Greg Jordan: Mark, thanks for making this time to speak with me.

Marc Silber: You bet.

Greg: Tell me a little bit about the video production work you’ve been doing.

Marc: Well, I’ve been a still photographer for 40-I -don’t-know-how-many years… many years. More than I want to admit, and transitioned to motion video. So I tend to approach videography as a still photographer, and get that frame, and take a look at what the shot is all about. And really, the key thing is telling a story.

So, we shoot a lot of interviews. I like doing interviews because you get this natural rapport. You’re not going from a script. It’s the live thing. You’ve got to work with the human at the other end of things.

But we shoot all sorts of video as well.

Greg: Do you find that companies have interviews that they want to be doing?

Marc: Yes. For instance, it’s pretty common to have the top guy. You want to interview them. You want to interview the CEO. This company is really going to be a reflection of that top guy.

So, we do a lot of interviews with CEOs, to try to get form them, ‘What is the unique quality of this company? What is special about your company?’ And more than a still photograph, you really get inside of the person’s head, their feelings, and the way they approach things.

Greg: When you speak with companies, and when you’re helping with video production, what type of approach do you take?

Marc: The first thing I really try to do is I want to get their vision. It’s not my vision. It’s theirs. I can have my own vision, which could be completely different from what they want.

Greg: Is it scripted? Do you have them have questions prepared ahead of time? Or, is it totally extemporaneous? How does this work?

Marc: As far as an interview?

Greg: Right.

Marc: We definitely prepare the questions ahead of time. The questions have to be really well-thought-out.

Greg: So that’s all done ahead of time?

Marc: That’s all done ahead of time. It looks extemporaneous, but you have to have it all thought out. Because, otherwise, you could weave in the wrong direction. The questions point towards where you want to go. So, you have to have those all figured out.

Greg: And do you find that some things happen naturally during the interview, or is all scripted?

Marc: No. It’s a combination. Usually starting out with scripted questions. And then, somewhere along the line something starts to kind of bubble to the surface. And I usually kind of sit back, and listen, and ask a few more questions about that. Because that’s what we’re looking for.

Greg: Because all of the interviews look so natural it’s hard to believe they’re all scripted. But I guess you have to do that.

Marc: You have to have some direction and focus. But having said that, usually, again, there’s that secret sauce. It’s being able to listen for those points you didn’t script. Because maybe you didn’t even think of it. And, all of a sudden, that becomes the major, dominating part of the interview.

Greg: You mentioned, Marc, that telling a story is important. Can you tell me more about how that scripting process works? What’s the process a company has to go through before they shoot a video?

Marc: OK, well, in shooting a video there’s three stages, no matter what. There’s pre-production. There’s the production, where you actually go out and shoot it. And then there’s post-production, where you’re putting all of your magic in with your editing and so forth.

So, starting off, the pre-production, you have to figure out what this video is about. It has to have a story. It has to go somewhere so the viewer is engaged. And that comes from the planning. That’s not going to happen by itself.

Greg: You write this out? What is that like?

Marc: You write it out. No matter how small this little production is, it has to be thought out.

Greg: I know, from the research I’ve done, that when video is featured on a Web site, that people coming to the Web site are much more likely to take action on whatever you’re talking about.

Marc: We all grew up with TV. We go to movies.

Greg: It’s familiar.

Marc: Yes, it’s familiar. If you said, ‘Hey look, would you rather sit down and read five minutes of text? Or, would you rather sit back and listen to and watch a video for five minutes?’ Everybody’s going to say, ‘I’ll watch the video.’

Greg: Of course.

Marc: Because there’s more information. It’s just this multimedia thing. Some people learn better visually. And some people learn better through their hearing. So if you have both, you have what’s visually enticing, and also there’s a sound track. Then you’ve got both sides covered.

Greg: Right. Marc, what are some of the things companies can do to prepare for their own video?

Marc: Well, right there, they have to prepare for it. So, the best thing to do is–in collaboration with whoever is going to produce it–really think the whole thing through. What, exactly, is the purpose of this video? What do we want it to accomplish? And then, what are the things–the elements–that need to be present to tell that story?

Greg: Where can they find this type of information? Is there a process that they should be thinking about where there are steps that they should be going through?

Marc: I just wrote an Ebook, because I get asked this question so many times. I decided look, I want to educate and share the knowledge I’ve got. Because we’ve done so many videos, it becomes apparent that not everybody… that’s not their job. That’s not their business. They’re running a business which isn’t “how to produce a good video.” The Ebook should fill in all of those missing points.

Greg: OK, Marc, so give us one final tip, one thing that we can keep in mind that’s really going to help our video production process.

Marc: OK, James Cameron said the biggest advice he had for up-and-coming directors was to get a camera and start shooting.

Greg: Just do it.

Marc: Just do it. Same thing for a company that wants to produce a video. Just get out there and get it produced.

Greg: Alright, great. Thank you very much.

Marc: You bet. Thank you, Greg.