Guerilla Style Video with Class: Adwords Call Metrics

We all want to shave off a few hundred or even thousand dollars here and there when launching our ad campaign for our businesses. With user-generated content entertaining a growing online audience, many have been inspired in the last couple of years to either create their own promotional videos or turn to people who are willing to do it for $1,000 or less– all in. For those with 10 employees or less, putting your name out there through a video is still a wonderful thing in spite of any creative and technical limitations on what has been created from a super low/no budget project. But if you can do it better, your customer will reward you.

The days of producing tech videos that look like they were shot by your high school classmate are losing their appeal. People are realizing that well-produced videos do one important thing. It helps the audience focus on the message and not the jarring cuts, low light level, shaky shots and out-of-control music that’s a few decibels higher than what’s legal.

I produced  and directed this video meant to appeal to mid-sized and large businesses. I, along with colleagues and friends Jesse Eisenhardt and  Anders Osterballe went all over the bay area, filming in Downtown San Francisco, Downtown San Jose, Mountain View and Brisbane. Shot on a Canon7D and animated using Adobe AfterEffects by Manuel Abady, this project was a lot of fun to work on. It is being used as a main launch support vehicle for Google’s new product: Adwords Call Metrics. Adwords assigns a phone number to your online business campaign which allows you to track the success of each campaign through the call results.

Curious about production, the talent or anything at all? Post your comment below.

Canon 7D Road Test + Google Goggles

Try this tongue twister: Google Goggles. Now, say it over and over… as fast as you can.

It’s always a challenge to film a phone screen outdoors where you have very little to no control over the changing light, but we wanted an authentic Google Goggles experience so off we went with minimal gear and our trusty Canon 7D.  North Beach turned out to be the perfect San Francisco backdrop for our little video adventure with Google Goggles and the iPhone. Check out the results and let me know what you think!

YouTube Shoot: Behind The Scenes

SIX glorious hours in the SF bay area sun for six gorgeous shots of our talented soccer player. A few days later, we worked with hand models and shiny new phones as fingers clicked on buttons, scrolled on pages and swiped on screens. This video, with original musical scoring, a fun concept and punchy editing, was a lot of fun to produce! Check out the final piece.

Drawn In

My video entry to the Artsopolis Silicon Valley Artshots 2010 Competition. The entry with the most votes wins.

Artsopolis paired participating filmmakers with local artists in San Jose. The filmmakers completed a 90-second film promoting the local artists assigned to them, within a set period. After completing the film, they emailed all of their friends and colleagues the link to the voting site.

Thank you to everyone who voted for my film! I had a blast shooting and editing this fun little piece!

Keeping It Local

I love technology and enjoy supporting entrepreneurs! I produced this video late last year, and it remains to be one of my favorite projects. It’s called “Local Places For Mobile.”

This mobile application feature lets you star search results on Google maps in your computer and have them automatically show up on your smartphone. It also lets you conveniently search local businesses on your phone.  Check out this charming video with Josh, product manager for Google Mobile Local Search.

Kaboom!

… A few explosive letters welcoming you to my site in the eeriest possible way. I’m Carol Gancia, a SF bay area video and television producer.

A few days ago, news broke about the coal mining blast that took the lives of West Virginia miners. This video post is my small contribution to raise awareness on an issue that may not cross our minds when we switch on our lights, run our dishwashers and adjust our heater thermostat– all these, while using our precious coal resource. We filmed and edited this video in October, 2009.  The issue is alive and haunting West Virginia and the rest of the country to this day.