<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!-- generator="WordPress/2.9.2" -->
<rss version="0.92">
<channel>
	<title>Home</title>
	<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog</link>
	<description>Thoughts and insight on advertising, marketing and production</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:37:21 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
	<language>en</language>
	
	<item>
		<title>Canon 60D: Final Thoughts</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;ve been using the Canon 60D for 10 months now and I&#8217;ve already posted twice about our experiences with the camera. We&#8217;ve used it for TV commercials, marketing videos and short-form promotional videos, many of which involved on-camera talent requiring scenes with dialogue and on-camera spokespeople.
So what are my thoughts now that I&#8217;ve used it extensively? [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/1106</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>The Value of Time and Experience in Advertising Design</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In the last 25 years the growth of computer technology and the internet have both fundamentally changed how companies market themselves. The early to mid-nineties saw the birth of digital production. Then in the early part of this decade, digital television and the internet matured. And in the last three years, social media came of age.
Obviously this technology has had many positive effects when [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/1090</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Learning from Dick Ebersol&#8217;s Resignation</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Dick Ebersol resigned as head of NBC&#8217;s sports division on May 19th and just a few days later Joe Posnanski wrote a piece on Ebersol in Sports Illustrated&#8217;s May 30th Point After column. What struck me about the article wasn&#8217;t anything about Ebersol&#8217;s vast list of credits, or any claim about his influence on modern sports or entertainment [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/1079</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Canon 60D: Second Look</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
I just completed our first broadcast project using the Canon 60D and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the results. Since the 60D is primarily designed as a still camera,  I was initially skeptical about both the camera&#8217;s reliability and quality in a broadcast environment. But once I got used to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/1037</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Ecwid: A great E-commerce solution</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
I recently created a client website that needed an easy to use e-commerce solution for selling books, CDs and digital downloads of documents and audio files. On the client&#8217;s old website, she was just selling her book and CDs using a very simple PayPal link for processing and payment. It worked, but wasn&#8217;t very attractive and offered [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/1017</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>New Year Marketing Planning</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Cindy Daly
Don’t you just love the New Year? We all have a clean slate with no broken resolutions or abandoned plans. It’s that magical time of year where we all do our marketing plans and set our objectives and everything is still on track. If you’re like most of us, your resolutions are somewhat [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/1003</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Canon 60D DSLR: First Impressions</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
I&#8217;ve read with great interest and some skepticism all the hype surrounding digital single lens reflex cameras, commonly called either HDSLRs or DSLRs. I&#8217;ve also watched quite a lot of video shot with a variety of these cameras and the results are impressive to say the least. Since our digital still camera is [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/990</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>A Guide to Advertising &amp; Production Costs</title>
		<description><![CDATA[How much will that cost? That&#8217;s a question I&#8217;m sure every business gets almost daily. With some products, like a television or computer, the answer is relatively easy. Go online, find the model you want, compare specs and prices, and choose your retailer.
But for most things, figuring out the cost is much more difficult. From buying a car [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/958</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Update on 3D Television Networks and 3D in Theaters</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
I ran across an interesting article this morning about the status of 3D in movie theaters and on television. You can read it here.
The gist of the article is that director Christopher Nolan won&#8217;t be shooting the next Batman movie (The Dark Knight Rises) in 3D, and that ESPN is questioning it&#8217;s foray into [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/942</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Integrity in Advertising and Strat-O-Matic Baseball</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
We often get calls from clients who think they need a particular type of promotional product or service, be it a new website, an instructional video, a print brochure, a television campaign, or a new logo. But many times after meeting and discussing their needs, it becomes clear the client needs something entirely different.
We&#8217;ve [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/930</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Can Social Media Really Work for your Business?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
There&#8217;s no denying that Facebook and Twitter are both hot topics right now. We get a half-dozen emails each week advertising seminars, podcasts or webinars proclaiming they can teach us to turn tweets into dollars or status updates into customers.
Is social media really that powerful? Is it really a ground-breaking way to reach [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/907</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Make video graphics key better and look cleaner</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
Have you ever noticed that graphics in low-budget television commercials and videos seem to almost scream at you? Much of that is from poor design, but another less conspicuous reason is how they&#8217;re created and superimposed on-screen. Poor graphic preparation can cause pixelated edges, dingy looking borders, over-saturated colors and color banding that can produce annoying noise on-screen.
In contrast, the graphics [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/888</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Using WordPress to Build Websites</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
I&#8217;ve long been aware of WordPress, but had typically viewed it as a tool for creating and managing blogs. In the past year, I&#8217;ve found that it&#8217;s a powerful tool for building rich, dynamic websites.
If you&#8217;ve ever looked into WordPress, the whole enterprise is a little confusing. There is wordpress.com, which is basically [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/874</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Sharing project files with Network Attached Storage (NAS)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
For our first 11 years in business, we used direct attached storage for reading and writing files on our computer systems. But in early 2008, we switched to an enterprise level, network attached system (NAS) for project and media files. The reasons for the switch were varied, but the biggest was to improve productivity and efficiency.

With direct storage, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/844</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>3D television networks: how are they doing?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
By Chris Blair

I must admit, I&#8217;m not much of a fan of 3D in movies and television. About the only time I&#8217;ve ever enjoyed it is at amusement park rides and shows, such as Mickey&#8217;s Philharmagic at Disney&#8217;s Magic Kingdom or Muppet Vision 3D at Disney&#8217;s Hollywood Studios. I&#8217;ve also read that shows like Terminator 2: 3D at Universal Studios are great [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/783</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Netflix: Best value on the planet!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
I&#8217;ve been aware of Netflix for years, but always viewed their service as more trouble than it was worth. When it comes to watching movies, I&#8217;m the spontaneous type, rarely planning a viewing in advance, so ordering a movie or movies, then waiting for them to be delivered in the mail didn&#8217;t seem very attractive.
When Netlix added [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/803</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Is social media marketing a wise investment for business?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
I&#8217;ve long been on the fence concerning the value of using social media to promote a business or non-profit. I certainly think if an organization can keep relevant information flowing, it can add value. But even when a social media site is well-maintained, using it for marketing is at best a shot in the dark since it&#8217;s difficult if not impossible to control who your message [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/784</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>The Dan Gilbert and Lebron James debacle</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
Ok, you&#8217;re probably wondering, &#8220;what the heck does Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert&#8217;s crazy comments about Lebron James spurning the Cavs have to do with marketing and advertising?&#8221; Well, not that much on the surface, except for the fact the whole affair has brought more attention to the NBA during the second week of July than it&#8217;s ever had in an entire [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/724</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>The truth about keywords and website rankings</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
If you&#8217;ve ever worked with websites, you&#8217;ve probably heard the term &#8220;keywords.&#8221; If you&#8217;re not familiar with it, the term refers to the words and phrases used to describe your organization on your site. Keywords are important because search engines like Google use them to determine search rankings. Theoretically the more accurate the keywords, the better your ranking. Keyword frequency on [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/698</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>To storyboard, or not to storyboard?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
If you&#8217;re not sure what a storyboard is, just look at a comic book. A storyboard is basically the same thing, using a sequence of still images to help visualize a story. In advertising, storyboards provide a visual snapshot of key scenes in a commercial, and can be used to help sell a [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/558</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Run your TV ads until you&#8217;re sick of seeing them!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
Magnetic Image buys and places a lot of media and we have two highly experienced media buyers on staff. I&#8217;ll admit that I&#8217;m not one of them. But in over 25 years in this business, I&#8217;ve certainly learned a thing or two about media buying.
One trend I see (and don&#8217;t agree with) is to produce an ad, run it in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/521</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>The importance of audio in videos</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
Bad audio can ruin an otherwise well produced video. Whether it&#8217;s poorly recorded voice tracks, mismatched ambient sound in scenes with dialogue, or poorly timed cuts in a testimonial interview, bad audio can disrupt the flow of individual scenes and sometimes the entire video.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest changes in video production over the last [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/491</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>New version of RealPlayer is much improved!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
While I&#8217;m on the subject of media players. I was recently reintroduced to RealPlayer&#8217;s basic media player and I was blown away by how much it&#8217;s improved since the last time I used it. RealPlayer was initially a leader in online video streaming and it&#8217;s player was pretty much standard fare on Windows [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/479</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Play Quicktime and H.264 files in Windows Media Player</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
The default media player in Windows Vista and Windows XP cannot play a lot of popular file types, such as Quicktime and the now ubiquitous H.264/mp4 format. But now there&#8217;s a simple, safe plugin that gives Windows Media Player the ability to play both. The plugin is from a company called Medialooks and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/467</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Building a brand doesn&#8217;t have to be complicated</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Chris Blair
The term branding is thrown around a lot in marketing and advertising, yet many companies struggle to consistently brand themselves.
One reason is that many advertising and marketing professionals make it so darn complicated. They use terms like: value propositions, brand equity, B2B, shelf shout, push marketing, ROI, and sonic branding. There are dozens [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/462</link>
			</item>
</channel>
</rss>
<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. The path to wp-cache-phase1.php in wp-content/advanced-cache.php must be fixed! -->
