Taking the next week off. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

VIDEO– Seasons Greetings

–Tony Gnau … Read More

All hail the power of video! Last week, I blogged about how my wife has finally bought-in. She received a holiday video last december from her alma mater, this year just a standard email.

She was disappointed, but the disappointment didn’t last long because guess what showed up this week?

I promised her not to be too brutal with my criticism in the previous post, she LOVES her school, so I didn’t even mention it by name. Well, looks like I can now because Monmouth College redeemed itself by sending out a 2012 holiday video.

Now, it’s no great achievement.… Read More

I received a call yesterday from a potential customer. No surprise I was happy about that, but the project is especially interesting.

It’s an internal communications video for a major brand and company… something I’m surprised more leaders don’t do.

Video is a great way to communicate with team members, especially if there are lots of them and they work different shifts. This particular company’s leadership wants to share their vision for their factory with the staff.

I love it! Business leaders in the C-Suite wanting to make sure the front line workers understand the mission. That’s good stuff, and if this particular video goes well they’re thinking about producing one a month.… Read More

I was recently listening to Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership podcast about his no gossip policy, and it really hit home for me.

The discussion turned to company culture with podcast moderator Chris LoCurto interviewing best-selling author Jon Gordon. Not only have I worked in worked in good and bad cultures, I’ve also seen how a company can leverage its culture as a sales tool.

Case Study

Electri-Flex is a suburban Chicago-based company that specializes in producing electrical conduit. The leadership and employees there are passionate about their product, but maybe even more so about their culture.

We produced their company video.… Read More

Last Monday, I basically declared it “Video in Public Places Week.” Then, I went on to completely blow-off the idea and not write about video in public places the rest of the week. Today, I’m writing about video in a public place, but I’m not declaring it “Video in Public Places Week.”

I know, right? Get it together Tony!

Well, this was one of the posts I was planning last week before the last Twinkies got in the way.

It’s a video kiosk I noticed while walking to a Chicago-AMA (American Marketing Association) event. I spotted it outside a realtor’s office, and it featured videos of all sorts of apartments for rent around the city.… Read More

Here’s a recent email from my wife you might find interesting…

Honestly, you’d think as your wife I’d be fully sold on the power of video, but I’m still a little skeptical at times.  This experience has perhaps pushed me over the limit to understanding “the power”.

You might be asking yourself, “What ‘experience’ is she talking about!?” Well, I’ll tell you.

It started last year

Last year, Mrs. G’s alma mater sent out a holiday email that contained a fun video. It made quite an impression because she said when she got this year’s email she opened it excited to see what they put together this year.… Read More

Monday, I basically declared it “video in public places” week. The next day I passed on posting anything due to an early shoot. Today, I’m not posting anything on video in public places.

Someone clearly needs to teach me a lesson on following up on my promotional teases.

Well, timeliness… breaking news… they trump promos!

My shoot yesterday was familiar and unusual all at once, and it was certainly good lesson material. It was a b-roll shoot for  big company… familiar. But it also involved shooting video of something I never imagined I’d ever shoot. Twinkies. Possibly the last Twinkies ever purchased.… Read More

18-month-old teething + 5:30 a.m. shoot = no blog post today.

Back with more tomorrow!

–Tony Gnau … Read More

I feel like I should declare this “video in public places” week. I’ve been noticing video in some interesting places recently.

The first one I’ll highlight is a video I saw playing at a restaurant. Now you might be saying to yourself that isn’t all that unusual. You can walk into tons of restaurants and see TVs everywhere. What made this particular restaurant interesting was that I wasn’t at the restaurant. I was walking by.

It featured some flat screen TVs in the windows facing out, and they were playing video shot inside the restaurant. Shots from inside the kitchen, the dining area, and of course, shots of the food.… Read More

I was talking with a prospect the other day about how we would shoot interviews with his people when he asked if we have studio space. I said, “No.” He was confused and wanted to know where we would shoot the interviews, and I told him at his offices.

Not what he wanted to hear. In his mind, his offices wouldn’t look good, but I assured him we were capable of making almost any space suitable for an interview.

This is a common concern for a lot of business people… the interview location. Which is funny to me because when you’re a production pro and know how to light and shoot an interview, you can do it pretty much anywhere.… Read More