In Shot Productions

Celebrating 1 million views on YouTube with an improvised bottle of Moet - for a video about an improvised cat deterrent.

Craig was recently interviewed about our viral video “How to stop cats pissing on your car”, which has recently cracked one million views on Youtube.

The interview with Web Active Media discusses the background that lead to the creation of the cat video, his thoughts on what lead to it being a massive viral success on Youtube and Craig discusses some tips for businesses and individuals for producing successful online video content.
The interview also gives some insight into the background of In Shot Productions and why we love doing what we do.

If you interested in checking out the full interview you can find it here.
If you just want to have a quick read of some of Craig insights into online video I have summarised a couple of the Q&As below:

The video is funny, clever and of course cat centric which would suggest YouTube greatness, but what do you think are key factors to it’s success?
I guess one can never be completely sure but a major aspect that many have suggested is originality. Which makes sense as the video idea came about completely organically. I didn’t set out to copy someone’s style or idea or to even create a viral video.

I also believe a major ingredient is that it has a good story structure. People are instinctively receptive to stories with a start, middle and end. The video has characters and you could even say that it has good guys and bad guys. Story structure is a point to remember when producing any video including corporate video content.

What advice would you have for SMEs thinking of producing a video or videos specifically for marketing purposes?

Firstly I think businesses shouldn’t initially think “viral video” when they think of online video marketing. Unless you have global distribution of your product or service and have a great video idea that will directly feature your product, it’s unlikely you will have many relevant leads from you video. ie. You are better having a video viewed by 100 people in your target market than 100,000 random people internationally.

For SME’s the simplest way to get started with online video marketing is to produce a conversion video. That simply can be a promotional video on your home page or even some client testimonials. It builds trust and informs people further about you whom are actively looking at products and services in your industry. This increases your conversion of leads into sales.

As a business owner you really want to look at how you can set yourself up as an “expert” in your industry and video is a great way to do this.
If you are looking at producing more regular video content this can be achieved with “how to” videos or industry news and “tips” style videos. This can generate new leads and keep you in the top of the mind of your clients.
If this is the approach you are going for as a main tip for content ideas, really think about what people actually “get” out of your product or service. For example for a camper trailer manufacturer, your target market generally isn’t that interested in say the manufacturing techniques you use or even your product range, but they are interested in travel and adventure, so you could perhaps do a series of videos detailing some popular camping destinations while only subtly featuring your products in the background of the story.

 

We would love to here your thoughts on what you think made the cat video so popular, feel free to post a comment.

We have been capturing some really interesting footage with a GoPro HD Hero for various clients projects for over a year now. Last weekend I finally had the opportunity to mount it on a Land Yacht for the first time capturing some of the excitement of one of the sports I love – Land Sailing.

I have been land yacht sailing in Western Australia since I was 12 years old. I would actually say it is one of the reasons I become involved in Video Production. I always had an interest in photography and video and as a kid was keen to capture the relatively undocumented sport of land sailing which became the first video I ever edited.

The old original "Land Yacht Cam" during the 2005 land sailing championships

Way before GoPro and other high quality small digital cameras, this is a camera suspension and mount system I developed in the 1990’s to capture some of the worlds first steady, good quality on board footage of land sailing. Prior people had only used low quality “lip stick” style cameras or simple hand held a handy cam leaving you with shaky “Blair Witch” style footage.

In the early days some of the original problems posed by trying to capture video footage on board a land yacht included the fact that land yachts have no suspension creating huge vibrations. Also damage from sand, mud, rock impacts, salt and water depending on the surface you were on and also that video cameras were VERY expensive meaning no one wanted to risk their camera.

The plan was to have rig, not only weather proof but strong enough that the if the camera broke off at high it could crash to a stop and survive. My final design to achieve this included a sealed weather and impact resistant steel enclosure, with thick clear acrylic front and back for both the lens and viewfinder. The inside contains foam padding and then the enclosure is completely suspended by rubber within an outer “cage” to adsorb shock and dampen vibration.

My farther and I later adapted the set up to rotate the camera 360 degrees and also include a water jet to wash the lens clean of salt build up, which then allowed it to be mounted in various positions on the land yacht.

Although I haven’t used the set up since the world championships in 2005. I imagine the set up will still be very pratical with some modifications to use it for higher quality HD cameras like the Canon 5D Mark 2 which would be interesting to try one day.

I will have to upload some of the old original footage some time but for now here is some footage of land sailing via the GoPro Hd Hero. Featuring a helmet mount and also clamp mount.

Also if you are interested in Land Yacht Sailing check out the clubs website here.

Interesting Fact – Land Yacht Sailing was first done in Western Australia over 100 years ago at Lake Lefroy, Kambalda.

On July 24, 2010, thousands of people around the world uploaded videos of their lives to YouTube to take part in “Life in a Day”, a historic cinematic experiment to create a documentary film about a single day on earth. Always keen to share life experiences on video we took part and captured some of our day. Late last year we were excited to hear that our footage had been shortlisted into the top 100 hours of footage, for the 90 minute documentary, out of more than 4500 hours of footage received by the editors! Although we didn’t make the final cut, the documentary by Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald, is well worth checking out and was recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival. It will be released officially later this year. www.youtube.com/lifeinaday

As passionate West Australians we always jump at the opportunity to share on film any part of our beautiful state. Over the last month we had the opportunity to work with the City of Mandurah on producing a promotional video to highlight the well known and lesser known tourist attractions of the peel region. This video which is currently in post production, will soon be available online and will also be screened on a loop within the tourist centre as well as on Mandurah’s inner city buses video system.

In Shot Productions owners, Craig & Kristen's soon to be born son

As some of you may already know we are expecting a new arrival shortly! We were pleasantly surprised to find out that it will be a boy this time. The baby is due March 17 (less than 3 weeks away!) so please excuse us if there are any delays in communication as we will be taking a little time off to settle the bub in at home. We will be sure to keep everyone up to date with the announcement of the birth when it does happen. Also If you haven’t seen it through our blog and are interested feel free to check out our tribute video to the birth of our first child Jasmine here. Between a couple of versions of the clip online, her video has actually received over 50,000 views worldwide (now ahead of Craig’s Top Gear video at 45,000 views) making it our most viewed online clip. To avoid sibling rivalry I guess we will be putting something together for the next baby too.

Although a lot more pressed for time these days, we still managed to get a few last minute entries off to the 2010 AVPA awards. Well it paid off as we are very excited to announce we took out the award for DVD presentation. A big thank you to the AVPA and the members of the association.

After much planning we will soon be launching a number of set priced, website promotional video packages to help business owners grow their enterprise. Combining high quality production values with a results driven online video marketing strategy, these website video packages are designed to increase your customer conversion rates as well as generate new leads. Follow us on facebook and keep an eye out for our email with more information soon. Also feel free to contact us to express your interest in our preliminary special offers.

Thanks to the talented actors we had the pleasure of working with recently who all managed to deliver a lengthy script direct to camera. We didn’t even need to get the autocue out in the end.
The production was for a clever interactive training resource for educating Home & Community Care workers which was developed by Evolve Curriculum Development & Training,
with video components including location shots and “green screen’ video scenarios provided by us. This all coming together to create a memorable training package to engage viewers.

We have recently had the pleasure of completing post production on the documentary “Wetland Wonderland – The story of the Lake Warden wetland system”. Produced & Directed by Serena Shaddick, the video looks into the threats to the Esperance wetland system. Featured is the impact that the last 100 years of land clearing in the area has had in causing excessive ground water levels which is flooding the lakes. This has resulted in an increasing loss of bird habitat and the drowning of the surrounding vegetation.
The film was arranged by the Esperance Regional Forum as a medium to engage the wider community and land owners. We are happy to hear the film has already received great community feedback.
The film will be available to view online soon. If you are interested keep an eye on our facebook page for details.

Wetland Wonderland - The Story of the Lake Warden Wetland System