Putting your camp on video - using video as a camp marketing tool

Videos will never replace brochures or a strong personal touch in recruiting new campers. Nevertheless, video marketing is here to stay, and like it or not, consumers have been conditioned to expect it. Without a camp video, you are at a distinct disadvantage in today's competitive marketplace. A good, professional-looking one might just help you fill those empty beds next summer.

As a camp marketing tool, videos have staying power. Each time the cassette is played, even three years later, it is still working for you. Videos also have the pyramid effect; a single video given to one good prospect often finds its way into the hands of a second or third family with no additional cost or effort on your part.

Finally, though personal contact is still best, most of us don't have the time or budget to visit every prospect. If delivered in the middle of winter, a good video tour of sunny Camp Wonderful can be inspiring. If a prospective family is considering three camps, and two of those supply a lively, colorful video, chances are you're at a disadvantage if you can't do the same.

Which path to choose

First, decide how to begin. Production methods fall into three categories; choose the one that works best for you.

Low budget

For a low-cost effort, find willing and eager volunteers, interns, or staff to undertake the project with a rented or borrowed video camera. If you are satisfied with the cost to quality/benefit ratio, then the price is right. However, remember the old adage, "no picture is better then a poor one." This idea applies tenfold to video!

High budget

Hire a professional. Many professional videographers advertise in camp magazines and attend industry conferences.

This is the best approach if you don't have a lot of time, creativity, or confidence. You'll get a good, basic product that you will be proud to show and distribute. However, professional videos are expensive (as much as $1,000 a running minute), and the question of who owns the final master and field tapes could be paramount.

Remember, before choosing a vendor, ask for at least three samples from each and compare their work side by side.

Do it yourself

If you have time, a strong sense of your camp's mission, and a little creativity, you can produce and direct your own video. It's not as difficult as it sounds, though it is a lot of work. You won't save money, but you will have total control of the project, own the end product, and be satisfied with the results.

Getting started on your own

Before you do anything else, spend a year studying every video you can find, including other camps' videos, new car videos, real estate videos, and music videos. Note what works and what doesn't. Identify and analyze the techniques, camera angles, graphics, and special effects that you like.

To find a qualified camera crew, start with word-of-mouth inquiries and ask other camp directors for recommendations. Contact your state film commission. Most commissions print directories of specialized, local resources for the film industry. Use the yellow pages as a last resort. Interview some smaller independent contractors. Before making your final choice, always ask to review samples.

Selecting a format

Choose a shooting format. The preferred format is BETA Professional. However, it involves an extra conversion step and is more expensive. Professional VHS is more common. It costs less, but the quality is not as good as BETA format. Don't use regular home VHS or 8mm video cameras. Also, a big difference exists between the work of a $2,000 and a $40,000 camera. In the end, you will get what you pay for.

Writing the script

You can write a script from scratch, but the message you want is already in your brochure, which makes it an ideal outline. In preparing a story line, focus on your message. Explain what you have to offer prospective campers rather than showing campers playing basketball for twenty minutes.

Address your message to parents and children. They will both watch the video, often together, but each with their own agenda. Target both without alienating either. Walk a fine line and brainstorm with your staff ways to answer both generations' questions at the same time.

When you know what you want to say, design a flow chart and a rough timetable of the on-screen action. Combine the placement of music, narrative, live voices, ambient sound, and testimonials with visual definition. This road map will be your storyboard.

Run time

The length of a video should never be equated with the quality. Videos that show long-winded, nervous camp directors, ten minutes of softball, or kids singing the same off-key songs for fifteen minutes are boring. We live in the MTV generation, so get to the point and keep it snappy. If your video runs more than ten minutes you're likely stressing a viewer's attention span. Scenes of seven to eight seconds are often just the right formula, with even shorter flashes interspersed.

Release forms

Remember, you will need a written legal release to use the images of people who appear in your video, even in the background. This is best done by embedding a generic release form in the camp enrollment package. Most kids are thrilled to appear in a camp video, but occasionally you find a parent who will object. If you know in advance, you can shoot around that child. If you don't, you will spend a lot of money to fix it later.

Ready, set, go

Once you have a storyboard that identifies the scenes you will need to capture, it's time to let the cameras roll! First, consider these tips.

* Don't shoot outdoors on a rainy or cloudy day. Your camp will look as dreary and flat as the gray clouds above. Wait for blue skies.

* Require employees to wear staff shirts and have campers wear clean, colorful camp T-shirts.

* Tape more scenes than you need because you can use the extra film for later updates. Some video companies claim they can shoot everything in a day. If the film is generic - the premise follows a formula and individual scenes run long - they might be able to accomplish this. If you want a better film, you need literally a thousand clips to look at and choose from. Taping ten hours each day for two days is not unreasonable.

* Make sure your camera person is using a tripod at least 90 percent of the time.

* Ask your camera person to bring a sound technician and a separate recorder to capture voices. This costs more up front, but will save you money in the end.

* Start filming an hour before breakfast, and move quickly from one location to the next, carefully following your checklist of needed shots. Developing the checklist in advance ensures you don't miss an activity, such as sailing, dining, or horseback riding, you must have and maximizes your time.

* Assign a staff person just ahead of you to pick up litter, hide garbage cans, clear laundry lines, and prepare the background. Let staff know you will be coming to their area shortly, so they can also make preparations. You don't want to get to the barn and find that the trail ride has already left.

* Appoint a personal assistant to work twenty minutes ahead of you lining up campers and staff for interviews. You can cut and edit snippets of sound and testimonials from these interviews. The assistant helps subjects practice and coaches them on pausing between sentences for easier editing, knowing where to look, and repeating the question and then answering it with a full sentence.

* Ask campers and staff to audition for testimonials the week before filming. Many people seem articulate when there's no camera around. But they may get flustered or go stiff in front of a camera. Experiment with a home video camera.

Putting it together

Magic occurs in the editing and mixing room. The collection of hours of film becomes a work of art. Good editing can make or break your video.

View the tapes

Begin by having the tapes duplicated and converted to home VHS. Have the studio print the elapsed run time on the bottom of each frame. Spend a few days studying the film. Make a list of the best scenes by category, such as smiles, action, scenery, and location. Include the time keys on the bottom of each frame so you can easily relocate the scene. This saves a lot of time and money in the studio.

You can cut the best 1.5 seconds from the middle of any scene, and reassemble it any way you like. But at a few seconds each, you're going to need a lot of video to make eight finished minutes of run time!

Choose a narrator

Who will provide the narrative for your film? Professionals are expensive, but amateurs sound like ... amateurs. They also cost, in wasted studio time and on retake after retake. Ask the studio to recommend someone local. If you can have the person in and out in half an hour, the cost will be affordable and your production will sound more professional.

Renting a studio

Most studios have music tracks you can rent for background ambience. Select a track you like prior to editing day so it can be cued up and ready.

Studios generally rent space by the hour, which can be costly since you may need the room for up to two days. A studio located outside the city may have better availability and a more favorable price.

Ask the studio to provide a mixing engineer in the rental package for a fixed price. You can hire your own if you prefer. A talented engineer will do all the work while you sit alongside and call the shots. If you develop a rapport, he will also help you find what works and warn you about things that don't.

When the tape is finally ready to roll, take a seat, prop the storyboard in front of you, and start building the master cut. After a few more edits, you will have a much cherished master of your new camp video in hand! You can now take it home and have it duplicated.

Your new video will help you compete better in the marketplace, and your camp story will be told by the person who knows it best - you!

Distribution Tips

* Always keep the master and all film stock in a vault at a third location. If you lose the master, you lose $3,000 to $8,000 and everything must be redone.

* If you own the master, get duplicating bids from several companies. Compare samples before you print a large supply.

* If you have overseas campers, ask the duplicator to make a few copies for you in PAL format.

* If you want prospective campers to return the tapes to you, invest in plastic reusable video mailing cases, which are available from mailing companies. Preprint reversible return mailing labels for the cases. When mailing, identify the contents as educational material and you will get a library postage rate.

* Ask your duplicator about ultra-light cassettes and mailers. They cost almost the same as regular tapes, when ordered in quantity, and will save you postage costs. However, they carry just ten minutes of tape, and since they contain no moving parts, they last only about a dozen playings.

Michael Peterson is CEO of YMCA Camps Mason, Shannon, and Ken-Etiwa-Pec. His outdoor and travel photography has been published in magazines and newspapers. He learned about video marketing while working on projects for the resort and time-share industry.

COPYRIGHT 1997 American Camping Association
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group