If you had your own 4-5 Minute Infomercial,
your own “Preview of Coming Attractions” – what would you show?Think and Grow Rich Action Step #14)
Cultivate Creative Vision
Creative imagination has its base in the subconscious
and is the medium through which you recognize new ideas and newly learned facts.
22 Laws # 14 – For every attribute, there is an opposite, effective attribute.
Video used to be expensive, difficult to use, nearly impossible to edit and complicated to produce. I know, I first used video in 1981. The equipment for filming consisted of a $5,000 camera, 2 $2,500 editing decks and a $1,500 control panel. Plus TVs and a portable deck. Total cost was almost $15,000. And the quality was not the world’s greatest.
Today, you can buy a “flipcam” a memory stick with a lens for under $100 and a HD or high definition camera for around $200
The editing software is available for free or consumer quality & easy for under $100 and the best software in the world for perhaps $500
The quality is viewable on a large TV – the editing you can do on a PC today would have required $50-$100,000 of equipment from a TV studio or large production house almost 30 years ago.
So there is no excuse not to create your own videos.
Adding titles and special effects is also a standard feature with most editing software – having seen the equipment needed less than 20 years ago makes me appreciate the technology.
So you can film – or video yourself in action on your business – and produce very good quality footage and sound – all phrases from the days of filmmaking.
One thing to do – use a tripod whenever possible – the “Blair Witch Project” shaky camera or Cinema Verite as it was called – looks crummy and viewers get tired of it quickly. Steady shots are cool and appreciated.
Sound can usually be recorded with the on camera microphone – this is to make it easy – and to cut camera costs – sadly, many camcorders do not have external mic hookup – where you can plug in a quality mic for better sound – but this can be worked around and is not all that critical.
What is critical is telling a story – just like you tell a story – beginning middle and end – your video should do the same.
You want to introduce yourself, tell something about yourself and wrap it up.
Adding titles has been made much simpler with software like Camtasia – just calling the video something, starring you is a great introduction.
And of course have your website listed – and e-mail – why not a telephone number where people can get hold of you.
Music is a wonderful addition – you can add “free” music and even “unfree” copyrighted music – you usually will not have a problem – lawyers don’t go after small fish – and when you become a bigger fish – you can afford a lawyer.
Remember slide shows that went on for what seemed like days – or home videos of some “cute kid” doing something stupid over and over again for what seems like an eternity. Keep your videos to 4-5 minutes ?? to not bore your audience.
You can burn or record your video onto a DVD and play it on a home DVD player or on almost any computer – most computers have DVD capabilities – and the larger moniters provide a rich user experience.
Your video is good enough to put on a large screen TV – and it can be “compressed” and sent via e-mail to someone –
You can post your video online on your website – or on YouTube – which is Step #15 – any video you can see on your PC can be put online – another advancement die to high speed internet – mist people no longer have plain old dial up – and the speeds are increasing – so you can watch pretty much anything over the Internet you can watch over cable TV or from a DVD
Movies are a little over 100 years old – just watch an old movie (available on You Tube) from the early 1900s and appreciate how much has happened over this past 100 years.
And put as much of what you do – what your business does – on video –
You can even take still photos and incorporate those – there is an effect called The Ken Burns effect – remember the civil War and Jazz and other shows he has done – where you convert your photos to video.
Even if you only have photos – these are the building blocks of an interesting video describing what your business is all about and how it can benefit your customers.
Your 1 – 5 Minute Movie
Do you have a video on your site introducing you? You don’t have to be a Hollywood star to have your own video – can you just answer a few questions – I have a set of 20 questions I will ask you and you just have to answer them. Any mistakes or glitches will be edited out. Take as much time as you need. As many “takes” as you need. Then all of the “footage” will be assembled into an interesting, entertaining 4-5 minute video. It will have titles and intro music and “outro” music and voiceover and even credits. Once you are happy with this – you can upload this to YouTube – again – completely free. And you can design a YouTube page – just like designing a Facebook page.
Do you have a video of your 5 minute sales commercial – an info-commercial or infomercial that you have on an iPod or a personal video player or on a DVD or on a “thumb drive” that you can send to people and show them what you do
Do you have pictures
or videos of what you do?
Let me photograph you
and/or make a video –
and that is just the start –
you have this video
that I can edit for you –
put online on your website
and even upload it to YouTube.
Plus you can order a DVD version
and play this for your friends –
a custom DVD with printing.
If you are an instructor –
this DVD can be sold online via Kunaki
Do you have a video online?
Videos used to be expensive.
Not anymore.
With a $50 webcam or $70 USB Netcam –
you can make a video.
You can edit it inexpensively
and add titles
and you can upload this to YouTube
and other video services – for FREE.
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