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Why a RED Video Production Camera is a Red Flag

September 17, 2018

We've noticed several Denver video production companies advertising their video production gear, commonly citing the RED camera. I suspect that's because those video production companies want impress potential clients. What they're doing is quite the opposite—sending up a red flag that should give potential clients pause. In 2007 a talented cinematographer (and admitted camera geek) invited me and other video production professionals to his video production studio to get a first look at a new camera he had purchased. That new camera was a RED One. It’s not prestige you’re getting, it’s overhead. We had heard the rumors about this camera for a while and were eager to get our fingers on its buttons. In the span of my 20-year career, no other piece of production gear has spawned as…

September 11, 2018

In our Nonprofit Fundraising Insights series, we interview senior nonprofit fundraising executives to learn more about how they use video production to connect with donors and power their programs. We recently caught up with Kirsten Jasna, the senior director of Annual Giving and Donor Relations at Braille Institute, a Los Angeles nonprofit that provides a myriad of free services for the blind and visually impaired. Shortly after taking over the position she reached out to us this spring to produce a pair of fundraising videos to kick off the organization’s 100th anniversary campaign. INTERVIEW WITH NONPROFIT EXECUTIVE KIRSTEN JASNA: You spent over 15 years in New Mexico fundraising in higher education and at the Museum of New Mexico. How did you first come to video as…

August 27, 2018

Are you considering using video for your nonprofit fundraising goals? Google recently completed a survey that tracked consumer nonprofit donation patterns. Here is one finding that may be the single most convincing argument that video can help you: • 57 percent of viewers who see an online video for a nonprofit make a contribution. That's an astounding conversion rate. One nonprofit director who has seen this in action is Sheena Sullivan. Sheena directs the Coal Creek chapter of Meals on Wheels, a national nonprofit organization. Shortly after taking over the position last year she reached out to us to produce a fundraising video that she could use during their annual luncheon in September. We recently completed a second video to be used for this year's…

August 23, 2018

Wow! If you’re keen on DJI’s aerial cameras like we are at Z-Channel Films, then you're sure to love DJI’s two new performance-driven, foldable drones: the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom. We do a lot of aerial video production in Los Angeles and beyond. Some of our shoots require the performance of a DJI inspire with ZenMuse, but some require the small footprint of a Mavic. Overall performance is the key word for the two new drones. Unlike the Mavic Air, which was all about being small, the new Mavic 2 drones pack a performance punch. They are also smarter, safer, faster, quieter, and capture more impressive aerial footage that will take your video production to the next level. Camera specifications Let’s check…

July 23, 2018

In the late '90s I interned at a production company that made a half-hour program for PBS each week on various foreign policy and national security issues. The other intern and I lobbied hard to have a crack at creating an episode on our own. Our superiors eventually relented and we were assigned a story on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Pretty dry stuff, which is probably why they gave it to us. Be careful what you wish for. We did this assignment just before the dawn of non-linear editing, so when we got into post-production it meant working with videotape decks. The way it worked in those days is once you had a completed script you popped a blank videotape in one deck and…

June 14, 2018

By now you know that videos are a highly effective method for promoting your nonprofit organization or international development agency's message. But not any old video will do that. We have seen that audiences engage only when the quality of the video is high. The foundation of a quality nonprofit video is built upon the people the video focuses on, especially your primary subject. Choose wisely and you've got a big asset for your fundraising efforts. Choose poorly and you've got a video that is dead on arrival. When it comes to the latter, no matter how stellar the other elements of the video might be — graphics, cinematography, music — nothing is going to help overcome a weak subject. We recently completed a international…

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