The Music and Audio Guide Video Is Finished?
It’s taken the whole weekend to finish the post production, but I’ve just posted the first draft of the pitch video for the new “Music and Audio: A User Guide To Better Sound” on YouTube. The actual campaign has been delayed for one week so that I can complete a bunch of other chores associated with the Kickstarter page. But they say that having a compelling video can be a make or break when it comes to engaging an audience. I’ve seen lots of crowdsourcing videos. They range from highly produced, professionally shot, big budget affairs with professional actors and lots of fancy motion graphics to the ones that Gavin Fish of Light Harmonic did from behind his desk for the Geek line of products (which raised a ridiculous amount of money!). The Pono pitch video was nicely done and featured a whole bunch of Neil Young’s celebrity buddies talking about the Pono player. I went solo on this effort…my son and I shot it in the studio. The editing, motion graphics, color correction, writing, and delivery are all me. So without further ado, here’s the video:
Figure 1 – The first draft of the KS pitch video.
There is a growing industry of professionals (and some not so professional) that will produce and manage your entire campaign. You come up with the idea, build a prototype, and they’ll raise as much money as you think it will take to launch your product. I’ve been in a meeting with one of the most successful agencies in the business. They’ve had a 98% success rate…that’s pretty impressive when you’re talking about raises in the high six figures and even 7 figures. They have a system in place to maximize the return on your investment. One of my students showed me another site that helps musicians and bands develop campaigns in support of their fund raising goals. People raise money for some really cool stuff or some really dumb things (a guy raised over $40k with a potato salad campaign!).
These professionals usually charge a fee (a substantial fee) and take a percentage of the funds raised. That’s how Kickstarter makes money too. They take 5% of the amount raised and 3% goes to the credit card people. If the agencies take another 5-9%, it starts eating into the total.
Part of the strategy is to come out of the box with a flurry of support within the first 48 hours. If you can garner enough support early, the organizations (Kickstarter or Indiegogo) will feature your campaign on their home page or in an email newsletter. You want to be one of the “trending” campaigns. I don’t hold a lot of hope in becoming a “trending” Kickstarter campaign but for those interested in receiving the book and disc, please add your name to my database as soon as possible. You can visit: Music and Audio Guide and enter your email or simply send me an email directly. My address is mwaldrep@aixmediagroup.com.
The support so far has been very encouraging. Please share this post with your family and friends, share links, and write comments on web forums with links back to the “Music and Audio Guide” site.
Thanks for all the help. And please share your comments and criticisms of the video…I’m pretty happy with it.
Very nicely done! One nitpick, though: @ 1:39 of the video, “Analog & Digital Recording.” has a period at the end, whereas the rest of the bullet points do not.
Thanks…fixed and will repost.
Mark, great content. A few presentation comments if I may. First the lighting keeps your eyes in shadow which hurts your pitch’s persuasiveness. Your vocal pacing and color is too monotonic in my opinion. While you can definitely go too far, your presentation is very matter of fact and does not convey much excitement about the opportunity to bring high resolution audio and knowledge to me. Interestingly you impart this better in your daily posts. I have seen you livened you do better there so maybe you just need to bring a few people in. Just my 2 cents and best of luck with the campaign.
The video is not going to be reshot…I do understand the comments.
Good intro to the project. One nitpick: at about 0:18 the graphic on the right says “A Guide To Better Sound” but the VO and text on bottom left says “A User Guide To Better Sound”. In the interest of perfection, I think they should match 🙂
I’ll fix that.
Great but the title of the You tube video should be self explanatoy. As it is”Full MAAG Pitch 169″ is meaningless for sharing the video.
Good point.
Found this incredibly useful site about flagship headphones that would come in handy for anyone not wanting to waste their money on voodoo sales pitches. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wi8M-HSeK0JF33P-5ypydQjQ4OshRQhvWM0IX2h0NQ8/edit#slide=id.g25f83b2cd_0189
Since you’ve shot the video now this is probably moot, but anyway..
1. I think compositions off a bit, you need to be further to your right in line with the rule of thirds.
2. You don’t appear to be lit quite well enough.
3. Your background’s cluttered, I know you’ve gone for the studio setting, but it doesn’t quite look right – composition again.
4. The photo you chose for the keynote presentation is too sombre.
5. At 1.05 the camera’s obviously moved, but not intentionally I suspect, which ironically is more noticeable than a blatant shift.
I think the above takes away some of the professionalism; other than that the video’s ok. I assume the final video will be at a maximum resolution of 1080 30p?
Dave, you’re not making my life any easier. I’ve tweaked some more today and will be uploading the final version tomorrow. I’ve gotten a lot of very good feedback…thanks. The resolution of KS is 640×480 4:3 letterbox…curiously. The master that I have is 960 x 540…standard definition so that I could zoom in etc. No 1080 30 p.