Decade ago feels like Dark Ages
Jan 15 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal
IT’S official. I love my iPhone. And it’s not just because I can check my emails, listen to my music in the gym and play Star Wars with the cool light-sabre application I downloaded at the weekend (although it’s true, I do love my light-sabre too).
What I really love about it is that, as a video producer for business, my iPhone has become a fundamental and exciting part of my sales pitch.
Ten years ago, when I was cutting video on three tape machines the size of a Quayside flat, I would deliver the result on a clunky VHS tape which the client would then have to duplicate many times over and post out in padded envelopes, hoping his clients would be able to see past the grainy picture, bleeding colours and woefully hissy sound. (Assuming he had a VHS player in the office). It seems like the Dark Ages now.
These days, with the push of a button on my computer, I have a high-quality video file which I can upload in seconds to my phone, take to a meeting anywhere in the world and screen with ease. Just last week I took my showreel to a networking event in Sunderland, and this week I’m taking three video projects to a sales meeting at a restaurant in Glasgow.
If they want a copy, there’s always Bluetooth – so I can literally carry my clients around with me in my pocket (and, somewhat weirdly, transmit them through the ether).
Emerging delivery platforms for video truly amaze me on a daily basis, (with almost the same boyish awe I reserve for my light-sabre application).
My phone is yet another example of these new tools, and of just how useful they can be to businesses of all types and of all sizes.
As a producer, these technologies liberate both me and my clients, whose business messages I’m tasked with communicating to the world. They make us wireless, increasingly weightless as businesses and provide us with a portal to bigger audiences across a wider area.
They’re fun, too – you should see my prospects’ eyes light up when I pull out my phone and show them just how portable an engaging sales tool can be.
Digital technologies have enabled my business and others like me in the video industry – not to mention the thousands upon thousands working in other industries – to work in new, far more flexible and cost-effective ways. I firmly believe we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible, though, and I can’t wait to see what’s around the corner.
Chris Bogle is managing director of Veejo, a video production company specialising in corporate films.
