We tracked down The Association’s President, Fletcher Murray, (OK, he was in the next room) and talked to him about his life’s work and dedication to the Canon Boot Camp.

What do you do here at The Association?

I’m the President, Director, and Producer here at The Association. I started out as a still photographer and then as a DP. I love imagery, and at the root of everything, I love to communicate with pictures.

When did you become interested in film what was your first film job?

Well, I made my first film when I was eight-years-old. My career turned upwards in college when I did two films. The first film won a festival. I made another one the next year and it won, too.  A producer from ABC saw the film festival results and was intrigued, and thought that he could improve their TV ratings. At the time [ABC news] was ranked number two in the market and they wanted to go for number one. They thought that if they put an interesting little piece at the end of the news each night it would draw more viewers than just more of the same format.

So I was hired to be sort of an Ansel Adams, film student, Charles Kuralt, film guy [laughs].  And so my only directive was “Go shoot cool, unusual stuff and we’ll put it on the news and see how it works.” For example, I would shoot slow motion shorts of  kids running in the park in the fall with a telephoto lens, playing in the leaves. I would interview toy makers and people who collected historic guitars, human interest stories like that. They pretty much gave me free reign, so I really liked it there.

What is your favorite camera?

I love the Canon HDSLR 5D because it puts so much in your hands for twenty-five hundred dollars. Plus you don’t have to buy film, you don’t have to pay for the processing or the telecine. It can see in low light, which is a lifesaver. The magic things in life happen in areas that aren’t professionally lit by a gaffer, so with a camera this light sensitive, you can come closer to the reality of life. The Canon 5D can shoot up to 1200 ISO. You can shoot fast and the actors are fresh (because they don’t have to wait for the lighting guy to deliver). So it’s made it very magical. You can shoot almost as fast as you can think.

What is the most exciting project you’ve ever done or worked on?

It was a six camera crew shot. I shot the helicopter stuff. We were flying very fast, very low. It was probably my best work. It actually got funding for a movie that was made with Nicolas Cage. He used the piece that I shot for the helicopter company, so that was exciting.

What prompted you to start The Association’s Canon Boot Camp?

Well, there is a fundamental difference between the way we teach and the way a college professor teaches. With a college professor it’s mainly lecture. You just sit and listen for 50 minutes, you may get a chance to ask a question or two, but it’s kind of all about him or her. We assume everyone here wants to learn a skill. The reason people take our boot camp is that they want to be able to pull off a shoot on their own. It’s not about me, the presenter, unless I have a story that applies to what we’re trying to teach them.

Our main purpose is to empower them to make their movie and not screw up [laughs]. So it’s all about them, it’s about their questions; it’s about their confusions. Most people I see doing those sixty-minute PowerPoint shows [other Canon camera classes] don’t even look at the audience. The people could be asleep, yawning, totally baffled, lost, and the presenter just steams forward with their show.

We have three or four people who are trained in the cameras and ready to answer any questions that people have. As soon as a person hits a point when they’re lost we get them back on track. Also, we ask our students to demonstrate what they were just told. We want them to be able to apply their knowledge in the real world. The boot camp is all about the student; we’re just here to help.

To find out more about The Association, custom video production or the Canon Boot Camp, visit our website or call us at 818-841-9660.

We caught up with Tom Myrdhal, our Director of Photography and one of the instructors at our famous Canon camera classes. Tom has been working for The Association for over 14 years. Constantly on shoots in various parts of the world, we’ve never had a chance to sit him down for an informal interview, and find out what he’s been up to during his career with The Association:

Where are you from and how did you get started in film?

I’m a California boy, born in Pasadena. I went to film school at Loyola Marymount and specialized initially in documentary. I made several award-winning projects in my early period, then I went to work for the UN and did projects in Asia. When I came back I got into IATSE. I was an assistant cameraman along with having my own production company in Hawaii, where I worked on series shows and shot documentaries that were pertinent to Hawaii at that time.

After I came back to the United States, I lucked out and got a job with Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin) and started a career that really never stopped. I’ve been with Lockheed Martin for 25 years. I’ve shot projects with the [aircrafts] SR71, 117, F22, and the F35, shooting most of their commercials in the last couple of years and specializing in their product web videos. Everything I’ve been shooting with Lockheed has been with the Mark II 5D. We’ve gotten such good results that Lockheed Martin no longer shoots anything with their agency. We do everything for them, so it’s been a really great experience. We already have over thirty projects lined up for next year.

What do you do here at The Association?

I’m a Director of Photography at The Association. I also help them put together camera packages and help them analyze creative shooting elements in a script they might have.

What’s your favorite camera?

The favorite camera that I’ve been using right now has been the Mark II 5D, and I’m looking forward to this new C300 and other cameras that Canon will be bringing out.

What’s the most exciting project you’ve ever done?

It’s hard to choose, really. I’ve had a good experience shooting Lockheed Martin’s aircraft carriers. I’ve had great experiences shooting the SR 71, which is the CIA aircraft that spied on Russia for 40 years. Airplanes have been a big part of my life. Also, when I was getting my M.A. at Loyola, I was very much involved in the Chicano movement in East LA and with one of the films I did, I ended up going to about eight riots. The last documentary I did for them was the Chicano moratorium when Ruben Salizar was killed. It became sort of the pivotal event between Los Angeles and the Chicano community. I was honored to give them a twelve-minute documentary on that, which became sort of a historic piece for their movement.

What’s so great about the Canon Boot Camp?

It’s the best Canon camera class because it teaches people the basics. They have checklists that the teachers go through with the students on how to set the camera up properly. You end up fully understanding the still camera and video settings so that you won’t end up making a mistake when you go out to shoot something.

What’s really great about this boot camp is that it not only teachers you how the camera works but it also teaches you about the pitfalls and mistakes you can make on the way. I use the 5D because it gives me the best picture, although it’s not very easy to work with. When you take this boot camp you’re going to walk away with the knowledge to use this camera properly.

To find out more about The Association, custom video production or the Canon Boot Camp, visit our website or call us at 818-841-9660.

REALLY Simple Marketing Solutions

This is a series on marketing solutions. Often the simplest solution is the best. Here’s one you might find interesting.

For several decades Alpine and Lamborghini were positioned together as part of their effective marketing plan.  Alpine was launching a new technology and wanted a full-blown TV commercial shot on 35mm.  The agency, Kalis and Savage, derived the creative storyboard in which a Ferrari challenges a Lamborghini to a race.  When the light turns green the Ferrari blazes off into the dark night. The Lambo?  Well he’s more entranced by the music flowing out of the new DDDrive speakers.*

So, The Association’s video production crew set it all up.  Who won?  Ferrari? Lamborghini?  Well, I suppose you could say Alpine won…because the commercial production won multiple awards.

Take a look…

*The DDDrive speaker was an experimental speaker in which magnetic flux was poured into an acrylic mold so that the magnet in the speaker would have greatly improved accuracy in the flux fields created.

The Association’s Canon Boot Camp from fletch murray on Vimeo.

The Association has been leading the way for Canon certification on the HDSLR 5D and 7D. Our Canon Camera Classes have been getting excellent reviews from students who need to learn how to use these incredible cameras fast.

Our assumption is that those signing up for the classes lied their way on to a job, and they need to know by the next Monday how to professionally set up and use their camera. As a result, our Canon Camera Classes are super hands-on. We’ve even  created a special handbook called “Shooting Movies with the Canon HDSLR” to ensure participants are able to have all the fundamentals down.

We even test each participant at the end of the both levels to ensure they fully understand and can execute the skills we teach.

There was an exponential increase in the number of mainstream television shows and feature films utilizing Canon DSLRs in the past two years. Here’s a list of a few examples:

“24″
“True Blood”
“Memphis Beat”
Captain America
“House M.D.”
“The Tonight Show”
“Saturday Night Live”

Anyone interested in getting trained on the Canon DSLR 5D & 7D can find out all about our classes by visiting canonbootcamp.com for the next event dates, or click on the links on the right of this blog for a specific upcoming class date.

In Social Media Marketing an Hour a Day, Dave Evans remarks on one of the reasons a company wouldn’t want to start an online social networking campaign.  Not enough happy customers!  In the online world, it takes seconds to share information with hundreds, even thousands of millions of people.  If your customers mostly don’t have good things to say about your service or product, opening the door to social media and the uncontrolled conversations that occur online could be costly.

Because small business owners tend to do a lot of the work themselves, and the customers often have direct access to the owner, it usually is easier to get good service.   Even custom service.  The result is that the customer tends to be happier and there is a better chance customers will be become Brand Advocates.  Compare this to a franchised operation!  The whole reason for franchising is so you can make a ton of money, in most cases.  Customized service tends to be a little lower on the list of priorities.

Ok, so as a small business owner you probably have more happy customers than your larger competitors.  And this is where your edge is over big business when it comes to corporate social media.  The big companies tend to forget about the past customers and all of their efforts are on gaining new ones.  A great example of this are cell phone companies that give the best deals to the new customer, leaving their long-term customers out in the cold.

Why is this an edge for you?  Well, because in the case of a small business with a high ratio of happy customers, the customers can do the heavy lifting for you in the “new customer” department.  Remember, we are talking about happy customers here.  This edge doesn’t exist if your customers are mostly unhappy with your services.   The happy customers, however, by blogging and tweeting about their experiences, can affect the new customer’s opinion and decision to buy.  Do you research a purchase on Google before you commit?  Well, so do your customers!

Here’s a really simple strategy almost any business owner can use:

A really, really good reason to have a Facebook Fan Page for your business is because it is completely indexed by Google.  One of my past clients was only been on the Internet for about 4 months, with just a Fan Page.  With minimal content, she started showing up on first page of Google when her product was searched for by name.  Ever since we started that Fan Page her phone orders have been steadily increasing as well, mostly from past customers re-ordering.

There is a lot you can do with a Fan page, and it’s free so it’s a good place to start!  As long as you keep your customers happy with good service, keep inviting people to join your page, and interact (read, “listen”) with your customers, you’ll find that in most cases, your customers start marketing for you.  At the very least, you can improve your ranking on Google.

Having a Fan Page doesn’t mean you should avoid getting proper SEO done, or avoid getting a website or even avoid doing marketing and advertising.  All of those tried and true actions are valid and should be done if you can.  But if you can’t afford them, Facebook Fan Pages are a great way to get started.

Anyway, the point is, as a small business owner you have something the big guys don’t have.  YOU.  As long as your customers can easily “share” you with their friends (who are likely in the same demographic as your customer!), they can pioneer in areas you couldn’t reach for lack of a budget or other reasons.  I can’t think of any other medium where it’s easier to share than Social Media and online Social Networking. Ok, maybe preschool. But 4 year olds are probably not the right demographic!

Need a better understanding of the basics of enterprise social media? Check out my free webinar below:

REALLY Simple Marketing Solutions

Often the simplest solution is the best. The Association was hired to provide our corporate video production services for McDonnell Douglas. This custom video production had a specific message requiring a creative solution.

McDonnell Douglas developed the No Tail Rotor helicopter, also known as The NOTAR.  Removing the tail rotor eliminates the danger of walking around behind the helicopter. Since conventional helicopters’ tail rotor blades spin so fast, they virtually disappear – sometimes people walk into them and get the vegomatic treatment. Another big plus of the NOTAR McDonnell Douglas wanted to feature is the system virtually eliminates noise, as the main noise from a helicopter is the tail rotor, not the big blades above the cabin.

The Scene: Historic Old Tucson (scenes of many Western movies).

The shoot day arrives with excellent weather and the video production crew is ready to go. The prospector looks sleepy and the dog is ready to go, although he looks a little “tight”, like a Swiss watch that won’t wind any more. The dog wrangler says that the dog’s not about to freak out, he’s just shivering in the early morning cold. So, we radio in the helicopter.  Here he comes. Roll camera.  The helicopter lands. The helicopter starts to lift off. The dog jumps.

Take Two:  We radio in the helicopter. Roll camera. The helicopter lands. The helicopter starts to lift off. The dog jumps.

Take Three: We radio in the helicopter. “Roll camera! Steady everybody.” The helicopter lands. Somebody sneezes.  The dog jumps.

Take Four:  We radio in the helicopter.  “Roll camera! Steady everybody.” The helicopter lands. Nothing moves.  A lizard a half mile a way skitters down a rock. The dog jumps.

Take Five:  Dog jumps.

Take Six: Dog yawns.

Take Seven: Dog wags his tail at his wrangler.

We have a “conference” with everyone EXCEPT the dog owner.

“Have we got a clean landing?”

“Yes”.

“So let’s get a clean take off.”

“It won’t work.  The helicopter won’t land in the same place.  So we have to re-stage the landing and takeoff until we get a good one.”

We motion over the dog owner.

“What can you give the dog to calm her down?”

“Nothing,” she responds.

“Do you have a staple gun?”

No one laughs.

“She’ll get it this time,” she promises.

Okay.

We radio in the helicopter. “Roll camera! Steady everybody.” The helicopter lands. The dog doesn’t move. The helicopter takes off.  We watch the dog.

The dog doesn’t move.

We’ve got the shot!

“CUT !!!!”

It is a very quiet helicopter. See our final cut of the spot below, and compare the noise with the video (not produced by The Association) of a conventional helicopter:

To find out more about creating your own custom video production, contact us here.

It’s the time of year for New Year’s resolutions. Lose weight. Straighten up. Fly right. Stop this. Stop that. But why not decide to START some things this year? The Association can help.

Our purpose, here at The Association, is to increase marketing results for our clients with an effective marketing plan. We have a broad spectrum of “results-oriented” specialists available for your marketing campaigns – Social Networking, Pay Per Click, Web Videos, Animations, TV commercials, corporate video production services… But will a new campaign work? Should you risk your money? The Ogilvy & Mather website says, “Creating an emotional connection is one of the hardest things to do in marketing.” We agree. That’s why we use Optimized Market Research prior to executing a client campaign. Optimized Market Research nails down the “golden” data that guides our creative team to come up with campaigns that make the phone ring.

For example, one of our marketing campaigns for a heart doctor was initially going to feature the world-renowned doctor himself in the direct response TV ads.  However, the Optimized Market Research indicated that heart patients don’t trust their doctors. They only trust other heart patients! So our TV spots featured heart patients instead of the doctor.

Similarly, the research for an attorney’s campaign revealed that people don’t trust lawyers. So we repositioned our attorney client to be a “consumer advocate” (which was actually more accurate anyway). Both campaigns drove in hundreds of leads in just a few days. We later created a video for the same law firm which continued to position them as consumer advocates:

By using Optimized Market Research, we have also increased Internet PPC (Pay Per Click) conversions by 4X the industry average. A conversion is when a prospect clicks on the pay per click ad to go to a “landing page.” On that page, they either fill out a form (convert) or they don’t. If they don’t convert, your money’s wasted. It’s also important that the people who click and “arrive” at the landing page are actually interested in what’s being sold! Part of Optimized Market Research is determining how to appeal only to the right audience. How much money would you save if the all the “wrong” prospects for your product or service avoided your ad?

A well research and executed campaigns is an investment. It should generate revenue, build a strong customer base and make a great future. Bottom line: We make the phone ring. Call us and we can get you on your way to a nice 2012. That’s our purpose. Go, baby, go!

*Ogilvy & Mather – an international advertising, marketing, and public relations agency based in New York City and owned by the WPP Group.

In 1985 when we made our first custom video production for Princess Cruises, video was just beginning to come in to corporate use.  The standard medium in the then fledgling Cruise Industry was a 16mm film which would be shown at a “Cruise Night”. These were events organized by travel agents where thirty or forty potential travelers would watch two or three films from the various Cruise Lines and hopefully be persuaded to go on a cruise. So our first film was shot, edited and shown in 16mm film. To show how relatively new the video medium was in that day, when I asked Princess if they wanted to make some VHS copies of the film they asked me why!!

The success of that first film was evidenced by the fact that Princess used it as their main sales and promotional piece for nearly 10 years! (They eventually saw the wisdom of video as a more exportable medium and had me make thousands of copies.) It also was the first of over 150 films and videos that we produced for Princess over the next 24 years.

Those years have seen sweeping changes beyond just the ascension of video as a recording and delivery medium. The dizzying rise of the Internet as a driving force behind the marketing, promotion and sales of cruises has caused a mad rush on the part of all the Cruise Lines to get their share.

But the Internet is just another delivery medium, like those original VHS tapes. Even in this Youtube, Twitter driven day, when it comes to content certain classic truths remain. Foremost is story. Every film or video has to have one to be any good. Second is that people are more interested in other people rather than things. Third is that, when you are dealing with visual media, you need to show what it is you are talking about. These may seem elementary, but you would be surprised how often they are violated.

When we produced “A World Apart” in 1985 we knew from talking to agents and potential passengers that the single biggest obstacle in convincing a person to take a cruise was a lack of data of what the experience would be about. This was in a day when not that many people had taken a cruise. So we set out to capture the experience.

We did this by filming various crew members from the Captain on down to waiters and room stewards and got them to tell us what they did. We then showed them going about their daily routines while we heard them describe what they enjoyed about their jobs. By showing actual crew members (somewhat handpicked of course) in actual cruise situations, as well as happy passengers and what they enjoyed about cruising, we were able to successfully convey the fun and adventure of an ocean cruise.

We also made the experience much more real to the viewer and dispelled some misgivings.

But that was then. How does this relate to today’s world of instant media gratification? Well, oddly enough, the more things change the more they stay the same. Princess Cruises recently moved from an old guard agency, Grey, to a virtual unknown boutique called Ignite. The reason was that Ignite deals almost exclusively with online advertising. And what did Ignite come up for their main marketing thrust?

Pretty much just what we had done with “A World Apart”! As you surf the web you might come across a pretty banner ad with a Princess Cruises Vessel sailing along in some beautiful far away sea. The ad says, “Click to see what it means to Escape Completely (Princess’ new tag line)”. When you do you are treated to an array of video snippets of passengers and crew, pretty much just like what we did in “A World Apart”. It happens quicker and the videos are shorter, to accommodate the Internet attention span, but the purpose and performances are exactly the same. The Internet is just a medium to convey information. The basics of what influences, entertains and moves people are still the same.

Compare Cruise Director Jim with the (more sophisticated but the same idea)  Princess Cruises Internet Campaign twenty four years later.

Lisa Tanzer has been a supervising producer for reality tv shows such as “Amish in the City,” “Deadliest Catch,” and “Triple Rush.” Lisa is currently the VP for Current Programming for Warm Springs Productions, and just became a Canon Boot Camp Survivor.

“What I liked about the boot camp was that it was very hands-on. It made me feel more comfortable with the camera. I’m sure I’d want to take pro level ll so I can become even more comfortable with it. I would absolutely recommend this workshop. I was literally trying to think of people I could recommend it to!”

Our attidtude towards training people in the Canon HDSLR 5D and other cameras, is that we assume you have a job the following week that requires use of the Canon HDSLR. It’s not just talk, it’s hands-on.  To find out more about our current and upcoming classes, visit www.canonbootcamp.com