(read original source from the Times-Herald) by Carl Rotenberg (Photo by Christine Reckner/Times Herald Staff)

NORRISTOWN — A Norristown marketing company specializing in video productions was hired Tuesday night by Norristown council to document 14 Norristown Bicentennial events and produce two promotional videos.Crystalline Studios six-page, March 20 response to a “request for proposals” detailed how the company will cover the Bicentennial events and edit them into the two video products. The production work will include two days of interviews with Norristown people, editing and the delivery of two videos totaling 10 minutes of running time.

The $16,750 contract will be financed from Norristown’s enterprise zone marketing funds, said Gabriela Ibarra-Prete, the Norristown business development coordinator.
The first video will be used on Norristown.org’s website, in social media and in presentations to outside investors. The second video will include all of the scheduled Bicentennial events for seven months in 2012.

Matt Conant, the creative director of Crystalline Studios, had already been gathering video recordings at the Bicentennial kick-off at Elmwood Park, the spring carnival at the former Kennedy-Kenrick High School and the “Day of the Child” event at Gotwals Elementary School on Monday morning. Conant and additional videographers will also cover the Norristown Arts Hill Festival, International Festival on West Marshall Street, the Bike Race at Elmwood Park, Juneteenth Day, Gospel Concert, July 4 parade, Bocce tournament, Mexican Independence Day celebration and the Pennsylvania State Firemen’s Convention and parade.

A second videographer will be assigned to the Arts Hill, International Festival, Bike Race, July 4 parade and Firemen’s Convention, according to the proposal.

“The video will present Norristown through a series of interviews and additional footage gathered from Bicentennial events as an exciting and diverse town,” the proposal said, “and emphasizes the many advantages of making a home, business and life in Norristown.”

We recently wrapped production and post-production on three promotional videos for The Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia through Weston Sound & Video. One of the videos we mentioned already, an interview with composer Andrea Clearfield. The second was an interview with Tsering Jurme, the President of the Tibetan Association of Philadelphia about the types of Eastern rituals that the audience can expect to see at the April 29th concert. The third was a conversation with Artistic Director Alan Harler, getting his take on the mix of the Eastern and Western ritual music being performed in that concert. You can check them all out on The Mendelssohn Club’s YouTube Channel. Or check out the Andrea Clearfield interview above.

On March 31st, 2012, Crystalline Studios’ home town of Norristown, PA celebrated its official Bicentennial. At the same time, they realized that in their 200-year history, they didn’t have an official archive of press material to draw from for promotion. And as a town devoted to arts, culture, and economic development, having that might not be a bad idea to help draw the next generation of artists and arts-lovers. the Bicentennial event kicked off a summer’s worth of activities with a concert and presentations at Elmwood Park, while local landmark Elmwood Park Zoo offered free admission to Norristown residents and discounted admission to all visitors. Despite a cold and ugly day, weather-wise, the events went off without a hitch, and Crystalline documented everything with videography and still photography, like the image to the right. This project is still developing, but in all likelihood, we will be working over the course of the summer to capture many more Norristown events, including May’s Arts Festival and Bike Race, and interview some of the locals to build a pair of promotional videos for Norristown’s website, and possible TV ads.

Lastly, this past weekend, we took a road trip to Anime Boston with filmmaker Robbie Bryan of Good To Be Seen Films to create a video promoting his exciting new feature film “Black Hat,” the story of a 15-year-old Otaku whose dream is to attend Anime Boston and meet her favorite director. Black Hat is running a contest on Facebook and Twitter wherein they will be flying in 3 fans at random to the World Premiere of the film. Over the course of six hours, we spoke with dozens of cosplayers, and had them record the lines to explain the rules of the contest. It was a ton of fun, and honestly unlike any other production we’ve worked on. Our animation department saw the footage and decided to take a crack at making some sexy new titles for it to amp up the excitement yet another notch. Look for the final video here soon, and be sure to like the Facebook page for this project (Wrong In All The Right Ways).

Preserve your memories! Crystalline Studios can transfer your memories to a digital file for $25 a tape. Have a lot of tapes? We’ll even pick up the tapes from your home and return them safely back for no additional cost*. This transfer will checked for glitches and gaps by a trained professional – not an automated machine – and transferred to an archival digital data file. This file can be stored on any computer, backed up multiple times, and shared with friends and family! Contact a video tape transfer pro before it’s too late.

*Within 50 miles of Philadelphia, PA, 10 tape minimum.

Want to embarrass your kids? Crystalline Studios can edit and upload clips you select to YouTube, Facebook, or your favorite social media site for a small additional fee (varies based on volume of edits & tapes). Contact us to help you upload your videos today!

After all, what’s a better viral video hit than a cute burping baby or uncle Bob falling into the wedding cake?

Having filmed the wonderful performance of “Hypnotik: The Seer Will Doctor You Now” by the New Stage Theatre Company at the Theater for the New City in NYC, Crystalline returned to our humble Norristown, PA offices to work on a project for a keystone of the local arts community, The Norristown Educational Theatre, headed by Gene Frank. Both Frank and Crystalline’s Creative Director Matt Conant are on the board of Norristown Arts Hill, working to revitalize this burgeoning district of Montgomery County with arts and cultural events.

NET worked with us to extract some stills and audio from an old VHS tape and turn them into a soundtrack and program image for an upcoming performance. We extracted the video to DVD, imported to computer, and pulled the audio tracks into Final Cut Pro. At that point, we had the task of both extending the length of the track and removing a pesky announcer’s voice that often drowned out the performers. Some creative cutting, condensing, crossfading, and looping later, and we had ourselves an 11 minute CD, plenty of time to cover the pre-show intro, between-act set changes and final bows.

This weekend, we’re back in the editing chamber to build another pre-show musical sequence and a commercial for air on your favorite online networks. More soon! Have a great weekend, everybody.

The play is titled “Hypnotik: The Seer Will Doctor You Now” and features a marvelously talented cast. Synopsis follows:

In an intimate theater, a showman clairvoyant brings his subjects to the stage and promises his audience a spectacle of “raw shame.” One by one he entrances his chosen ones, leading them to reveal their most abject and malignant drives. But when no redemptive moment follows, the audacious seer must confront his own worst visions.

Hypnotik concludes its run this Sunday, January 15th, so this weekend is your last chance to catch it! Tickets are available through New Stage’s website. Crystalline Studios crew will be documenting Thursday night’s performance with three cameras (two manned, one unmanned master shot), after having scouted it this past weekend for lighting, sound, and blocking cues.

We’re excited to be working with this wonderful group, and we look forward to bringing the play to life for screen as well.

Photo by Markus Hirnigel, Collage by Jessica Sofia Mitrani

It’s a reasonable question. You want to make a video. Before anybody’s time is wasted, you want to make sure you’re in the ballpark. Unfortunately, unless the company does live events like weddings or bar mitzvahs where there is a consistency and a minimization of variables, it’s one of the most complex questions you can ask a video company because there is no such thing as a “simple video.”

As for us at Crystalline Studios, we do some live events, but we mostly do commercials, DVDs, industrials, and promotional videos that vary widely in scope and complexity. While I would love to be able to give everybody a boilerplate answer, the question is a lot like asking “How much is a car?” Without knowing about your needs and budget, the sales person won’t know if you want to see a fuel-efficient sedan, sports utility vehicle, or luxury sports car. Most people would agree, doing your researching and getting the best value for your money is far better than blindly purchasing a “lemon” just because it was the cheapest 30-year old clunker on the lot.

But what if  you only have money for a “clunker”? On the low end, you could probably make yourself a video by purchasing a $50 handicam, having your friend hit record, and uploading the raw footage to YouTube. Keep in mind, no matter what it says on the fancy camera box or how good of an actress your cousin Shelly is, shooting on a handicam will not give the same results as using a trained videography cast and crew with professional equipment and editing software. Without a professional microphone and audio technician, you might also have problems clearly hearing your message with only the in-camera mic – especially if you shoot outdoors or in a crowded room. Last, but not least, it is highly likely that your inexpensive camera and free editing software like iMovie will not be able to meet many commercial broadcast standards.

If you are just looking to make”podcast-style” videos and vlogs, that’s okay! If you’ve never used a video camera before, we highly suggest paying a professional help you set up your first podcast. We offer ”handi-cam consultation” services that help train you how to mic, light, shoot, edit, and upload podcast-style videos so you can shoot “decent” podcast until you’ve ready to hire a professional company for the “real deal”.

So, how much is “the real deal” commercial? On average, a national commercial done through an ad agency now costs about $325,000 to produce. That does not include the cost of running the ads on television, which varies from around $50 per spot to millions of dollars (think SuperBowl). Hollywood music videos usually start around $100,000, and top out over a million. The good news is, being based near Philadelphia and having accumulated an extremely talented cadre of people we work with, we can do what Hollywood does with similar production values at a small fraction of that cost. Video productions at Crystalline Studios vary from $3,000-$120,000 in range.

Why such a wide scope? Just as the cost of a car is based on variables like car size, engine speed and performance, features like four wheel drive, cruise control, and anti-lock brakes, and extras like seatwarmers and little TVs built into the headrests, video costs are also immensely variable, based on the type of video in question, and what features are important to you. A one-take shot of your CEO talking to the camera for a TV commercial will likely cost less than a music video with five different locations, 50 choreographed extras, and fireworks.

Even given these parameters, there is always The Project Triangle to consider when evaluating your video company. Especially true in creative industries, there is good, there is fast, and there is cheap. You can have two of the three, but never the whole trifecta. If a company is offering you the trifecta… take it as a warning flag and get out ASAP. Their definition of “good” is likely not yours.

On our end, we have become pretty good at offering the best value for the money, but we never want to be the company sacrificing quality just to give the lowest possible quote. Some companies will, and if you’re making your decision based solely on cost, you’re going to be rolling the dice with your end product.

So before we can answer the cost question, we usually request some project information first.

Factors that affect cost in the video world include length of the project, number of on-screen talent, number and type of locations, complexity of script, target audience, and complexity of post-production including music, animation, graphics, special effects, sound effects, and overall speed of edits (one long take for one minute will be far less time spent in post than fifty quick cuts).

Of course, how much of the workload is dealt with on your end versus becoming the onus of the production company will affect cost as well. Sometimes a client will say to us “Beginning to end, we don’t want to lift a finger, let us know what it costs.” So be it, we are happy to do that. But if you’re looking to keep expenses down, pre-planning and utilizing available resources are among the best ways to do it before commencing production. If you as a client have written the script already, that saves us as the video company time in pre-production (though some mild touch-up may still be needed). If you have perfect locations pre-secured (and insured), that saves us time and money scouting locations and potentially gathering permits. Again, sometimes there will be unforeseen events, such as the location being perfect for talent, but not large enough to accommodate proper lighting, or that crane shot you really want. All of these things require open discussion and planning. 

We’ve found one of the most helpful questions we can ask a client these days is this one:

Do you have any examples of OTHER projects you’ve seen that you would like yours to look like?

Thanks to YouTube and other video sites, you almost always do these days. Most people who approach us about a video in fact have a very specific video in mind that they saw, that inspired them to search for us in the first place. Some of our favorite clients will send us links to a half dozen other commercials or music videos they’ve seen and loved, which lets us know a lot about what they consider important in a project.

If the video company has been doing it long enough, they should be able to examine another project and break down the costs of each component to try to help you better understand the expenses involved. Sometimes things that look simple and minor, or even went unnoticed in the initial video (like jib, dolly, or steadicam shots) may be big deals. Likewise, sometimes factors you might expect to be deal-breakers (like actors), are not as expensive as you might fear. Allowing your video company to hire professional on-camera talent will generally pay off in droves in the final product compared to what you might get with amateurs.

If the client is going for something totally unique or has no examples to show, we usually ask questions like these before we give can accurately give you a quote:

1) What kind of project is it? (TV commercial? music video? film noir? promotional video for Thailand?)

2) Do you have a concept already in mind, or do you want to sit down and brainstorm some potential concepts?

3) How many talent (actors) will be on screen total? How many will be on screen at one time?

4) Do you have all your talent (and do they have any experience on camera), or would we be providing any/all?

5) How long is the script (or song, if it’s a music video)? If there is no script, how long do you want the running time to be?

6) How many locations do you envision? What types of locations are they? (Beach house? Office? Sports car? The moon?) Do you have them already or would we be finding them?

7) Do you need music? Animation? Graphics? Special effects?

I always prefer to talk this stuff through in a phone conversation or in person, because any answer may uncover two more questions that we then need to get to the bottom of, and if done via email, it may be an extended chain or replies taking up time that could better be spent writing up a proposal and getting to work (or politely saying our best wishes and calling it a day)!

So if you are in the market for a video, prepare some answers to the above before you contact the video company. Most video companies are not out there to trick you or gouge you, they simply need more information to answer your question and do their jobs. They are asking because, as with any creative industry, the sky is literally the limit. The video company simply wants to make your project the best it can be without breaking the bank. If you can’t afford Will Smith, don’t act as though you can. Because the company will write up a proposal which will be instantly rejected by you as outrageous, and then you have to start all over again.

Don’t be afraid to shop around, but once you’ve located a company you like, and you are confident they are capable of meeting your project’s needs, don’t be afraid to let them know what those needs are. Like all other productive business relationships, approach it from a perspective of trust, and it will pay off, time and time again.

As our company goes, once we have the sort of information listed above, we can work with you from there to determine the perfect way to accomplish your project that fits into your budget. And if we can’t, we’ll at least be able to tell you that.

Happy videomaking!

Matt Conant, Creative Director
Crystalline Studios
Commercial Video & Animation Production

Holidays Deals are happening at Crystalline Studios!

Free Animation!

Receive a free Classic Animation with purchase of any new commercial, industrial, or music video, 30 seconds or more! (a $500 value!)

Contact Matt@CrystallineStudios.com with your video needs for a FREE estimate.  Make sure you mention the “free holiday animation deal”  so we can bring your company’s name to life.

Here’s are some examples of Classic Animations we’ve created for our clients:

view more>>>

*Free Animation Deal Expires December 31, 2011. Additional purchase of a custom video production or animation over 30 seconds required. As always, our regular clients are welcomed to use these discounts on new projects, but cannot take additional discounts on in-progress or completed projects.

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10% Off Custom Logos

Receive 10% off  Logos! Custom designs, includes minimum of 12 options plus two revisions and full graphic pack for web, print & more!  $250 now $225.

Contact Stephanie@CrystallineStudios.com to get started! Hurry – this discount expires December 31, 2011.

Examples of past client logos:

view more>>

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Stay in the Loop

Make sure you fan us on our new Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for even more Upcoming Deals & Promotions!

Happy Holidays from all of us!

Matt, Stephanie, Joe, Tita, Jeremy, Eric, Caroline, Aislinn, Rachel, Devin
& the Crystalline Studios/Weston Sound Team

Video Production, Animation & Graphic Design for the Arts & Small Businesses in PA, NJ, DE, MD, FL and beyond

CleanItSupply’s own Dan Dillon took the lead role and we filmed a number of commercials – all one-take with no cutaways – in their offices and warehouse. CleanItSupply specializes in cleaning supplies for home and businesses, and they pride themselves on their quality customer service and on not inflating the cost of their products to hide the cost of shipping.

Check them out! And look for more from them very soon.

Crystalline delivered, and the final video included two days of shooting – one at Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill and one at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square – and some quick editing to put together a cute, engaging video and hype people up for the 2011 Conference!

The clients were wildly pleased. In the words of our contact, upon showing the video to the rest of the APGA decision-makers: “Quite frankly, I am getting tired of hearing the following: ‘It’s great, excellent work, better than the [example] video, perfect, love it, awesome, does exactly what we wanted, etc, etc. ’ Thanks again to you all for the phenomenal job.”