A MjrVisuals Documentary travel series - This is America.
About two years ago I was hired to film a commercial for RMA, Randolph Macon Academy. It’s a school in a part of Virginia that is actually not known for its diversity. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that the school was a US Air Force Academy and very diverse. It made me think that all the thoughts I had about the area were wrong because how can there be such a diverse campus in the middle of a town that is rumored to be extremely racists. That understanding of thea area was given to me not just from passersby but actual work colleges that lived in the town. It wasn’t unheard of to see an upside flag or the Confederate flag in yards, on cars and on the back of trucks driving through town.
Fast forward a year, I wanted to do a travel show on small-town America and the first town I wanted to tell a story on was this small town. The history was amazing and the fact that it was close enough to the nation’s capital that people communted to Washington DC for work but lived here made it an interesting location because of the revitalization that was happening due to the influx of those government employees.
MjrVisuals has done to date 9 documentaries for a number of executive producers, now we are normally left alone with telling the story but given the topic. I was told the even though all the documentaries that we have produced for clients have won awards, we are not considered a top tier production house because we have not entered a festival directly. This show idea changed that.
We won the first festival we entered this season, lets hope for more.
The Feature Trailer of "the SixTripleEight" movie
In February 1945, the U.S. Army sent 855 black women from the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) to England and France to clear the backlog of mail in the European Theater of Operations. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known as the SixTripleEight, was the only all-black female battalion to serve in Europe during WWII. Confronted with racism and sexism from their own leadership and troops, they served with honor and distinction completing their mission in six months. By war’s end, the SixTripleEight had cleared over 17 million pieces of backlogged mail ensuring the troops stayed in touch with their loved ones back home. The last of the women returned home in March 1946. They were never fully recognized…until now.
A New Documentary from MJRvisuals "the Six Triple Eight"
In February 1945, the U.S. Army sent 855 black women from the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) to England and France to clear the backlog of mail in the European Theater of Operations. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known as the SixTripleEight, was the only all-black female battalion to serve in Europe during WWII. Confronted with racism and sexism from their own leadership and troops, they served with honor and distinction completing their mission in six months. By war’s end, the SixTripleEight had cleared over 17 million pieces of backlogged mail ensuring the troops stayed in touch with their loved ones back home. The last of the women returned home in March 1946. They were never fully recognized…until now.
Click the image above to see the trailer
29 film awards to include Best Picture for a Documentary we filmed, edited and produced with Executive Producer/Director James Theres / Lincoln Penny Films.
We we hired again to team up with them to film and produce the story of the first all black female army battalion the 6888th Postal……In February 1945, the U.S. Army sent 855 black women from the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) to England and France to clear the backlog of mail in the European Theater of Operations. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known as the SixTripleEight, was the only all-black female battalion to serve in Europe during WWII. Confronted with racism and sexism from their own leadership and troops, they served with honor and distinction completing their mission in six months. By war’s end, the SixTripleEight had cleared over 17 million pieces of backlogged mail ensuring the troops stayed in touch with their loved ones back home. The last of the women returned home in March 1946. They were never fully recognized…until now.
VISIT LINCOLNPENNYFILMS.COM FOR SCREENING AND VIEWING INFORMATION
5 Reasons to Stop Using Stock Videos (and to use a Videographer instead
Using video for marketing content is becoming increasingly popular. Simply put, stock videos lack the soul that an original videographer can give your marketing content. Often companies spend a lot of time developing an original look and feel of their brand personalities and their owned media, such as their websites. However, in my experience the same level of attention to detail to originality isn’t placed on making marketing materials that are unique to you. Here are the 5 reasons why I would avoid using stock videos and rather focus on hiring a videographer instead.
Reason 1: Lack of Originality
Despite the fact that there are huge amounts of stock content on the Internet, you’d be surprised by how little there is that’s relevant to your specific product or service. The window of stock videography is often quite small for companies that have unique offerings. This means that there can actually be an embarrassing overlap between the stock video content you use and the video content your competitors use.
Reason 2: Lack of Authenticity:
I believe that real video footage creates a real sense of authenticity between a company and potential customer. I feel there’s a level of wariness when they don’t see genuine content created by the company.
Reason 3: Never the Perfect Fit
While stock videos can be okay sometimes for limited use, there is rarely a stock video for every occasion. If you use stock videos for long form content, your finished piece will look like a patchwork quilt of disconnected and unrelated video slots.
Reason 4: Editing Time
Often if you use stock videos your editing time will be substantial and your finished product may not even be one worth the investment. This is why it’s better to use actual recorded video that allows better editability.
Reason 5: Expensive
Good stock is rarely cheap, and it’s easy to spend several hundred on just a short video for the stock you need, as well as the video distribution rights. While it may be costlier initially to get a videographer, it’s well worth the investment when the finished product is a long-term piece of content you can use over and over on various platforms.
Next Steps:
While it may seem like you’re saving money on your marketing content by using stock videos, you might be doing so at the price of your brand respect and potential customers. I believe that people crave authenticity and respect a company that is willing to put time and effort into their marketing content.
We are a boutique production company; we create creative and imaginative visual solutions.
MJRvisuals is ignition defined.
Why its important to Record your Conference
One of the things in business I regret seeing is when companies don’t record their conferences. To me this is letting valuable content slip through their hands without any thought of lost opportunities. The fact is that almost every business that hosts a conference or gives a talk is an expert or specialist in some area. This professional expertise communicated at such events is lost forever once spoken and only lives on in the minds of the attendees after the conference. I propose that the best way to capture and distribute this high quality content is through recording a conference into a highly valuable piece of marketing content. Through good videography, you can first capture the conference and through editing you can then successfully seed the most important parts across your various platforms.
Lets look at some differences in providing long form and short form video recording on your site.
Long Form: Conference Recoding for Your Website and YouTube
The best place to host the video that you capture from a conference is on your website. Both YouTube and your website are friendly to long-form content, meaning that if you have long speeches or presentations, people will be able to access, listen and learn. Even though the video will be hosted on YouTube, Vimeo or other Video housing sites, it’s best to embed that same video to your website. Embedding your video on your company site will consolidate not only the videos in one location but gives you the opportunity to cross market other valuable information you might want to provide. Make sure to keep your website up-to-date with fresh content, video is some of the best type to feature. If you have a long video about your conference that is featured on your website, you’ll be able to improve visitor time on your site and reduce bounce rate, which ultimately helps your Analytics and online footprint.
Short Form: Instagram and Facebook
Once you’ve captured a conference, I advise you to edit highlights into manageable bitesize chunks and distribute those videos across your social platforms. Facebook and Instagram put a huge amount of emphasis onto video content. Distill the best content from your conference for instance memorable quotes, memorable scenes, testimonials, key phrases, marketing idea for your next like ask the participants to say “why they came to your conference”, make those ideas into mini videos that capture audience attention on social platforms. This is key to distributing content that gathers traction on social media and increases engagement for your website, your message and hopefully next years conference.
Next Steps:
This is more of a “think outside the box” more then it is a step. Figure out how you want to portray the conference in your videos. Do you want just a wide screen angle of you and the speakers, multiple angles, presentation in the video next to you or possibly a full screen image of the presentation. Remember the main advantage of recording a conference you host is to prove to your audience that you are an authority in the area you speak about. A conference is packed full of valuable content that you should preserve for future usage in a way that will be available for seeing and distribution to the masses.
Malcholm Reese is the Creative Director of MJRvisuals. MJRvisuals is a boutique video production company offering full service conference and live stream production.
MJRvisuals is ignition defined.
