Austin Video Booth

Personally, reality television seems about as real to me as life on Mars. There’s nothing like the promise of a $100,000 prize or a chance at a celebrity funeral directing contract to bring out the most un-real people from the woodwork, and project them onto center stage. One common element that I do like in reality TV shows is the diary room.

The diary room is the unattended confessional, the late night admissions being recorded for posterity on digital video rather than by a court stenographer. There are several advantages to a diary room for capturing footage over a film crew:

1. Film crews need to eat and sleep and go to the bathroom, and get paid. The booth is the ever present eye that need not eat – it captures all. Inexpensively.
2. Though some stars are accustomed to confessing all to a Cheeto-eating, gum-chewing cameraman and his single impassive eye, some people are just more candid when there’s no-one immediately there. Sure, people watch later, but there are no reactions, no frowns or judgments.
3. It’s actor driven – no-one has to be in the right place at the right time – there’s a big door and a red button that lets people leave a message when they want to. The footage is a result of the “star” wanting to be filmed and seeking out a private audience with the viewer. Whenever they have a lightning bolt moment of inspiration, they can be in there with perfect light and sound, ready to spill the beans.

Whether you call it a self-service video booth or a diary room – the end result is the same – you get candid footage from your talent, from your guests or from your attendees. Get in touch with Texas’ leading booth provider if you want to discuss your idea more, and see how our booth could help write your diary.

Kinect for XBox360 recently launched and some of their marketing was extremely successful, and some could have been improved in my opinion.

A mobile video game booth awaited us during the Thanksgiving break at a Simon Mall in Dallas. To be fair, I had only heard one thing on NPR about Kinect – it’s a full body sensor for video games. Your body controls the action – not just your thumbs.

Kinect product launch - in the right place at the right time

So they were in the right place – thousands of shoppers and people waiting with their kids for other family members to shop.

We lined up to try it out in a large trailer, gave our contact details to the host, and receiving a branded lanyard with a custom tag on it.

Another tick – they had us anticipating and sporting their logo and visibly lining up to do something. Awareness was being created. They also had the promise of a party favor – giving us photo and video of ourselves in action – something to share with our networks.

We played the selected game – some fun river tubing game and had a great time bending, leaning, jumping and waving to control the inflatable over  a series of rapids. It was a blast – they took photos of us while we did it and perhaps video too.

When the game was over, we filed out and were invited to give written feedback on a touch screen outside, and confirmed that we wanted our videos / photos shared with the world, and possibly used in marketing materials.

A great way to get people involved and flattered that they may appear in a commercial – it certainly appealed to a previously hidden vanity for me – I could be a star!

The project was a success in my mind. I was buzzing after the demo, and scurried to my computer to access the uploaded content of myself, all the while telling people about my Kinect experience.

So what’s the missing element of a successful product launch?

The only thing I would have suggested was not to collect feedback by typing onto a touchscreen keyboard at the end. How much more powerful is a video testimonial? In scientific terms, lots.

It’s easy to get video cheaply transcribed to create written marketing. The excitement in my face that the product had generated was lost when I had to type something on a screen.

Looking to launch a product? We’d love to capture video testimonials and showcase that very excitement – get in touch.

I like photo booths. Th

Photo or Video? Or both!?

ey come in all different varieties – from the old-school button and print, to the networked social media sharing types. One of my favorite vendors in town is Say Cheese For Fun – they’re great at what they do, and have a great wealth of experience. It’s a familiar paradigm for party goers – they see a photo booth and they know what to do. Line up and get in, dress up and make some fun photos to remember the event by. The guest gets a copy. The host gets a copy. Everyone’s happy.

I like video booths too, which is lucky. The paradigm is similar – you line up, get in, dress up and leave a message. The message is broadcast at the event so that everyone gets to see it (and yes, we have mechanisms in place to filter the crazy guest messages!). The host gets a copy and the guest leaves and gets to share the video on line if they choose to. Everyone’s happy.
Which is right for your event? It really depends on the crowd – your guests. If they like to sign and perform, to laugh and do little party tricks, then the video format might work better for them. If they are all 107 years old and can remember the time when black and white photos were a new fad, then heck, photos might be best. It’s horses for courses as they say.

If you’re not sure, you can get the booth that does both – photo booth and video booth. Get in touch with Austin Video Booth to find out how.

On Wednesday I enjoyed  The Simplifiers website launch party at Maki. And do you know the bits that I’m still thinking about?

Sure I enjoyed the food, the sake bombs and the activities – green screen photos making me look like a super hero with mustaches on sticks and a caricature of myself spring to mind. The best thing for me was the conversations I had with some people I hadn’t seen in a while, and some new people I was introduced to.

The activities broke the ice, and the conversations stuck in my mind. The take-aways from the event were superb – I have a physical picture of myself in a cape as a superhero with the logo of the event host. These are all online so I can share them with my friends. I have a sketched caricature of myself which has become my avatar for some chat boards. And I got some excellent cookies in the shape of sushi.

I don’t think I’m unusual in my appreciation of novel take-aways and wanting to share my experience with other people afterward. I think that’s pretty typical.

To recap, the things I remember from the event are the things I take away with me, the conversations I had and the new relationships I formed. Party favors, dialog and relationships. That’s pretty much what the video booth at a social event gives you. A party favor for the guests – something to remember you by – and a recording of some of the dialog you have. Possibly with someone you’ve just met. Pretty simple really.

Get a friend. Drag them into the booth. Leave a message and capture the moment.

Kudos to the beautiful event organizer and to the vendors:

• Kevin Middleton – talented party caricaturist
• Mustaches on a stick – hysterical props for photos and for just being Burt Reynolds with your pals by Whisker Works
• Green screen photo booth from Catch the Moment which allowed me to be a superhero for the night

Austin Video Booth provides party favors for Texas social events and more. Drop us a line – we don’t bite.

I often get contacted by people wanting to buy or build their own video booths for use at weddings and social events. The short answer I give is come back soon – we’re working on it! We have a new version of our software in development which will ultimately be part of our video booth package.

As with all software, we need to get several hundred hours of testing under our belt to ensure it won’t let you down in the field. So, we’re working on it!

Get in touch if you’re interested in buying a booth, and we’ll give you our production schedule!

The best thing about a video booth is that it can also operate as a photo booth. Which makes the concept easier to understand.

One thing we strive for is to have excellent quality reproduction in both formats. Sure – we could just create some low quality video suitable for the web and call it a day, but we really like HD movies for when we want to make something more of the output.

So DSLR has been the key for us. Narrow depth of focus video, excellent quality and a nicer feel for the thing we’re helping you capture. Narrow depth of focus allows for certain things to be in focus – e.g. your face, and everything else to be out of focus. This gives the footage the feel of the movies. Compare this with a camcorder where everything is in focus, and you lose some of the dreamlike film quality.

Here are some of the settings we like to start with:

• Shutter speed around 1/50th second.
• ISO around 200.
• Aperture setting of F/5.6
• 24 fps video capture.

We also offer full 1080p HD format if you’re interested, and we like the way it looks. Of course, it’s hard to pick up this detail when you’re downloading videos from the web, for which we use H.264 which has a substantially lower bit rate than typical video. Which means lower quality but faster download times.

We like to be able to offer both: fast download for the web, and HD quality for DVDs.