Filming “We Are: Brewton, Alabama” for Georgia-Pacific with dual Canon DSLRs and a super cheap Best Buy LED light. The high quality lenses are more important than the cameras themselves in making pretty picture.
Too often I hear from videographers and DPs that “the camera is just a tool, and if you want to shoot something correctly, you have to have the right tool for the job.” In some cases they are correct. When it comes to big budget episodic shows and films, bigger is often better.
But when it comes to digital storytelling and branding, it’s the creative use of the tools at hand that matter more than the ‘right tool.’
Building your brand narrative is not a ‘one size fits all’ type of deal. This article can’t tell you exactly what you need to do. What I CAN do is give you food for thought allowing you to find your own path to that brand narrative. “What’s your swim lane?” That’s a great question from Joe Mullings, CEO of The Mullings Group. In other words, what topic or topics can you offer value to your audience? What can you write about or speak on intelligently? What topics and areas are you comfortable engaging in discussion with others? That’s your swim lane. That’s your comfort zone where you can share quality knowledge and have an educated discussion with those who engage with you.
The power of digital media is that it opens up a direct pipeline between you, the brand and… well pretty much the entire world. If you’ve built your destination correctly as described in the previous three chapters and have begun thinking about edutainment as the driving model for your content, now it’s time to think about what does that content actually look like? How does edutainment apply to my brand?
Can you tell me how to get, how to get to… I don’t even have to finish that sentence. Most of you already know how that sentence goes. I’m betting at this moment you’re thinking back to some of your favorite Sesame Street moments.
Now that you’ve got their attention and they’ve stopped the car, the last thing you want to do is set up a tourist trap. Lots of color and flash, but no substance. Cheap, chintzy trinkets are fun for a few minutes and maybe some selfies to post to your friends, but not someplace you want to visit again. That’s going for the quick buck, not long-term audience engagement. You’ll need to continually lure a new audience to make the tourist trap work. To do that you need a connection.
“Selling” today and for the foreseeable future is about building a story. Actually many stories. Stories that entertain, stories that inform, stories that educate, stories that connect with the audience you are trying to reach.
Ringing cow bells for chili at the Chili Cookoff.
We're getting on a roll with these the "We Are" campaign having just come back from 3 days of filming in and around Muskogee, Oklahoma. "We Are:" is a 'moving the needle' campaign I designed for Georgia-Pacific. GP has amazing individuals all across this great land and "We Are:" aims to introduce them and the places they live, one small town at a time. Muskogee is the largest town we've visited so far with a population over 39,000 people.
Simply stunning sunrise over the St. Johns River in Palatka Florida.
We just completed 3 days of filming in and around Palatka, Florida for the second episode of the Georgia-Pacific 'move the needle' campaign, "We Are:" Palatka is in the heart of Florida right along the St. Johns River. Quick fact, Palatka was the largest town in Florida right through the early 1900's because the river made it the center of commerce in the state.
As someone who first edited video in 1986, I have borne witness to a wholesale revolution and evolution of the creative industry. Well actually, just creativity as a whole. Amazing creative work now comes from all corners of the globe, all age groups and all skill levels.
Creative professionals used to have very defined roles. Producer, Director, Writer, Camera, Lighting, Sound, Editing, Graphics, Animation and so on. When I started at CNN in 1990 I was a video editor. That’s it. I arrived at work each day and when I left 9 hours later, the only task I did all day was to edit video. In Hollywood, New York, Georgia and other locations were major film and television project are happening, those roles still exist on set, in part mandated and governed by unions. For the rest of us, however, being a creative professional is wholly different.