Senior Connection

Getting Started with Your Free Video Production

Thank you for your interest in our Free Video Production for Members Only.

The Video Production Perk

We produce videos for organizations to use in their marketing campaigns. We are embarking on a new strategy, in partnership with Friendly Videos, a video and television production house with close to 20 years experience here, in Prescott, to assist companies during these difficult economic times. We are producing 3 minute Company Introduction videos for Senior Connection Member companies at no charge (FREE!) to the Company. We take care of everything - shooting, editing, voice-overs and music-unders. 

Once the video is completed, the video is converted to streaming format and uploaded on our site for all to see, and for the Company to use as it sees fit during their membership. 

Copies of the streaming video master CD and the broadcast quality video master DVD are sent to each Company, which they can duplicate and distribute to further their cause.

The Process

Your responsibility is going to be creating the script which will be used for the voice-over for your video.

Once the Script is finished, we would appreciate if your Company would coordinate our on-site taping with your board members, staff and volunteers, and provide still photographs & graphics to augment the video. We will not be shooting any on-camera interviews, or any other 'talking head' video. We would like your Company to review the video after it has been produced and posted to our streaming site at www.SeniorConnection.us.

We handle the entire production of your Company video. We'll take care of all of the shooting at your facility, editing the footage, inserting the graphics and adding the voice-over & music-under.

Once your video has been completed, we will convert it to a special streaming format and host it on our SeniorConnection.us website. You will have your own dedicated directory to which you can direct your clients to learn more about your Company.

Additionally we will prepare a Master CD of the streaming website video complete with its own player that can be run on any PC, which you can duplicate and distribute. Send the CD to those who don't have internet connection. 

We also prepare a Master DVD of the broadcast quality version of the video for you to duplicate and distribute as you see fit. The DVD will run on any DVD player, and is great for presentations and for airing on television.

While we produce the video, and retain the copyrights, you are released from any restrictions from using the video in any manner that you see fit to further your Company's marketing plan. We would suggest that if any of your Staff, Volunteers, Clients or Board Members appear in the video, that you get their release before distributing the video.

The Script

Not everyone loves scriptwriting. If you are having a tough time getting even the rough draft of a script going, then consider the following, to help clear your focus:

Scripting is marketing. Use the script to tell people about your company, what it sells, why you are better than the competition, what motivates you, what are the reasons you got into the business. Tell us how big you are, is this a family corporation or Mom & Pop sole proprietorship, do you run it by yourself, or do you have employees, what's your background, your credentials, the company experience and longevity, how big you are planning to be, how your company fits into the local social and business fabric of the community. Tell us about your facilities, what makes it unique (special parking, special features, etc), how do you plan to grow. Tell us how you help your community.

Review your articles of Incorporation and By-Laws to remind yourself what you were planning when you started your company. Pull together any pamphlets and brochures that help give focus to your company's intentions. Review your company's websites and any news and magazine articles that have been written describing your company. Review your franchise agreement which is designed to help guide you and your business. Remind yourself of any special events that you participate in, and/or host.

And finally, make a list of how folks are supposed to contact your company: the contact Name (if any), Department, the physical and mailing addresses and phone numbers (voice and fax) that you want listed in the video. The video can contain a local map with the location of your Company indicated - please be sure that your contact information can stand the test of time: don't use an employee's name as a contact, if there is any chance that your phone numbers will be changing soon, don't use the old ones, if your address is going to change soon, use your PO Box. Make sure that the domain name of your website is dirt simple so people will remember it. Make sure that your email address makes use of your Domain Name. Don't use email addresses through Yahoo, Hotmail, or any of the freebie servers.

When you are happy with your 3-minute narrative (you did time it out, didn't you?), send it to me as a text file. I will review it and get back to you with any questions about the shoot, along with suggestions that could make the shoot easier or better. We usually have to go back and forth a couple of times to nail the 3-minute script down.

From the narrative that we're all happy with, I will construct a Shooting Script. It will contain your narration, broken up into 10 second intervals. Next to each interval will be a description of the visual (video, slide, still) that will be showing during that part of the narration. A Shooting Script makes sure that nothing gets missed, and that we're on the same page as to what you are expecting, balanced with what we can do from a production point of view.

The Shoot

It is important that you coordinate our shooting date with your Board Members, Staff, Volunteers and Clients. Please make sure that everyone is informed about the video that we are shooting. Our videographer generally will not know much about the overall production schedule for your video, and may not be in a position to answer a lot of your production questions. His job is to shoot your Company in the best possible light. You can make it easy for him to do his job if you already have lined up all the facilities that need to be shot. Make sure everything is neat and tidy. Make sure the videographer knows what you want him to shoot. He might be able to make suggestions, but your job is to make sure that he has seen everything that is visually interesting.

Don't include clients unless you are CERTAIN that it is all right for them to be in the video (generally, showing clients is considered bad form - instead, replace clients with employees). Ensure that everyone that you expect to be in the shots have agreed to be in the video. Don't assume anything. If there is a question, either don't use them in the video, or get their release in writing (we usually carry copies of the Release with us for you to copy and have signed). If someone complains to us about using their 'likeness' in your Company video and you don't have a signed release, that video goes away, just like that, done. 

This is probably a good time for you to score points with your Board Members, by selecting facility shots that include each of them at work in the video. Do the same for your Staff and Volunteers. Make sure that they are all present on the day of the shooting, and choreograph who is to be where in the video. If you have shy talent, don't 'force' them to participate in the video - it isn't worth the time or effort. However we have found that most are 'shy' because they have been surprised by the video taping - that is they didn't know what was coming, or what was expected. You can eliminate a lot of this shyness by chatting up the video project with your people several times before we show up. Get them used to the idea.

We're only going to be able to schedule shooting for one day with your Company. You probably have events that go on throughout the year. It would be very helpful if you could provide us photographs of these other events (one-time or periodic) that we might be able to use in the video. Also, if you have PowerPoint presentation (.ppt) files that contain images or graphics that may be of use in the video, please email them to our office (Production@SeniorConnection.us) once your Company has been scheduled for a shoot.

We will not be shooting any live interviews or 'talking head' video when we visit your Company. We will be shooting non-audio video entirely. Since the scripted voice-over for the Company video will be describing the Company, we need video only to augment the voice-over, to visually compliment what the voice-over is describing (fill-video, if you like). But visuals are very important to video - most people tune out the audio and react (positive or negative) to the visuals first. It's human nature. If the visuals are interesting enough, then the viewer starts to 'listen' as well as watch. 

The Edit

The editing process is joining all the elements (audio narration, video, stills and slides) together in our video edit bay. The narration is the backbone of the video and is layered first. Using the Shooting Script as a guide, the different visuals are dropped in over the narration. Some transitions (fade-in, fade-out, etc), if required, are inserted at this time. If you video calls for it (most do not), we'll lay down a faint music background to the video. Music is usually reserved for travel videos, documentaries, and suspense thrillers - none of these categories fit your video - so music backdrop is seldom appropriate. 

The Posting

After we have finished editing your video, added the graphics, voice and music, the video is converted to a special streaming format and hosted on our SeniorConnection.us website for about a week for evaluation. We would appreciate your feedback about the video during this time. We are most interested in accuracy - any error that we may have made. Is there something in the visuals or the voice-over that is flat-out incorrect? 

A little less easy to define is whether we have struck the right balance in the video. Have we emphasized your most important priorities as most important? Have we inadvertently buried one of your high priorities projects somewhere in the middle of the video?

We also like to know what you think of the quality of the overall video - not so much of content (see above) for this evaluation, but of look and feel? Does the video put your Company in the right light? 

If your Member Company is interested in this (FREE) offer, now's the time to build your 3-minute narrative, then Click on the Sign-Up Link below to get the ball rolling. This program is opened ONLY to Team Members of the Senior Connection, as a free service that is part of your membership fee

Click Here FOR THE VIDEO SIGN-UP FORM

Please understand that, with any free offer, there might be a huge response, so we may not be able to schedule your Company shooting date right away. Please be patient and be prepared on the day of your shoot. Also, we reserve the right to prioritize some Company scheduling based on community need and interest (certain emergency services companies get our attention first). Either way, we will respond to your schedule request within two business days. If you don't hear from us by then. please phone us at 928-778-6988 to make sure that we have your correct contact information.

And thank you for considering becoming a part of the SeniorConnection.us Team.

© 2013, SeniorConnection.us; PO Box 11929; Prescott AZ 96304