It’s easy to take production assignments literally. Even when we think we’re being really creative, there is usually lots of opportunity left to take risks and consider a project from a completely different perspective.

Consider filmmaker Casey Neistat’s take on an assignment from Nike. In his own words:

“Nike asked me to make a movie about what it means to #makeitcount. Instead of making their movie I spent the entire budget traveling around the world with my friend Max. We’d keep going until the money ran out. It took 10 days.”

Of course, this was all communicated in a video that quite effectively tells a story about making it count.

There are close to 5 million hits on that link alone. Throw in some YouTube dupe videos, views on other video sites, a front page Reddit story, etc., and it’s probably safe to say that Nike was happy with this result. Neistat could’ve made a really creative, glossy video that delivers big on the ‘make it count’ message. Nike would’ve probably been happy and the video would’ve found an audience.

In this case, the very essence of ‘make it count’ is at the core of the production itself. And it’s inspiring. Consider too that this video was shared enough that it made its way to my PC screen. I didn’t go hunting for Nike info. And I’m not terribly interested in sports. Yet it found me.

So how can you make your next video production count?

• Think hard about the message your video will communicate and how you can embody it throughout every aspect of the production itself – not just the finished product.
• If this is a recurring video assignment, take a new approach. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Think hard about how you can turn the production on its head.
• Don’t necessarily produce what your client/boss/company thinks they want. Take risks to present them with a final project that they couldn’t have envisioned on their own.
• Depending on your circumstances, get buy-in from your client along the way! Neistat is a well-known videographer and has the clout to turn in a final product like the one above. If you’re going to take risks, it might be much better for your career to make sure that your client is onboard from the start.

Market7′s CEO, Seth Kenvin, recently spoke with EContent about achieving success with video on the Web. Part of the discussion included why  many find video to be a more challenging medium to tackle versus most other marketing vehicles. And how services like Market7′s can help make the process easier for anyone that needs to create video. You can check out the full story by clicking the link below.

Market7 Hollywood guru Craig Heiting called into Digital Production Buzz last night to talk with host Larry Jordan about the company’s plans for NAB and some specific features being rolled out for studio and broadcast customers. He also gave out a top secret promo code that you can use to get even more bang for your buck when signing up for Market7. Check out the clip below or visit the site here to hear the full episode.

So much new stuff that this post’s headline wraps to a second line! As we prepare for NAB, we’re releasing a slew of features across multiple modules. And, we have some even newer stuff in development which we can show at the event. Email info@market7.com to arrange getting together with us. What’s available now, and demonstrated below, includes:

• Clear & present instructions on basics of using Annotative Player to help new users get started
• Refined layout when adding comments in Player making advanced features more discreet and basic features more obvious
• Toggle to switch video play between higher quality and better bandwidth efficiency versions including automatic prompting when bandwidth challenges are encountered
• Schedule reminder emails to be sent in advance of Tasks being due
• Copy entire scenes of Collaborative Script including any uploaded media within a project or across projects (which can be especially useful to achieve templates on episodic content that tends to follow the same pattern)

Jim O’Neill over at FierceOnlineVideo just posted on Market7′s increased focus on reaching more Hollywood studios and producers. The article features some good background on Craig Heiting, Market7′s new VP and GM for media and entertainment. Check out the story here.

FierceOnlineVideo was one of the first media outlets to cover Market7,naming us as a Top Online Video Company for 2009 in its annual Fierce 15 awards.

We continue advancing broadly across our suite of modules, and in trying to determine a theme for this week’s release, I suppose it comes down to “parts”. If you’re an administrator of a project and a participant checks out a video, it can be useful to know what within that video were checked out. The impact of praise, or of condemnation, may vary based on how much of a video was watched and even what specific portions, so we’ve now put this auditing into the project’s activity feed (just for the view of people who are administrators of the project’s account). Another context in which granular specificity is useful is communications about a script — when calling someone’s attention, may want to hone in on specific portions of a script, so we now allow a scene range to be set in sharing functionality of the script. Check out both of these features in demo below.

Seth and Craig (Market7′s new media and entertainment VP) recently descended on New York City to talk video production management advances with customers. They took some time to connect with Dan Ochiva of NYC Production & Post News about their trip, which included a lot of discussion about fragmentation in collaboration.

Check out the article here to read about the benefits that Market7 can bring to studio productions and how it can help solve a big challenge that comes with doing video production in New York.

Market7′s  offering for better video collaboration around media production continues to evolve. And Seth Kenvin sat down with Beet.TV’s Andy Plesser to talk about the latest and greatest.

You’ll hear from Seth about Market7′s focus on being non-technical to cater most to how many different groups of  people need to work. And its latest efforts on targeting the television, movie and advertising companies that need to produce more content than ever, especially given the need to feed the Web.

Check out a brief article here and click below for video.

We’ve been progressively revising our Tasks module, and some significant work on that has been recently released. This includes an overall new look to the module to be both more compact and more readable with alternating background shading. Also newly released is a capability to add a new task with placement precision by simply hovering between existing tasks and clicking to insert one:

Another significant new feature is sorting of task tables by column, so, in addition to seeing a project’s tasks according to its default numbered ordering (itself easily modified by drag & drop) sorts can be done by state of completion, duration of work on task, due date or assignee:

SAN FRANCISCO, FEBRUARY 23, 2012 – Market7, Inc., a provider of web-based software for collaboration around creative content, today announced the addition of Craig Heiting as vice president and general manager for media and entertainment. A television industry veteran with a broad range of experience across the media ecosystem, he is focused on expanding adoption of Market7 by studios, networks and independent producers. Heiting is based in Los Angeles.

“Market7’s impact on content quality and operational efficiency stands out among my experiences in how video is produced and delivered,” says Heiting. “As media consumption increases, studios, television networks and other key players in production need to deliver more and better content, and Market7’s solution addresses those needs by streamlining processes and clarifying communication.”

Before joining Market7, Heiting was vice president of sales and worldwide market development with digital video networking company BigBand Networks, where he worked with Market7 founder and CEO Seth Kenvin. Prior to this, he served as vice president of North American cable television sales and strategy with Ericsson and was president of Wave Broadband, a West Coast provider of video, internet and phone services. He also worked in talent and program development with Showtime and Time Warner Cable. Heiting holds a B.A. in Journalism and Film from Marquette University.

“I am thrilled to reunite with Craig, who brings great insights about and dedication to how the media and entertainment industries fulfill their most vital initiatives of efficiently producing great content,” says Kenvin. “Market7 makes media easy for anyone creating content and Craig is extending these benefits to our established and expanding base of media and entertainment customers who are at the forefront of sophisticated production.”

The flagship video.Market7 service streamlines and enhances production through better project organization and precise communications about content throughout the lifecycle from conceptualization through pre-production like script writing and onto review and approval of footage during post. The company’s customers overcome traditional challenges and miscommunication that can typically impede production.

For more information, please visit www.market7.com.

About Market7, Inc.
Market7 addresses needs of studios, agencies, corporations and other organizations as they produce media for a wide range of purposes, including entertainment, marketing and training. The company’s flagship video.Market7 service supports all of the collaboration between video producers, their clients and any other parties involved in the process. This includes features for overall project management, conceptualization, pre-production like scripts and storyboards, and footage review during post. More information is available at www.market7.com.