Tamgram

It’s been an interesting decade and corporate video has evolved as a result enabled by all of the technological advancements, many of which were born right in our own backyard. As I said, it’s been interesting.

I remember “back in the day” working with high tech Silicon Valley companies that were (and many still are) chasing the elusive “Smaller, faster, cheaper, better” in a never-ending game of leapfrog with their competition. Nowhere has this slogan been truer than in the video arena. After all…just about anyone can own an HD video camera (a lot of us have one in our phones). And just about anyone can own the equivalent of an HD editing suite on a beefy laptop or desktop. And anyone can get a video up on YouTube. So does that mean that anyone can tell creative, compelling, and powerful stories that can effectively communicate key messages in a way that supports the overall brand? Of course not.

So you’re probably thinking I’ll now tell you that’s why you need to hire Tam Communications for all of your video work. Actually, just the opposite. I believe a lot of companies would be well served to have an in-house producer (if they don’t already) that can tackle, at a minimum, many internal videos and external product demos, white board discussions. Depending on the hire, he or she may fill the role of producing or just managing bigger projects, hire out-of-town crew, or screen production companies for projects that are outside their core competencies. We believe there’s an excellent opportunity for today’s freelancers, shooter/editors, and independent producers to thrive in a corporate setting, where they can enjoy the steady work, employee benefits, and the possibility of a paid vacation (what a concept!).

With YouTube and other Content Delivery Networks (CDN), companies can distribute training, education, product demos, a whole world of content, to a worldwide customer and perspective customer base at a fraction of what it used to cost. And they have metrics that were simply impossible before – who watched the video, from where, in what language? But the ease of producing and distributing simple videos in-house does not mean that all video communication should be “just the basics” or “good enough”. That same CDN can help you define your brand to people who may have never made their way to your industry trade show to learn about you, to meet you and get to know your products. That money you spent on a video that wowed at the product launch or trade show floor for three to four days now has a life as long as…well, who knows how long.

At one point I realized that when someone asked, “Do you produce ‘YouTube’ videos?” it was code for cheap. I’d like to see more and more companies realize that you can use that same infrastructure to create content the whole industry will be talking about and sharing.

We’re sponsoring the Santa Cruz Derby Girls again this season and are producing a whole new array of videos, different than what we’ve done in years past. We worked with Tall Can from SCDG’s Community First committee on ways to highlight the work the league does with their featured non-profits. The plan: create videos of four of the eight non-profits by covering events the derby girls participate in over the course of the season (Look for another post on the first two videos we’ve already created).

Another change this season was to explore ways of increasing the entertainment value at bouts. That’s where the idea of doing videos on individual players came into play—kind of like what you might see at the outset of a football broadcast when the starting offense or defense is announced.

For this effort, we traveled down to the league’s practice warehouse to shoot all the players from the Boardwalk Bombshells and Harbor Hellcats on green screen. We set up lights as we normally would for green screen—two backlights and one fill light up front. As Murphy’s Law would have it, when we powered up the lights to shoot the first of the Bombshells, our best-laid plan became the victim of the warehouse’s power issues. We blew a circuit and were unable to use the lights we brought. Time to improvise. Left with the warehouse’s top light to shoot each of the players, Tam then went into post and did his magic, making it appear as if we had the lighting we had originally planned.

In the end, we have a series of clips of all the players and coaches (and, of course, Roller Derby’s own Mildred Fierce) posing, smiling and mugging for the camera, bringing out their personalities right there on screen. These videos have two purposes—the first is to promote the upcoming game and line-up. Tam edits the video of those scheduled to play the next bout and posts it to our YouTube Channel. This gives a little extra boost for the game and for the skaters themselves. Then on bout night, as each player is introduced, we display their clip on the giant screen. This really makes the introductions more spectacular and allows the crowd to put a face to a derby name.

Check out the Bombshells first video from their March game and the Hellcats video from their April game.

Tam and I wrapped the 2010 Santa Cruz Derby Girls Highlight Reel over the weekend and it was viewed by about 150 members of the league on Saturday night.  We spent this last season (3rd season as a sponsor) shooting all of the home games, which are used for various needs in the league. The referee crew, or the Track Pack, study the game tape to learn how to function better as individual refs and together as a team. The coaches utilize the tape to review with the players to see where they can improve their game and strategy.  We also take the video we shoot and create music videos that we release on YouTube and put on the league’s website for fans to view; they have become very well-known as being some of the best videos in derby. Occasionally, when Tam feels like torturing himself he will edit each jam with multi-camera angles to give viewers the full effect of being there.

Our mission for the 2010 Highlight Reel was to take the hours of tape we shot with the help of John Barrett and edit it into one kick-ass video with inspiring shots, great effects and emotional music.  Tam spent most of the week finding the right music, grabbing the best action shots and starting to build the general feel and look to it.  My job started on Friday when I sat down with him to check out the first cut and give him direction on my ideas.  He was up early Saturday morning putting his finishing touches on it, transitions, effects and checking music levels.  My final job was to do my best to make sure everyone was being featured, scouring hours and hours of video to find shots of league members.  As a league member of the Santa Cruz Derby Girls, I am able to identify all of the league members who have not been represented and have a vested interest that we do our best to make sure that everyone is recognized.  It’s important to me as not only a sponsor but a leaguemate that not just the super stars are recognized for the hard work they put into the league.  I think we accomplished our goals and I am very happy with the end result. We gave the league a great end product that I know the members will be able to cherish for years to come.