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!

I couldn’t believe my eyes this morning when I checked my email – our entry into the TED “Ads Worth Spreading” competition had made it into the final round! We’re up against brands and agencies that are massive; I’m sure you’ll recognize names like BMW, GE, Fedex, Walmart, Ford, Toyota… well, you get the idea.

The challenge for us now is to garner enough support from all of you to prove that the little guy with the big ideas and passion, dedication and plain ol’ gumption can compete against the Goliaths of this world. We may not win outright, but a good showing would be a significant victory for the underdogs.

I humbly ask you for your support, both by voting for us at the link at the bottom, as well as sharing our story with your friends, family and co-workers by clicking on the Facebook ‘Like’ button at the top, forwarding this blog post to them through the Facebook ‘Send’ button or by tweeting this blog post using the Twitter button above.

PLEASE VOTE HERE.

Your support is greatly appreciated.

With gratitude,
brandon hoe
founder and do-it-all guy

The picture above is a behind the scenes shot we took at our most recent video shoot. Can you guess what the product we’re shooting the video for is? A sexy new automobile? A high-tech sportswear lineup? We’re not revealing what it is right now, but rest assured it isn’t something most people would associate with feline aggression!

Our client gave us complete creative latitude on this project, allowing us to develop a concept that would help tell their product’s story without settling on the conventional ways of getting feature/function messaging across to customers. We researched their customer’s pain points and immersed ourselves in the lingo to ensure that we got the overarching messaging right, then wrapped the product’s value proposition within a really cool story and exciting visuals.

The star in the photograph, Foose, is a 34 lb. serval cat, a wild cat of African origin that was rescued by his trainer and trained to hiss on demand (or as close to on demand as you can expect of a wild animal!). This shot captures Foose at his best, putting on a display of superiority that mirrors the awesome power of the product this project revolved around.

We’re finalizing the visual effects, edits and music now, and can’t wait to share the final product with all of you.

One of the worst travesties you can commit with video is having bad lighting. Take a look at the example below from the University of Michigan’s video guide site. The subject is poorly lit, and hence, almost indistinguishable. This often happens if you’re using a video camera that automatically sets exposure for you, or if you’re using a camera that allows manual control of exposure, but is set in automatic mode. The camera will expose for the average of the scene, meaning it will look at the entire scene and try to figure out what the correct exposure is for that particular scene.

In the example below, since there are very bright spots (the window in the background) and very dark spots (the subject and the curtains and wall on the right), the camera will set the exposure to somewhere in between. The camera has no idea which part of the scene you want to expose correctly, so it does its best, which often, results in exposure that does not make the subject look very good.

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to ensure better lighting for your corporate video, even if you’re shooting on a low budget and using a simple camera like the Flipcam, Kodak Zi8.

• • Shoot outdoors where everything is evenly lit. This negates the camera’s deficiencies in setting exposure.
• • Keep the brightest light source in front of the subject. If you’re shooting in a room that only has one window and the room is dim, make the subject face the window when you’re shooting.
• • Light the subject! If your budget doesn’t allow you to engage a professional production company, or to buy or rent expensive lights like Arris or Kino Flos to produce your videos, light the subject with something like this instead. The color temperature and quality of light is far from perfect on these, but it’s better than having a dark subject against a bright background!

Lighting is a delicate blend of science and art that takes years and years to learn how to do well, but these simple tips should immediately help you to improve the quality of your videos.