of her business, on the spot.

Strategically drive engagement and reach on social media platforms. When Sarah posted the first video on LinkedIn, it got nearly 1,400 views — about 30 times what a typical post of hers had gotten at that point. And the video engaged those viewers too, as she got several comments and likes on it. She continues to include the videos in her social media marketing plan for Facebook and LinkedIn.

Increase exposure thanks to Google and YouTube. YouTube is the No. 2 most popular search engine right behind — you guessed it — Google. So another great way for Sarah to increase Kleriti’s exposure was to upload the videos to YouTube. In addition to the videos popping up when someone searches related topics directly in YouTube, these videos may appear in the search results when someone looks up the topics in Google too. An added bonus is that the videos directly uploaded to Kleriti’s site help the site’s SEO ranking, so that’s even more Google love for Kleriti.

Sarah is a business coach whose expertise we trust, so if you’re interested in following her lead (taking a cue from a business coach is usually a good idea, right?!) and creating a FAQ video series to help nurture leads on your website and more, contact Denver Film & Digital today at 303-274-9319 or mailto:ssealy@DenverFilmDigital.com.

 

 

 

 

 


Energize Your Videos with Vignettes

In A good idea!,
  • Posted on December 8, 2017
  • Author: ,
  • Comments: 0


Oftentimes, it’s more effective to show instead of tell. You’ve heard us say this before in expressing the value of video. But that sentiment also applies to what you show on video.

We’ve already discussed why you should use training videos. Now it’s time to talk about a creative, effective format that we love to use for training videos: vignettes.

Think of a vignette like a sketch. It’s a short video in which people act out a scenario. We are big fans of using vignettes for training videos for a few reasons.

First, trainees can get a feel for an actual scenario they may be presented with. Instead of being told what that might look like, they actually see it and get a sense for the situation, right down to body language, tone, emotion and settings. For example, we did a series of 11 videos like this for a Veterans Administration office in Denver. The goal was to teach clinicians to use language that is more precise and consistent to improve communication between themselves and with researchers. In each video, a vignette was followed by a debriefing video to help clinicians learn a new nomenclature for describing violent self-directed behavior. In the vignettes, they were able to see how those terms sound and apply in real life situations.

Secondly, vignettes can help trainees to clearly see the right and wrong way of doing something and have examples to follow. This can apply to just about anything on the job such as customer service training. A vignette could show an angry customer and have one scenario that shows how you don’t want employees to handle that situation, and another that shows the right way to handle it. This is a good way for trainees to see your company’s policies and procedures in action.

Finally, because they are scripted sketches instead of straight explainers, there is room in vignettes for more entertainment and humor. Done right, your trainees will be engaged in the situation unfolding in front of them and you can get your point across in an entertaining and memorable way.

Once you know vignettes will be your preferred training video style, it’s important to get the right people in place. It’s not enough to ask your neighbor who was in a high school play 20 years ago to help out. To get the professional, impactful video that you need, hire professional actors. We aren’t saying you need to get an A-Lister on board (Although, how cool would that be?!) but a video production company should have resources like talent agencies that they can hire from.

Hiring a pro is so worth it because they will help you get the high quality video you need. They know how to learn lines. They know how to deliver the right emotions and emphases, and they know how to do it consistently and repeatedly so that it can be successfully edited. The actors may need to do several takes, so they need to know how to do them all similarly enough that the editor can cut from close up to medium shot to a two-shot and have it look like it was all one take. Yes, the magic happens in editing, but even editing has its limits.

If you want to learn more about how vignette training videos can work for your organization — and want a video production company with the right connections for top-notch actors — contact Denver Film & Digital today at ssealy@denverfilmdigital or 303-274-9319.

 


Why Having Multiple Short Videos Is Great for Your Marketing!

In Uncategorized,
  • Posted on August 18, 2017
  • Author: ,
  • Comments: 0


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.


4K Camera: More Detail, More Efficient Video Production

In In the news!,
  • Posted on June 6, 2017
  • Author: ,
  • Comments: 0


It’s an exciting time for DFD and our clients. Not only do we have a spiffy new full-length green screen (link to green screen post) that can take our video subjects anywhere, but we also have a newly minted, cutting edge 4K camera, a Canon XC15.

Known as Ultra High Definition, the 4K camera has a significantly higher resolution (Filmora.wondershare.com) than the standard 1080p, or High Definition, cameras, and that means greater detail and efficiency in video production.

The nitty gritty is that it’s a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels compared to 1920 x 1080 pixels, meaning the 4K contains almost four times as many pixels at a 16:9 aspect ratio as a 1080p does. If you’re asking what a pixel is or what it means for your screen, TechRadar breaks it down:

Think of your TV like a grid, with rows and columns. A full HD 1080p image is 1080 rows high and 1920 columns wide. A 4K image approximately doubles the numbers in both directions, yielding approximately four times as many pixels total. To put it another way, you could fit every pixel from your 1080p set onto one quarter of a 4K screen.

So what does this mean for you with Denver Film & Digital? Great things for quality and efficiency!

Because there is so much detail packed in to each 4K shot, it means we can zoom in on a shot and retain fantastic detail that we couldn’t with a 1080p camera. This is especially valuable in video shoots that use a teleprompter.

Before, to get both medium and close-up shots, we’d need to shoot the script twice, because the teleprompter is right in front of the camera lens, but you can’t look at two cameras at once. The super-high resolution of the 4K camera allows us to shoot a medium shot and zoom in during the edit process to get the close-up shot, without sacrificing detail.

Because it’s all done in one continuous shot instead of two, there’s no concern for interruption in the inflections of you’re speaking, so everything looks and sounds natural. All signs point to 4K being here to stay too, so producing footage in 4K is a smart move to future-proof your videos.

For video production with the newest cutting edge technology and tools, contact Denver Film & Digital at ssealy@denverfimdigital.com or 303-274-9319.

 


Introducing Legs! Full-Length Green Screen Takes Video Subjects Anywhere

In Uncategorized,
  • Posted on June 6, 2017
  • Author: ,
  • Comments: 0


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.

 


Make a Gala Fundraiser Run Like Clockwork!

In A good idea!, Uncategorized,
  • Posted on February 22, 2017
  • Author: ,
  • Comments: 0


Ensure Compelling Awards Presentations With Honoree Videos
Does this sound familiar? You’re excited that the gala you’ve been working on for months is finally here, but you’re a little worried about the speeches that your honorees are going to make. Sure, they assured you they wouldn’t go over three minutes, but there’s that one person who has a tendency to lose track of time. And the others? Just looking at them, you sense their sweaty palms, racing hearts, stomachs in knots. So cut the stress! Preparing videos in advance of the event can not only put them (and you) at ease, but also help ensure that the event goes off smoothly.

At Denver Film & Digital, we help businesses, nonprofits, foundations and other organizations by creating tribute videos for their galas and award ceremonies. It’s both a practical solution for gala logistics and a way to make the all-important emotional connection with the audience.

Share Only the Best Information
You’ve probably listened to an award speech that was way too long or unfocused, or where time was wasted as honorees prepared to speak. Producing a video in advance by interviewing the honoree means that we can keep the remarks to an optimal time and make sure that only the most compelling and relevant comments are heard, and any awkward pauses or tangents are eliminated.

An example is this video of Cal Beyer of Lakeside Industries, who was named The Carson J Spencer Foundation’s (http://www.carsonjspencer.org) Shining Lights of Hope Volunteer of the Year. In just two minutes, we learn about Beyer’s initial involvement with the cause of suicide prevention, his accomplishments surrounding that, what drives him, and how the issue has personally impacted him. There are enough details for the audience to connect with him to learn why the cause is so important to Beyer and understand why he earned the Volunteer of the Year distinction, yet there is nothing extraneous.

Shooting the video also allows the honoree to be more at ease than they’d typically be speaking live in front of an audience. This means that the audience gets to see them speaking more naturally and comfortably. It also gives the speaker the opportunity to focus comments, stories and answers to our questions calmly and fully, saying exactly what they want to say.

Simply put, video helps award recipients and nominees present their best selves.

Keep the Event Moving
Many events, like the Shining Lights of Hope Gala, feature multiple honorees. Producing a brief video for each person helps each honoree’s remarks have a cohesive feel. As an added bonus, shooting video for each person also means that even honorees who may be out of town can get the same presence as those who are local.

Particularly when there are multiple honorees, videos are helpful in running the event efficiently, because they reduce time spent on people getting to the stage and other aspects of transitioning between speakers that can make the program feel drawn out. To ensure that everything has a cohesive feel, we can write the spoken intros for the emcee so that the following video is properly teed up.

All of these factors combine to help the award program be impressive while staying on a pace that means it doesn’t overstay its welcome and gets people back to mingling and enjoying the other aspects of your event in a timely manner.

To learn more about how Denver Film & Digital can help you make the most of your award presentation, email ssealy@denverfilmdigital or call 303-274-9319.


Use Video to Build Trust in E-Commerce Company

In Uncategorized,
  • Posted on January 25, 2017
  • Author: ,
  • Comments: 0


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.


← Older Entries




© 2012 - Optimus Wordpress Theme.
Created by Temash for ThemeForest.net