4.1.13

Exciting news! Better than unicorns and bacon!

OMG!!!!! We’ve been silent for a while now because we’ve been working on a couple of amazing endeavors that we can finally share with everyone. First of all, a director from New Zealand whose first name is Peter has asked us to collaborate with him on a new movie!

He said, “I want to make a love story that blends elements of Peter Pan with The Exorcist and we think you’re the right partner to help us produce it. I’m going to shoot on 16mm black and white film, so it’s imperative that we get the shot right the first time. Your experience with whimsical, utterly nonsensical storytelling will come in handy, as does your ability to perform triple duties as producer, key grip and caterer. I’m afraid that my last few movies were a little too risky for the studios and they’ve severely limited the scope of what I can do with my next venture. I think you guys are the right people to help me make it all happen.”

The second bit of news we have to share is that our dreams of expansion are soon going to become reality! On a whim, we decided to reply to the man who emailed us and told us about his deceased uncle, who was the head of oil exploration at Shell in Nigeria. To make a long story short, we’ve since given him our bank account information and will soon be getting an infusion of capital to help us with our plans to build a new sound stage, VFX studio and editing room in downtown Durham! We’re really excited about this new development, as it dovetails really well with update #1. What we’ve learned from this experience is that sometimes, people only call it a scam because they’re trying to hide something from you.

Updates on these exciting developments soon!

3.14.13

Video Marketing Topics for Digital Marketing for Business Conference – Raleigh Apr 15-16, 2013

Hi everyone! I’m very happy to have the opportunity to share what I know about video marketing with everyone. The following is a list of topics that you can tweet to @BizStoryTeller for inclusion in my presentations for both enterprise as well as small business tracks at the Digital Marketing for Business Conference in Raleigh on April 15 + 16, 2013.

When you respond, please be sure to include my Twitter handle (@BizStoryTeller) and either #Enterprise or #SmallBusiness to identify the world that your business mostly resides in.

The list is not exhaustive by ANY stretch of the imagination, so if there’s something you find interesting that you’d like to hear about, please tweet me and let me know what you’d like to hear about. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I’ll have to focus on just a handful of topics, but I want you to have a say in what some of those topics are. There will be a core set of topics that I think everyone should know about and will add to that list from the choices you make.

I look forward to seeing you all at the conference and would be glad to start the conversation beforehand via Twitter!

#WhyVideo – why should we do it? what can video do for my company?
#StorytellingInVideo – why does it work so well and how can we do it?
#HowToShoot – practical tips for shooting video that can make your videos better.
#VideoSEO – what is it? why should we do it? how do we do it?
#DevelopingContent – what do we put in the video?
#TypesOfVideos – what types of videos are there? which one(s) should we create?
#BrandedContent – what is it and why should we care?
#ViralVideos – what are they and can we make one?
#RefiningMessage – how do we get our message across in a video?
#SettingUpStudio – what do we need to set up our own studio?
#ChoosingProducer – how do we choose the video company we should work with?

brandon hoe
@BizStoryTeller

12.23.12

Merry Christmas!

ClearSketch Christmas Video from ClearSketch on Vimeo.

1.21.12

Branded content example: Fender Select

Fender has entered the branded content arena with this film for their Fender Select line of instruments, lending support to the branded content movement. A few months ago, Fiber One did the same with Cheech and Chong playing the protagonists. That video has garnered well over half a million hits and helped spread the Fiber One message to a vast audience.

Branded content, if done well, can elevate your company’s brand and get your target audience interested in what you have to say. In our own experience, branded content’s ROI can be extremely significant. A video we produced helped put one of our clients on the world stage when the video we created for them was selected as a finalist in TED’s “Ads Worth Spreading” competition, making it easier for them to walk into a sales meeting and develop a rapport and trust with their prospects. Having a reputation precede your introduction to a prospect is a powerful way to help you ultimately seal the deal. Have you considered using branded content as part of your marketing strategy?

Note: ClearSketch was not involved in the production of this piece of branded content.