Mike Cohen
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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We are in the process of writing new job descriptions. Looks like I will now be called “Director, Multimedia Services” though I am sometimes called “Miracle Worker” or “That Video Guy with the Glasses.”
If you are into customer service, you can call yourself “Manager, Customer Happiness.”
Mike Cohen
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But if you don’t use a mail app then you have a problem. At home my wife and I only use web based mail. Clicking a “mailto:” link opens an Outlook message window even through there is no mailbox associated with it.
Either offer a contact us form or post your email address (even as text with spaces, ie: contact@company#name.com (remove #) or whatever)
If you do a contact us form, make sure it delivers the inquiry to someone’s regular email address. If I have a shoot next week I want a response today – or use the phone. However with one-person shops, the person checking the mail and answering the phone may be on a shoot so specify the best way to reach someone.
Mike Cohen
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You don’t necessarily need a cool innovative website if you are selling production services. You need good examples of your work.
As a frequent consumer of video production services (generally per diem shooting, recording studio or animation) these are the things I look for in a website:
1. Contact information including name, address, phone. The reason the actual address is important is if I have a shoot at X location, I want to make sure the vendor does not have to drive 100 miles to get there.
This sounds like a no-brainer, but I have been to a number of sites that have a phone number and e-mail address – useful but not as useful as a location. Make sure your business comes up in a Google Maps search.
Also if you are using Flash for navigation, make sure the contact info is actual html text. If I am sending a colleague or client your contact info, I want to be able to copy and paste into an e-mail or Word doc, or from a website to an email in my blackberry. Minor point, but you want to make it easy for people to contact you and give you their money.
2. Some example of news magazine or corporate video – nicely lit talking head, b-roll.
3. Background of the crew, sample clients or description of past jobs
4. Easy unobtrusive navigation. If I am looking for a flash designer, certainly the site should show some Flash design skills. But unless the production company is selling web and flash services, keep the navigation simple and to the point. If I google “video production Anytown, USA” and a result takes me to an overly flash website intro I click through to the home page, but 7 out of 13 times, the content is not useful. If you put a top hat on an old dog it’s still an old dog. But who doesn’t love dogs with hats.
By the same token, if you have a simple easy to navigate site, make sure it is somewhat current in design. Anything with frames or flashing text screams “Geocities circa 1996.”
These are of course not hard and fast rules, as there are good examples of Flash based navigation and unorthodox sites of very successful companies.
The most obvious examples are from our very own Creative COW leaders:
biscardicreative.com for example is all flash, but it is done tastefully with easy navigation in mind and is very effective.
fantasticplastic.com is a fun place to visit – that Todd Terry looks like a swell guy!
sntvideo.com – fellow COW Steve Wargo has a cool site that is mostly HTML. His contact page gets the Mike Cohen seal of approval too! Oh and I have actually hired his services in the past year.
In summary, don’t get too caught up in trying to be flashy. Let your work be the focus and it will speak for itself.
Mike Cohen
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my brain just melted
In my first ever interview, for a internship at an ABC affiliate, the HR person’s first question was “So Mike, what do you want to do with your life?” I was 19 at the time, and my brain turned to applesauce at that point. Luckily the actual hiring decision rested with the newscast producer, who liked me and asked me relevant questions.
I suppose working at Google entails such outlandish thinking and there are so many applicants they have come up with a fun way to divide and conquer. But seriously, ask relevant questions in an interview.
Mike Cohen
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[Mark Suszko] “My fortress uses ducts too small for even a midget to enter, and they are lined with razors.”
Mark – luckily most of my operatives are middle-school dropouts with high IQ’s and sick martial arts skills. And they have Shark Skin Ninja jumpsuits, so your razors are as deadly as nobs of land o lakes butter.
To Michael D – what is it you are trying to accomplish? Rendering massive amounts of raw video on the fly is going to tax your recording computer especially if you are recording multiple streams simultaneously. Also $200 cameras may seem cheap but the hardware to do the rest of the job could get pricey, especially if speed is important.
Mike Cohen
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[Mark Thomas] “Wow, really disappointed with all the “Experts” here
by Mark Thomas on Nov 18, 2009 at 5:59:43 pm”Mark – it is generally impolite to imply on a forum like this that the moderators or other visitors are somehow not helpful to you. That subject line is what I would call “snarky.”
We are all doing this on a volunteer basis for the benefit of our colleagues out in the world. Inevitably, people are busy doing their jobs and/or perhaps unable to point you in the right direction because we don’t have all the facts about a problem.
Mike Cohen
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We use two primary methods, plus a third for bigger jobs.
1. Just a simple index.php file in the web directory that automatically displays all files placed in the directory. We just have to remind folks to “right click” to save the files to their computers – something that is not common knowledge.
Never post files for download that are non-standard, such as Quicktime or Flash.
What’s that you say? Quicktime is non-standard? In some settings it is. Know your client.
2. We have a few boilerplate FLV or M4V player templates (plays either format) – runs with php and javascript. Just copy the folder on your web server and change out the video files. You only need to edit the index.htm file for your project details. Takes about 2 minutes plus of course the time to upload your files, which you have to do no matter what system you are using.
3. For large projects with a lot of assets (text, images, video) we setup a customized review site. Again, you only need to update a htm file for each project and copy and paste code for different functions. It even includes comment fields that save comments to a database for retrieval via xls file. The site shows the comments of everyone on the same web page as the original content, and you can set permissions to hide the comments if you want to keep them private.
Mike Cohen
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I too was going to suggest a security camera scenario. My local Costco has a multi camera system on display, but like Mark said, I think it rotates what gets recorded, which is kind of silly because everyone knows that criminals know the timing of cameras so they can sneak into your ventilation ducts at the just the right moment before stealing your jewels.
Mike Cohen
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You can pull the fader bar to the half way position with a diagonal wipe, then turn the softness dial all the way clockwise.
Opps, sorry. Got Premiere Pro confused with a Grass Valley switcher. My bad.
Mike Cohen
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Mark – please tell us what you figured out – might help someone else down the road.
Mike Cohen