I put a lot of thought into my video storytelling. There’s typically a reason for each shot, but that doesn’t mean there’s hidden meaning behind them.

I recently received some feedback from a client that made me kind of giggle. Actually, they received the feedback and then passed it along to me. It had to do with a shot of hands. Yes, hands.

As any video pro knows, it’s important to shoot sequences. If you shoot video of someone working at a computer, nine out of ten video pros will come back with the same variety of shots…

• wide shot of the room with the person sitting at the computer
• medium shot of the person at their desk working at the computer
• tight shot of the person’s face
• tight shot of the person’s… wait for it… hands on the keyboard

Foundation for good video storytelling

Now, there might be a few more shots in there… how each individual video pro shoots them will certainly vary… but just about everyone will come back with those shots.… Read More

I’m torn on something. Dare I event say it? I’m wondering if maybe Delta Airlines… gulp… should NOT do a PR video surrounding its recent public relations home run.

I know… I’m shaking my head even writing it. If you haven’t read the story, Delta CEO Richard Anderson is getting a ton of good press because he gave up his seat on an overbooked flight. He did it to make sure customers were taken care of first, even helping the last passenger with her bag and showing her to his seat.

He did still make the flight… sitting on a jump seat in the cockpit… but still… pretty cool.… Read More

I feel like we’ve cleared a major hurdle in a way, only to run into a potentially bigger one. That second hurdle involves video production cost.

Back in the… I won’t call them good old days because they weren’t all that good and we’re talking less than 10-years ago… anyway, not too long ago the biggest challenge we faced in video was convincing business leaders it’s something of value. That’s still a challenge today, but not like it once was.  

Getting over the first hurdle

There’s so much data out there showing people about the popularity of online videos. Not only that people like to watch them, but that they’re more inclined to buy once they’ve watch.   It makes sense.… Read More

It’s 3:15 p.m. and I just realized I never created a blog post for today… oops!

Sorry about that. The whole family got up yesterday at 3:30 a.m. to make the trek out of town for a triathlon. Mrs. G is quite the competitor.

Anyway, I’ve been in a bit of a fog since then, but I’ll bounce back with something good tomorrow… guaranteed!

–Tony Gnau… Read More

Whether you’re putting pen to paper, keystroke to monitor or video to TV screens… storytelling is storytelling. As a matter of fact, doing a lot of reading and writing is a great way to hone your visual storytelling.

That might sound a little weird to some, but in most cases a video actually starts with a script. Sometimes someone writes it, other times it’s piecing together sound bites to form a story. In either case, I always put the words on paper before I start editing video.

Words to visuals

There’s a magical thing that happens during that process. The visuals you shot and the words on the paper start to come together before the edit even begins.… Read More

Like many of you, I’m not a fan of Facebook pushing ads into my news feed. It’s pretty irritating, but I have to admit it’s providing me with some good video content examples.

The latest one comes from aviation giant Boeing. I was scanning my Facebook feed yesterday when I noticed a Boeing ad. It had a video player… no surprise that’s what caught my attention. The video was a straight-up PR video, and it’s really good.

What you do isn’t boring

There’s some pretty flashy editing, but the best part… it tells a really nice story. It’s a classic example for any business owner who doesn’t think what they do is interesting.… Read More

A simple shout-out today to my friend Anna over at Social Mapp Media. Her company specializes in digital marketing, so no surprise they do a lot of it themselves. I especially like their latest newsletter with the headline, The Awesome Power of Video Marketing.

“The Power of Video” is something I frequently write about here, but I love the way they broke it down…

1. Improve your search engine presence. Ranking videos high on YouTube and Google is significantly easier than ranking web pages. According to one calculation from a Forrester Research analyst, you have a 50x better chance of ranking video content (versus text content) on page one of Google!

… Read More

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when producing their corporate videos doesn’t have anything to do with the production itself. The mistake actually happens afterwards, but it’s a result of what didn’t happen before the first frame of video was shot.

The mistake is how the video is used once it has been produced. We’ve had plenty of clients who know they want a video, they think it’s something important for them to have, but they have absolutely no plan for how they’ll use it.

The default, of course, is we’ll put it on our website. Okay… that’s a good idea, but that doesn’t have to be the end of it.… Read More

Well… turnabout is fair play. Earlier this week, I blogged about a pretty uninspiring political video. It was produced by one of the many people running for governor here in Illinois. My post was non-political, but the video happened to feature a Republican. Today… the Democrats prove they can serve-up average storytelling as well.

Bill Daley is known to many around Illinois… especially Chicago. What the Kennedy’s are to Massachusetts, the Daley’s are to Chicago. The point is Daley doesn’t really have to introduce himself, but that name recognition also comes with a problem.

Storytelling and Trust

The Daley’s are the embodiment of the Chicago political machine.… Read More

What do carbon monoxide detectors have to do with video production? Nothing. Consider this a personal public service announcement.

Last night, I got a call from Mrs. G that our CO detector was going off. We have a 2-year-old so it was especially concerning. They got out of the house and I went home to investigate. Our condo management team had people there power washing the garage during the day, so I figured that was the culprit and it was later confirmed I was right.

I opened all the garage windows, opened our home windows, but the detector wouldn’t shut-off. I called the fire department and minutes later Chicago’s Bravest were on the scene taking readings and not liking the results.… Read More