Here’s a few behind the scenes photos from a shoot day for one of four videos we’re filming for Coca-Cola Refreshments.

Interesting story: In the first photo you can see a crewmember standing on the front bumper of a vehicle. In order to block the sun’s reflection from the windshield as we filmed through it, he had to stand there and hold the black “flag” at the right angle as the car slowly drove through the parking lot.

Stay tuned, we’ll post the videos as soon as they’re all done!

I majored in animation at Savannah College of Art and Design’s Atlanta campus. When it got to be my senior year I had a 3.7 GPA and some awesome student work (I am not biased or anything) to show for my time there. I was a student in one of the best animation programs in the world, but I knew that my education would only carry me so far. I needed a place to learn about how the creative process actually worked. I wanted to gain some experience at a real studio. I wanted to make my work better than it was. What I needed was an internship while I completed school. Then I found The DVI Group, a little studio with big ideas.

In September, I started as an intern. On my first day I remember thinking, “Where are all of the people?” There was all of five people working there. Before the internship I had done my homework. I had browsed thedvigroup.com and perused the work. I thought to myself, “How in the world did this small group of people create all of that great work?” As time went by I learned more about the people and production pipeline at DVI. Then I began to understand. Each and every person at DVI was the best at what they did. More importantly, they really cared about what they were doing. I learned that great work wasn’t necessarily about the amount of crew or artists working on a project. It was about a team of dedicated multi-talented individuals working together to create quality work.

Since the internship I have completed my course work and been hired back as a freelance motion graphics artist at DVI. During my time at SCAD I learned how to create something great, but during my time here at The DVI Group I learned how to make it better.

The DVI Group is continually coming up with ways to streamline our process in an effort to make it easier for our clients to approve their videos. To that end, a new online approval process is now in place! Once a video has been shot and is being edited in post production, DVI clients are given two rounds of approvals. The DVI Group will supply a first cut via our new online viewing and approval process. This process consists of an email which includes a link to the video and an online approval form. Easy! The email is sent to the Project Manager to review and forward to other people on their team (if applicable) for feedback.  The Project Manager gathers all the changes/revisions and supplies them to The DVI Group via the online form. Easy!

The DVI Group strives to complete projects on time, so we remind clients that per our contract agreement, they have 3 business days to review and return any changes/revisions to The DVI Group. This keeps everything moving towards meeting the agreed upon delivery date!

Once The DVI Group makes the requested changes/revisions (if any), a second cut is sent with the same online viewing and approval process.  The second cut is mainly small tweeks such as any misspellings, etc.   If there are no further changes/revisions, The DVI Group will post the final version. Once the video has been approved, The DVI Group will supply the video in the client’s format of choice.

DVI… continuing to Make It Better!

The National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) has been a client of ours for more than 7 years.  On a recent shoot, we asked Ragan Cohn, Vice President of the organization to talk about the relationship with dvi. Here’s what she had to say.

Here at DVI we can’t get started unless we have one, and we won’t rest until we get it.

But where do great ideas come from?

Each video we make has a detailed creative process. First we have a creative roundtable. We throw out ideas. Sometimes they flow easy, like a spigot. Sometimes they require hair pulling and fisticuffs. But eventually, the best concept rises to the top. That’s when the fun starts.

For the Audio-Technica spot, it started with a single great idea. “A guy is brought back to life by the liberal application of Audio Technica Headphones. Dance party ensues.”

We layered that great idea with other great ideas. Suzanne brought the dancer, Marquese “Nonstop” Scott. She had seen a home video of him a couple of weeks earlier and thought he’d be a good ER patient (and a better dancer).

Next we came up with the idea of screening out any silliness – we made it serious, like a real emergency. Next came the ideas of using the headphone pads as a defibrillator and making the convulsion from the electric shock turn into the beginning of a dance. Lenny had the great idea of coming up with an original track that incorporated ER noises (pings, clicks, monitors) into the music. When it came time to edit, Matthew had the great idea to cut it together like a music video.

Once we stuck all these great ideas together and finished it off with some special DVI sauce, we had a fantastic video that was even more than the sum of all our own individual ideas.

So, to answer the question, “where do great ideas come from?” They come from the DVI group.

If you want to see our great ideas manifested, check out Audio 911.

We’re a month into 2012 now, and we’re starting the year off with a bang.  You may have already seen our newly released video starring Internet dubstep dancing sensation Marquese “Nonstop” Scott (WUZGUD on youtube), but if you haven’t, then you’re really going to want to watch this one.  We’ll have plenty of details in the weeks to come, but for now, read the press release from our client Audio-Technica, then follow the link to the video to see how we do promotional videos.

SEE THE VIDEO AND PRESS RELEASE

http://mashable.com/2012/01/19/online-advertising-surpasses-print-2012/

“Marketers are expected to spend more on online advertising than ads for print magazines and newspapers for the first time in U.S. history.”  This comes as no surprise to me.  Over the past 3 years I have seen an increase of the use of online videos increase exponentially by our clients.  Even those companies that continue to place print ads are augmenting with online video ads in the online publications and with increasing use of QR bar codes that jump to promotional or instructional videos.  If you are feeling behind the curve here, contact the experts at DVI.  We can offer support data as well as get you going in the right direction for your next video.

Everyone’s heard “You learn something new every day” from somebody, and now you’re going to hear it from me too.

I learn something new every day.

One truly unique thing about working for The DVI Group is that I am constantly learning about new things that we are creating videos for. For every job, client, or product, we dive deep into understanding what it is, why it’s needed, and who wants it. Some days I’m learning microbiology, and some days I’m learning how call centers work. It’s almost always something different. This not only helps me by expanding my knowledge (one of my most common answers to “Why do you know that?” is, “Because I created a video about it.”), but it helps you get a better video.

We don’t already know everything about a client’s product before we are approached by them. We have a phase in (pre-)pre-production where we ask every possible question about the product and the client so we can gather as much information as we can. By learning about the product and client, we can more accurately create a video that explains the client’s message to somebody that doesn’t know about it. After all, before making the video, we didn’t know any more about the client/product than the average viewer will.

We recently had a group of high-schoolers come through the office to learn a little bit about video production and postproduction, and one of the first questions they asked me was one I hear all the time:

“What program do you work in to make videos?”

At first blush, this seems like a good starting place for someone new to the industry – after all, the dvi group works with quite a few sophisticated software packages, including Pixar’s RenderMan and our own in-house package Demeter.  The problem with the question is that it focuses on the wrong part of video production.

First of all, software is always changing.  By the time these kids finish school and start in the working world, there’s no guarantee that the software we use today will still be relevant – in fact, I’ll be surprised if it is. But the problem with the question goes deeper.

Imagine going back in time to meet Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel.  You look up at him as the paint drips into his eye and the question that will reveal the secret of his genius:

“What kind of brush are you using?”

In the modern age, video production artists use hardware and software instead of paint and clay to tell stories, but creating beautiful work is, has always been, and will always be about understanding fundamentals like color and rhythm, not about pressing the right buttons on a keyboard.  At the end of the day, a good artist can create something great out of substandard tools, and a bad artist with great tools can still put out substandard work.

Thankfully, at the dvi group we have great artists and great tools, and it shows in our work.

Ever watch vintage TV commercials? Back in their day, they were state of the art marketing communications, created to move the public into purchasing frenzies.

Now they look cheesy. The music is out of date. The wardrobe, the voice/over, graphics, even the language is obsolete. So, instead of moving you to buy milk, toilet paper, or whatever, the commercial actually does the opposite. It moves you in the opposite direction of its original intent.

It’s easy to see that these video communications have passed their expiration date. These old commercials offer a clear example of how out of date communications can have a counteractive effect on your target audience.

So, take an honest look at your own video communications. Is the content current? Is the music, wardrobe, and voice-over up to date? If they’re not, your message will be filtered out by your viewer.

If your video communications have passed their expiration date, give DVI a call. And if you want to check out some cheesy vintage TV commercials, here’s a good link.