another video for Universal AET - business communication for industry

It's trade show season. Quietwater put together the video below for trade show purposes. It's a bit different from what we usually do. For starters it has no sound. But in a trade show environment, any audio, especially the spoken word is lost in the cavernous environs of the arena or hall where the trade show is happening. Context matters and in this case, not using the audio track makes sense since it would be very difficult to hear. This video is also a repurposing of existing content derived from projects over the past couple years, several of them overseas. This happens a fair amount in a project setting. Someone else is on site during the project, usually with a still camera. At some point, sometimes years later, this content is brought forward. Videos are not always moving pictures. A video can be a succession of still images, which is what you see below. It works for a trade show and it is Universal's content, in a real life setting showing their products. I think it works quite well, given that the alternative is nothing.

a video for the Stoughton School District

Here's a recent effort for the Stoughton School District.

ebook publishing - one more piece of the online media puzzle

So last week was a big week for Quietwater. The event that splashed into last week was the first publishing exercise for an ebook. As some know, back in the day Quietwater Media started up in sync with Quietwater Films. For me personally, producing the five projects for QW Films was especially nice because of my life long interest and enjoyment of paddlesports. Working with Darren Bush and other big names in the paddling world like Jimbo Meador, remain high points both personally and professionally.

Along with the enjoyment of paddling and the experience as a professional guide (again back in the day but a bit further) is one more piece. Paddlemaking. The wood and hand tools type of DIY making things. A few years back I decided that paddlemaking was something I wanted to do more of. One of the pieces of that was writing a book about paddle making. Last week was the culmination of that effort. Making a Bent Shaft Laminated Canoe Paddle is the first of three books, and like all the other firsts, remains a ground breaking eye opening effort and entry into the fast moving and evolving indie publishing world.

The content is driven by a personal interest, but the publishing effort is something I am keenly interested in on the business side. The world is rapidly becoming far more accepting of mobile devices. Pictures, video, and text are all now consumed via tablets and smart phones. Just look at some of the heaviest decisions that Microsoft's newest CEO has to make for a glimpse into how mobile devices are changing our content world. Books are affected by this as much as anything else. As a content company, one of the newer opportunities this brings up is taking the white paper or another marketing piece and making a version of the piece to fit on a tablet or on a smart phone as a book.

This publishing exercise for this first ebook involves pushing the ebook out to several platforms. It is up and going on the Kindle platform. It is up and going on Kobo. It is in process for the Apple ibook store via draft2digital and it is going into several overseas outlets via Xinxii. So, given the right content, an ebook can be deployed on a global scale. It is also going to be sold direct off of a website. This publishing exercise for a specialty content book clearly has some nice corollaries for business-centric content.

that'll do for now!

Universal's new facility in Beloit

I found myself in Beloit recently and for the first time. Universal was the client and they wanted footage of both their new facility and the governor's visit and tour of that facility. Universal has space in an old Beloit Ironworks warehouse on the edge of the Rock River. Great old space that Hendricks/ABC Building Supply is renovating and filling with new industrial tenants. Personally, I love seeing the insides of old giant buildings like this. Hard to imagine what went on back in the day in this building when the original tenant was at work. Today it is busy with Universal and the products that they are fabricating. This was an interesting day and an interesting shoot in Beloit.

Tri County basketball and Youtube annotated videos

For the past several years, two of our daughters have worked their way through the Tri-County Girls Basketball program. This is a youth basketball program for southern Wisconsin communities, run by the Health and Athletic Department at Madison College. I see it as one step above City rec league programs and a step away from the competitive, expensive and questionably worthwhile commitment that AAU programs demand. My wife and I have greatly enjoyed Girls Tri-County basketball and think that our daughters have gained skills and some worthy, simple life lessons from playing the competitive game of girls youth basketball in the Tri-County style. I'm sad to see our youngest daughter in her final year of playing those games. Last year I donated a video to the Tri-County program to help them run their coaching meetings online. As I came to understand what Scot, Denise and Scott were trying to do, it occurred to me that an annotated series of videos on YouTube would be a great fit. So that is what Quietwater Media did for Tri-County basketball. There are coaching videos for both boys and girls as well as parent, ref, and background videos. All linked together with the Youtube annotation feature on a branded and named Youtube channel. This year, with the renovations complete at Madison College, we went back and met with Scot Vesterdahl and updated the intro video to showcase the new look of Madison College. I reviewed the work from last year and was happy to see how it holds together and makes it easy for a viewer to go from one topic to another at the click of a button, all the while staying within the Youtube video window. I like this kind of interactivity and think that it greatly serves its purpose when correctly used. I think the Tri-County channel on Youtube fits that criteria. I might be a bit biased, since I am the one that did it, but nonetheless I hope you will take a look and follow along by clicking on some of those buttons and moving from video to video. Scot Vesterdahl is the Tri-County Commissioner, as well as the head coach of the Madison College Wolfpack men's basketball program. Great guy. Denise Stenklyft and Scott Nelson run the Health & Athletics Department (don't quote me on titles or positions:) which administers the program. Also great people! So if you live in southern Wisconsin and have a basketball playing son or daughter in the 4th-8th grade, give Tri-County a spin. Great stuff! P.S. The videos are also captioned, so turn that button on and read along if you want!

Be a Sub for Santa - Family Service Madison

Here's our most recent project - this is an effort to further promote Family Service Madison's "Be a Sub for Santa" program. I created the FSM Youtube channel on Tuesday (11/12) and uploaded it. I see by today Weds 11/13 the video is already at 122 views. Pamel Sta. Amant, the promotions director at FSM had a pretty clear view of what she wanted to do with this video and how she wanted to use it. So far so good. 122 views in 24 hours is a good first day, even discounting by half for internal views. This is a compelling program as is the work that FSM does for those in need in Dane County. An eye opening project.

a Berntsen video about Surveying Targets

Berntsen called a while back and said they had one of their vendors coming in from Germany and they wanted to do a couple videos of the German products while the rep was here. So I spent two very pleasant day at Berntsen International. Great local success story. Great family-owned business. More people need to know about them. This is the second of the videos. most of my projects are unscripted, because most clients opt not to prepare in advance. Tim Klaben, the marketing manager at Berntsen does prepare a script. Bill Rushing, the host in front of the camera, is also quite talented at memorizing scripts and speaking in front of a crowd (or a camera for that matter). Put Bill and a script together and great things happen. The videos I do for Berntsen International go straight to their Youtube channel, where they are used to support their online eCommerce efforts across the planet.