Songwriting

While I've already entered one song into the Vanda and Young Songwriting Contest I've had a mate contact me to see if we could write one together to enter. With only days to go it will be a challenge, more so since he's in NZ and I'm here in Melbourne! Still, we have a chorus so it can only go forward from there.
Will publish when it's cooked!

Testimonial Videos

I have a few testimonial videos up on the site - this really working well for me. It's simple with regards to filming and video production but extremely effective in that when a client is happy enough with your services to stand up in front of the camera and say so, this is a really powerful message about trustworthiness and the ability to deliver a great job.
I advise anyone with a presence on the net to consider using this simple but effective tool. The videos don't have to be long, in fact more than a sentence or two is overkill. This has the added benefit of being not too expensive to produce. In fact, why not make a morning of it - get a sausage sizzle going, get 3 - 5 valued clients together and celebrate a bit! I filmed mine traveling to the clients offices and it only took an afternoon.
Cheers for now - Brian

Using YouTube to deliver video drafts

We've been doing this for about the last 12 months but I thought it might be worth a mention in this blog.
We utilize You Tube  to deliver ongoing drafts of projects to clients. It's great and makes it instantly available for the client to view the latest changes and come back with more tweaks. Especially good with TV commercials where we're often running up against deadlines and need client approval fast. The trick is to upload the video file and make it unlisted. That way no one can see it unless they have the actual url or link. The file can't be search for or accidentally found either. Once it's uploaded we simply email the link to the client. When we do an update we delete to existing video on You Tube and create another one.
So there you go - instant digital delivery of video files to clients for approval. Don't you just love this stuff!!!

Video shoot at the Goonawarra Winery

Well the Blade and Sony Z1 performed beautifully at the Goonawarra shoot on Thursday morning. First we filmed the sunrise creeping across the vine rows and striking the circa 1860's bluestone cellar building. Then we headed out to where the pickers where harvesting the cold climate pinot grapes in the gorgeous autumn sunshine. I mostly used the Nikon 105mm lens for the vines and the wide angle 28mm for the cellar building shots. With a little color correction and extra saturation in Final Cut the footage is looking stunning. We still have to film the internals of the winery itself and some Mothers Day festivities before the job can be edited but I will post when complete. Fantastic to be utilising this incredible light we have in Melbourne this time of year.