2013: Video will be 90% of Web Traffic



How’s this for your marketing outlook? I’ve been sitting on this article for a month or so, but wanted to post it for a while. Cisco released a forecast of IP traffic saying that video will be 90% of all web traffic come the year 2013. That’s something I can take a bite into!

View the entire article here.

2 Exabytes a month in 2013 will be web video traffic…. that’s a lot of bytes! 2 Million terabytes to be exact!

Now have you managed to let video become part of your marketing strategy? Maybe this news will give you the motivation you need!

Graphic Effects



I’m a big proponent of new features to shows and innovation, however, sometimes, I just can’t wrap my head around the usefulness of some ideas. For example, the 10 yard line innovation in football- amazing and useful for the football fan. Even more so, the way it operates is incredible.

The glowing hockey puck…. well… I didn’t hate it, but it kind of made hockey look too much like a video game. With HD, it’s now essentially useless because the puck is really much easier to see on the screen as compared to when SD video was what we were watching.

Now comes the latest, the ESPN ball tracker, which was introduced during the home run contest tonight. I’m still thinking about why someone would even come up with this idea, store it in the “what were they thinking” folder. If you did not see the homerun contest, there is basically a yellow streak that follows the ball (this is all in real-time). When it is determined that the ball will go out for a home run, the streak turns green.

I’m flabbergasted. We can’t wait an extra 1.5 seconds to see if the ball is a homerun or not? Add to the fact that half the time, this incredible technology was not working or being used. If you intend to use something, then use it!

Sometimes technology can really help us out. This is one of those times when the money that went into this should have been put into something better, like giving Adriana Monsalve overtime pay for more SportsCenter appearances.

Dancin’ On The Avenue 2009

Every year, downtown Willow Glen hosts a big party called Dancin’ On The Avenue. They block off the street for three stages where bands and acts come to perform, and revelers dance everywhere. Well it so happens that The Last Cut has it’s office across from the main stage, and a balcony to boot!

Every year at Dancin’ On The Avenue, we hold a little party for friends, family, and clients to come on up and take a load off. It especially is fun to people watch from the balcony. I happened to take my camera out for a grand total of 5 minutes for the whole night to shoot some video. This was around the time when the office was filled with everyone’s kids, so it’s not the most accurate description of the night, but you get to see some of the action anyway. Enjoy!



Dancin’ On The Avenue 2009 from Ted Banucci on Vimeo.

BTW- The song is called “1901” by the band Phoenix

Digital Signage Content

The Last Cut has been creating digital signage content for the past year, and recently, for universities across the USA.

What exactly is digital signage content you ask? Well, if you have ever been to a grocery store or mall, and have seen a television or even one placed sideways, then that is referred to as “digital signage”.  It’s like a billboard with moving video on it, pretty cool!  And we are producing the video content that plays on those types of screens.  This content varies from information to advertisements.

In the case of our latest project at the University of Santa Clara, we are creating content which promotes the multiple uses of their student ID cards.  These ID cards have an RFID chip in them, which makes their applications limitless. Right now, the students can use the cards to get coupons by our signage, and even use the IDs to pay for things.

Here is our recent demo that shows off some of the content we created, enjoy!

At what cost?



Apologies for the lack of posts to this blog, I have been short handed here at the office and have been running around creating videos and making clients happy!  Things have settled down here and I have decided to re-engage my marketing, which includes this blog.

In one marketing segment, I often look at new job posts on eLance.com,DoNanza, and even Craig’s List! I never get anything from these sites, as these are the people usually looking for something incredibly cheap and unrealistic. I’m curious just how many videographers spend their time on these types of jobs, because if they did, they would be out of business pretty quickly.

Why do I waste my time? Well, every now and then something interesting actually does pop up. For example, recently a poker site posted a job looking for someone to record vlogs (video blogs) to their website while following their players at the WSOP (World Series of Poker) in Las Vegas. Being a poker aficionado myself, this was a dream contract that actually paid well for doing 3 weeks of work in Vegas. Who would turn that down? So I submitted a proposal, only to be shot down (most likely to the cheaper guy).

One recent job that I noticed made me fall down laughing. A man was requesting for someone to create a set of 3 half-hour erotic massage videos for under $500. In these videos, a male masseuse needed to make a female climax using certain techniques that this person had invented. In other words, this was porn. He had no idea how he wanted it shown, but he did want two very good looking people to act in the video…. oh yeah, and you had to hire the “models” using your budget.  All of this to the lowest bidder, under $500!  This just screams money maker for any videographer out there.

If I sound a little annoyed by the expectations of people when it comes to video, you may be right. It’s the age-old problem in this profession where a new up-and-comer will lowball their prices to get work, not realizing the impact it has on the industry. The sad reality is that those people last about a year and then go out of business. That is the point when they realize that not only do they have to pay for new equipment every few years like computers and cameras, but they have to pay for rent, insurance, education, marketing, taxes, and other costs of living.

I do a lot of things when it comes to creating video, it doesn’t end with a few hours of filming. I have to make original concepts all of the time, brainstorm how I am going to make a unique video for each of my clients, write scripts, drive to locations, film, direct, transcode video to computer format, come up with an editing style, search for appropriate music, edit the piece (sometimes 50 hours of editing), color correct, audio correct, add titles and graphics, render, encode for another format, and upload. This does not even include making DVDs or the endless unpaid hours of consulting with my clients.

With the advent of YouTube and Internet video, this low expectation of creating quality content for minimal pay is just going to get worse. This is why I sit on the board of an organization trying to promote professional video. The Bay Area Professional Videographers Association (BAPVA) is dedicated to educating both videographers AND the public about what makes a quality production. In the past few months, I have been live streaming our meetings for free in hopes of gaining new members, and to show the general public all of the behind the scenes aspects of videography. Granted, these are not the most professional productions, but they are FREE (You get what you pay for, the idea behind this article)!

I’d like to sum up this post by encouraging you to think of how long it will take to create your production, and what is going to go into producing it. Think realistically about how you can control costs if that is what you need. Most importantly, think about how a professionally produced video will add to your marketing, rather than a cheap clip created by an inexperienced rookie to the video field.

Marketing on the Cheap



In this recession, we have actually had a lot of customers come forth to expand their marketing efforts. What better way to do that than add a video to their website and make it “viral” as well? After all, the businesses that thrive are ones that choose to expand marketing efforts rather than layoff employees.

Of course, it is STILL a recession, and many of the companies approaching me want something on the inexpensive side. While we are not big fans of doing work that does not utilize all of our skills, we are often happy to oblige, if nothing more than for a new customer relationship in the future. Often, the project turns out well anyway, and the client comes back to us later to get a higher end video.

A good example of doing something effective, yet under a budget, was a recent customer in SlimVia. SlimVia is a new weight-loss supplement that is battling competitors such as Hydroxycut and Alli. It seems that the SlimVia edge is that it has no side effects.

The client asked us for some simple green-screen work, and they would edit the final product. While I don’t usually like doing camerawork that we don’t get to polish, we agreed and were in and out of the actors house within a couple of hours.

While I would have edited the footage a little differently, it came out nice and effective as an introduction to the client’s site:  http://www.tryslimvia.com/

This was all done for a small amount of work, and they will be able to promote it through sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and more.  How about your site?  Could you benefit from an introductory video as well?  Give us a call!

Social Media Marketing Industry Report



For all of the companies I am working with, I consistently recommend using social media techniques to promote their businesses.  This goes for large and small, single person businesses.  Of course, my number one focus is using video to make a huge impact via viral video or on websites, but new techniques, such as posting on Facebook and Twitter have been found to make huge impacts for self-promotion.

Today I read a great report on the impact of social media, and it can be downloaded and found here: Social Media Marketing Industry Report 

This is a good summary of what is going on with the Internet right now, and the age of the “3.0 Web”!  It’s here folks!

Upgrade Blues

 



In upgrading our servers, we have run into a few problems with our front page.  Hopefully all will be resolved soon!

In other news, this upgrade will hopefully bring us a ton of new features to our video output capabilities!  Look forward to some announcements by us soon!

UPDATE: Thanks to Craig, the issue has been fixed!

Contact Form Problems Resolved



If you had recently sent us something via our contact form in the last two weeks, and did not receive a reply, please accept our sincerest apologies. While we are well known for our spectacular videos, we are not so well known for our website coding. Turns out, one misspelled word caused our email form to not work properly!

So if you sent us something in the last two weeks, it was due to the launch of our new website, which had a small error in the contact page. Please give us a call or send us another contact message and we will be sure to reply this time!

Video to Communicate



Today, it was announced that President-Elect Barack Obama would be using YouTube for weekly addresses to the American public. Here is the story from the Mercury News.

This is, in my mind, a terrific form of communication evolution, and something I have been promoting for years with my business within the corporate video sector. In fact, we have been producing quarterly corporate video updates for some businesses as far back as 1996, before we were even officially in business! Here is a sample of an ATMI quarterly report from a few years ago that was used to keep the employees of the company abreast of business operations (this is a 20 minute video, you will probably just want to skip around in it).

Click on the picture to play the video:

When you are trying to keep thousands of employees in many countries up to date on the operations of the company, then video is an excellent medium to spread the word in a convenient form.

What bigger company do we have than the United States of America? Which is why I applaud Obama for making the move to weekly updates of public addresses, and other pieces which he plans to include, such as policy talk with head administration officials. This will bring the discussion of politics and life to a larger forefront in our society, and will hopefully even enlighten a few people on multiple sides of a political argument.

These types of videos are not only convenient for large countries and large companies, but for small businesses, niche stores, even families who want to send vlog posts to each other. Think about it, instead of wasting a bunch of paper this year on your holiday cards, how about a message via video to update friends about your family and send holiday wishes? Inexpensive, green, and creative!

If you would like us to produce a professional message for yourself or your business, contact us today!

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