Video Gourmands

Being a gourmand (that means I like to eat - a lot!), I have developed a long list of favorite eating spots across the 5-boros of New York City, as well as Northern and Central New Jersey, Westchester, and Eastern Pennsylvania. I came across these spots out of necessity, as I was a hungry traveler covering news stories across the tri-state area for many years (decades, actually). I was never the type to bag my lunch, just wasn't that well organized. And I always considered spending a few bucks to try out a new ethnic cuisine (or revisit one of my many tried and true favorites) money extremely well spent! In a typical good week in my glory days, I might hit Chinatown for dim sum in Manhattan on Monday, grab some Argentinian steak in Corona on Tuesday, hit my favorite Jamaican restaurant for jerk chicken in downtown Brooklyn Wednesday, cruise up to the Bronx for a slice of the best Italian tomato pie you ever tasted Thursday, and end up in Newark for the seafood special in the Ironbound on Friday. When it came to food, variety was truly the spice of life!

Now that I'm (a bit, don't rush it) older, I can't get away with eating so much rich food without gaining a lot of weight! I've cut down a lot, but luckily, my significant other is a terrific cook and very health conscious, so when I'm at home (and not cooking myself when I revert to indulgence), I am eating pretty healthy (and still tasty- still adding plenty of spice, grilled veggies and a dab of hot sauce!).

Here comes the tie-in people: video is a lot like food, and video consumers are a lot like gourmands! 1) Like food, there is a lot of variety in videos; action, romantic, educational, commercial, effective, ineffective, beautiful, ugly... You get the point! 2) The key to great food is preparation: a good recipe, an experienced chef; fresh ingredients; a light touch; a good balance of flavors; and getting it all out on the table hot at the same time. The key to great video is also preparation; a good script; an experienced videographer, producer and editor; proper lighting; high quality audio & video equipment; and a great sense of editing rhythm to get all the images, sounds and special effects working together to tell a compelling, effective story.

At Green Birdie Productions, we take pride in the way we prepare our videos, just as an experienced chef takes pride in the food he or she serves. Let's face it, the general public is advanced when it comes to watching videos, and won't settle for poorly executed, badly conceived presentations. They have increasingly become "video gourmands;" in love with their video in all its infinite variety, and with the creation price of a high definition video down to historically low rates, there's no reason for anyone to settle for less than the very best!

Why risk the equivalent of video food poisoning? Contact Green Birdie Video today... and start cooking!

Timing Is Everything

Being at the right place at the right time often ends up being a matter of luck, but you can sweeten the odds by becoming skillful at positioning. I learned the importance of skillful positioning as a news videographer at WWOR-TV; a business where getting well positioned BEFORE an event happened directly related to my ability to get the "story" or not!

An exciting example occurred when I got a call from my assignment desk while traveling back to the newsroom after producing a story in Queens. One of the main jobs of assignment editors is to listen in on the police radio as first responders are directed to "breaking" events. Much of the time, these events turn out to be non-events, something called into 9-1-1 that the cops are obliged to respond to. On this particular day, the dispatcher sent some of New York's Finest to a building site in Harlem near Park Avenue on 124th Street, just by the elevated train platform, on a report that some of the building's bricks were falling off. At first glance it didn't sound like much of a story; after all, the area is largely abandoned, and noone had been actually hit by one of the bricks!

I arrived at the scene about half an hour later, where I found that a four block area around the building had already been completely cordoned off. I parked my car and walked up to a line of men in blue standing behind the yellow "do not cross" tape. "Hi guys," I said. "I'm with channel 9. Any chance I can get in to take a few shots of the building?" My credentials clearly state that, as a member of the New York Press, I am "entitled to cross police and fire lines wherever formed," yet the officers deny my access, telling me it was "unsafe" and that my presence would "interfere" with the responders working by the building. This was a fairly typical response from the police rank and file at breaking news locations, and not unanticipated. Cops are generally not allowed to make decisions, only take orders; they usually say "no" or "no comment" to any and all requests from the media. I then asked the officers if I could "Speak with the officer in charge," gesturing at a lieutenant speaking with EMS workers half a block away. "NO," came the strict reply, adding, "move along!" Like civilians, accredited news people have to obey a direct order from a police officer or face a fine, arrest, or the confiscation of our largely useless press pass! I reluctantly agreed, thanked the officers and walked away, then circled around the block and came back to the same intersection from the other direction, positioning myself on the side of a large emergency vehicle that blocked their view of me. From this vantage point, I gestured to that lieutenant inside the cordoned off area; and he walks right over and smiles at me. "Hi Lou," I said. "I'm with channel 9. Any way you can get me inside somewhere so I can get a shot of the building?" He nods. "I watch your news all the time. No problem. Just keep on the opposite side of the street so you don't get hurt." He pulls up the tape, and we walk down 124th Street, right past the officers who kicked me out! The lieutenant asks me to stand behind a chain link fence directly across from the building, and I comply.

I start interviewing an irritated woman sitting in her car who can't drive out of the area until police give the all clear, when suddenly I hear a noise from the direction of the building. Instinctively, I turn, camera on my shoulder, and "throw the focus" from 5-feet to infinity. Through the eye of the lens, I watch as the building tumbles to the ground; the cops and first responders running from the crashing debris; the dust rising as the walls crash sideways onto the street and nearby empty lot. It is over in seconds, the woman in the car screaming, "Did you see that!?" "Wow, did yo see that?!" I hear first responders calling out to each other, "Are you all right?" And far away, behind the police lines, I see passersby swarming the police tape, desperate to see, well, anything at all. The lieutenant runs up to me. "Did you get that?" he asks. "Yup!" I nod happily. "Great, I'll watch it on channel 9 tonight!" We give each other big grins.

As it turned out, my footage was seen not only on channel 9 but on all the New York television stations, beginning with their 5 pm shows, as well CNN and the Fox Network. My boss was very happy, as we had the exclusive, so he could put our channel 9 "bug" on the footage they all ran (a great publicity scoop!). Because I hadn't given up, and had done my best to position myself well, I had put myself in the right place at the right time to get the story. Timing is truly everything, but skillful positioning oneself for any business opportunity is a key to ultimate success!

If you'd like to see the footage, please log onto my resume website, http://Rob-Bell.tv. The building collapse is shown about a minute into the "Intro" video that plays automatically on the home page when you first log on.

To find out more about how a high definition video can help your company position itself well for whatever the future may hold, please log onto the Green Birdie website at http://GreenBirdieVideo.com.

Intimacy Rules

One of the great things about video is its intimacy, its ability to catch the viewer's attention and hold it, and no one knows that better than a seasoned television newsman like myself.

On breaking news stories, we always rushed to the scene of the crime, accident or disturbance not only to shoot great images, but to interview people directly associated with the breaking news. Getting to a fire scene in time to shoot orange flames shooting out of the roof is much more compelling video than getting there when the firefighters are packing up to leave and the house is a wet, smoldering wreck. And the chance of finding the distraught homeowner, or at least a passerby who saw and can describe how the homeowner jumped out of a window to escape the flames, is much greater if you get there fast than if you get there later.

Video also creates intimacy on feature stories we would set up in advance. Is there anything more compelling than the look in a mother's eyes and the sound of her quavering voice as she describes a successful medical procedure that saved her child's life?

It's no secret that big companies create elaborate video commercials at great expense, and spend even more on distribution, to catch the attention of prospective customers. While we love to create those big time commercials for broadcast here at Green Birdie Productions, we also produce more reasonably priced commercials for small and medium size businesses. We also create our very reasonably priced "video briefs," which involve a simple one on one interview edited down to an average one and a half minute presentation, to quickly add the intimacy and communication power of video to our client's websites.

The intimacy of video, and its ability to hold our attention, is undeniable. It's no wonder experts predict that videos will be on half of all U.S. based websites within the next 3-5 years! (Currently less than 10-percent). The time to get intimate is now! Contact me at 908-268-4533 to find out how to get yourself a video, and let the power of the medium go to work for you.