Running for St. Jude

Saturday should be a beautiful day.  Not because the forecast says it’ll be 67 degrees with some clouds and only a chance of rain.  Not because that’s a pretty good forecast for December 1^st.  No, it’s going to be a beautiful day because of what’s going on in the streets of Memphis.

Saturday is the running of the St. Jude Memphis Marathon, an opportunity for as many as 18,000 people to run in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  St. Jude is a jewel in the Memphis crown – a leading center in the battle to treat childhood cancer.

Several members of the Running Pony Productions team are participating in the half marathon.  That includes Director of Operations Steve Shipowitz (bib no. 11928), Digital Media Manager Wally Green (bib no. 7890), Motion Graphics Artist Scott Mahr (bib no. 9667) and Director of Technology Jacob Abart (bib no. 5032).

Steve and Wally are going an extra length.  They are both St. Jude Heroes, encouraging others to donate to the work going on at St. Jude.  Steve, who is just weeks past a serious bicycle crash, is running in memory of Trey Erwin, the high school student from Collierville who recently lost a battle with pancreatic cancer.  Wally is running in memory of his mother, Bettye Green, who was taken by brain cancer in 2010.

Wally is also running in honor of Ava Roten, the four-year old daughter of Running Pony video editor Brandon Roten.  Ava began treatment at St. Jude this year, after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.  Our support for the Rotens will have other members of the Running Pony family at the end of the Memphis Grizzlies House 5K – helping runners as they come across the finish line.

If you’re in Midtown or downtown on Saturday, wave as a Running Pony runner passes.  Cheer on all the runners.  Stop by AutoZone Park and congratulate folks as they finish.  It’s going to be a beautiful day.

Video “On Demand”

The combination of ways to go online and social media that allows us to connect with each other means more of us are watching … and sharing videos on the Internet.

According the folks from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, more than two-thirds of adults using the Internet have watched or downloaded videos.  About half of adults (50%) are going for laughs by watching comedy videos online.  Nearly a third (32%) are watching movies or TV shows.  Almost 4 of ten (38%) are going online to watch education videos.  A few more are going online for news videos (43%).  The Pew poll shows all those categories have seen a “significant increase” over the last few years.

Most of the time, home video is the most popular thing people want to share (62% of video uploaders) – but knowing that people are watching has encouraged organizations to make sure that video plays a big part of their online presence.  How big?  Online video is the fastest growing piece of overall Internet advertising.  Companies spent a billion dollars in 2009, up from just $48 million ten years ago.  And according to eMarketer, money spent for online videos should top $3 billion this year.

Most of the people using smart phones, tablets, e-readers, and desktop or laptop computers can connect to the Internet.  Using social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and other sites to post and share video means a lot of people are watching and sharing what they see.

Who will you reach?  The Pew research has some interesting tidbits about who’s doing most of the watching and downloading.  It’s mostly men (74%), who are young men (84%), well-educated (75% with some college or a degree), and who have a good income (78%).

Source:  Pew Internet & American Life Project, “The State of Online Video.”

Going to the Movies

It’s a story that began on the streets of North Memphis and led to the red carpet of the Academy Awards.  Many of us have been moved by the story told in “Undefeated.”  The award-winning documentary showed the struggles of the Manassas High School football team and its volunteer coach as they try to turn around of a legacy of losing.  Running Pony Productions is proud of the role it played in helping get their story to the big screen.

The Running Pony team recently attended a screening of “Undefeated,” giving us the chance to see the work that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The high point of the event was a chance for us to meet and talk with Bill Courtney, the businessman who devoted more than six years of his life as a volunteer coach, mentor and friend to the Manassas students.

This was a work meeting we were all thrilled to attend.  If you haven’t seen “Undefeated,” go.  Now.  It’s a life-changing experience.

Why One Size Does NOT Fit All

We’re always happy to provide a digital copy of your video, but in order to assure smooth playback on your end, we really need some more information to help us help you.  That’s because there’s no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” video in the digital world.  In the old days, VHS tape was a “universal” consumer format.  But today, there are a huge variety of formats and file sizes, and what’s perfect for one use may be completely useless for a different platform.

For example, a video for use in a PowerPoint presentation needs to be a small file size, and probably a WMV file if you’re playing the presentation on a PC; a larger file size or a different format may not play at all.  On the other hand, if you want to play that same video on a large screen in a convention hall or arena, you’ll need a completely uncompressed, high-quality video – most likely in an MP4 or MOV format – a smaller file looks ‘grainy’ and low-quality on a big screen.

So, how do you know what you need? 

If you have an IT department or a company that is handling the showing of the video or putting it online, ask them to give us detailed video specs.  They can call us directly, and we’ll be happy to have a technical conversation with them to work out all the details.

If you don’t have a tech department or company that handles this for you, then here’s the sort of information you need to provide:

·      What’s the intended use of the video?  How and where will it be used or shown?  If you plan to use the video in multiple ways or on multiple platforms, then tell us about each one.  Do you want to email it?  Put it in a PowerPoint?  Put it on your website?  You Tube?  Play it from a computer?  Play it from a DVD player?  Send it to a TV station?  Show it in a convention hall or arena?

·      What kind of equipment are you using for playback or deployment?  Are you playing it on a computer?  If so, is it a PC or a Mac?

·      Do you need to be able to view the video on an iPhone, iPad or other “smartphone” or tablet device?

And here are a couple of other key questions you should consider before asking for digital copies:

·      Does your company have any sort of “firewall” that may prevent others from seeing the video on your network?

·      Do you have the necessary software on your computer for playing the video in the format you’ve requested? (For example, to play a MOV file on a PC, you may need to install Apple’s QuickTime player or similar software. To play a WMV file on a Mac, you may need to install Flip4Mac or similar software.)

·      If you’re going to show the video on a TV screen, is the screen a “widescreen” (16:9) or “standard” screen (4:3), and does the format of the video match the screen format?  A 4:3 video on a 16:9 screen may look “stretched”, while a 16:9 video on a 4:3 screen may looked “squeezed” or have the sides cut off.

New Faces-part 2

It’s time to check in and meet some more of the latest arrivals here at Running Pony Productions.

Brandon Roten takes over Edit Suite 3 as a full-time editor.  His is a “right place at the right time” story.  Brandon grew up in Olive Branch, but spent the last few years working for Waymack and Crew, a leading production company in Little Rock, crafting local, regional and national spots.  But long before that, Brandon came by Running Pony, looking for work.  His first visit to Running Pony was about 10 years ago, when, in his own words, he was a bit too “inexperienced.”

Fast-forward to a few weeks ago, after Brandon decided it was time to move on professionally.  He got back in touch with us, and said, “I’ve been talking to Dallas, Nashville, Chicago, New York, L.A. – and this is about the only place in Memphis I’d have come back for.”  That was good enough for us to welcome Brandon, his wife and two children back to the Mid-South.  In his words, “everything just fell into place.”

Drew Fleming is Running Pony’s new production specialist.  You name it; he does it.  He grew up in Memphis, moving to Florida when he was 15.  After college, when his family moved back to the area, he came too.  Drew had some pretty far-flung freelance jobs before joining us, working on travel documentaries and “eco-tourism” pieces in places from Central America to Finland.  Ask him what was most interesting and he’ll say it’s the food.  “Tamales in Guatemala,” Drew tells us, “are the originals – you can’t get better ones anywhere.”

His Running Pony experiences are pretty good too.  He says the most interesting one so far is “going to Morgan Freeman’s house and shooting some video of him.”  Anything else?  According to Drew, after they shook hands, Freeman “looked me in the eye, said ‘thanks for your work,’ and ‘peace.’  And then walked off into the sunset.”