Business – Page 3 – Connie Terwilliger

Do You Have a Digital Media Production Tribe?

Many years ago when ITVA changed their name to MCA-I – people just didn’t know what to do. The new name was hard to say for one thing. And the change happened at a time when technology was evolving and the business climate was changing. It created sort of a perfect storm that sent the association into turmoil. Something not unique to MCA-I – many associations have been feeling the effects.

While MCA-I is still alive (www.mca-i.org), and remains strong in scattered chapters around the US, it is in regrowth mode.

The name MCA-I is still a mouthful to this day. Back then we tried to find a way to make it easier to say – so a few of us dubbed ourselves the “McEye” Tribe. That was the phonetic pronunciation. While it never really caught on, it worked […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:04+00:00February 25th, 2016|Categories: Announcements, Business, Life, Marketing|Tags: mca-i, professional association, SD MediaPros, video production|

Facebook as another top distribution channel for video ads

Just ran across an article discussing how to use Facebook as another area of distribution and why you should consider it. Apparently YouTube is still the king, but Facebook is gaining ground.

The folks at ReelSEO make the case for advertisers to use multiple sources with YouTube first and Facebook second. What strikes me is how complicated it is for advertisers to find any common way of analyzing the results. The technology is changing so fast that each new iteration brings new tracking metrics and ways of paying for your ads – clicks, time spent watching, what constitutes a view so that you know what you are going to be charged, etc. This article has links to explanations of current methods.

But the bulk of the article is on how to maximize the effectiveness of your video ads for Facebook.

Their first […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:04+00:00February 4th, 2016|Categories: Advertising, Announcements, Business, Marketing, Technology|Tags: ReelSEO|

Simply Simplify

Most of my adult life has been spent accumulating stuff – tangible and intangible. Lots of stuff. Cluttering up my physical, mental and emotional space. Most of us have stuff – lots of stuff. (I feel like George Carlin! If you have never heard this bit from him, check it out below. A little bit ‘o swearing, but pretty tame compared to most modern comics.)

Anyway, we all have a lot of stuff. We go through our stuff at times, weeding through our stuff and donating it to our favorite thrift store. Sorting through data stuff – deleting or archiving. All of this activity opens up space for more new stuff to gather.

Sometimes we don’t have a chance to decide which stuff to get rid of. Like when your external hard drive crashes and all the stuff on it is gone for good.

Yeah, that […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:04+00:00January 12th, 2016|Categories: Business, Life, Musings, Technology|Tags: accumulation, George Carlin, hard drive crash, Stuff|

Eyeballs! How many eyeballs are seeing your video?

How do you know if the video you just created is getting seen and (probably even more important) getting the results you want? View count? Reach? Engagement?

First you have to know what you want your video to do and who you want to see it. When I was producing videos for General Dynamics, we had to be the sanity check for so many of our internal clients who came down to our “hidden film factory” wanting a video. After a detailed conversation to establish the what and the who, many times the client didn’t actually need a video to get their message to their particular audience. But when a video was produced, we spent a lot of our pre-production time hashing out these details.

This was in a time period before the Internet, so collecting data on the effectiveness of the video (or film) […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:04+00:00December 12th, 2015|Categories: Business, Marketing|Tags: measuring effectiveness, metrics, voiceover talent, Wistia|

Yes, we have no bananas…

“Yes, We Have No Bananas” (the Louis Prima version here in this link) says…

He just “yes”es you to death, and as he takes your dough He tells you
“Yes, we have no bananas
We have-a no bananas today
We’ve string beans, and onions
Cabashes, and scallions,
And all sorts of fruit and say
We have an old fashioned tomato
A Long Island potato But yes, we have no bananas
We have no bananas today”

How does this apply to our business? Bananas = Time.

While I don’t have empirical evidence of this, most voiceover people can usually balance all the projects that show up on their “doorstep” and meet client deadlines. Particularly if you are doing self-directed short form work.

However, there are times when you are actually too busy to take on another project on any given day or week. In most cases, the client can wait for you to work it […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:04+00:00November 15th, 2015|Categories: Business, Communication, Negotiating|Tags: bananas, running your business, time allocation|

Careful What You Ask For

WoVo is an association of voiceover professionals (both union and non-union) seeking to inform and educate about best practices, standards for ethical conduct and professional expertise. It has an online casting engine that features ONLY vetted professional voices, unlike the company being discussed in this blog post.

Remember the commercial actors strike in 2000? Pay-per-Play was one of the big things the union was asking for. The business has never really been the same.

According to a white paper published by Villanova University the convergence of TV and the Internet was the “core” issue. The unions were aware of the technical tsunami approaching, that the distribution of the content was forever changing. Not the actual work, but the delivery of the product.

It is hard to predict the future, but being responsive to changes so that you don’t get so far […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:04+00:00November 6th, 2015|Categories: Announcements, Auditioning, Business, Marketing, Technology|

Are you an Independent Contractor? Maybe. Maybe not.

Early radio days – KCOE-FM. Their tools, their schedule. MY MIX!

If you are not being paid W2 wages, then you may fall into the category of self-employed, freelance, or independent contractor. Or, you may simply be being paid incorrectly. If this is the case, then don’t be surprised when the red flag goes up and the IRS comes knocking.

The Business Dictionary defines independent contractor this way…(I added the bold.)

Self-employed person (architect, consultant, engineer, etc.) who provides certain services to a second-party called the principal (or client or owner), or to a third-party on behalf of the client. An independent contractor is not under the control, guidance, or influence of the client and, unlike an employee, does not owe a fiduciary duty. The client neither deducts the payroll (or the withholding) taxes from payments to the independent contractor, […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:05+00:00October 24th, 2015|Categories: Business, Marketing|

Smarty or Arty?

It’s nice to be smart – even a little smart. Because, as it turns out – “intelligence only gets you so far when it comes to creativity.”

Intelligence is focused on the details – add a little experience – and creativity leaps off from there.

Add a touch of luck (preparation meets opportunity) and the level of success can be unbounded.

How did I get here?
Sometimes, I feel a little guilty about the fact that without a lot of effort I have made myself a fine little creative life – one I never really planned to have.

Oh, I know I did a little planning as I started to see opportunities, but it seems as though it was just one foot in front of the other following my instincts and ending up here. My experiences along the way influenced which of the […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:05+00:00September 7th, 2015|Categories: Business, Life, Musings|

What Does it Cost for a Voiceover?

Several times a month I will get an email from a potential new client or an old client asking me how much would it cost to record – say 2 minutes of audio. That’s all. No additional details.

Intellectually I think we all know that this is akin to asking how much does it cost to paint a house. There are so many particulars involved that it isn’t possible to answer that question without asking a few questions in return. The more information you can provide in the initial email, the better, especially if you have a deadline that requires a quick response.

In the case of the house, you need to know how big it is. How many levels. How many windows. What kind of surface. How much prep needs to be done. What kind of paint. What kind of budget does […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:05+00:00August 27th, 2015|Categories: Business, Negotiating|Tags: budget, Business, estimate, negotiation, voiceover|

Predicting The Hot New Flavors of Video Advertising

No one can predict the future. Well, a few people have correctly predicted the future. In 1909 Nikola Tesla predicted that we would be carrying personal wireless devices. But in general it is interesting and frequently amusing to read predictions from 100 years ago – even predictions from 10 years ago. And the way technology is changing – even trying to predict what will be happening a year from now is daunting.

The best you can do is study what is happening now and try to respond as quickly as possible to try to ride the wave and then keep checking for the next wave. For example, video advertising. Will it be short and sweet (like a “vine”) or more traditional or will it go for the interactive approach.

We can see that video is not going away – so […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:05+00:00August 21st, 2015|Categories: Advertising, Business, Technology|Tags: commercials, future|