Collaborate Better Online

Car and motorcycle enthusiasts worldwide visit BoxWrench for info on the latest products. The website recently used Market7 to collaborate on developing and editing an interactive video with a top auto parts manufacturer.

With the way the economy is going, even the latest cut-rate airfares can't make up for the fact that your budget takes a real hit when you have to send someone on location for preproduction. Working together on teams, of course, is basic to film and video production. Meanwhile, working with your client closely throughout the post process ensures positive results and paid-on-time contracts.

Useful web-based technology already exists for basic collaborating. Google Docs is the standout here for offering a free, simple-to-use solution for text, Excel-compatible files, and basic slide presentations. Recent versions of Adobe Acrobat Connect, meanwhile, include a Start Meeting button on the app's toolbar, enabling users to create a PDF and simultaneously annotate it along with others.

The advantages of more elaborate, web-based realtime meeting and collaboration technology are straightforward enough: help reduce costs by cutting back travel, make more efficient use of your time, and collaborate with people on projects no matter where the individuals are physically located.

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To address that, you might check out companies offering an increasingly popular option: web meetings. Leading apps include Cisco WebEx and Adobe's Acrobat Connect Pro, but less-expensive options such as MegaMeeting and Citrix Online GoToMeeting might be a good place to start.

If you want to move beyond live meetings in order to deliver a project on time and within both budget and scope, a newer type of website can help. Companies are delivering integrated products that specifically target video production, including preplanning and realtime video playback with markup, with some even offering test distribution channels. Adobe Flash is the favorite working format here, with incoming SD- and HD-resolution video encoded to the ubiquitous web format. Market7's software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, for example, allows you to build a site to work with clients to assemble teams, define projects, develop content, share files, and track all communications.

SolarCity, a designer and installer of solar-power systems, used Market7 to create a video that provides background on the company and its consumer offerings. A comment file created by five reviewers was exported and given to the editor; edit instructions came via comments at specific timecodes where changes should be made; and post, including output for distribution on DVD, was standard from there on.

“The problem we were trying to solve was to create a collaborative space where everyone was in the same room, no matter where they might really be,” says Shannon Newton, director of creative development at Market7. “The client gets excited about creating video, while the producer gets a clear idea about exactly what the client wants.”

Another online video collaboration site, MediaSilo offers a large and growing feature set that builds around its tools for centralized video-asset management. The Boston-based company is also developing templates for particular production scenarios, such as sign-offs on casting.

Casting via the Web saved money during preproduction on ABC's series Wipeout. Created by reality TV pioneer Endemol USA, Wipeout's producers cast the show with help from MediaSilo. “I budgeted 10 weeks for this project,” Mikey Glaser, freelance casting director, said in a MediaSilo news release. “With MediaSilo, I did it in five.”

“Our challenge is to match the workflow of the video production company, the ad agency, or the marketing company to their particular business challenge,” says Dan Green, MediaSilo evangelist. “We feel we provide a service that's going to save them time and money and make them more efficient at what they do.”