Take a tip from 'Dirty Harry' when producing your video

By Bob Pomerantz

Micki and Tony are about as different as night and day--ditto their video projects. But they both saved a nice chunk of change by taking the same simple but ingenious step.

They each decided to do videotaping on their own and have professionals do the rest of the work.

Let's back up a bit. Micki hired us to produce a legacy video about her husband. Tony hired us to make a promotional video about the GTA town for which he works.

Micki had budgeted two days with a professional cameraperson, to interview her husband and 10 other people in the same venue. But there were MANY close family members and friends who couldn't attend the Toronto shoot--local people and others who lived in California, Florida and England. It would have cost Micki at least $6,000 to hire professional shooters to get all those people.

Instead, she took lessons at an Apple store on how to shoot nice video and get decent sound with her iPad. Then Micki had us incorporate her footage into the rest of the show. It worked fine.

Tony's story was different. His town had a limited budget to make their promo video, and one of his staffers set out to write, shoot and edit the whole thing. It was a noble effort, but he fell short in the editing and writing areas.

So we took his quite respectable footage, re-wrote the script and re-cut the show.
By shooting their own footage, the town saved itself at least $2,000.

Technology has made parts of movie-making easier and cheaper -- even footage shot from an iPhone is HD quality! Some people don't have the skills to do any filmmaking themselves, while others can do some of the work but not all.

Take a tip from Clint Eastwood. In the classic film 'Magnum Force,' Eastwood as 'Dirty' Harry Callahan said: "A man's GOT to know his limitations." Listen to Clint: Know your limitations. Do your own writing, do some or all of your own shooting or editing. But also know when to bring in a specialist. This way, you can save a pile and

also end up with a great product.