Content Marketing & Film Resource

When Is It Wrong to Use Stock Photos?

Erin Hayes December 10, 2015 Tips & Tricks, Photography Leave a Comment

We all use stock photos. We do. You do.

It’s fast
It’s easy
And you can find great ones for cheap or even free

Then why is it wrong to use stock photography?
Because:

It’s fast
It’s easy
And everyone can find great ones for cheap or even free

…and that’s what’s wrong; the best stock photos are also the most frequently used.

This means the ‘perfect’ stock photo on the banner of your web page is the same photo that your competition is using.

We recently solved this problem for a client, who hired us to capture still images of his colleagues collaborating in the office.

He had run into issues using stock photos in his last campaign and he didn’t want to have the same issues with the new one.

Retain the rights (don’t have to worry about seeing these photos in a competitors campaign!).

and that would:

Accurately reflect his company’s culture.

The fact is, stock photos of people wearing pressed, grey suits with perfectly coiffed hair may not be true to your brand’s personality.

Yes, paying a professional will cost more than downloading free stock photography from the Internet. However:

You’ll get more photos than any free bundle, in which case it becomes less expensive.
They’ll reflect your imaging and color palette
They’ll be original to your brand and use case.
You’ll can retain all the rights to them*.
You’ll have a say in how the images are captured.
You can use them however, and wherever you’d like.

Are we suggesting you should forgo the use of stock photography all together?
No, there are plenty of great use cases (holiday cards), and even we use stock photography!

However, we never use stock photos to represent our equipment, staff or company activities, especially for social media.

When you are in a pinch and need an image for your next blog or social media post, then stock photos can be a great way to go.

In the meantime, start planning to capture a corporate activity that might be an ideal opportunity to gather images and hire a pro to get you the material you need.

Set aside one day once a quarter or twice a year and schedule a photo shoot.
Ask your colleagues if they’d mind participating and get a signed photo release.
Create a ‘shot sheet’ with your visual needs.
Review some portfolios and then hire a professional photographer.

If you need help you can always find us here. Good luck and happy snapping!

Tips & Tricks Photography

3 Easy Ways to Transcribe Video

Erin Hayes December 08, 2015 Strategy, Video, Tips & Tricks Leave a Comment

Why should you transcribe video?

Before we discuss how, let me answer the why

You just spent all this time producing a video, can’t you just post it and move on the next project on your To Do list?

Well, technically, yes. You can.

But if your goal was finish a race, would you stop just short of the ribbon? Why not carry through all the way?

The bottom line is that transcribing your video opens your content up for a wider audience.

When you transcribe video you make your video viewable in noise sensitive environments. If a potential viewer is on a noise bus, they can now understand your video. If your viewer is in waiting room or at work, they can now understand your video.

Hearing impaired viewers can watch your video and get your message. Transcribing also helps English Language Learners follow along with your content (not to mention, now you can translate your video’s transcription!).

And, transcribing video helps your SEO.

Google crawlers index text. This is why your meta description, title and tags are all so important. But when you transcribe video, you open all of that content up for Google to index.

Amazing, right?

According to Cambridge-based transcription company, 3PlayMedia, their clients This American Life and Discovery Digital Networks saw a significant increase in views on captioned videos.

For example, TAL saw organic search results increase 6.68%. Their inbound links directly attributable to transcript pages increased 3.89%. [Download 3PlayMedia's white paper here for more in depth analysis]

Convinced transcribing is a good idea? Good. Here are three simple ways to get it done:

Do It Yourself

You could always do it yourself. All this involves is your time and your attention.

However, this is our least recommended route.

Transcribing is more time consuming than you may think. Especially if you are not accustomed to the process. It could take you ten times the length of the video for you to accurately transcribe it. If you have many videos to transcribe you could be looking at entire days taken up by this tedium.

Have YouTube Do It

YouTube has a transcribe option in their video editor. Using it as simple as using YouTube.

Now, word from the wise: YouTube is hardly accurate. You will need to scrub through these transcripts and make edits. It’s not quite as time consuming as doing it yourself, but it’s not as hands off as hiring someone else to do it.

Here are a few screen grabs from our experience transcribing our web series, Partners:

Where to Find YouTube Caption Tool

YouTube Gets Captions Wrong

How To Fix YouTube Captions

And that leads me to No. 3...

Hire Someone To Do It

Google “Transcribe Video” and you’ll get pages of results pointing you to different services that would be happy to have you hire them to transcribe you video for you.

This option is particularly great for off-the-cuff presentations, ensemble pieces or conference videos. Transcribing video can be time consuming and many of these services make it affordable to have it done by a third party.

We offer to transcribe the videos we produce for our clients as part of the package. We take pride in our videos and want to enable our customers to be as successful with their premium content as possible.

Curious about our production process?

Additional Resources:

Strategy Video Tips & Tricks

4 Common Misconceptions About Video Production

Erin Hayes December 03, 2015 Production, Tips & Tricks Leave a Comment

]Businesses small and large are creating and distributing video content more than ever.

Despite its popularity, the process involved in producing a successful video is often misunderstood.

Clients come to us feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of the process just as often as they come to us expecting it to be a snap.

In this post, we clear up four common misconceptions about video production we've come across in our years as video producers.

1. Just Press Record

There’s a lot of prep that needs to happen before a camera op presses record and answers, ‘speeding’ to a director.

Capturing a professional and effective video is not as simple as going for a take as soon as the subject walks on set.

The production crew will need to light the set. They'll make tailored adjustments to the lighting and camera angles once the subject is on their mark. And they'll need to test the audio to make sure it's perfect.

This takes "as long as it takes" to get right and make your video look and sound amazing.

It’s a good idea to figure in at least 20-30 minutes for setup depending on the complexity of the set/scene.

If you have actors that need makeup and hair, add another 30 minutes per person.

Once makeup is done, the lighting is perfect and the audio is pristine, the director will let the crew know it’s time to record.

2. Don't worry, we can fix it in Post.

Every once in a while we're asked to take someone else's footage and "fix it" for a client. There are tweaks that we can make, but ultimately, poorly executed video production cannot be fixed in post-production.

Yes, footage can be color corrected and low audio can get boosted (to an extent) during the editing process. But, if you didn’t light your video well, compose your shot right and didn’t test your microphones, the only step you can take is re-shooting your video.

Poor pre-production can’t be fixed in post either.

There isn’t a De-Awkward-izing Filter in post-production software. So, if your actors don’t know their lines or aren’t familiar with the script, post production won’t be able to fix that.

If your storyline or pitch is weak in pre-production, then the final product will be weak, too. Sure, editors can add quick cuts and a thrilling music track to pick up the pace of the video. But it won't fix the content.

Bottom line, preparation is everything. The weeks leading up to the shoot are just as critical as the production day.

Make sure your script is tight, your subjects rehearsed and you hire a professional production crew.

3. It Costs More Than It’s Worth

A good video does not cost more than its worth.

Video is considered to have the highest ROI our of any visual content by 51.9% of marketers, according to eMarketer.

And in terms of biggest bang for your buck, consider this: A one-minute video is worth 1.8 millions words.

Video Brewery made this comparison:

"...That’s the equivalent of 3,600 typical web pages. If you write an average of one web page an hour, it would take you 150 days of writing to achieve the impact of one minute of video."

What would it cost you to pay a marketing consultant to write one web page an hour for 150 days?

Well, if you hired a consultant at $50/hour to write for 8 hours every day for 150 days, it would cost you $60,000.

Sure, a one-minute video could cost you $60,000. But if that's outside your budget, there are plenty of excellent, less expensive options.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying cheaper is better, either. A bad video is never worth what you paid for it.

The key to making sure that your video is worth what it costs to produce is hiring the right video production partner.

We'll write more on that in another post.

4. It was shot today so we’ll get a finished product tomorrow.

In today’s Need-it-Now world of smartphone video uploaded directly to YouTube, it’s not surprising that this is a common misconception.

When it comes to professionally produced video, the timelines are longer. How much longer? It depends on the complexity of the project.

Once footage is shot it needs to get backed up and imported into a system.

There is no easy chart to definitively determine: "This amount of footage will take this long to back up and import."

Different file types take different lengths of time. Some import in real-time, some import faster. Some file types take exponentially longer to import.

Let’s say you shot an hour of footage with two cameras and an additional 30 minutes of b-roll (supporting background footage).

If we use the rule of averages, the backup/import process will take half a day.

Then an editor will want to go through the footage so he or she is acquainted with the project.

The time this takes depends on the editor and his or her process.

But a professional will want to take the time to make sure they’ve seen everything that was shot.

This way they can create the best possible final product.

Then, the editor will create a first version. This is their first pass at executing the producer’s vision for the video.

The producer and the editor will watch the first version together and the producer will let the editor know if he or she is on track.

Once the producer signs off on the first version the editor will go for a final version.

If the final is approved by the producer, then the editor will begin the finish edit.

In addition to editing the story together, the editor also color-corrects the footage, adds graphics and music, sweetens the audio, etc. All of this takes time to do...and time to render.

Editing is tedious. It isn’t a process you’d want to rush if you care about quality.

It’s possible to have a video turned around in a two or three days if you’ve paid for a rush fee. But generally speaking, you should expect anywhere from a week to a month turn-around.

Again, exact timing depends on the length and complexity of the video.

Video is an immensely powerful marketing tool if done right. Treat the production process with respect and you’ll be satisfied with your end result.

If you’d like to learn more about our production process, check out this resource.

And if you have questions about an upcoming project, we’d love to talk!

Production Tips & Tricks

Our Top 10 Favorite Halloween Movies

Erin Hayes October 29, 2015 Creativity, Fun, Video Leave a Comment

Welcome to our super spooky Halloween Episode of Beer & Gear!

What's your favorite Halloween movie? You've got to have at least one.

MediaBoss Animator/Graphic Designer, Nick Clarke and I share our top 5 favorite Halloween movies. And because there are two of us, you get 10 great flicks for the price of 5.

And if you're not a fan of scaring the sh** out of yourself for fun, don't worry. There's something on this list for you, too [full disclosure: Goosebumps still gives me nightmares].

Here's the list written out. For our ridiculous commentary on why we like these movies, you'll have to watch the video!

Nick's #5: The Evil Dead

Erin's #5: Curious George's Boofest

Nick's #4: Beetlejuice

Erin's #4: Shaun of the Dead

Nick's #3: Night of the Living Dead

Erin's #3: Young Frankenstein

Nick's #2: Scream

Erin's #2: Witches of Eastwick

Nick's #1: A Nightmare on Elm Street

Erin's #1: Hocus Pocus

Let us know your favs in the comments!

Creativity Fun Video

7 Stats About Video Marketing to Make You Look Smart

Erin Hayes September 17, 2015 Video Marketing, Strategy Leave a Comment

Great news! According to Aberdeen's 2015 Marketing Report, marketers have significantly shifted their goals from Viral Views to Engagement.

As video marketers, we've gone beyond the one dimensional video success story and moved on to the concept called the 'multi-touch campaign'.

Marketing shouldn't be about "going viral." Many of us know this.

(Recommended reading: 7 Dos & Donts of Video Marketing)

Marketing should be about engaging and exciting people.

As Seth Godin said in a 2014 interview with Inc. Magazine:

"Instead of thinking, "What do the masses want?," [marketers] need to think about what the people who care want. They are two different things. ... by appealing to the people who care, it is way more likely that a company will be talked about."

Every once in a while someone will hit that sweet spot and they'll achieve both. But it's not a predictable event. It's a bet. And listen, gambling is just not something you should do. Especially with your tight marketing budget.

Aberdeen recently released their 2015 Marketing Report aptly titled Getting More Than "Going Viral" ... Sophistication in Video Marketing.

Aberdeen's findings were encouraging.

Here are 7 of the stats about video marketing we found the most impressive:

1) "70% of Best-in-Class marketers actively use video in at least one marketing channel."

MediaBoss opened our doors in 2008.

In the beginning, we'd spend the first couple of conversations with a prospect explaining why they needed video. Video Marketing was barely a term at the time and not many businesses spent time investing in it.

Now marketers widely accept video as an integral piece of their marketing strategy. And their goals have shifted.

2) "65% of video marketers are concerned with fueling multi-touch marketing campaigns. It’s not just about views anymore."

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Download Our:

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In recent years, every time a video went viral we'd get calls from clients saying "we want a video just like Gangnam Style" or "The Old Spice Guy" or "The Dollar Shave Club". You get the idea.

Our clients wanted to increase their market reach and brand awareness, and quickly. But it was an impossible request.

And it was a request we didn't want to fulfill because we didn't want to steal someone else's creative (and you shouldn't either).

There are many reasons why trying to replicate someone else's creative is a bad idea. Here are three.

People are smart and they know when you're being a poser.
Even if the budget is big and technical quality is top notch, it's a recycled concept and won't be as strong.
There were reasons the video went viral beyond the content which you may not be privy to.

But in the last 18 months we haven't had a single request like this. Our clients want thoughtful, targeted content packaged across platforms.

This brings us to the next stat:

3) "70% of best-in-class video marketers use video for social media."

Clients are much more interested in producing multi-touch campaigns now. This could mean one longer video (about 2 minutes); multiple shorter ones (:15 to :30) for everything from Instagram to Snapchat; and related still images or graphics.

And this brings me to the next stat:

4) "40% of marketers who adopt video are interested in keeping up with new marketing channels for interacting with buyers. This includes social platforms and mobile."

We’ve seen our clients' main goal for video shift in the last two years. It's changed from a desire to tell their audience about themselves to a desire to engage with them.

Five years ago we’d need to coax our clients into creating content targeted for certain channels. For example, we would warn against sharing a 5 minute video linked from Youtube to Twitter or Facebook.

Social is better for a quick hit. 5-minute videos are long in any medium. But... they could be a helpful resource in a targeted email campaign.

[Visible Measures reports that 45% of viewers will stop watching after 1 minute of video and 60% drop off by the 2 minute mark.]

Speaking of YouTube, another big change is:

5) "Best-in-Class marketers have 35% lead over All Others in their adoption of a video management / video hosting platform."

Now marketers are able to view real stats on how their viewers interact with the video content they create. They gather actionable information to help them engage with their customers where and how they like to be engaged.

‘Engagement’ is the hottest buzzword out there.

And for good reason.

Check out these final two stats:

6) "Marketers who use video generate 13% more marketing qualified leads (MQLs) per year."

7) "Video users outpace non-users by 63% in increasing marketing’s contribution to revenue year-over year."

The number one thing that set video adopters apart was mindfulness of their buyer’s multi-channel environments and preferences.

Take the time to map out how your buyers will go from viewing a video to interacting with your brand and ultimately making a purchase.

And if you'd like to talk to us about working together, awesome! Reach out here. We'd love to talk to you about your next project.

To download Aberdeen's Getting more than "Going Viral" ... Sophistication in Video Marketing, click the link.

Additional Resources:

Video Marketing Strategy

MediaBoss Television Pilot Partners Wins People's Telly Award

Erin Hayes September 09, 2015 Production, Press, Video Leave a Comment

Original Press Release Published Here

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Framingham, MA September 9, 2015 - The Telly Awards has named MediaBoss Television as a winner in the 36th Annual People's Telly Awards for their dramedy television pilot titled Partners. In addition to recognition from the Silver Telly Council, the judging panel that selects the Telly Awards winners, the Internet community helps decide the People’s Telly Awards winners. With nearly 12,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries, winning the People’s Choice is truly an honor.

Partners follows the career of a female detective in an all-male police station. The pilot was written by Matty Blake and directed by MediaBoss Creative Director & Producer, Ian Barrett. Blake and Barrett are producing partners under their partnership company, Let the Boy Watch. The pair have worked together on several other comedic pilots and a variety of other productions.

Partners was co-produced and edited by MediaBoss Television. A scripted, ensemble concept, the pilot was captured in Framingham, MA in a single day and featured actors, Jimmy Dunn (The McCarthys), R.J. Kelly (Political Animals), Betsy Beutler (Legit, Scrubs), Dan Schachner (Animal Planet) and Matty Blake (Mystic River, Boardwalk Empire).

"Filming Partners with MediaBoss and this cast was a like a writer/actor version of going to Disney World: Pure joy and magic,” Blake says. “We had so much fun but we also worked our butts off. A group of professionals getting together and playing our trade on our terms. Laughs yes, but we cared, we toiled, we strove. It wasn’t frivolous, it was rewarding. It’s the best kind of fun. It’s why we do what we do. We love the process!"

"It was a very fast paced set. We had a ton of set-ups to get through because we only had our cast for one day,” Barrett says. "Everything came together like magic, in the end we had more material than we could use! I can't say enough about how amazing the experience was."

The Telly Awards was founded in 1979 and is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest video and film productions, and online commercials, video and films. Winners represent the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world.

“The Telly Awards has a mission to honor the very best in film and video,” said Linda Day, Executive Director of the Telly Awards. “MediaBoss' accomplishment illustrates their creativity, skill, and dedication to their craft and serves as a testament to great film and video production.”

To see check out more of MediaBoss’ productions check out their portfolio: http://www.mediabosstv.com/creative-video

About MediaBoss Television
MediaBoss Television is a full-service television and web video production company that produces compelling video content for broadcast, corporations and start-ups alike. MediaBoss Television is based out of an 8,000 square foot converted industrial studio in Framingham, MA.

Please contact Erin Hayes, MediaBoss Television, for inquiries: Erin@MediaBossTV.com or call 508-405-0323

-END-

Additional Resources:

Production Press Video

Buzzwords, De-buzzed: 10 Definitions For Video Production Jargon

Erin Hayes September 01, 2015 Production Leave a Comment

The first time I was on set I was a writer at the Boston Herald but transitioning to the Video Production World. It was one of the first gigs I went on with our now-Creative Director, Ian Barrett. We were filming a firefighter auction in a Boston bar for a television pilot. He asked me if I saw any 'AC' around.

It was winter. The dead of January. I thought he was nuts. Why would he be looking for air conditioning right now? [Spoiler: He wasn't.]

Fast forward through the better part of a decade and now I'm the one speaking production patois. Recently, I found myself talking with a client about filming their video. I told them we'd film with our matching c300s and prime lenses. Then I asked them if they had branding guidelines for the custom GFX we’d add in post.

I got some blank stares and it hit me. I’ve become someone who only speaks in model numbers and abbreviations! I’ve become one of them.

But this exchange got me thinking about the terminology we throw around in the studio on a daily basis. I started to make a list of the otherwise nonsensical phrases we use. It got long, quick.

For fun, I thought I'd share the first 10 terms/phrases that came to mind. Here's the list. And please feel free to add to it in the comments!

1) AC

I thought I’d start off with this one. Turns out, Ian wasn’t looking for air conditioning that night. He was looking for an electrical outlet, or Alternating Current. Why didn’t he just ask if I’d seen an outlet nearby instead of AC? Because he’s been making films since he was 12 and people who make films say ‘AC’.

2) GFX

These are graphics that we add to video during the editing process. These could be animated lower thirds or supplemental visuals to help tell the story.

*Bonus: A Lower Third is graphic with the speaker’s name and title. It's called a lower third because it's usually placed in the lower third of the video frame.

3) CP 47

Asking for CP-47 is usually the first joke we pull on an Intern on set. A CP-47 (or C-47) is a clothes pin. No, I'm not kidding.

There are many stories explaining the origin of this name, all of which are probably apocryphal. But the story we like the best (and feel is the most likely to be true) is the tale of: Evil Accounting versus Poor Production Crew.

Legend has it that in the early days of Hollywood, studio execs balked at spending money on an item as banal as the clothes pin.

They’d deny requests for clothes pins from the lighting department until, one day, the “clothes pin” line item transformed in to the commanding piece of equipment known as a “CP-47”.

And how could they deny their lighting crew such an impressive sounding piece of equipment?

4) B-Roll

B-Roll refers to the footage filmed by secondary cameras.

Back in the days of tape, the primary footage would be captured on the A Tape, or A-Roll. Once that coverage was complete, the tape would get switched and the B Tape would be inserted into the camera.

In the editing process, both tapes would be loaded onto the system and the editor would cut between the two.

Today, when we refer to "capturing B-Roll," we're referring to the atmospheric shots that help support the video’s story and add visual texture to the final product.

This could be the exterior of a building or a close up of a beer getting poured, etc. You get the idea.

5) Bed

Just today our Creative Director asked me to 'work on getting a bed’ for a video we’re editing.

Nope, I’m not hitting up Jordan’s Furniture.

I’ll be listening through our music track library, instead.

The ‘bed’ refers to background music under a narrator or foreground footage in a corporate video or commercial spot.

6) Sticks

When you hear ‘get the sticks’ or ‘move the sticks’ don’t bother looking for fallen tree branches. ‘Sticks’ is production lingo for a tripod.

7) Stinger

I always liked this term. A 'stinger' isn't anything that will prick or hurt you. It's an extension cord.

Here's a fun MEME created by The Black and Blue Blog:

8) Sweetening

'Sweetening' something in post means to enhance something in the post-production process.

This could be audio sweetening if music or voice tracks could use a clean up or a boost.

Sweetening could also refer to color correcting the video footage.

9) Timecode

Timecode is an invaluable communication tool.

It is the clock counter generally found at the bottom of the screen of video footage. It starts with 00:00:00:00 at the beginning of a video and counts upwards for the duration of the video.

The zeros represent Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames of video.

It's used as a synchronization tool and for logging and identifying captured material.

We use it when we show first looks of a video to clients. But we also use it internally to streamline communication between a project's Producer and its Editor.

A Timecode edit could look like this:

As in:
Keep sound bite at: 00:00:12:34-00:00:13:56
Edit out: 00:00:15:20-00:00:21:45

10) dB

A producer might say to an editor, "Bring down the dBs in the music bed to minus-10."

They would be talking audio levels.

dB is the abbreviation for decibel. According to Wikipedia, "The decibel is a logarithmic unit that expressed the ratio of two values of a physical quantity, often power or intensity."

Does your head hurt yet? Because mine does.

Here's what you need to know: mixing audio takes work, precision and patience.

When done right, you don't notice how perfect the video's audio is. When done wrong, you're jumping up to turn down (or up) the volume every time a scene transitions to the next in the program you're watching. The worst.

O.K. You have my short list of production terms.

What would you add? Have any more obscure ones, like CP-47? Share them in the comments!

Additional Resources:

Find out more about our production process:

Production

Production Firm Knows Who's Boss - MetroWest Daily News

Erin Hayes August 31, 2015 Production, Press Leave a Comment

Original Article Published in MetroWest Daily News, Aug. 31, 2015 edition

By Bob Tremblay/Daily News Staff

Credit for the name MediaBoss goes to Ian Barrett, the creative director of the Framingham-based production company.
“The name derived from two sources,” explain Erin Hayes, the firm’s CEO and co-owner. “First, it's a very powerful engine - the Boss 302 engine. The other part of this is the Boss Level of a video game - the hardest level to beat.”
Located at 92 Blandin Ave., the company was launched in 2008 with Hayes and Paul Bouley as owners. The four partners – Hayes, Bouley, Barrett and Nick Clarke - all reside in Framingham.

Hayes recently discussed the company with Daily News staff writer Bob Tremblay.
QUESTION: Why was the business started?
ANSWER: Our collective background is in storytelling. We came together as independent television producers and writers who wanted to bring our particular passion and creative to a broader audience.
We were producing several television shows in and around Boston when we started MediaBoss. At the time video marketing wasn't on everyone's radar. We saw a lot of businesses struggle to self-produce their videos and create storylines - or strategy - for their visual content. And likewise, we saw a need to include online content marketing for television programming.
We combined an agency with a production house to create a one-stop shop for all content creation.
Q: Why did you choose your current locale?

A: Framingham represents a thriving and diverse home for businesses. This is why so many large corporations such as TJX, Genzyme and Bose like to headquarter here. We represent the innovation and startup concept, which the town will hopefully see more of because it gives balance and creates new business opportunities.

Q: Has your business moved?
A: Our business has moved twice since we began. We doubled in size from 2008 to 2010 and we expanded again in 2013. We started off in a 1,500-square-foot space. We are now in an 8,000-square-foot space.
Q: What did you do before you started this business?
A: I was a writer at the Boston Herald. Our creative director was an independent television and video producer. Our production manager, Paul Bouley, was an editor and production assistant. Our animator/graphic designer, Nick Clarke, was an intern at Framingham State University.
Q: What does your company do?
A: We are content producers. This expands from television, filmmaking and video for the Web to visual and written content for the variety of social media platforms that are out there today.
Q: What makes you different from the competition?

A: We are a production company and agency combined. Many production companies need the creative direction to produce work for the client and many agencies need a production company to make their creative reality.

Our clients know that whether they need branding, marketing and sales content, Web video, television commercials, television programming or even a film produced, we can deliver the product along with the creative side and the strategy to make their content stand out and reach the most amount of people possible.

Q: What is the cost of your service?

A: It varies from project to project.

Q: Any future plans?

A: We plan to continue to grow and serve our client base and add some new television projects. We're working a few television pilots, Web series and some creative projects.

One of our media and marketing clients is New England Studios in Devens.

Q: How many employees do you have?

A: Our team is six people. We expand our crew on a project basis. The six of us consider each other family. Ian and I are married and our employees are “aunts and uncles” to our daughter.

Q: Any news to report?

A: We just won two Telly Awards for our productions this year.

The website for MediaBoss is MediaBossTV.com.

Curious about their production process? Click below!

Production Press

The Four Biggest Video Marketing Trends

Erin Hayes August 04, 2015 Marketing, Video Marketing, Video, Content Marketing Leave a Comment

2015 has a been a great year for video.

Everywhere we turn, the internet gives us another study reporting the adoption and effectiveness of video.

Hardly anyone questions the strength of video marketing. But what type of video should you use and how should you use it?

We have about a million great ideas to help answer that. So, to help inspire you, we'll start with sharing the four of the biggest video marketing trends we've seen this year.

Mobile Video

The number 1 spot on the Biggest Video Marketing Trends list has to go to mobile video.

Have you checked your analytics lately? How many views are you getting from mobile? I’d bet if you did a comparison from last year, you'd see an increase.

Well guess what? The mobile trend has hit video too.

Google’s algorithm change this spring gave mobile-friendly websites a leg up in mobile search. And according to a recent report by eMarketer, Mobile video viewing jumped 10% this year (this is while laptop and desktop viewing stalls for the first time).

56% of viewers watch video on their smartphones, compared to 46% last year.

If that jump isn't enough to convince you your customers are embracing mobile viewing, check out this stat:

69% of smartphone users say videos are a perfect solution for smartphone viewing because it gives them a quick way to understand a product overview.

It’s more important than ever to make sure your videos are mobile-ready. If you self-host, check in with your webmaster to see if they’ve optimized for mobile. If you need help, I’d recommend trying any of the following hosting services:

Video in Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation is another big video marketing trend.

Marketing Automation on it's own is just plain smart.

58% of top-perfoming companies (defined as those where marketing contributes more than half of the sales pipeline), have adopted marketing automation. (Forrester Research).

And...

B2C marketers who take advantage of automation have seen conversion rates as high as 50%! (eMarketer)

This year, we’ve seen a marked increase in the use of video with marketing automation. And the increase has been for good reason.

[tweet_dis]Just using the word ‘video’ in an email subject line increases open rates by 19%![/tweet_dis] It also increases click through rates by 65% and reduces unsubscribes by 26%. (Syndacast)

And while we're on the subject, did you know that 45% of the companies that use marketing automation, regularly repurpose content?

We particularly love this statistic. We are big proponents of repurposing content.

If you’d like a video, but want to get more than a single use out of it, contact us. We can help!

Less Gimmick, More Story

Remember the Old Spice Guy? How about A Dollar Shave Club? Both were great video campaigns that seem out of place in 2015, right?

We’ve noticed that, this year, video has come back to storytelling. And we’re relieved. Not that we didn't like the gimmicky video. We did. We just didn’t love it. We love storytelling.

The rise of content marketing adoption has helped bring marketers back to the Engage, Educate and Entertain model. Consumers want quality content that helps inform their decision making process. Of course entertainment is still a priority, but the priority is back where it belongs: In third place.

Overall, the popular videos we’ve seen take off have stayed away from the gimmick and stayed true to the story.

Take Puppyhood by Purina Puppy Chow for example. It engages people by telling a familiar story in an entertaining way.

We’re not saying that gimmicks are no longer a part of video marketing. They are. But this year more often the story is there first.

Personally, we’re relieved.

Here are two more commercials we really thought hit the mark:

#RealStrength: Dove, Men+Care

#DodgeWisdom - Official 2015 Dodge Super Bowl Commercial

Live Streaming

Thanks to Meerkat and Periscope, everyone can live stream! Social video has been on the rise for the better part of this decade, but platforms like these make it accessible to anyone.

Of course, that doesn’t mean every one is doing it well (how many fridge tours can one person take??). But there are plenty of brands out there that are killing it in this medium.

For example, do you follow "Central Intelligence" star Kevin Hart? Well you should. That man is smart. And his interactivity with his fans is inspired.

How about Netlfix? This Spring, Netflix used Periscope to stream a guinea pig wandering between zones on a floor. One was marked, “Study” and the other “Netflix”. They put this out around college finals season.

And General Electric used Periscope to live stream a behind-the-scenes interview with astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson and scientist Bill Nye.

We expect to see more brands adopt Periscope and Meerkat into their marketing strategy in 2016. The use cases are close to endless.

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We'd love to talk about you about how to integrate any of these trends into your video marketing strategy. Remember, 2016 is just around the corner.

Download our 7 Must Have Videos and get planning!

Marketing Video Marketing Video Content Marketing

I'll Write You A Symphony: Behind Jared Dylan's Music Video

Erin Hayes July 30, 2015 Creativity, Production, Video Leave a Comment

By MediaBoss Team

Jared Dylan, 20, is going into his senior year at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, with more than a little bit of rock star credibility.

The aspiring singer/songwriter's music video for the single "Symphony" dropped last week and he's been getting 10,000 hits a day since it premiered on YouTube.

Not too shabby for an independent artist, but there is a lot more to the story than that. The first interesting bit is that he actually wrote "Symphony" when he was 16, and this overnight success has been four years in the making.

When asked about the song’s origin, Jared candidly admits that he wrote it for girl he met only once. [tweet_dis]"She asked me to write her a song and I wrote her “Symphony"[/tweet_dis]. I knew her for a total of 5 hours and she still doesn't know that I wrote the song about her." Dylan admits, laughing.

Inspirations aside, writing a song is one thing, and making a music video is an entirely different animal. When Jared and his manager Jimmy Walorz of Vizion Entertainment, decided it was time, they reached out to video producer Bill Millman (now at Atlantic Records) who tapped Godsmack director Ian Barrett at MediaBoss Television for the job.

The shoot was a whirl-wind two days on location in Miami. Barrett captured the video’s performance shots on site at the University of Miami, including the iconic stage sequence overlooking the fountain at the center of campus. Additional material, specifically the sunset finale and white room sequences were shot at Miami's famous, Trendy Studios.

While the shoot was fast-paced and hectic, Dylan was impressed by how smoothly the process went. "I don’t think there was a difficult part because they worked so well together,” he said of the crew. "MediaBoss is a group of professional veterans who have done it so many times that they knew exactly what to expect. They had it ready to go. We were moving from location to location seamlessly."

That’s not to say that the young artist didn’t have his nervous moments. The white room shots at Trendy Studios were a little out of his comfort zone.

“The entire time, I’m saying (to Barrett), 'You think it’s too weird that I’m doing this? Do you think people are going to respond to this or just think I’m a lunatic?! He just kept yelling over the playback and the next thing I knew I was jumping on chairs and doing karate kicks, it was fun."

In the end, the white room shots are Dylan’s favorite memory from the shoot. He had to put a lot of trust into the direction of Barrett, and according to him, it paid off.

“Ian (Barrett) is a visionary. He is a true artist,” he said. “He was doing things for the video that I just wouldn’t have even thought to imagine. That white room, again all those different costumes and everything, that’s where I think the chemistry between me and Ian really came out. Every one of those shots that we did was a single take."

“I’m so happy with how it came out,” he said of the final edited video. "I cannot express how much I love it, it’s awesome.”

Dylan found inspiration and support from every member of the team throughout the shoot.

“Bill (producer) is probably one of the most fun people to be around. It’s like you never know what he’s going to say next, but it’s going to be hilarious and you just want to be a part of it,” Dylan said, laughing. “He also played a huge part in pushing me throughout the whole process. I was just playing through the song and he was like ‘You gotta give it more than that!’"

“I don’t think the energy of the video would have been nearly as high and as fun without him there."

As for his co-star, actress Rachel Seeker, Dylan says " She's hot." He says reflecting on the beach shot they did together, “And...She’s a sweetheart and so down to earth and easy to talk to, She was there, every second of the shoot,” he added. “She did not leave set, She was alway there to give support...I mean we couldn’t have done the video without her."

Walorz served as the “all-seeing-eye” throughout the entirety of the shoot, according to Dylan. “Having such a seasoned opinion and such a well-versed influence on the video - we owe a lot of credit to Jimmy.”

Every shoot has an unsung hero, somebody who goes 'above and beyond' and this production was no exception. Jared's good friend, Andrea Lopez, became an impromptu 1st AD and started by wrangling shots, talent and locations. She even filled in as actress to play Jared's love interest when a conflict displaced the original girl.

“I don’t know if I want to let her know how grateful I am because she’ll just hold it over me,” he joked. “She is easily one of the most supportive and just selfless and downright, just inspiring people that I could possibly imagine to be on our team.”

The video provides more than a visual asset to a song, it’s also a captured moment of Dylan’s time at Frost Music School at the University of Miami, a place that has been fully supportive of the whole process. Including his fellow students who appeared in the video.

The school assisted by not only giving approval to film, but by agreeing to share "Symphony" with their social media community, “I think the coolest part is the University of Miami is going to share it cause that really shows how much they support the project.”

"The University of Miami is a huge part of who I am right now,” Dylan added. “But specifically, it will be a huge part of who I am forever."

Dylan has great expectations for the “Symphony” video.

“We’re shooting for 50 million views,” he says with his signature smile, “Gotta set the bar high. We’ve got a lot in store."

"Symphony" is available on iTunes and you can view the video here on YouTube.

Creativity Production Video

Erin Hayes

Erin Hayes

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1) "70% of Best-in-Class marketers actively use video in at least one marketing channel."

2) "65% of video marketers are concerned with fueling multi-touch marketing campaigns. It’s not just about views anymore."

3) "70% of best-in-class video marketers use video for social media."

4) "40% of marketers who adopt video are interested in keeping up with new marketing channels for interacting with buyers. This includes social platforms and mobile."

5) "Best-in-Class marketers have 35% lead over All Others in their adoption of a video management / video hosting platform."

6) "Marketers who use video generate 13% more marketing qualified leads (MQLs) per year."

7) "Video users outpace non-users by 63% in increasing marketing’s contribution to revenue year-over year."

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