How to Outsource Video Production

Internet business owners are bombarded with advice house insurance quotes use video to promote their websites. Great advice. Video works.

How well does video work? Some split-testing research from Russell Brunson's website, Dot Com Secrets, shows an incredible 98.9% chance that video will outperform any other method, text, images, or audio.

With statistics like that, it's impossible for a website owner to ignore video.

Problem is, adding videos of any sophistication beyond a head shot is often more than a small business can handle. Learning video production can take a while and with everything else you need to concentrate on, outsourcing video production might be a good idea.

So here is some outsourcing advice.

First, consider yourself the Executive Producer on the project as you will direct each of the other crew members, any where from one to ten people depending on your project.

Think about the overall style of the video you want and ask yourself these questions.

• Who is the audience for your video?
• What do you want them to learn?
• What do you want them to feel?
• What do they already know?

The more you can answer these questions upfront, the easier it will be to create a good video.

Next, determine your budget. Budget determines everything else.

Video production is one of those things that's probably best done locally. There are lots of video production services over the internet but you will have better control with local people. Certainly if you want to be in your video it's best to have a crew come to you.

For lower budget services, call local television stations in your area and ask to speak with both the manager of the production department and the news photography department. Lots of TV station employees freelance on the side using company equipment. This way, you can get reasonably competent people and professional equipment.

Even if car insurance are no weekend freelancers, TV stations often have remarkably low rates. They will do stuff for free if you buy enough advertising time. If you're not buying advertising, the rates are still low, especially PBS stations.

While you're calling around, ask if there are any active local chapters of organized video professionals. These groups exist so people can network and are often the best source to find quality professionals.

Local high schools and universities often have students (or teachers) for hire who will work for less.

Small government TV channels are another great source to find competent people who won't charge too much.

Local wedding photography companies also charge fairly low rates. Production houses who specialize in commercial will charge the highest rates.

Once you hire someone, talk to them about the three phases of production:

• Pre-production: What video will you shoot? Where will you shoot it? Write a script but realize it is best at this point to be flexible with your script. Plan everything out as much as possible.
• Production: This is where the cameras roll. Production is the most expensive phase by far so you want good pre-production planning in order to keep things as efficient as possible. Keep locations to a minimum to save time and money.
• Post-production: Another word for editing. All the elements of the video are brought together and presented to the audience in a concise, entertaining way. Ideally, editing is planed out.

Quality video professionals will walk you through the entire process and make your life easier. Producing quality video is not as easy as it looks. It makes a lot of sense to outsource so you can get on with the business of running your business.

Lorraine Grula has been a well-respected award winning video professional for over twenty-five years. (Yeah, that makes her kind of old.) Lorraine has done virtually every kind of video production imaginable and now shares her expertise on the web. Her blog, www.VideoProductionTips.comhttp://www.VideoProductionTips.com is full of free information and video tutorials.

Past Variations of Chess From Around the World

The most common form of Chess that we know of today was developed in Europe during the late 14th and 15th Centuries. During this period of time, the rules became more or less locked down and, while little adjustments have been made over the course of time, the game has predominately remained unchanged. However, this form of Chess evolved from other forms of the game that date back centuries before this time and some of those games have a rich history and intricate subtleties about them. It is through these games, tracing back to Eastern Asia, that one can understand more about the common day Chess which exists.

Chaturanga is one of the earliest discovered games from which Chess was derived. In fact, it seems to be the first game of the strategic sort that many games the world over express and is largely considered by some to be the origin for many of these games. It is quite possible that Chaturanga was the game which spread throughout these other parts of the world through the influence of insure car traders which carried the game with them over their travels. This game featured impotence treatment which correlate nicely to modern Chess, albeit with different names. Modern Pawns were considered the Infantry pieces with Chaturanga and the Rooks were considered to be the Gaja, or War Elephants. This game seems to have been immensely popular for centuries, with references being found to it in many forms of documents and literature from the times.

The game from India spread to Persia, where it came to be known as Shatranj. This game, having been popular in the Persian region over over 1000 years now, is believed to be the link between which Chaturanga from India came to become modern Chess in Europe. The game moved to Persia in the early stages of the Christian Era, with references being found in manuscripts dating back to as early as the 3rd Century.

Shatranj adopted the use of two warring sides, commonly depicted as red and green, with 16 pieces per side, each represented by 4 different divisions of an army. Horses, Elephants, Chariots, and Foot-Soldiers all comprised the army and it was through the use of these pieces that the battle of the game was played. After the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th Century, however, the game began to spread westward, eventually into Spain. From Spain, the game started its journey into Europe and evolved into the common form it is known as today.

However, this format of game did not derive solely from India through Persia. Xiangqi in China became quite popular, often referred to today as "Chinese Chess." This game works on the same basic principles as both Chaturanga and modern Chess, yet has a number of delicate rules that cannot be found in either. Xiangqi has literary references back as far as the 9th Century, giving it a rich history. The board is slightly different than a traditional Chess board, with the middle separating the two sides with a "river." Pawns can be promoted after crossing the river and the Elephants are not permitted to cross, giving a slightly harder obstacle on the board for players to deal with. However, with the rich history of this game, it is no surprise that it can be considered to be another incredible form of strategic game play.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for board games, chess boards, and dungeons and dragons miniatures. You will find all these things and more if you visit www.sellusedboardgames.comused board games, www.sellchessboards.compast chess games.