Market7

A common question for producers and clients alike is about compressing video (aka ‘encoding’). You don’t want your final video to be too big because no one is going to wait for 30 mins for your product video. Too small and you sacrifice quality. The good news is that you can decide how best to encode at the last minute IF you do one, very important thing: Record the highest quality source material.

Although the Market7 software encodes into flash for viewing and feedback, we are optimized for viewing and feedback which is probably not the same considerations you want for your video.

Four things to consider
1. Type of file Compression/Decompression (aka ‘Codec)
2. Dimensions of video
3. Quality (aka ‘Bitrate’)
4. Container (Quicktime, Windows Media, Flash, etc.)

1. Codec - The codec is just the way the video is compressed. It is a bunch of math rules used to reduce the video’s size. On the receiving end, the reverse calculation is done to restore the video as close as possible to the original. Different codecs = different math (and a different result) I prefer the H264 encoding as the best all-around codec but it is relatively newer than, for example, MPEG codec so some computers may not be able to play videos with the H264 codec.

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2. Dimensions - This is really a matter of preference. Smaller dimensions = smaller file size (faster loading) but it also means pixelation if you try to display it at a larger dimension than which it was saved at.

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3. Quality - This is a tricky one especially since you can have variable bit rate and frame rates. This is where you can make small adjustments to get your video looking just right at an acceptable size. Lowering the frame rate will make the video appear choppy but for some videos this is fine. Lowering the bit rate will reduce the quality of each frame.

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4. Container - Your consideration about container should be what the audience is willing/able to view. You should only be using containers you are sure won’t be a problem. Flash, Quicktime, Windows Media, and AVI are the most ubiquitous. For purposes of comparison and utility, all of the above videos were in the Flash Video (.flv) container. This is the same container we use in the Market7 service for the same reason: To ensure everyone can watch the uploaded content.

Our creative genius minds {/evil_cackle} played a two-fer hand this week by producing a video for our TechCrunch 50 application. The video allowed us to chow down on some good ol’ Market7 kibble which is the only way to truly see if we are doing it right. User surveys and focus groups can never replace some first-hand experience.

The parameters were:

1. Create a 30-60 second video that summarizes what we do
2. Use every member of the team
3. Do everything in-house
4. Try not to embarrass ourselves (this one was the most challenging)

By doing this, we all gain the experience while the TechCrunch Gods get to glimpse behind the curtain to see the people responsible for creating our software. We had about 48 hours to put it all together using only our onsite resources. How did we do? Take a sniff…

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Fluffy kittens
World peace
George Lucas’ phone number
…

What does a producer want? As we continue to develop our Market7 software, we are spending a lot of time with content producers of various calibers and specialties. It occurred to us that we are only using a portion of what producers are telling us. Many of the interesting anecdotes and best practices don’t apply to the problems we are trying to solve. So what do we do with the rest of this great information??? Create a Market7 show of course! (so simple! keep up, will ya?)

We are tossing around the idea of a very basic show (basically me with a camera and a mic) to capture some of these best practices and general “do’s” and “don’ts” for the benefit of our customers. After all, it does seem a shame to waste that knowledge.

Possible names for our “How to make the best corporate video ever” show:

1. Produce this!
2. Video killed the mar-com star
3. You can’t greenscreen composite out an attitude

We are taking all submissions for ideas for a title…

Back in the caveman days when we wanted a mate, we just beat them over the head with a large club. I know because I have seen countless reenactments on television. Occasionally, there was a ‘numbskull’ who, despite being struck with repeated blows, had no idea that the mating ritual had begun.

How would we reach these numbskulls? Not by beating harder. For these folks, we needed to guide them through the process with iterative, easy-to understand steps. (“ok, walk over to this rock. Good! Now just a little bit further to that bed of mammoth fur over there”)

{I hope this level of degradation pays well}

Many times in script development, the helicopter stunt sounds like a good idea until someone takes the club and hits everyone over the head with the price tag. Unfortunately, this usually happens at the end of the script development. After weeks or months of head nodding, a flurry of expense-induced head shaking breaks out. The result: wasted time and last minute rewriting.

What would be useful is a way to wed the story development and production planning/budget together. Some iterative steps that show everyone where the production is headed opposed to a heavy club at the end.

Does Market7 have such a thing? Well, no, not yet. I know you all saw some sort of self-serving marketing pitch coming on but this is a blog. It is composed of observations gleaned from talking to hundreds of producers. Occasionally, these things just hit ME over the head.

A treatment (sometimes called an approach, concept proposal, or conceptualization) is simply telling the story of the film/video in prose. It covers the core idea around how the video will look and sound.
Typically, the writer and/or director will create a few treatments for the client from which to decide upon. Once a treatment is chosen, the transformation of treatment to script begins.

Short and Sweet

The treatment is of limited length, not more than a paragraph. It’s much like a movie synopsis description you might read in the paper or on-line. It doesn’t contain every important detail and might even finish in an open question of how the story ends.

A change in treatment = starting from scratch

If a client changes his/her mind in the middle of a production and decides to go with a different treatment than agreed upon, it means basically starting over. Some clients don’t understand that changing the core idea affects production so profoundly. Producers, often worried about seeming inflexible, won’t explain this impact. As a result. Clients end up unhappy about late delivery or cost overruns and producers are frustrated by a stressful production.

Diagram of treatment to script flow

The treatment is the foundation of your video. Everyone should understand that, though sometimes necessary, ripping apart the foundation affects the entire structure. In understanding this, you understand that giving extra care up front on the approach in the treatment will pay big dividends throughout production.

I spent a little of this past weekend at the office with my son. I caught up some on work, and he progressed through some of his Netflix queue. Afterwards we headed to the nearby San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (which was providing free admission for guardians of children 12 & under!) to see a couple of well received exhibits that will close soon. I found the one of Olafur Eliasson to be unbelievably cool, and I highly recommend, but it’s not the topic of this post.

The museum shows a lot of video or media exhibits, in part due to generosity and interest in such art from the family of local venture capitalist Dick Kramlich. These particularly tend to catch the interest of my son, and right now SFMoMa has “Pretty much every film and video work from about 1992 until now” by Douglas Gordon. The whole exhibit is in a single room with a periphery congested by dozens of video monitors each showing a different work by the artist. Examples of the work include splicing together of every one of Captain Kirk’s make-out sessions slowed to barely perceptible motion, split/screen juxtapositioning of two out-of-sync mirrored feeds from the famous “you talkin’ to me?” scene from Taxi Driver with headphones playing the appropriate audio tracks for each ear, and exorcism scenes from The Exorcist overlayed with a more genteel movie from decades earlier.

I was captivated by Douglas Gordon’s work, including an encore visit on our way back to the museum exit. His work is profound aesthetically and philosophically. But technically, I didn’t notice any particularly complex means to reach his impressive ends. He splices, mixes soundtracks, applies filters, overlays feeds. In retrospect, I believe this is true of much of the video and media art I’ve seen: the innate power of the medium to richly capture can empower the artist to efficiently convey a vision. While Gordon is a man of rare imagination and talent, many of us have access to the same techniques he generally uses. With a sound vision and consideration of the medium’s basic principles, using video to enhance a product launch or training package need not be inaccessible.

Boredom. It is what most viewers of your content will suffer from. As the enterprise, you put forth your money and as the producer you put forth your time and creative energy only to have the child of your collaboration end up in the ‘unwatched’ category.

Here are a few things you can do when writing your script:

Length (not too long):
1. 30 second advertisement (if the viewers don’t know your product or service).
2. 2-3 minute informational (if the audience has knowledge of the product or service and wants to know more).
3. 8-12 minute instructional (Only for specific teaching purposes).

Interest (Keep it compelling):
1. Focus on a specific topic, break broad topics up into multiple segments.
2. Find a way to connect emotionally with the audience.
3. Edit, edit, edit. Say the most with the fewest words.
4. Every good story has a beginning, middle and end. So should yours.

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Which format? Once we decided to add a script editor to our services we had to determine which format it should be in. The entire purpose of the script editor was to allow collaboration between the enterprise-client and the video producer. If we chose the wrong format and one or both parties didn’t want to use it, our efforts would be wasted.

There are basically two formats video scriptwriters employ, single-column and dual-column format. The dual column format evolved from the single-column format specifically for video productions into the current audio-visual (AV) format.

The major difference is that in a single-column script, the visual elements and audio elements (such as spoken dialogue) follow one another. The dual-column script separates these so all visual elements are on one side and all audio elements on the other.

The dual column is the standard for commercial video production because of the ability to communicate the story very quickly as well as the convenience of converting the script into a storyboard-like tool for shooting. This is necessary on video productions because of both the compressed time frame of video productions as well as the need to communicate the idea very quickly to a wide variety of people.

For me, I use A/V when I am doing commercial work. It helps me get the idea across easily (even if it takes the client’s eyes a minute to adjust to the format. Once they do, I find it very useful for them). When I am writing a screenplay for a movie idea, I stay with single column as it helps my linear storytelling intuition.

Bottom line: AV format is better for collaboration, Single column is better for yourself.

The script drives everything that relates to the story. With the WGA strike persisting and the corresponding lack of entertaining content (I have taken to watching reruns of ‘Seinfeld‘…George is sadly more like me than i care to admit), it’s plain to see the importance of a good script. A solid script leads to a solid production. Most unhappy customers and frustrated producers can point to the script where the problems began. It is the roadmap behind which all wagons follow.

With something so important, why is it so hard to lock a good script?

First, we tried to identify what makes up a good script. We found that for enterprise customer video, a good script must be three things:

• Accurate (reflects the Client’s message)
• Clearly understandable
• Compelling

What keeps a script from becoming good?

Accuracy suffers when there is not effective communication between the client and the producer. Many times our producers think everything is fine until the day of production when the client complains that the message is off point. This often leads to a breakneck patch job to save the day.

Clarity suffers when the script isn’t reviewed by the right people who should have a say in the story. The dreaded ‘Huh?’ from those responsible for translated the script onto screen (such as the Director or the Marketing Communication Manager) is a death sentence for the production.

Compelling Interest is lost when the script becomes too long, difficult to follow, unfocused or offensive. This happens when too much information is shoved into the script for the audience to digest. Soon, the script is bulging at the seams with extraneous information. On the other hand, a story that starts uninteresting will stay that way when too few of the people who care about it (and who would say the story is not good) don’t read the script.

As a result of what we learned, we next started building a script editor that would break down and eliminate some of these problems by helping the right people review the right story at the right time to produce the best possible script.

Check out how we are trying to solve this problem…

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This is not actually our first week but let’s start here and call it Week1. More importantly, it is the start of the public face of Market7.

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Enterprise Customers and Video Producers don’t work well together.

Why? And how can we help fix this? These are the core questions we are looking to answer. Producing video is a struggle for most enterprise organizations that don’t have a full-time staff. Dealing with enterprise customers is a struggle for most producers. There must be a better way.

As we talk to Producers and Enterprise Customers, we are going to journal our adventure. Hopefully, if we do our job well, there just might be something of value in there for you.
You can’t be the only one facing your problem…