An Evening (in the kitchen) at Menton
Behind the scenes at AAA five-diamond restaurant, Boston’s Menton.
From Christine McDermott’s story about Menton in the current issue of AAA Horizons:
“Of the 28,000 restaurants AAA evaluated for 2012, less than one-third of 1 percent received the AAA Five Diamond Award. Menton, which famed chef Barbara Lynch opened two years ago in the Fort Point neighborhood, joins L’Espalier as the only Boston dining establishments to hold this honor.
Restaurants that reach this level are luxurious, with highly acclaimed chefs and imaginative menu selections that use the finest ingredients. But as much as the food is an art form, so is the service. And everyone on the team plays a role.”
A Unified Voice
“RIHCA, the Rhode Island Health Center Association, works to amplify the efforts of the community health centers in providing access to affordable, quality, comprehensive health care. We use our unified voice to advocate on behalf of all Rhode Islanders and assure everyone has a chance to be healthy and well. Our centers serve all, regardless of race, creed, color or economic status and the best that we have to offer is made available to those with the least. We are Rhode Island’s community health centers and, together, we are a core part of the fabric that is the healthcare safety net in the Ocean State.”
A Dad’s Choice
Daniel Converse of Barrington, Rhode Island lost his son Jon in a drinking-related fatality, “I think it happens in every community in the state. I think it happens in every community nationwide. There are parents that do feel they are immune to this. There are parents that may look the other way, that it’s some sort of right of passage for their kids and its not.”
Apple iBook Author and iBooks will change our world, again
Have you seen Apple’s demo video for iBooks and iBooks Author? iBooks is a amazing personal presentation tool. And Author is what you use to build the books for iPads. Look out, Apple is about to revolutionize another industry and change the world we live in.
In the new Multi-Touch book world, “book” becomes a metaphor, like “desktop.” Apple didn’t introduce the desktop metaphor, but it did bring it to the masses (actually a very small percentage of the mass market, but that’s another story) with the Macintosh in 1984. When the desktop metaphor was introduced, you at least still needed a desk. In fact, a whole market for computer-desks born. You won’t need a book to use iBooks.
So what’s in it for a couple video guys? In the demo video the narrator says that when building your book using a template, you just drag and drop your stuff and everything is automatic — “you don’t have to do anything.” So, as much as Apple iBooks Author streamlines the production process, here’s hoping that some of those savings will be peeled off to challenge (hire) content producers and put a lot of creative people back to work.
When everyone can publish — and that’s a good thing — along with some amazingly, creative brilliance — there will be a gazillion of these shitty little book things floating around. That’s a bad thing.
But businesses and organizations and institutions of all kinds will need to do it right. (And we can probably kiss the wedding album business goodbye.) Here’s hoping that iBooks and Author give birth to a new world of opportunity for millions of videographers, designers, writers, editors, photographers, illustrators, info-graphics folks, and on and on. Maybe this is a chance for content to make a come back?
-Scott
A great concept, clever lighting and a load of low-budget creativity
Having just purchased a new Glidetrack slider, I’ve been spending way too much time watching videos (looking for ideas to imitate … to flatter. Ok, steal …) that feature the use of a slider to create some movement and add an interesting dimension to the production. On the Glidetrack blog I found a great behind-the-scenes video about the making of Grolsch beer idents — those short little videos about products that sponsor events on television.
The video creators James Karinejad and Edmund Curtis reveal the clever techniques and low-budget tricks they employed to create the series of high impact idents.
Imagine Narragansett Beer instead of Grolsch:
Searching for keywords to find a videographer for your business video?
“If I wanted to hire a videographer to do business videos what would I search for?” That is the question I asked of Google. I had been looking around trying to find keywords to (maybe) use in an Adwords campaign for this site. But the word “video” quickly brings up so many of the really wrong sites and nobody in business uses the word “multimedia” except folks who are in the multimedia business.
In addition to links to articles titled, So You Want to Work in Movies and 46 Ways to Start a Business With No Money, I found a link to the small business blog at the Toronto Globe and Mail — Want to add video to your website? Maybe it’s time to hire a pro. Now, that’s what I’m talking about.
The piece — the first of a four-part series — by Chris Hanney quickly spells out the pros and cons of hiring a pro versus DIY, quoting people on both sides of that equation. When you hire a pro you can expect a quality video with higher production values, but that quality comes at a price. Do it yourself video comes at a lower cost and greater control over the outcome. Both sides agree that video is a great way to connect with your audience.
The use of video is exploding on the web and Hanney cites eMarketer magazine’s estimate that “U.S. businesses will spend 43 per cent more on video ads in 2012 – still far behind the spending on banner or search ads, but video is predicted to grow three times more rapidly than other formats.”
A sidebar link (Dan Demsky, 5/2/2011) offers “Ten Ways to Enhance Your Company’s Website with Video.” Here’s the list. It’s good stuff so follow the link for the whole shebang:
- The TV approach doesn’t work.
- Get your customers to do the speaking for you.
- Optimize your video content for SEO.
- Invest in premium video content.
- Share other companies’ videos.
- Be consistent.
- Take your customers behind the scenes.
- Make it shareable.
- Have a video on every page.
- Use a video as a customer service desk.
I’m still in the hunt for useful search words. Any suggestions?