The Way We Watch

The Video Editor You Never Want To Let Go

Look for video editors that have these qualities:

• He has ten years of experience.  There's just no substitute. Editing is a skill like any other.  But if you haven't put in the time, you're not going to be on my "go to" list.
• She looks at all the footage.  Sounds nuts not to look at all the footage but it's easier not to.  Some editors just grab the first things they see.  I've seen people do it.  There's no short cut.
  
• He's musical. As a general rule, the finest editors I know also are pretty competent musicians. It makes a lot of sense... editing is all about timing. Having an ear for beats is invaluable.  Certainly there are exceptions, but it helps.
• She's funny.  Editing is about surprises.  You want to shake up the audience to keep them watching.  Someone who can make me laugh tells me she can catch me off balance with her edits as well.
• He dabbles in After Effects or Motion.  Certainly some projects don't require it, but the editor who can nimbly switch from AE to FCP is a keeper.  It also shows me that you're willing to stretch and learn new things.
• She is a collaborator.  Is it going to be a battle every time you elongate a shot, delete a white flash, or have to trash the last hour of work? Stick with editors that listen and then make your ideas better.
• He is persistent.  Editing requires time in the seat. A 9 to 5 mentality is not going to do it for me or the project.  And it's not only time, it's a drive to make it work, to finish and to conquer.
  

 
What makes your editor great?

Photo credit: CC Techhie

10 Tips On Becoming a Sought-after Freelancer

The cream rises to the top.  In terms of freelancers that is so true.  As you know by now, I am a video producer and director and I frequently hire teams of talented professionals to create our videos. 

Have you ever noticed there are some freelancers that work all the time?  How do they find themselves in that position?  Here's a list of tips that will get you on your clients' speed dial.

1. Make it easy for clients to find you.  My biggest pet peeve with freelancers is that it should not be hard to reach you.  Jobs come in all the time: morning, noon, night and on Sundays.  Put your contact number on the signature of your email.  It's so simple, yet so many people don't do it.  If I have to struggle to find you, I'm probably going to call the other guy/gal.
2. Show up early.  Another simple one.  Get to the job early.  Be the first one there.  Surprise me and bring some bagels to the set at 6:30.  Being late to a job speaks volumes.
3. Figure out what you want to do before you call me for the first time.  I'm busy.  If you don't know what you want to do then I'm not going to be much help.
4. Don't call me if I don't know you.  Email me a short, witty letter that begs me to find out more about you. Show me some personality.
5. Don't freak out about changes.  Changes in terms of scheduling, in terms of what the client wants, in terms of last minute stuff that no one saw coming is part of the job.  We all have to deal with it.  Take a breath, smile and say, "No problem - let's figure this out together."  There is a flip side to this when people feel abused because of changes and that's a list for another time.
6. When you get hired by me or an agency, please don't shout all over the web that you are working for my client.  You are working for me and my agency.  I'm working for my client.
7. Don't look at the clock.  There comes a time when you have to put in extra.  We all do.  If you're trying to impress me and ensure I hire you again, do more than what is necessary. 
8. Don't sit.  I'm thinking about working on a set now.  The last thing I want to see is you sitting with your hands in your pocket trying to blend into the furniture.  Do something that helps our day be more efficient.
9. When you check in with me, I'm not interested so much in how busy you are (how does that help me), what I would like to know is something interesting that pertains to my industry or makes my life easier.
10. Subscribe to my blog.  If your client blogs the biggest way you can show interest is by subscribing to his or her blog and starting a dialogue with the content there.
    Show some interest!
    
    

photo cc license by kl801

Some Sales Help

We're all in sales. No matter what role we play inside a company or if we're self employed - we have to have a selling mindset.

Being a good salesperson will

• get you a promotion
• get you more clients and expand your business
• get you a better offer from a competitor

                                                              
I enjoy the insights of Jim Keenan at his blog, A Sales Guy.
Jim is a former VP Regional Sales Leader at Avaya and now is a consultant and entreprenuer.  He also seems to ski many days out the year so I think he has it all figured out!

Jim writes on most days but I like when he overhears a sales conversation and passes along some nugget of advice.

Here are some recent memorable posts:

• Is It You
• The Pitch and The Person
• Assuming Will Kill You
  
                                         *  *  *  *  *  *  *             

And, here's one more.  Jim allowed me to share my thoughts on his blog with a guest post entitled, I've Gone Cold Turkey on Cold Calling.  Please give yourself the time to check Jim's site out.

New Survey: Executives (Like Everyone Else) Are Watching More On-Line Video

Forbes Insights recently published results of a survey conducted with Google.  The news for video makers is good.  Over 80% of Executives surveyed said they are watching more video than they did a year ago.

The answers were most encouraging for video content creators.

Over 50% of the respondents said they took action after watching a business related video and 60% of the under forty crowd made a business related purchase after viewing on-line video content.

But here was the stunner, 30% of the under 40 crowd preferred video to text for "business information you need."

I see that number only getting bigger in the months and years ahead. 

(click to pop out)

Download the full survey here. 

What's Your Frozen Hot Chocolate?

Serendipity 3 is a 56 year old restaurant located on East 60th in New York City.  If you've never heard of it then the next time you come to New York, you've got to go. 

There are lines to get in.  And, oh yeah, the food is mediocre.

But all that doesn't matter, because out of the roughly 120 items they serve - there is one thing that is truly great and remarkable: the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate.

When you come to Serendipity that is what you have and that is what will make you want to go there again in the future.  This is the one item that you'll tell your friends about.

I had my first Frrrozen Hot Chocolate about 40 years ago and just last weekend I went again to celebrate my daughter's birthday (I've been there half a dozen times in between).  The drink tastes just like it did when I was kid. Chocolaty. Cold. Yum.  You could say the drink makes you feel like a kid, but that's an over reach. 

Instead, I'll just say that it's a drink that gets you in the door.

Is there one thing you do great that gets people in the door?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thenestor/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Woody Allen On How To Succeed In Anything

"When I talk to groups they always ask me for advice and I can never really give it, because there is no set way a person gets into the business or becomes a director.  Everyone does it differently.  They do it by hook and crook and manipulation.  Marty Scorsese goes to film school and becomes great, and Leni Refenstahl [laughs] courts Hitler and becomes great.  So the only advice I can think of is that it's only the work that counts.

Don't read about yourself, don't have big discussions about your work, just keep your nose to the grindstone.  And don't think about any of the perks. Don't think about the money or laudatory things.  The less you can think about yourself, the better. 

It's like being a baseball pitcher; the less you're conscious of your motion the better you pitch.  Just do good work, don't waste time thinking about anything else, don't join the show business circus, don't pay attention to the distractions that people send your way, and everything will fall into place.

If people don't like your work, keep doing your own thing and either they'll wise up or you'll find yourself out of work and deserving to be.  If people hate your work, let them-they may be right.  Or not.  And if people even call you a genius, it' very important to run because you have to ask, If you're a genius, then what is Shakespeare or Mozart or Einstein? 
                                     -- Woody Allen in conversation with Eric Lax

Good advice whether you're producing video (my profession), blogging or wanting to direct movies.  Keep your head down and focus on the work.

If you're interested in the book (Conversations with Woody Allen), you can click below.  The conversations take place over 36 years and it's amazing how humble Mr. Allen is.  He's created a career where he gets to make a movie a year - play clarinet on Monday nights - and make it home for dinner with his family. He considers it a job.

He's not interested in creating great art.  He spends his time serving the process - solving puzzles.  In conversations with Mr Lax, Mr Allen is always working out a plot problem in one of his scripts... he takes long showers to clear his mind - we find out - even when he doesn't need one.

Allen doesn't get all stressed out while shooting (it appears).  A scene is to be shot - a discussion ensues with his DP in the morning and they work it out.  He's not the Hitchcockian director who storyboards every shot.  One thing that struck me was the amount of re-shooting Mr. Allen has put into his films.  When he experiences a dip (my words), he throws in the towel and re-shoots the scene.  No angst.  He just does it.

I had some issues with the book.  The interviewer, Mr. Lax, is not as probing as I would have liked, and a lot of his questions are repetitive.  But, all in all, this is a great peek into the mind who made one of my favorite films of the seventies (Manhattan), and then almost thirty years later -- knocks 'em dead -- with Match Point and Barcelona.

Bonus: 1/14/10 Eguiders just posted this rare interview with Woody Allen on The Tonight Show circa 1966. 

Lessons Learned: A Blogger's First Year

One year of blogging.  Here's what I learned so that you can repeat the good stuff and avoid the bad.  As always, I hope this helps you in your social media career and add to the comments if I've sparked your imagination.

On Blogging

• Posting two to three times a week is about the minimum of posts if you want to gain some momentum.
  
• Posting once a week keeps you on a plateau. 
  
• Finding, attracting and getting a dozen or so fellow bloggers hooked to your content is the best way to get the word out about your posts.
• No one person is going to make or break your blogging career.  For the longest time, I thought if I could just get Chris Brogan to tweet out one of my posts, I'd be set!  Well he did tweet one out (see here).  Did it change my life?  Nope.  Did I get some good traffic that hour.  Yep. 
• Create valuable content and everything works out in the end.  Some of my most successful posts have been How To's, Finding inspiration, and lists of stuff I like.
• Use Backtype to find what others are writing about on your same subjects.  Then, write an insightful comment on those blogs that cover your particular niche.  Add a link to your post if you think what you've written adds to the conversation.  See what I did here.  (hat tip to Khuram Malik on suggesting I use Backtype).
• Room for improvement:  1) Post at least twice a week.  2) Create content that leads the reader into wanting more (Problogger is a master at this).  3) Create more video pieces for the blog.

On Twitter

• Twitter is the best place to meet people who will sneeze out your content.  But you knew that.
  
• Tweet out stuff that is in your niche.  I'm not tweeting out sales at Zappos, or what I'm listening to on the radio, or the latest news about the Octomom.  Stay focused on what makes you unique. It's actually a great way not to waste time. 
  
• Tweetie is my iPhone twitter app of choice.
  
• Find like minded people through Twitter search. "Video" is one my Seesmic searches.
  
• I am always suspicious of people who have tweeted out say 135 tweets and have 12000 followers.  I just don't follow these people.  I don't want noise in my stream.  That's not twitter. That's a spam machine.
  
• Things I could do better: 1) Weed out people in my list who are not relevant. 2) Be more of a champion of others - RT more. 3) Utilize Seesmic more often to follow people important to me. 
  

On The Social Part

• Social media is really about being social.  I'm amazed at the people I've met on-line who have been willing to create a relationship through sharing bits and bytes of data.  Here's a list of great people that I've been fortunate enough to have shared and learned from this year:
  
  @adamsinger, @dannybrown, @garynadeau, @ianaspin, @amandagbeals, @KhuramMalik, @heykeenan,  @richardbouchez, @writingroads, @timjahn, @judithsthoughts, @jennom, @mikeconatay @brilliantvideo, @talmadge, @tracyoconnor, and @daisywhitney.  Please follow them.
  
  
• For 2010: Make meaningful connections rather than getting more connections.
  

 
I'm interested in hearing how you make meaningful connections on the social web?

image credit: smcgee / CC BY-NC 2.0

Helpful Tip: Add Video To Your LinkedIn Profile

Hat tip to Ron Callari for pointing this out to me.  This video (by Niall Harbison) gives a step by step on how to add video to your boring LinkedIn profile.  The video must be hosted on YouTube.  Try this and point me to your profile page.

Cool stuff. Must try it myself! I did it. Take a look for yourself.

The original post is here if you can't see the video.