promo clip

[Mario Morris]

On a limited budget what is the best way to produce a promo clip and how long should it be? Is producing a dvd an absolute? What will festival organisers/committees accept as a promo clip?

I'm a bit useless the jargon so if you can spell it out it would be much appreciated!

Mario

[Isabella]

We have a one minute version and a four minute version - usually people either want your whole show or only a very short video. We send it on dvd when we absolutely have to, but we mostly refer people to watch it on our site, because it's so much easier and cheaper to do it that way!

Our video is a combination of footage shot by professional videographers who happened to be at the festival or at our show, and footage from a good-quality personal video camera belonging to one of my partners. My partner did the editing herself on her mac.

You can usually get a local pro to shoot your whole show with two cameras for about US$400-500 if all you need is the raw footage. Edited and finished, it can be done for under US$1000, and paying more doesn't always get you better quality. We consistently get better footage from local amateurs who give us tapes than from the pros we hire - in fact, we recently hired a video guy recommended by a festival who ended up sending his newest camera person who had great difficulty following the action even after we repeatedly told her, keep the camera on, keep following the action, film it like a football game. Waste of money, but we got great footage from a hobby video guy who just liked our show and wanted to tape it.

So yeah.

[Mario Morris]

Thanks for being so generous in your reply.
Mario

[Isabella]

Any time Thanks for hauling my gear from Dublin to London!

[jesus]

something to keep in mind

My experience is that producers like to see how you transition from one 'trick" to the next, because thats where the show really lies.
So think of that when you edit down.

[Mario Morris]

Isabella I cant take the praise for that it wasent me!
Mario