Tag: video production company

Finding Film distributors

Posted on | by jfletcher

We made our first feature film last year ‘Finding Fatima’ which was a drama documentary about the events in Fatima, Portugal in 1917. Once the film was made we then had the task of finding a distributor / distributors for it.

Here are some tips if you are looking to do the same.

1. Festivals –  This can be a good way of introducing your film to a wide market that is full of people who are there to buy the rights to films. A few things that are worth considering are 1. decide on what festival you want to enter your film into, some have a disclaimer whereby you aren’t allowed to enter the film into any other festivals, they also have very strict guidelines with regards to entering the festival which is worth looking at before entering. Something else to look at is the type of film that you have made and which festivals would suit it. Is it a quirky indie film or a big budget looking blockbuster. There are a number of smaller festivals around the world which could also be good for your film and are often more tailored to the type of film that you have made. I should say that although these are often not the best places to find distributors, if you win awards or get critical acclaim it is a great way to help promote you film once you have a distributor, as you can add the ‘winner best ….’ title to your marketing, press release film cover.

2. Sending films to distributors – I’m going to take it for granted that you started a video production company that the film was made under, if you didn’t I would recommend creating one for sending screener copies of your film out to distributors. Now when you send the screener out one thing that I would recommend is to make it look good – If you can afford it have the DVD’s duplicated with labels on the disk in a DVD case with your proposed artwork on the cover. This way when the distributor receives the DVD they can see the exact product that they could acquire which will be a lot more exciting than a DVD in a plastic wallet with the film title scrawled on it. – When we sent the screener out we included a letter to each distributor, the DVD screener of the film and a CD-ROM that contained different pages linked, similar to a website, with the trailer on, short synopsis, film information (run length, main cast and crew, rights owned – 100% worldwide initially, and links to the films website.)

3.  One thing that is important is to make sure that the film has a watermark (which can appear a few times during the playback) this just shows that it is a screener copy, I would also put a disclaimer at the beginning, explaining that it is a screener copy and not for re-sale etc..

4.  Finding Distributors, when we were searching for distributors obviously the first thing that we did was go into Google and type ‘film distribution companies’. Which is fine and brings back a plethora of results. It is worth looking at films that are similar to yours and searching for their distributor, you can often get this from IMDB. There are also lists that you can buy and websites that contain external links to distributor websites. Once you have a full distributor list and you are ready to contact them, before you send your screener either phone or email the company and explain that you have just made a new film, include a short synopsis and links, and ask if you could have the name and address of the best person to send it too. – I would always recommend a phone call where you can and ask to speak to someone in new film acquisition.

5. Finally once you have a distributor interested in your film look at what they are offering, are they offering an advance and is that paid back out of your percentage or film revenue. Look at where your percentage comes from, is it from net or revenue, if net you need a breakdown of where the initial money will be spent and at what stage you will start receiving an income. Also speak to the distributor about what method they will take in the distribution of your film, cinema, local screenings, straight to DVD, will it be available for download or through film rental companies, will they eventually look for a TV deal. You will normally receive a different percentage for each of the above and these can be negotiated when signing the contract. Look at the territories that the distributor is offering, and if this would cause problems for other distributors – for example if they want all Portuguese speaking territories then this could stop you getting distribution in other countries, so offer them distribution rights for Portugal only, as there is one thing that you always want to be able to offer distributors and that is exclusivity for their proposed territory.

With Finding Fatima we now have distribution in N/America and Canada, UK and Ireland, exclusivity in Mexico and a sales agent in S/ America and France and Belgium. This is through 4 different distributors all on different deals and contracts.

Best of luck with your film.

Using stock video in your production.

Posted on | by jfletcher

We were commissioned recently to create a 30 second video for an exhibition and awards ceremony. The company already had a video that was on there site, and they wanted to incorporate certain elements of that video into the new one.

We created a concept for the new video which combined the existing video with new footage that we filmed against a green screen. The new footage was simply there to create a more interesting way of transitioning and moving between the different stock footage. The existing video contained stock footage which we had to re – purchase from a royalty free site, and then manipulate in post to fit in with the new footage that we had filmed. This is the result:

The point of this is that stock footage can be used effectively, whether on its own or combined with new video footage, but there has to be a genuine reason to use it over filming something yourself.

1. Budget – If you want to create an animation that could take time and money, and this is beyond the budget, a solution may be to look at a royalty free site.

2. Location – If you need a shot of a busy street in (lets say) Japan and its one shot, then the majority of the time you will be able to find a stock example of this. Unless you have to show something specific and there is budget to do this, stock footage can often help you overcome this problem.

3. Historical events – We produced a documentary recently and used stock footage to show actual events, which worked very well, however, on our new documentary we are looking at ways of incorporating stock footage into re-enactment footage that will blend together by grading the stock footage and re-enactment footage to match up. This way the audience wont be aware of what is stock and what we filmed ourselves.

Although the above examples are useful ways of using stock, there is still one big problem with it; Its not original. It is still a generic video that you can see in any number of other productions and is not tailored or designed for any definite production.

Promotional Videos

Posted on | by jfletcher

Whether promoting a product, service or company video is an excellent way of doing this. We were asked to create a 30 second promo for Uniglobe travel that summarized what they do in a creative and visually exciting way, using the strap line ‘Around the corner around the globe’.

By using a combination of HD footage and animation this is what we came up with.

Corporate Video Production

Posted on | by jfletcher

I don’t know about you but here at Dynomite Productions we dont particularly like the term ‘corporate video production’. It smacks of low end, cheesy videos that lack creativity and look dated.

What’s in a phrase?

Quite a lot actually. Corporate video has no definition, it is a broad phrase that covers a multitude of video production work, one company may require a number of different videos, for example, a promotional video, company overview, training video, viral ad, product launch internal communication etc and this is all classed under the corporate video name.

So, when looking for a video production company to create your next film, make sure that what you are getting is not just designed to deliver your message, but is done so in an engaging, original and creative way.

Using a presenter as part of your video production

Posted on | by jfletcher

Presenters can be an excellent way to showcase and front your video. They are especially effective if the presenter is linked in some way to your product or company. For example we recently filmed a promotional video for a gallery in Stratford upon Avon and had Michael Portillo presenting the film, who is  the chairman of the UK art Fund.

The reason that this was effective is that you have somebody who is talking directly to your audience, making it a more intimate experience for the viewer, as opposed to using a voice over. (Not that their is anything wrong with voice over, when used correctly).

Presenters allow you to add another layer to the video by bringing in their personality and, at times sense of humour, which allows you to tailor the script, in parts to suit them.

Having a representative of the company as a presenter can also work well, so long as they are comfortable and natural in front of the camera. If they aren’t then it is always worth looking at filming them as an interview, whereby you can plan questions and edit their answers with footage so that they supply the narrative to the film without the fear of looking down the camera lens.

Whatever type of video production work you are looking at undertaking it is always worth speaking with the production company, looking at examples of their work that are more specific to your video, and structuring the film in the pre production stage to ensure that you create an engaging and effective film that is targeted to your desired audience.

Top reasons why exhibitors should use Video Production

Posted on | by jfletcher

If you are planning on exhibiting in the future and want a way to help draw potential customers to your stand, then video can be a very effective option.

So why use it?

1. The most obvious option is if you have a product or list of products that you want to promote and introduce to your customers. We recently created a video for a golf cart manufacturer. Obviously you cant demonstrate all that this can do in an exhibition hall so they used Dynomite Productions to create a 2 minute promo video that they can put on a TV screen on their stand that will play on a loop. The video showed a visual demonstration of the buggy being used, highlighting through HD footage and motion graphics the key selling points that they wanted to get across.

2. If you want to show your premises / process of manufacturing / equipment then a video can also be very useful. We created a video for a printing ink manufacturer to use on their exhibition stand. This allowed the sales team to give their customers a visual tour and demonstration of their facilities.

3. If you offer a service then video is a great way to demonstrate this. We are currently creating a 90 second promotional film to be used in a chain of shop windows that show a new type of waxing process. The video will encapsulate how the process works and the benefits of it.

4. The majority of videos used at exhibitions will not contain audio, as it is on a loop it could become distracting and frankly annoying very quickly. However, what this allows you to do is then add a voice over, presenter or talking head interviews that can then go on your website  on a CD-ROM / DVD to hand out to customers at the exhibitions or platforms such as youtube, which can be used to help generate new business.

If you are planning an exhibition and want to discuss how video can benefit you please call us on 0115 8292 999 or email via the form on the contact page.

To have a look at some of our commercial productions and videos that have been used on exhibition stands go to the Dynomite Productions Commercial productions page.

What a difference the day makes

Posted on | by jfletcher

We recently filmed a music video for the amazing up and coming  duo Miss600. We were fortunate to have access to a rooftop location that overlooked Nottingham City centre and lucky that it didn’t rain, and as it was late afternoon the light was beautiful and not too harsh, but it was hard to get definition between exposing for the lead singer Hannah’s face and exposing for the sky. So we decided to add the clouds in post production. Here is a little tutorial on how to do this effectively.

1. First we did an offline edit and so new the exact shots that we were going to use for the roof scenes.

2. We then brought the shots into after effects

3. Next we looked through our stock library of moving sky and cloud images until we found the right one that suited the scene.

4. In after effects we placed the sky in the correct place and applied a multiply mode, so that it only affects the light areas.

5. We then used the masking tool to outline around Hannah and David on any areas where the sky was too obvious.

6. We then created numerous adjustment layers that were applied to either both the sky and the video footage or just the video footage that allowed us to grade the image so that it not only matched the sky but had a more film look to it.

Even though this was shot on true HD, even the smallest amount of post production digital grading and manipulation of the image can make a huge difference.

You can also use mapping to align the sky to a point in the video which will mean that it will move with any camera movement, but that is for a different day!

Video Production Costs and Outline

Posted on | by jfletcher

If you are looking or thinking about having a video made there are some points that you should take into consideration.

1. Cost – It will help you and the production company if there is a rough idea of how much you want to spend. There is no set rule for how much a video will cost, this is down to amount of time that it takes and the quality of the work that you are paying for.

2. Idea – The idea, concept or treatment is the outline to your video, when looking to have a video made it always helps if you have some idea as to what you want to feature, but it is also worth going over the idea with the production company and seeing what creative ideas they can offer. That being said you can pass it over to the production company and let them create the concept so long as you can provide answers to a few questions, such as; who is the target audience? what platform will the film be shown on? How you want your company/brand/product etc to be represented?

These answers will affect all areas of the production from the storyboards, to the way that it is shot and edited.

3. Execution – As the client it is your prerogative to be involved in the production as much or as little as you require. Once the pre production stage is complete, and you have a clear idea of the video, it is the production companies responsibility to ensure that the idea is executed correctly.