53 Seconds Of Awesome
There are plenty of things that I could tell you about the production of the video that's now on the front page of the website, but that would ruin the magic of film making, and with me making the videos we certainly have no magic to waste. I will, however, tell one little story.
Near the end of the video, just as Jay is talking about "taking the first steps" leading to a new energy economy, there's a short clip showing a figure walking towards a windmill, silhouetted by a perfect blue sky. Now you can draw your own conclusions, but for me that clip just fits perfectly in the flow and context of the video. But, you must surely be asking, how did we find and get the rights to an astoundingly perfect clip like that?
When making videos it's very important to be sure that you have the rights to every audio and visual element. All of the pictures and diagrams are from public domain government work, and the video of Jay was filmed by the wonderful and talented Jim Sargent, who's been generous enough to donate his time for some filming.
But with all those pieces in place, the video really needed something else that moved, especially because a photo of a still windmill is just not dynamic or interesting at all. So to get a windmill, I went to the world's premier video sharing website -- youtube, of course. And when I found a nice video with windmills in it, I looked up the guy who posted it and sent him an email. All of this took place with about a day and a half left before the video had to go up for the campaign's "Launch Tour."
The walking figure scene was perfect for the context, but without permission, we just couldn't use it (I must admit that I was tempted to use it and hope no one noticed, but I knew that I couldn't). I didn't really expect to ever hear back, and certainly not in time to use the video for the launch tour. But he got back to me, and quite soon. It turns out that, like Jay, he's a former Air Force Officer. He's also into renewable energy. Though I offered compensation, he let us use the video for free. The total cost of producing the video to the campaign was about a day of my time and $125 for the music rights.
Even on Youtube, haven for one of the most difficult user groups on the internet, there are some great people. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you just reach out to people.
Near the end of the video, just as Jay is talking about "taking the first steps" leading to a new energy economy, there's a short clip showing a figure walking towards a windmill, silhouetted by a perfect blue sky. Now you can draw your own conclusions, but for me that clip just fits perfectly in the flow and context of the video. But, you must surely be asking, how did we find and get the rights to an astoundingly perfect clip like that?
When making videos it's very important to be sure that you have the rights to every audio and visual element. All of the pictures and diagrams are from public domain government work, and the video of Jay was filmed by the wonderful and talented Jim Sargent, who's been generous enough to donate his time for some filming.
But with all those pieces in place, the video really needed something else that moved, especially because a photo of a still windmill is just not dynamic or interesting at all. So to get a windmill, I went to the world's premier video sharing website -- youtube, of course. And when I found a nice video with windmills in it, I looked up the guy who posted it and sent him an email. All of this took place with about a day and a half left before the video had to go up for the campaign's "Launch Tour."
The walking figure scene was perfect for the context, but without permission, we just couldn't use it (I must admit that I was tempted to use it and hope no one noticed, but I knew that I couldn't). I didn't really expect to ever hear back, and certainly not in time to use the video for the launch tour. But he got back to me, and quite soon. It turns out that, like Jay, he's a former Air Force Officer. He's also into renewable energy. Though I offered compensation, he let us use the video for free. The total cost of producing the video to the campaign was about a day of my time and $125 for the music rights.
Even on Youtube, haven for one of the most difficult user groups on the internet, there are some great people. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you just reach out to people.
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