3 Questions from a Reader

By leelefever on November 15, 2007 - 3:39pm.

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In a recent blog post, we asked for questions from readers.  Thanks to Joan from High Contagious Marketing for asking these thought-provoking questions:

1. If your fairy godmother told you she would grant you three wishes for your business, what three wishes would you request.

Wish #1:  An easy one.  Stop ALL spam, effective immediately. This includes online spam, junk mail, front door solicitors, political calls, etc. 

Wish #2: Tivo for the real world. Sometimes you just want to fast-forward the boring parts and focus on the fun. (See wish #1).  Rewind would be fun too.

Wish #3: For work to be a form of exercise.  We have plans each day to get exercise, but work often happens instead.  If only writing scripts, editing videos and
illustrating would burn lots of calories - we'd be tri-athletes! 

2. I get the sense that producing your videos takes a good chunk of time. About how long from idea to final product.

Wish #4 might be a better way to answer this question. We have little idea. Because we're with each other 24/7, our work becomes part of everything we do.  Once we know a video needs to be made, we think about it and talk about in a completely ad-hoc manner.  Over dinner, in the middle of the night, in the middle of other projects - it's all wrapped together.

The longest part of the project is preparation for storyboarding.  It requires us to think a lot about concept in the script and then create scenes and illustrations.  Once things are nailed down in the storyboard, shooting and editing go comparably fast.  I have nothing to compare it to, but it's likely a longer process than most would expect. 

Plus, each project is so different.  Our client productions often take longer because there are more decision makers.   

3. Are you trying out any tools or processes to speed things up?

We learn something new with each video.  We're pretty efficient when it comes to the technology - I don't think we're going to get faster with a better editing system, for instance.  We're always looking for ways to be more efficient from the creative side, which often produces diminishing returns.  You wouldn't believe how much we print, copy and scan.  We've learned a lot about how to take an illustration and manipulate it into multiple sizes, shapes, etc.  That has helped a lot.  Oh, and we love Vimeo.com for sharing videos with clients with simple password protection - a great service.

Thanks for asking Judy!