Award Winning Film Producers Teach Corporate Sales People How to Create Video Stories on Their Phones
While mobile phone technology and cloud platforms have made it cheap and easy for companies to create and distribute
their own content, the need for brands to maintain a professional brand image is behind the launch of a new mobile phone
video production training service from New Zealand company, Real-TV.
The company, which works with brands like Noel Leeming, Mitre10, Bayer, BNZ and Main Freight, launched the new workshop
training service to help corporate sales people be more effective by giving them the skills to design, film and edit
video on their smart devices.
Co-founder of Real-TV (and former award-winning producer of TVNZ's The Lion Man series), Reuben Pillsbury, said it's
past time for video companies to accept that the industry has been well and truly disrupted by technology, which has
made video production accessible to anybody with a cell phone.
"There will always be a need for high quality, top-of-the-line video content, but there is also room for less formal
video storytelling – it can help brands, and their sales and marketing people, come across as engaging, personable and
expert.
"Rather than fearing any perceived threats that informal video may present to our business, we aim to embrace the growth
of a medium we love, and to help people do it even better," Mr Pillsbury said.
The new service gives staff members of companies the means to produce and deliver important messages where previously
budget and time constraints would have offered significant obstacles, resulting in many lost opportunities for the
business.
The smart device video production workshop, which is in high demand from many household corporate brands and even SMEs,
covers topics such as:
• How to frame a shot;
• How to use natural light;
• Interview techniques;
• How to construct an engaging story; and
• How to edit the video using mobile phone apps.
Participants in the hands-on, day-long workshop will conceive, write, produce and edit a video to completion during the
day workshop. The result is that the delegates finish with a two-minute video, complete with music.
Real-TV co-founder, Kim Goodhart, said that learning how to create and tell a good story offers businesses all kinds of
benefits.
These including the ability to communicate better internally – particularly during organisational transformation – as
well as helping to break down internal silos, personalise one-on-one promotions to potential customers, and deliver
updates, news and product education.
"The concept of being able to tell your own video stories is great for sales and marketing, but possibly offers, even
greater value for internal communications, where authenticity has a higher value than production quality.
"People who attend the course report that they're particularly excited to get a handle on story structure, as well as
learning how to question, solve problems, be provocative and capture an audience's attention," said Ms Goodhart, who
studied screenwriting at the University of California, Los Angeles.
So far, the average age of workshop participants is 48-years.
"I'm not surprised by the demographic," Ms Goodhart said. "Gen Xers and Boomers assume less and are a bit more hesitant
about the technology, so they make better students. All of them, without exception, are blown away by how easy the
technology is to master – that's why 'how to tell a story' suddenly takes centre stage."
For more information, visit www.real-tv.co.nz
ENDS
ABOUT REAL-TV
Real-TV is a change agency and video production company that combines the art of storytelling and the science of
psychology to inspire people, change behaviours and deliver better results – particularly in the area of internal
communications and organisational transformation.
Based in Auckland, the company works with organisations throughout New Zealand and abroad.
Director Reuben Pillsbury
Reuben's mission is to inspire and educate people through storytelling. He has directed and produced prime-time TV shows
and documentaries for the past 15 years. His work has screened in over 100 countries. He is a winner of the Best Reality
TV Series at the NZ Screen and TV awards.
Reuben's shows have been finalists at the awards several times, and he also judged various categories in the awards for
six years. A past board member of the NZ Screen Directors Guild, Reuben completed post-graduate studies in fine art at
the New York Studio School. He has a B.A. (first class) from Bard College.
Director Kim Goodhart
Kim holds an MA (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh and is an experienced international documentary
researcher. Kim became interested in the hero story while studying screenwriting with UCLA.
Kim is particularly passionate about vision led organisational transformation and culture change and has worked with
some iconic New Zealand companies in this area, including Southern Cross Healthcare and BNZ.