The Importance of Storyboarding

By | advertising, Brand marketing, content marketing, Utah SEO | No Comments

How would you describe the importance of sending an email to another colleague or client? Could you get by without it? What about advertisements of all forms — billboards, social media posts, online and television commercials, magazine ads, etc. — how easy would it be to find products that are best for you needs? Both of these examples depict what different forms of communication contribute in our everyday lives, and when it comes to storyboarding at a video production company for a film or video, directors and video producers rely heavily on what the storyboard communicates.

Storyboarding is a Form of Communication

When it comes to films and video productions, people look at directors as geniuses that envision everything, but what people don’t realize is how much directors rely on their team. One of those teams within a video production company is the storyboarding team. While a director may be responsible to make a piece of work come alive, they work out their ideas onto paper with the storyboard teams in order to see if it will work. However, a lot of the ideas for a video or film may originate from the storyboard because the artists can sometimes develop and visualize a concept or idea better.

Similar to how directors feed off of the storyboarding, the writers of the production do as well. Video production companies understand that the storyboard artists are often the original source of an idea, and that is partially why their contributions are so important. When people draw out an idea or thought, a lot of the unknown pieces come together. Finding those unknown pieces help complete everything that is needing to be communicated in a video production. In a way, storyboard artists are simply great communicators.

Can Films and Videos Survive Without Storyboards?

When people think of storyboarding, they often think only of pictures, but it is much more than that. Storyboarding effectively sets the blueprints of a film or complex video.

The question you might have is, do you really need storyboards to make a video or film? To answer that though, it might be good to ask, can companies live without email? It might be a possibility, but the overall efficiently would drop significantly. So too with storyboarding. Proper video production companies storyboard their films and even some videos because it makes the overall production run smoother, clearer and provide much better results.

If you have an idea for your company’s brand film, commercial or some other product/company-related video and need help bringing it to life, contact us at Fusion 360 studios. We are a legit video production company that has what it takes to produce exactly what you need.

 

Creating a Social Media Plan

By | advertising, Brand marketing, content marketing, Utah, Utah SEO | No Comments

Whether your company’s line of work can build hundreds of thousands of followers or a couple hundred, utilizing social media is a terrific way to build brand recognition. However, with social media still in its infancy compared to long-time business owners, how to market a company successfully on social media can be challenging for older, established brands. What we’d suggest is building a social media plan!

As a social media marketing company, we see companies jumping into the thick of it without a clue about what they are doing. Before creating an account and posting random content without any direction, make a concrete plan first.

Assess Where You Are

The first thing you will want to do is assess what kind of social media presence your company currently holds. Unless your accounts are a complete disaster, don’t scrap everything and start from ground-up quite yet, you can learn a bit from your current following. For example, you can learn what has worked and what hasn’t worked with your posts and what kind of people follow you already. This kind of information can guide you as you continue to develop your plan.

Identify Your Target Audience

Every company should already know a bit about their audience through other research the company has performed, but they might not know how their audience behaves online. Social media marketing companies aim to help their clients reach their existing audience and find additional ways to contact new potential consumers. In order to do this, these social media marketing companies figure out when certain demographics use their social media, what social channels they are on, how often they click or swipe on an ad, and how often individuals buy from or interact with companies. Figuring out these things and optimizing the information you gain will significantly raise your social media game plan.

Determine How to Measure Success

Once you understand what your capabilities are and how your audience behaves, you can start setting goals and deciding what success is for your company. Having a large following may be nice, but it does not define social media success. In fact, things like the ratio between your following and the interaction they have with your content is a better measurement of your success. Decide for yourself what your company wants to see in terms of success and goals.

Create, Post and Follow Your Relevant Content

It is near the end of your social plan that you should start planning what kind of content you want to post, how frequent you will post and by what means you will create your content. Within all of this, just as social media marketing companies do, you should take advantage of helpful social media tools and analytics that help you schedule out and track your content.

Seeing the Results

In the end, once the wheels are turning, you need to continuously review your content and make sure that your plan is working. Even if you see some followers unfollow you and your growth plateau, don’t stress it, you still might be succeeding. If you need help with your social media plan, contact a social media marketing company like us, Fusion 360! We will be able to help you see the results you want and secure your social media success.

What is Digital PR?

By | advertising, Brand marketing, content marketing | No Comments

Today, everything is online. From products to news, you can instantly find and order anything on the internet — this is crucial when it comes to advertising methods. Marketing companies need to stay on top of their online marketing techniques if they want to thrive in the world of digital advertising. One of the best ways to do this is by embracing digital PR, a modern and evolved version of traditional PR.

What is Traditional PR

Instead of targeting only print publications, digital PR takes it takes aim at online publications to increase brand awareness. Marketing companies use digital PR every day with things like publishing articles online, working with influencers and writing web copy.

Digital PR is the new norm.

Types of Digital PR

As mentioned above, here are some of the most common types of digital PR that marketing companies use daily to yield results:

  • Press releases containing newsworthy content
  • Creating and sharing infographics
  • Offline press events
  • Blogger events
  • Influencer marketing
  • Affiliate programs
  • Creating and publishing blogs and articles
  • Creating and publishing brand videos and other video content

How Does Digital PR Help Brands?

Digital PR not only helps brands raise awareness for their business online, but it also has a positive impact on a website’s SEO. In order for marketing companies to achieve this, however, they have to have a working understanding of Google’s guidelines and ranking signals to improve their client’s website visibility in the search results.

SEO campaigns and digital PR go hand-in-hand, and if you don’t utilize digital PR, your SEO campaign can prove to be useless. Marketing companies like us here at Fusion 360 know how to make sure that your brand is making a mark in your industry.

A good digital PR strategy will help your business generate leads that are going to promote your product or service in front of relevant audiences. Marketing companies know that making sure the strategy is solid before putting it into play is important because the more people engage with your brand online, the more leads you’re going to generate, which will help our brand grow.

Digital PR is crucial if you’re looking to really make an impact in your respective industry, and marketing companies can help you put together an effective strategy. If you’re looking to up your digital advertising game, make sure to give us a call here at Fusion 360 Agency.

5 Video Lighting Tips

By | advertising, Brand marketing, Utah SEO, Video, video production | No Comments

Lighting up your video is just as important as writing it, filming it and editing it. All of these aspects of video production need to be executed properly on their own in order to bring them together to create one finished masterpiece. Video production companies work hard to ensure that this happens, and today we’re going to be talking about the top lighting tips to help make sure that you get the best possible shots while filming your next video project.

So, if you’re struggling to get adequate lighting while on set, you might want to take the time to read this blog on the 5 top video lighting tips.

Use Three-Point Lighting

Using three-point lighting is going to help when you shoot interviews, promo videos, webinars and other related content. Three-point lighting is a common lighting setup that consists of a key light, fill light and a backlight. The key light is the main light used to brighten up a subject. The fill light offsets the key light’s brightness by taking away the shadow cast on the subject. This is accomplished by placing the fill light opposite from the key light. The backlight separates your subject and the background and creates depth to prevent flat shots. Having all three lights is ideal, but you can live without the backlight.

Check You Locations for Lighting Opportunity

Video production companies also like to scout out their shoot locations to make sure that they know exactly how the scene can and will be lit. Depending on your location, scouting it in advance could save you money on lighting as well. Indoor locations are trickier because you could get good natural lighting in the venue or you might have to light up more area to give you the brightness you’re looking for.

Utilize Soft Lighting

This lighting technique requires more lighting equipment, but it’ll help create a softer appearance when it comes to facial features in actors, hosts and interviewers. The closer a light is to your face, the harder that light will be, meaning that you’ll have strong angles and your face might be too well lit. Soft light is achieved by placing lights farther away from the subject.

Determine Your Budget

You’ll be able to achieve decent lighting no matter what your budget is, and while not every filmmaker has the budget of successful video production companies, lighting is something that you should definitely invest in. Basic lighting can cost you as little as 10 dollars each, while mid-range and high-end lights will run you anywhere from 100 to 500 dollars. As mentioned previously, you don’t need to shell out hundreds of dollars, but it will certainly help your next video production.

Don’t Mix Lights with Different Color Temperatures

Have you ever noticed the different lighting in places like a doctor’s office, your living room and a store? What you’re witnessing is called color temperature, and different light temperatures are used depending on the location. When filming, it’s important to look out for this color temperature, as you don’t want to mix two different temperatures. For example, you should make sure that all your lights have the same bulb to ensure that you’re using the same color temperature for each shot. You should also take the natural lighting in your set into account to determine if it’s negatively affecting your shot.

These five lighting tips are going to help your next production significantly, and if you’re looking for a video production company to help you get started on your next project, give us a call here at Fusion 360 Studios. Our award-winning video team can help answer any questions you might have as well as get the ball rolling on your production.

5 Video Production Tips

By | advertising, Brand marketing, content marketing, SEO, Utah SEO, Video, video production | No Comments

It doesn’t matter what line of work you are in, you are going to have to make a video at some point. As a video production company dedicated to quality work, we want to help everyone produce professional-grade videos they can share. In order to create a video that your target audience enjoys, here are five tips that will get you there!

PROPER PRE-PRODUCTION WORK

All video production companies know that pre-production work is arguably the most important portion in video making. Without putting in work before you start shooting your video, you can run into a handful of problems. For example, if your company forgoes researching what your target audience’s interests, behaviors or selling points are, you’re going to waste a lot of time and money on a video that doesn’t appeal to the audience you want.

Speaking of money, without proper planning, you will have problems with things like budgeting, execution and purpose. When you don’t plan appropriately and end up misjudging your budget, you can expect bad results overall. In addition, how your video is executed oftentimes comes down to how well you’ve planned. Video production companies always have a detailed plan for each video they make, that way they are able to stay within budget, execute on everything they intend to, and ultimately follow to the purpose of the video.

After you’ve put in the work needed during pre-production, you are ready for the production aspects.

CAMERA

Before anything else within the production phase, you’ve GOT TO HAVE A GOOD CAMERA. If you try to make a video without a quality DSLR camera, you are going to end up with a video that people won’t be able to take seriously. If the image is questionable in the least, people are much more likely to not take your business seriously. Make sure you find a quality camera and someone that knows how to work it.

AUDIO

The same goes for your audio — if your audio is unprofessional, it makes it just as hard to take your company seriously. This means that the voices can’t be too quiet, muffled or accompanied by ambient noises. The best resolution is to invest in a microphone for your on-screen talent to use. If you do not have any dialog, you still need to be careful with the decibel-level of any background music you use.

LIGHTING

Unlike the previous two factors, lighting isn’t something that will wreck your production entirely (unless it’s REALLY bad), but it is something that can take it to the next level! Video production companies will often suggest that you set up three-point lighting in order to make sure your on-screen subject is captured professionally.

SIMPLE POST-PRODUCTION

The last tip is to keep your post-production simple. This has to do with your planning and execution, but in order to wrap up your video smoothly, you can’t expect your video editor to throw everything together easily if your video demands complex edits. Animations, motion rendering, key-framing and more can be really difficult and cost a lot of money. By keeping your video simple and not overly complex, your post-production work will be much easier.

If You Need Help From Professionals

Fusion 360 is a quality video production company that can help your company with your video needs. Contact us today and we will see what we can do for you!

Why SEO is Important

By | advertising, Brand marketing, content marketing, SEO, Utah, Utah SEO | No Comments

Search engines, especially Google, are being used every second of every day by people who want to learn a new word in a different language, find the nearest café near them, or even by brands to look up reliable marketing companies in their area. Whatever it may be, search engines help people facilitate their everyday lives as well as help companies grow, which is why they are crucial in today’s marketing techniques more specifically, SEO techniques.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a set of rules made my search engines that online companies follow in order for their website and business to rank better on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other searches. All online companies need to take SEO seriously if they want to make an impression on their targeted audience. Marketing companies understand this importance and want their clients to understand the same things in order for their company to have success. Here are a few things that all companies need to know about SEO.

SEO Creates Web Traffic

Perhaps one of the first and most obvious reasons as to why SEO is so important is its effect on driving online traffic to your website. Almost 33 percent of clicks are given to the first ranking page on a search engine, and the first five listings share over 75 percent of all clicks, which is why SEO is a must for your company. The main goal of marketing companies across the nation is to achieve high rankings, and you can’t do that without an SEO strategy.

SEO Builds Trust

Well-thought-out SEO strategies could help your brand build trust with your current and potential customers. Ranking high on search engines not only helps drive traffic to your site (and promote your business in general) but it also shows potential consumers that you have a loyal audience. Seeing that you are a competent company with a loyal following will help build your brand’s reputation. This reputation then turns into authority, which is established through elements such as positive user behavior, machine-learning signals, optimized on-page elements and content, and quality backlink profiles.

SEO is a Long-Term Strategy

SEO will remain impactful for years to come, and that initial impact that occurs within the first year is something that should propel your company forward. While SEO techniques are constantly changing, marketing companies know that the basic principles of SEO “will establish a framework that will stand for your company in the long run.

SEO involves different techniques and practices, which could get complex, and that’s where marketing companies like us here at Fusion 360 Agency come into play. If you’re looking to start ranking on search engines to get your name out there, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We’ll work hard to come up with an SEO strategy that will get your business on the road to digital marketing success.

Can Social Media be Part of Your SEO Strategy

By | advertising, Brand marketing, content marketing, SEO, Utah | No Comments

In order for a company’s brand to show up at the top of Google’s list when products and services are being searched, SEO work must be completed first. Things like keyword-focused content creation and a countless number of backlinks need to be created. This usually is completed by content marketing teams producing large volumes of blogs, videos, infographics and more on specific websites. Sometimes though, these links are posted on a company’s social media, but what effect does that have?

Within the large umbrella of online marketing, SEO marketing and social media marketing draw a lot of confusion as to whether or not they are related. Typically, there is some separation between the two marketing styles. In fact, there are social media marketing companies and SEO marketing companies alike that focus solely on their particular craft. However, is there any overlap? Can social media help boost your company’s SEO ranking?

FACEBOOK, TWITTER and INSTAGRAM’s INFLUENCE

Social media marketing companies are constantly posting relevant content on social pages for all kinds of companies, but that kind of marketing does not DIRECTLY boost the SEO ranking of those companies. There is plenty of research out there that will show you how posting on these social channels may INFLUENCE your company’s SEO score, but not like creating blogs and backlinking will.

The influence these social posts have really only spike your score if you get thousands of individuals clicking your link. However, even Google has said that social media ‘shares’ do not count as individual links. Meaning, even if a social media marketing company created a post with 500 retweets or shares, it wouldn’t boost the SEO score more than the original post would (though, a post with that much attention would be good in terms of traffic).

DISCUSSION BOARDS and FORUMS

What people tend to forget is that forums and discussion boards are also considered social platforms, and posting content on these kinds of pages WILL BOOST your SEO score. Forums and discussion boards simply function differently from platforms like Instagram and Twitter, and therefore, the links posted there work differently. Not a ton of social media marketing companies or SEO marketing companies take advantage of this, but they should.

Takeaway

There are some social media platforms that can boost your SEO score, but it is not the initial ones you may think of. The big social accounts may have a lot of eyes, and with enough shares or clicks, you might see some influence, but discussion boards and forums will work better. SEO marketing companies and social media marketing companies have enough separated work, but they can work together as one.

If you are in need of any help with your SEO marketing or your social media marketing, contact us here at Fusion 360 Agency.

Careers in Video Production

By | advertising, Brand marketing, Utah, Video, video production | No Comments

Video productions is one of those industries where there are so many different fun occupations that someone can find themselves involved in. However, outside of the director, actor/actress, cameraman, editors and other commonly known positions, many people outside of video productions don’t see all the possibilities within the field. In reality, there are jobs that entail work up to the last fine detail of a video or film. For example, video production companies hire individuals for things like on-set prop design, but then they are also accompanied by a lot of assisting positions that are in charge of actually finding and purchasing those props. Additionally, there are other jobs that need to be filled for costume design, lighting, make-up, architecture, animation, storyboarding, casting, microphones, sound effects, video effects, and more!

Just one video production company can provide dozens of individuals different career paths. Below is a short list of a few of the different positions based on the different departments. 

*SIDENOTE: these categories may differ from one video production company to another — our list is equally subjective*

WRITING TEAM

We won’t get into this quasi-group too much partly because there’s not much more to it, and it’s difficult to really place them into any other group. Anyone with a creative mind and a knack for storytelling can be a screenwriter or scriptwriter. However, these roles are crucial to the overall success of a video production company and film.

ART TEAM

Within the art team, production designers and art directors have to come up with the storyboard and overall on-screen visual of buildings, landscapes, interiors, props and more. In order to do this, there are A LOT of positions. To list a few, you have the set decorator, costume designer, set costumers, special effects coordinator, makeup artists, hair stylists, barbers, etc. These positions are supposed to make everything on a set look exactly as the director and writers intend them to look.

PRODUCTION TEAM

The main production portion of a film or video really can be broken up into a lot of subgroups that deal with the cameras, lighting, audio and more. You don’t necessarily have to be a cameraman in order to be apart of a video production company, you can be a specialist with microphones or the dimness of the lighting. These different production positions usually consist of chief light technicians, regular lighting technicians, gaffers, boom operators, sound mixers, sound utility, camera operators, camera assistants, and camera loaders.

EDITING TEAM

Apart of the post-production stage, there are multiple editing teams that focus on piecing every shot together. There are lead editors that cut all the shots and put them together with the correct audio clips as well. For audio alone, there are music editors, re-recorders, sound effects specialists, Foley artists, Foley mixers, mix technicians, mix engineers, and more. After the audio and main editing, there are also animators and video effects supervisors, coordinators and technicians.

OTHER

Beyond all of these positions are the other jobs that still need to be filled in order to have everything run smoothly and legally. There are office coordinators and assistants, travel coordinators, financial accounts, and of course, casting associates and assistants.

A career in video productions does not necessarily mean that you have to be a producer, director, actor/actress, cameraman, or editor. If you love movies or simply the film industry, you can find a variety of different occupations within a video production company. To get a job in this industry, you simply have to build your skills, share them with others, start applying, and then get involved as much as you can!

Why You Need a Brand Film #2

By | advertising, Brand marketing, content marketing, Utah, video production | No Comments

Traditional marketing efforts aren’t as effective as they once were, and video production companies know that in order to stay relevant in the evolving world of digital media, they have to push out projects that will wow an audience. What’s the best way to do this? Well, through a brand film, of course. Video production companies are focusing their efforts on creating brand films for their clients, as this is the best way to truly connect with your target audience.

Brand films provide a unique and effective way of connecting with your customers both visually and effectively, and they help bring your brand to life. So, with that being said, here are several reasons that video productions will tell you that you need a brand film.

They Help Achieve a Stronger ROI

If you want to generate both leads and revenue, brand films are going to be the way to go. Inbound marketing in the form of brand films costs 62 percent less than traditional outbound marketing, and if your brand film features a clear non-sales driven call-to-action, you’ll gain the attention of new and existing customers more efficiently. One way to really make your brand film that much more effective is by making it interactive content. Social media, dedicated webpages and microsites can also help increase the reach and lifespan of your video.

To Take a Complex Idea and Simplify It

Your audience needs to be able to understand your call-to-action, which is why video production companies focus on distilling new, complex ideas into shareable ideas. Brands need to be able to provide a clear yet compelling explanation to an issue they are trying to resolve, and a brand film is one of the best ways to simplify the information you’re trying to get across to your audience. When video production companies use brand films to explain a complex idea in a simple way, you’ll find that customers will grasp the information more efficiently.

They Provide Your Customers with Meaningful Content

Brand films help you avoid having to rely too heavily on promotional posts. Instead, they provide your customers with content about topics that inspires them and helps them find you naturally. Video production companies will take information that is relevant to the customer and create a video that appeals to them and lead them naturally to your site.

Brand films are crucial if you want to succeed in today’s competitive market, and video production companies are the best way to ensure that you create a brand film that will really help your business make a difference. If you’re in need of a professional agency to help get your brand film noticed by the general public, don’t hesitate to contact us here at Fusion 360 Studios. We’ll create a brand film that is sure to impress both new and existing customers, keeping you at the top of your industry.