Producer Alison Collins and Production Assistant Paul Morgante with Jed York.

We just completed filming and editing a video about Jed York, owner of the 49ers.

Produced for The Commonwealth Club of California’s Distinguished Citizen Awards Banquet, the show features an interview segment with Jed York talking about his personal experiences as well as describing the new stadium in Santa Clara.

The WMS crew was honored to meet one of sports’ great legendary leaders.

WMS media, Inc. recently appeared on the headquarters campus of Google in Mountain View to record an interview with a high-level executive. (We can’t reveal the name until the program is released).

Alison Collins, producer, is seen here conducting the video interview. Setting up the camera and lighting is Paul Morgante, our recent intern who has just been hired by WMS. Welcome aboard, Paul! Thomas Wohlmut is executive producer.

The final video is expected to be completed by mid-April. Stay tuned for more details then for our amazing story of some amazing people. For more information, contact us at info@wmsmedia.com

How You Frame It from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

To do well at photography and video you must know correct framing techniques. Having correct framing not only makes your photo or video successful, but it also can make your photo interesting and beautiful when done right. When an image is framed well, the viewer sees what and where the subject is in a visually balanced and attractive way. Good framing also employs perspective to bring out meaning and tell the story of your picture or video. This fun and fast paced video quickly teaches great framing techniques anyone can learn. Another winning video from the WMS Archive!

Paul is a young, aspiring media artist working in a variety of mediums: film and video, music writing and producing, and he performs as a DJ. Although he was born well into the digital age, he describes himself as an “analog person.” He likes to film on 16mm and also likes to DJ on vinyl. Now when Paul DJs, he isn’t just picking out songs for people to dance to, he is using a complex system of beat and pitch matching to blend different songs together to create a unique musical experience. He says, “When it comes to me as an artist, I guess I just like old stuff.”

Paul grew up in San Diego and the bay area and was first drawn to film by documentaries. He was especially inspired by the creative ways directors would toy with images and sounds in his favorite skateboard and snowboard videos. Among his most admired film makers is the Japanese director, Yasujiro Ozu. Paul recommends seeing his film Tokyo Story to appreciate the director’s imaginative use of camera angles and transitions.

When Paul is not busy working, he says you will find him listening to his “much too large” vinyl record collection, and dreaming of creative ways to tell stories on film.

We at WMS are thrilled to have Paul with us. His enthusiasm, great attitude and energy are infectious. He has already lent his skills and imagination to several WMS projects. Be on the lookout for Paul’s blog, tweets, and more WMS projects featuring his fresh perspective!

While scoping through the large library of videos that WMS Media has produced, I stumbled upon these helpful shorts on how to be a better photographer / videographer. It is important when making films or photos to have an understanding of basic concepts and ideas so if you’re new to a camera or just looking for that edge to make your shots better, these videos might help! I’ll be posting more over the next week or so, check back for more tricks and tips.

- Paul M, WMS Media

The brain has limited shelf life for recall.

In our high-speed communication world, the competition for the attention of our brain is fierce. Daily we are bombarded with imagery, words and videos — often with provocative content in an attempt to be more memorable than the previous message. Like throwing a stone into a calm pond, these communications efforts ripple outward until they gradually fade away.

The goal for communicators is to ensure the target audience remembers the key message when it comes time to make a purchase or decision. But messages often have a very limited shelf life in the brain for recollection.

To overcome this, advertisers know that repetition is paramount. That’s why TV commercials bombard us constantly with the same messaging. Sometimes I’ve seen the same commercial back to back!

Another approach is to hype the message beforehand so that it generates a previewing buzz. Super Bowl commercials that cost millions are an example. Viewers eagerly anticipate seeing the results of the companies that paid the most! Then after they see the commercial, they talk about it and thus reinforce the experience.

And of course everyone knows that sex sells….

But sometimes clients don’t have the big budgets or it’s inappropriate to use the aforementioned techniques. In that case, don’t give up, all is not lost! If people have an initial interest in your product or service, you should try your best to make a good and lasting impression.  Some helpful strategies:

1) Be creative
2) Be concise
3) Be visual
4) Appeal to the human experience
5) Tell a story

Here’s a video we produced for Rich Moran that promotes his speaking services using some of these five suggestions:

Rich Moran from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

One of the first things to think about whenever you pick up a video camera or any camera for that matter is where the heck is the primary light coming from? Normally we go about our daily business not even thinking about what angle the sun is, what direction is it coming from or what is our primary light source. The eyes and brain have a seamless way of figuring out the best way to see and interpret what we see and make brightness and contrast compensations nanosecond by nanosecond depending on the lightning situation. A camera does not have this on-board ability.

So to be a good video shooter you need to think about the light source and where it is coming from and where your subject is in relationship to that source. After all, without any light source you will have no image. Generally speaking you want a side light source to come from about 45 degrees from your subject. If you don’t you will likely get an image that is a flat light and only see people with big round flat looking faces. Or if you’re in an office situation you might get a heavy top light that casts long shadows in front of the face, or worse you might get a bottom light that makes for a horror look. Not too flattering if you are taping the boss for a stockholder presentation.

So an effective video will have the lighting coming from a nice angle, just over your shoulder. By thinking about where your source lighting is coming from and positioning your camera appropriately, you will be going a long way towards making a better picture and a better video. A nice strong bright light at the correct angle will be key, and that’s why the pros call it the “key light”.

Please help us…bring new life and new hope to blood cancer patients.

The response to the newsletter we sent last month called ”New Life, New Hope” has just been terrific. People have been asking what they can do to help The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. So we put together this limited-time offer.

Please donate 10% to LLS: Just mention this offer when you order services from WMS media, Inc. and we will donate 10 percent of our fee to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of San Jose. Applies to new orders only and work completed by 12/31/12.

Thanks for your support! Offer Expires: December 31, 2012

This year’s election saw an astronomical amount of money spent on media by both parties. Money poured into the production of slick ads – some attack, some inspirational, some funny. Media buys in swing states went off the charts trying to persuade people to vote a certain way.

Some so-called political and media wizards convinced big donors that the key to the election outcome rested in flooding the airwaves. Millionaires and billionaires poured tons of dollars into the creation and broadcast of ads. Given enough money, we were told the results were virtually guaranteed.

Wrong, as it turned out. Here’s what Donald Trump tweeted: “Congrats to @KarlRove on blowing $400 million this cycle. Every race @CrossroadsGPS ran ads in, the Republicans lost. What a waste of money.”

So what happened, and why did this collective belief in the all-powerful media collapse under the weight of reality? Well, the side that lost has some soul-searching to do, but in our (humble) opinion at WMS media, it boils down to not following the basics in creating resultive media:

1. Be clear about the desired results.
2. Know your audience very well.
3. Have a product or service that meets the needs of the audience.

Clearly the losing side has some ‘splainin’ to do to its big donors. But in hindsight, it’s easy to see how they missed the mark on numbers 2 and 3 above.

At the end of the day you can spend all the money in the world creating media, but ultimately if you have a product your audience doesn’t want, how much you spend on your media won’t make a difference.

On his iPad, Jeff Venable uses the San Jose Jazz app produced by WMS media.

Portability of data is what it’s all about in the next wave of communications. The foundation for this next wave was laid in the last decade, the Internet age, when laptops and tower computers were widely used for connecting on the Web. This then led to making huge quantities of data available — fast and easy.

The next step is connecting with that data on-the-go, whenever and wherever we happen to be. And that’s where the new generation of apps are starting to make inroads. It is now possible to receive rich media that melds text, graphics and video in a way never seen before! Tablet display is fast and sharper than high-resolution print. Better yet, these new apps’ interactive features make the experience a breeze, not to mention compelling and fun.