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New video posted

In March 2011, Japan experienced one of the worst disasters in modern history: an earthquake and tsunami that ravaged the Northeastern coast of Japan. One year later, a team traveled to Japan to observe the relief work that Asian Access pastors were leading. Now, another year has passed, and we are able to report on work that has been done over the past two years. This is the first of several (hopefully) videos that report on the use of funds donated to earthquake/tsunami relief through Asian Access:

YouTube Preview Image

The team consisted of Loren A. Roberts from Hearken Creative on camera and editing, Joshua Clayton on camera, Jeff Johnston from Asian Access as producer, and Takeshi Takazawa as liaison, interpreter, and all-around wonderful travel leader.

Two new websites live

Websites fulfill some very important tasks in today’s world. First and foremost, they are the electronic version of a business card — providing name and contact information for a new vendor or client. But they can do so much more than a business card, and Hearken Creative has just finished two such sites.

HARVARD BUSINESS PRESS BESTSELLER

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When Karen Berman and Joe Knight asked for a website that advertised the new edition of their bestselling book Financial Intelligence, I suggested doing things a little bit differently. Instead of creating a traditional site, maybe just a single page with some video and strong copy would be enough to draw people in — without overwhelming them with information. Using Premise landing page software from Copyblogger & Studiopress, and a backend theme from WooThemes (Canvas, specifically), we created a punchy landing page with a video of co-author Joe Knight talking about the book. Here is where it gets good…

The YouTube video (which Hearken Creative filmed and produced as well) is SEO-ready, so that it becomes a key driver of more eyeballs (remember, YouTube is almost as important as Google when it comes to search). In addition, video is much more enjoyable than simply reading a page of copy. The video also can get used in multiple streams:

  1. on YouTube,
  2. on the new landing page,
  3. on the client’s existing website,

therefore getting more bang for the buck of the dollars spent on video.

As stated, the previous edition of the book was already a bestseller (translated into over a dozen languages), so getting more traction for the new edition is simply icing on the cake. Still, a good landing page will help drive sales even further.

STICKING A TOE INTO THE E-COMMERCE RIVER

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Longtime friend and colleague Alison Siewert has received accolades for writing short dramas seen at conferences and events. But she has never had a place to sell the scripts, which have recently been receiving more and more attention. So we created a website where those scripts can be downloaded — directly from the website — for a small fee.

The e-commerce solution was ready-made — again from WooThemes — and was relatively easy to set up. The site has already generated business, and we look forward to assisting Alison as she grows the business even further.

Both of these sites were designed and produced by Loren A. Roberts at Hearken Creative. Our multi-disciplinary approach allowed us to use the best tools available to come up with real-world solutions for our clients, including imagery, producing and editing video, and (as always) cutting-edge, award-winning  graphic design.

We can take the same approach for your company as well. Call us today at 626-396-1500 to talk about your online needs.

Another new promotional video by HCS

My new band, Doobies Inc., walked into SIR Studios in mid-December to film and record a live demo. We tracked to ProTools and filmed 3 cameras (2 roving and 1 stationary). Then I took all of the tracks and footage back to my studio to mixdown and edit. For a one-night session, these came out really well, and we hope to get quite a bit of work from this promotional video.

http://youtu.be/hw3z7zDf2O8

I truly enjoy recording and filming live events. One of my favorites was Jennifer Robin’s CD release party for her album “The Bird and The Beatles” found here on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/K5evsOLje7k

I also have filmed live concert footage that will be found in the upcoming film “Praying the Hours” by Lauralee Farrer. These types of events are difficult to capture multitrack — so that one can mix the music later on — but ultimately exceptionally rewarding, because you get both the immediacy and thrill of the live event, as well as the incredible sound of a professionally mixed and produced recording.

Watch out! New website taking shape…

Wow, that happened fast. Dealing with website security issues one week, and export/upload/redesign/import the next. We’re still working our tails off to get everything up and running, but we’re excited to show you some new stuff as the new site evolves.

Watch this space!

Filming at JPL in June 2012

I got to head up to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here in Pasadena to shoot a few short clips for my longtime client The Planetary Society. Here is the first of two videos that I shot and edited for them.

Emily Lakdawalla and Mat Kaplan did a fantastic job with limited time (JPL is conscious that lots of news organizations want to do feeds from JPL leading up to the dramatic Mars Science Laboratory landing in August 2012), and it was exciting to get to work with them on this, first filming and then editing and delivering the finished piece for use in a Planetary Radio Live! segment that was shown at the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Another wrinkle in the NLE market

Just to make matters more confusing, Avid decides to re-align its operations away from consumer products, instead focusing on its enterprise-level offerings, specifically Media Composer for enterprise and ProTools. Is that good? I’m not sure, because I believe I don’t fit (as a micro-business) into the traditional enterprise categories.

Why does this matter?

Well, let’s review what has happened to the video editing market recently:

  1. Apple decided to ditch Final Cut Pro 7 for its new, version 1 software, entitled Final Cut X. (June 2011) One year later, I still can’t use it, because the thing simply can’t handle production-necessary audio streams and controls.
  2. Avid [edit: Blackmagic owns Da Vinci, not Avid, and Da Vinci is for color correction, not editing. Media Composer and Symphony are Avid's two video editing products.] lowered the price of its flagship video editing system, Da Vinci, in April 2010. This was a move to bring in us smaller editors, who might have been working on Final Cut Pro 7 or Adobe Premiere.
  3. Adobe brought out its newest version of its video editing system, Premiere CS6, in May 2012. Vastly improved (according to some), but still doesn’t manage media to the same degree that Da Vinci/Composer (or FCP X) does.

In some ways, the Avid announcement makes my decision-making easier: if Final Cut Pro no longer works for my office, the only viable alternative is Adobe Premiere. And I already own the Master Collection, so it would be a no-brainer (relatively speaking) to take the discounted upgrade path that Adobe has laid out for us.

But I still feel a little sad for what Avid could have become: a unified set of tools that both amateurs and professionals could have used to create/edit/record wonderful video and audio. That will not happen now.

It’s interesting that Avid believes that it cannot be profitable in the consumer marketplace. Another media/tech/hardware company, Blue Microphones, has taken a completely different approach. While they have a stable of pro mics that we studio geeks like, they have also entered into the consumer sphere, with USB mics featured at Apple Stores and elsewhere. Blue reports that the consumer marketplace has helped their bottom line immensely. What did Blue do differently than Avid?

I dunno. But I do know that I’m unsure where to go in the longer-term video editing dilemma. And I feel that today’s announcement took another viable option away from me.

Filming at JPL today…

Emily Lakdawalla, Mat Kaplan, and I arrived at JPL early this morning to do a couple of remote spots for Planetary Radio. With the exception of my camera needing repair (and the ensuing long drive down to Canon Repair in Irvine), it was a great shoot. And lots of fun to film at JPL…