Another video win for AJS Productions

We recently completed a video shoot on behalf of Georgia HOPE, a provider of a wide range of mental health services to people in NW Georgia. Our task was to create a short, interview-style, video that told the story of Georgia HOPE, from its inception to where it is today. We worked very closely with Rachel McCrickard, their Community Relations Director, and Nikki Raymond, their CEO. We worked to gather a lot of information about Georgia HOPE and began a 3-day shoot interviewing dozens of employees and stakeholders with the goal of completing the delivery by their annual meeting this past October.

The day arrived to unveil the video and we were immensely pleased to hear about some of the comments sent to Rachel and Nikki afterwards:

I’m very blessed and honored to be a part of this agency.

---

I absolutely love this video!  Just wanted to let you all know what a great job!

---

This is why I work here, tears

---

Can we get a copy to play in the office for clients to see in the lobby

---

OMG I LOVE THIS VIDEO!!! My favorite parts were that Rachel wants to be a greyhound, Nikki hates dogs and I loved Mary’s vulnerability. And Tanya, I agree, I’m a cat person. Everything that everyone said, I could totally relate to. Though the job can be busy and stressful, I LOVE Georgia HOPE!!!!

We love being able to bring a video production to life for every one of our clients. But, when we hear about how well it was received by the target audience, it just makes us beam with pride. We truly love what we do and hope to keep doing it for a long time to come.

Thank you Rachel and Nikki for entrusting AJS Productions with such a special shoot. It was a privilege and an honor to get to know so many amazing people during the scope of the project.

Advertisement

New website launched for Fendley Farmstead

We at AJS Productions are happy to announce the launch of our latest website on behalf of the events venue, Fendley Farmstead in Canton, Georgia. The site caters to events, both small and large, utilizing sprawling acreage nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. They have a large, outdoor barn, indoor barn, food prep facilities, a bridal suite and soon-to-come grooms suite along with a fire pit, vineyard and rolling fields.

From wedding parties to corporate events to family reunions and holiday gatherings, Fendley Farmstead has become one of the fastest growing and premiere venues. Their bookings are now extending almost 18 months out and growing daily. Take a moment to checkout the site and, more importantly, share with family and friends, especially those who may be needing to book this venue for their own upcoming event.

Pre-production key to a successful shoot

We recently had the privilege to work with Georgia HOPE on an initiative to put permanent, licensed therapists into local schools in order to address mental and behavioral health issues on a more timely and effective basis. We had to interview almost two dozen individuals at multiple locations in order to capture the entire story and provide a clear and concise summation of HOPE in school for Georgia HOPE to use to encourage other school systems to implement the program in their own schools.

Invariably, every shoot has its own challenges. Sometimes it comes down to equipment failures, weather chooses not to cooperate, guests/actors provide unusable footage or the venues turn out to have terrible aesthetics. However, this most recent project was by far one of the easiest and least stressful in recent memory and it all came down to one thing — a clear focus on pre-production.

For those who may have never been involved in coordinating a video shoot, there are many moving parts and several key skill-sets are brought to bear in order to provide a high quality production. And each of these resources generally bill on a day-rate. (In terms of filmmaking, a typical half-day shoot is 6 hours or less, while a full-day is generally 12 hours.) We jokingly let people know we will not be providing a 2-KC production: two kids and a camcorder. At a minimum, you need an experienced camera operator, sound operator and lighting person. Depending on the locations, you may need to bring extra crew to move equipment, stage the areas to be filmed, make-up/hair stylists, wardrobe, food and catering services and an on-set medical person. And, once it’s all done, you move to editing the footage, followed by color correction and sound editing before delivering the final product.

This helps explain why video shoots can become an expensive endeavor. However, as was the case in the Georgia HOPE shoot, our contact took the concept of pre-production to heart. We always advise our clients about the importance of this phase of a video shoot because it costs almost nothing to think through each and every element of a production. Our client took time to figure out how many people needed to be filmed and then made sure the maximum number of them would be available at the same time for each location. She also prepared everyone ahead of time with sample questions so they would be better able to speak succinctly on camera.

It takes a lot of time to setup and breakdown all of the equipment used in a shoot. If we can prevent unnecessary setups and breakdowns, we can spend more time getting the shots we need, which translates into a huge cost savings for the client. Getting everything filmed in one day versus three can effectively cut the budget by anywhere from 40%-70%.

Of course, you never want to sacrifice the quality of the shoot just to save a few dollars. But, spending the hours necessary to maximize what can be done on any given shoot-day will payback huge dividends, not only in terms or budget, but also in terms of avoiding problems. This is why most film shoots are never shot in chronological order. It would be cost-prohibitive to do so. Instead, we try to maximize everything we can get in one location before moving to another and is why pre-production is key to a successful shoot.

At AJS Productions, whether you want to film a commercial, a training video, a documentary, a short movie or a full-blown film, we can help make it come to life. We will sit down with you and make sure you understand all of the elements that need to be considered and lend you our expertise to keep both your budget and your vision in mind. Contact us today for a no-cost consultation.

 

Whether training or selling, video works

At AJS Productions, we continue to see an up-swing in clients interested in shooting custom video for their business. In some cases, it is to create training to insure the methodologies being used for new employees (or new processes) are consistent, while in others it is to advertise their goods and services. Lately, an additional area of video business has been in putting together short, pseudo-documentaries where we need to summarize the events of a program or movement to aid in both providing its history and how it has evolved to where it is today. Oftentimes, these documentary-style shorts are used to make a presentation to the next group who may benefit.

There are costs associated with any video production, but as in almost everything in life (certainly in business), you get what you pay for in terms of quality and creativity. From the most complex to the very basic, every shoot is broken into three phases:

• Pre-production
• Production
• Post-production.

Time and money is saved during the pre-production phase, where careful planning and open communication with the client is extremely important. The easiest and cleanest shoots are the ones with the most focus on pre-production. And, there is very little cost in this phase, consisting more of meetings, email exchanges, storyboards and location scouting.

The costs associated with the production phase are easy to lock down because of the roles of those involved. There is a need for lights, sound, a camera operator and a director at a minimum, followed by additional crew positions to help with hair, makeup, wardrobe, props, set decoration and production assistance. Depending on the size and scope of the project, each of those roles have fixed costs, calculated in shooting days. Pre-production, done well, will give an exact number of days needed during production. Obviously there are factors that can skew this phase — bad weather, equipment failure and bad pre-production are factors that can cause overruns.

The post-production phase is where all the magic takes place. It’s also the last of the dominoes to fall and the better the first phases go, the easier it is to deliver a superb product. However, the more egregious the early errors, the harder they are to fix in post-production and can cause the budget to bloat. In this phase, all of the video is compiled and logged, audio is synced and the editing begins. It takes a keen eye and a skilled editor to make it all fit together like a puzzle of a thousand pieces. Once an edit has been agreed upon with the client, it can be cleaned up further with color correction, sound enhancement and design and then delivered in any of a number of mediums, from website delivery, all the way to the highest level of broadcast quality, including 4K Ultra HD.

Nothing can beat a well-done and delivered video to tell a story. That story might be the history of an organization, why a product is needed or how a change in ideology led to drastic improvements for a community at-large. A video can properly demonstrate how to operate machinery, follow a company process or provide examples of what not to do when interacting within a culturally diverse workforce. Taking the time to talk with a firm who has been involved in the industry for years can help give you an even better understanding of the process and why you should be looking to schedule your own video shoot.

 

Video production is just one of our core competencies

A growing area of our business has been in video production. Small-to-medium businesses are finding they can better connect to their customers through the use of adding videos to their website. Sometimes these videos will reveal a behind-the-scenes look at how products are made and delivered. In others, we show how to properly use or install products. The law firms we have worked with have created their own frequently asked questions video series to make a potential client feel as though they are already getting legal help even before they walk through the door. And, in a handful of instances, we’ve written, directed and produced stand-alone film productions to be used in conjunction with fund-raising, promotional and marketing activities

One of our most recent examples of a stand-alone was shot to benefit Advocates for Children, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, dedicated to helping children who are living in terrible conditions. Rather than create the typical informational piece, filled with dry facts, boring figures and screens filled with text, the organization asked us to create something creative and emotional to better affect the viewing audience. We needed to illustrate the deplorable conditions many children face and then find a way to turn it around and show how a child’s life can benefit due to the many programs existing under the umbrella of Advocates forChildren.

(Click here to watch it.)

Partnering with the post-production services of MBE, we continue to add more and more video work to our overall portfolio. We have created a sampling of our capabilities for you to watch and if you find you might benefit from our video production team, we’d be happy to meet with you to discuss your ideas and how we might be able to bring them to life.

Whether it’s adding video to your existing website, building a brand new site for your business or shooting a stand-alone commercial, training or promotional video, AJS Productions has the ability to bring you the highest quality deliverables, while keeping your overall budget in mind.

Taking a moment to wish all dads a Happy Father’s Day

From all of us here at AJS Productions, we wanted to wish all of the dads out there a very happy Father’s Day. Enjoy your time with friends and family.

How often should we update our website?

This is a question we get from every one of our clients. Let’s face it, many small-to-medium businesses require everyone to wear multiple hats.  Having to add, “online marketing”, “website manager” or “social media specialist” to the already formidable list of roles played, often means your website is the last thing on your TO-DO list and is likely the first to be ignored. Many assume, once your site is built, it never needs to be touched again.

Perhaps that was the case two decades ago, but with so many websites competing for search engine results, a stale or untouched site will fade into obscurity. Search engines (e.g., Google and Bing) want to know your site is fresh and relevant and will track updates and changes to use as part of its overall formula for ranking your online home. Of course, there are other facets that go into determining whose site shows up at the top of page one of a search and who ends up on page 5 (or worse), like key words, phrases and using best-practices website development, but even the best designed site will still fade if left to gather dust.

So, how often do changes need to be made?

As a general rule, you should have something new on your website once a month. This could be a new offering, a special sale, a welcome to a new employee, an anniversary celebration or your thoughts and advice on a particular subject. Adding a blog to your website is a tremendously easy way to create and post content and, if setup correctly, can also be used to update your social media outlets as well.

Every six months, it’s a good idea to spend time going through every page of your site, reading the content and reviewing the pictures to see if anything needs to be updated or removed. Often a business will create content hailing a “new” product or offering, but, after six months, is it really new? Some make the mistake of using words that will artificially date the content of your site like, “New for 2014,” or, “Come celebrate April with us,” but it’s now July. There is nothing wrong with adding those kinds of updates to your site, but you must be sure to take them off or move them to an archive section, rather than risk looking like your site is filled with out-of-date information.

Remember, you generally do not get a second chance to make a good first impression! If the content is dated or the descriptions are no longer relevant, you might as well be saying the same thing about your business. Customers use the internet daily to find goods and services and when they land on your site, they will decide, usually withing moments, whether or not your site reflects their expectations. If it looks tired, dull and old, that’s the impression they will have.

Finally, your site should have a design overhaul every 12-18 months, depending on if you have been keeping up with the content, providing monthly updates and staying on top of dated material. This doesn’t mean having to pay for a brand new site, but taking time to rearrange some of the material, rewrite some of your content, change fonts or font sizes, adding updated graphic elements — basically, give your virtual home a fresh coat of paint. Yes, there is generally some cost involved, but it should be a fraction of what it cost to build your site. Compare that investment to lost revenues from clients who never even bother to walk in your front door because of what they’ve seen on your website.

Because we focus on small-to-medium business clients, we know your time is valuable and we strive to do all we can to provide the easiest mechanisms for you to keep your website fresh, relevant and up-to-date, while also providing the ability to upkeep social media. If you’d like to learn more about our processes and methodologies for website design and build, feel free to contact us directly. There is never a charge to meet with a client to review an existing site or to begin the process of building a brand new one from scratch. Remember, it’s never too late to be what you might have been.

Happy Mother’s Day from everyone here at AJS Productions

We wanted to take a moment to wish all of the moms out there, including the mothers of everyone here at AJS Productions, a very happy Mother’s Day this weekend. Most of us are so busy with running our businesses, we often find holidays creep up on us and take us off guard. Every small business owner knows there is no such thing as an “off day,” but we want to encourage everyone to strike that work-life balance and take some time to reach out to your mom (and the mother of your children). Everyone here knows the importance of working hard, exceeding expectations and paying attention to the small details. But, we also strive to instill in our workplace the culture that we work to live — not live to work.

Happy Mother’s Day!

 

Happy Cinco de Mayo to friends and clients alike

Everyone here at AJS Productions would like to wish all of you a very happy, safe and fun Cindo de Mayo. It’s hard to believe we are heading to the halfway point of the 2nd quarter of 2015, but they say time flies when you are having fun — or busy. Or both!

So, here’s a toast to hoping you are all experiencing a little bit of both! Cheers!

 

 

Completing the hat-trick with Blake Scoggins Law

Our third website launch this month returns us to an area that has represented almost half of the overall sites we’ve built over the years — the small-to-medium sized law firm. When Blake Scoggins Law approached us, they knew our history and the portfolio of work we’ve done for firms all across North Georgia and Atlanta. We have a deep understanding of requirements for these kinds of websites and are comfortable guiding clients through the requirements gathering phase, content acquisition and launch. As with many businesses, most lawyers know how to navigate the legal system, but when it comes to creating an online presence, it suddenly becomes a daunting task. The competition alone requires a best-practices design approach. One doesn’t build a quality law firm site by using cookie-cutter boiler plates, build-your-own free sites or any of a number of blog-based web engines. Knowing how to properly build a site to maximize search engine optimization (“SEO”) while providing a unique and customized look is why so many law firms have abandoned their current providers and have come to AJS Productions.

We thoroughly enjoyed working with the folks at Blake Scoggins Law on creating an easy to navigate, yet informative website for both existing and new clients. We wanted to make sure everyone knew their firm strives to protect the interest and rights of each and every person who walks through their doors. They are not afraid to step up to the plate and go to bat for their clients. Their concentration is centered around Juvenile Law, Domestic Law, Personal Injury, Workers’ Compensation, Simple Wills and small Criminal matters.

As their firm grows in both size and scope, we will be there every step of the way to make sure their online home is current, relevant and meets the expectations of a tech-savvy public for both desktop as well as mobile computing users. We always make sure our sites are cross-platform and cross-browser compatible, putting emphasis on substance and clarity over flashy designs with cluttered navigation.  If you would like to setup a meeting with us to discuss your current site or building a brand new one from scratch, we would love the chance to earn your business. Contact us today to get started.