Although this service is kind of behind-the-scenes and not a forerunner, still, it plays an important part and worth mention here.
Video cameras have many settings that can be adjusted for better quality and usability for a given purpose, and cell phones users are often unaware of their camera settings and its very low frame rate (15fps) if not set properly. Thus if usable at all, it may need conversion.
Perfect Example:
We were commissioned for a project for 30 videos in a series. The client had an amateur photographer colleague shoot the interviews as a favor. Ok fine, no problem.
We gave our recommendations. However, when we were finally given the footage, it was in but ONE LONG FILE of many many Gigabytes (unnecessarily large), too high a frame rate (120fps), very poor lighting, almost unusable sound quality, and did not follow any Script or logical format of any kind. Pity too.
We had to spend many wasted hours just getting the massive file sent over, then do a series of video format conversions to even begin working with the material. Only then could we begin to slice it into usable Clips for real video editing. And of course it cost the client a LOT more for the project as a result.
Lesson learned.
This example serves as good recommendation for all our services including the video shooting. Had the client followed our recommendations, he would have saved a lot of money on the project, and greatly speeded the delivery of the final videos for his already overdue campaign.
Please feel free to contact us before you have an amateur video guy cost you time and money on your project. We’ll gladly save you that time and money.