This is The Biz Media’s head of production, Justin Brennon Smith, trying out the office’s new T2i with a manual focus on the most feisty of subjects, Yoshi.

The lense being used in this video is not designed for moving subjects, so focusing takes a lot of… focus.

It took this long?  Really?   A new service come about that will give easy access to music for YouTube uploaders.  It’s cheaper than stock music and far far FAR superior.

Friendly Music is what the Internet has needed for a long while, an easy and fast source for legit music to be used in personal productions.  For obvious reasons the music supplied on Friendly Music cannot be used for commercial purposes.

If it wasn’t for the fact that The Biz Media employs music virtuoso Andrew Cariboni, we would be all over Friendly Music for our personal projects.

While the shakes weren’t felt at The Biz Media office — we work in a concrete box — The Biz Media writer Josh Saltzman was rattled while at home.  He captured great footage of the whole ordeal.

Unmarketing, AKA Scott Stratten, served up a stellar keynote without notes, a mic or even notes to an enthusiastic crowed on the roof of the Merchandise Building in Toronto.  Scott’s blunt and in-your-face approach to social media was appreciated by most everyone, even the most jaded in social media/ communications professionals present.

Scott manages to explain in a colourful and entertaining manner that perhaps social media isn’t for some people…  and some people are idiots.

The Biz Media thanks all who were able to make it out to our first #TheBizMedia Sessio;  you are all wicked awesome.

Here is proof of how video can be used as a KILLER sales tool.

We made a demo video for a prototype product called “Umbrella Sling” made by World Hero Inc. The purpose of this video was to show the product in action in a quick, concise and stylish fashion. The video was played on a laptop in a board room of HBC executives. Two months later the product has been picked up by The Bay and our little laptop video originally cut for around eight product buyers is being seen by over 200,000 people per week in Vancouver. Check out the clip below to see our video in action in the heart of downtown Vancouver:

Video let this great product see the light of day.

How are you using video to better communicate your message?

Here is a picture of Ben showcasing the magazine that was given out at The Art of Management conference. We had a full page ad in the magazine and while print is not normally our cup of tea – we thought this was a pretty good use of a page. By complete fluke we chose a similar font to the Marcus Buckingham article next to our ad. I’m sure many people read our article thinking Marcus Buckingham wrote it. Mwahahha!

He didn’t though.

Dima Beznosov, our good friend and regular script/copywriter wrote it and the art direction was done by Alessandro Würgler.

We posted a blog a few weeks back showing one of our clients videos. In hindsight we don’t feel it was the best example of how to have fun with your video content. The same client recently did a similar video but for a drastically different demographic – so once again, meet LITTLE ALAN SMITHSON. This time Alan shows his true colours for the Star Productions DJ website. Alan is always looking for fun and unique ways to incorporate video content into his marketing – you can learn a lot from him!

Star Productions DJ website

Other than website video production and our business stuff – Justin and I are also involved in some documentary film making. This video is something Justin cut together to promote a film we worked on with our good friend – Director Billie Mintz. We have been as close as family since we shot The Ponzi Scheme with Billie in January of 2008.

This was one of the greatest experiences of our lives. Working with an experienced director for the first time taught us many invaluable skills that are ingrained permanently in us now. Billie taught us film making skills that we find are often lacking in the corporate video world. Everyday we would be up before the sun went up to film the sunrise and we would film all the way into the dead of night. We would always eat quickly and while on the move so we wouldn’t miss anything and we learned a lot about the art of the interview by watching Billie and interviewing him ourselves.

The Ponzi Scheme is a story of a great journey Billie took in order to seek justice. Behind the scenes was the birth of our own great story. Our business was conceived here, our skills were born here and a life long friendship was created.

The Ponzi Scheme is in post-production. Enjoy this peek at it for now.

To stick with the trend of posting about people we’re fortunate enough to work with – this weeks blog post is about JUZD lead designer and founder Jing Liu. We first met Jing at a birthday celebration for Fergie from Black Eyed Peas in Miami and stayed in touch with him ever since. He founded his clothing label JUZD on the premise that whenever you put on one of these all bamboo designer shirts you’ll feel JUZD! (juiced) What’s amazing about Jing is that he truly believes that his shirts will have this effect on people – that becoming an alpha-male is as simple as buying one of his shirts from Holt Renfrew, putting it on and hitting the nightclubs. To some people this may sound completely crazy but not a word of a lie – if you put on one of these shirts you do feel JUZD. It’s amazing! Jing gave Justin and I our own JUZD shirts as a very kind gift and whenever we put them on it completely changes the way we look and feel. It may be a placebo effect happening because deep down inside we want the quick fix – but regardless… it works!

EUREKA!

I can go on and on about how amazing the material is but you can read about it yourself here:

http://www.juzd.com/benefitsofbamboo.php

The video attached is a little piece Justin put together for JUZD. A few JUZD models got all JUZD up and filmed themselves acting like ninjas at Circa and Justin made this cool video with their footage. It’s a good testament to the style and vibe of JUZD Bamboo.

THE BIZ MEDIA BLOG #3 – ALEX IKONN is LORD and MASTER of THE BIZ MEDIA SOCIAL MEDIA from The Biz Media on Vimeo.

There is great value to social media. I’m not writing this to try to explain why or how it works because it’s been proven by bloggers and other writers a million times over. I am writing this to give thanks to a man who cared enough to spend some time with The Biz Media, giving us incites into the world of social media . Because of him, we have been making more of an effort to post blogs, tweets and in general to develop a social media presence that will help us as a business.

We would like to take a minute to thank our social media mentor who offered to sit down with us and show us the ropes in this social media space. Anyone can do social media – but it takes a real expert to do it effectively. Thanks to this man, The Biz Media has a new outlook on how our own video content can have more reach online.

Alex Ikonn, we would like to swear you in as lord and master of The Biz Media’s social media initiatives. You are a friend and a trusted advisor. Thanks for the insight and we’ll do all we can to keep up with your game plans.

Most of us know at least a few people who are avid bloggers, tweeters and facebookers. Pay attention to these people – learn from them. If you are trying to have a stronger presence online then social media really is something you have to understand and excel in. Most web 2.0 mavens love sharing their knowledge and insights and I recommend sitting down with one to pick their brain. There is a lot more to it than what’s on the surface. Having said that it’s also important not to be a facebook newsfeed litterer. There is a fine line between being informative and annoying.

Thanks Alex, for giving us a helping hand.