2020 has been one crazy year, but we don’t need to tell you that. Through all the ups and downs we’re hoping everyone has remained healthy, safe and happy.
To all our clients, friends, family and others people whose email we happen to have, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and look forward to working together in 2021!
To reminisce over all of our past ADS Christmas videos, check out this playlist.
Make your holiday merrier with the sights and sounds of a roaring holiday fire!
Every year millions of people tune in to various platforms to stare at a burning log for hours on end. We think it’s a little silly too but the view counts don’t lie! So join us as we present to you our very own take on this holiday classic!
To all our clients, friends, family and others whose email we happen to have, we all wish you a very Merry Christmas and look forward to working together again in the new year!
To reminisce over all of our past ADS Christmas videos, check out this playlist.
Thanks again to everyone who came out to our annual fireworks event. It was great to see so many people attend after last year’s event was rained out. As always a special shout-out to all of our sponsors and everyone who donated to the event. It’s thanks to you that we get to put on an awesome show like this year after year!
Follow us on Facebook to find out details on next year’s show and any other events we may be hosting.
Well its that time of year again…the last minute before the holidays. A perfect time to reflect back on the year, and work frantically to finish our Christmas video!
This year we’ve decided to give you an insider look at the process behind the making of one of our annual Christmas videos!
To all our clients, friends, family and others whose email we happen to have, we all wish you a very Merry Christmas and look forward to working together in the new year!
Without further ado, enjoy the video!
To reminisce over all of our past ADS Christmas videos, check out this playlist.
Well its that time of year again…the last minute before the holidays. A perfect time to reflect back on the year, and frantically finish our Christmas video!
We’ve been doing these for so many years, you’d think Ken’s acting would improve, or his gift giving. As you’ll find out, neither does! But the team can still dream big!
To all our clients, friends, family and others whose email we happen to have, we all wish you a very Merry Christmas and look forward to working together in the new year!
Without further ado, enjoy the video!
To reminisce over all of our past ADS Christmas videos, check out this playlist.
‘It’s not REALLY what I wanted, can’t the sound be more dynamic?”
I’ve heard this before from video producers looking for a huge and spectacular sound mix. But if the video dosen’t allow for that, how can the sound mixer hope to make it special? Here’s what I mean:
I had a client bring me a large motion graphic video for sound design and mixing. He said he wanted something ‘huge, futuristic and really heavy on the sound effects’. Sounds great to me! It’s the kind of project I can really stretch my legs on and have some fun with. But when I watched the video for the first time I was disappointed. He wanted futuristic sounds, but where were the cues for those sounds? Where were the lasers? Where were the opportunities for this huge soundscape he was looking for? He failed to plan for great audio.
One example: he wanted a dynamic panning effect on an icon rocketing around the earth. However the shot followed the icon, keeping it centred in the shot, as opposed to having it whoosh across the screen, whereby I can add some pan and space to it. Keeping the icon front and centre meant a static effect. No volume up and down, no panning, etc. The producer was upset because he didn’t have the budget to go back and redo the animations.
In an ideal world, any project where the sound matters (that should be any project with sound!) should consult the mix engineer in the early stages. Most won’t even charge for the consultation. It’s usually just a phone call for smaller projects, or a short meeting for more involved ones. The planning and ideas generated at these have saved thousands of dollars for our clients, and the final product really does excel. We discuss things like mic techniques for the location audio recorder, mediums, formatting, delivery formats, shot selection, even what wild sound to capture. This can make such a HUGE difference in the final mix (and final budget).
So if you are planning a video, film, doc, or anything short of a silent film, please give us a call early and let us help you plan for great audio!
I love designing websites.
It is one of the joys of this job that I came upon by accident. I didn’t go to school for website layout, but it’s something that I’ve found I really enjoy and honestly I’m pretty good at. Occasionally I have friends or clients show me a site they like the look of, and sometimes yes, these sites look cool, but when the functionality of the site – the flow and access to information – is low, the site becomes nothing more than a shiny trinket on the internet, only visited once for the ‘neat-o’ factor then quickly forgotten about. Aside from visual impact I always consider the following points.
Know your visitors is step 1 to a smooth and fluid website experience. If most of your visitors are coming to your site to look at product, or learn about your services, it would make sense to put that information right in front of them as soon as they arrive – not behind 3 or 4 clicks worth of menus and subpages. I try to keep access to any page on the site within 2 or 3 clicks max, so no matter who visits they can get where they want to go with a minimum of hassle.
Focus. This is probably the #1 item missing from poorly developed sites. What is the message? What do you want to tell visitors when they come to your site? It was common to list all of your company info on your site in the old days of the internet. Now I look at websites like TV commercials – in that we only have a visitor’s attention for a limited amount of time, so what do we want to tell them? Are we pushing an online e-commerce store? Do we want them to book an appointment? Or drive traffic to a brick and mortar store? Above all else a site needs to be planned and written with this goal in mind.
In the early 2000’s, companies were just building their first websites. Back then it was a depository for all information about themselves. History, clients, products, how those products work, etc, etc. Every. Single. Detail. Too much information can overwhelm a reader. If a visitor come to your site looking for sledgehammers, they don’t need a history lesson on them and what uses they have. What they DO want to know is that you carry them, and that you are the expert in the area and can help them make the right choice.
People are visiting your site for a reason. Most commercial traffic on the internet is simply to vet or research a company – to see if they are the ones who can do the job. Are they qualified? Do they have what I need? Are they professional? These are the decisions people make online, – and these are the questions you need to answer with your website.
What you don’t need to answer are specific questions that need your expertise to answer. Questions such as: Which product is right for me? How much product do I need? How often should I be using a product or service? These are customer specific questions, and the goal of your site should be to a) establish yourself as an authority in your field, and b) drive a secondary follow up, either by phone, email or in person. Get them to call you, get them to come into your store. Your sales team can do a much better job closing a sale than any text on a screen ever could.
There are so many other factors that go into a site design, specific to the type and purpose. The above points give a general idea of what it takes to make a great site – a site that is a joy to visit and navigate. Yea a flashy full screen video on the front page may look cool, but can you back it up with well laid out content that your visitor actually wants to see?
Fifteen months ago, Google made some adjustments to their recipe (i.e. algorithm), which decides who comes out first in their search engine rankings. This wasn’t just an update that you might be able to sweep under the carpet, as many tech insiders started to refer to this change as “Mobilegeddon”.
So, why is this important and how does it effect you? As previously mentioned, non mobile friendly sites are penalized and not readily recognized in Googles search rankings. As well, 70% of internet users are surfing the web on a mobile device these days, so in order to make that a pleasurable experience, mobile friendly sites have easy to click buttons, drop down options for tabs and pictures that fit the mobile device and that sort of thing.
How to see if your site is mobile friendly? The best way to find out if your site is mobile friendly is to click this link – Mobile Friendly Test Tool. Simply place your website in the analyzer section and click analyze.
At ADS Media, all of our sites are mobile friendly and can be easily viewed on a desktop, tablet or mobile phone. If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact our office.
you often have milestone moments – our first REAL computer, the first (and hopefully last) time we moved our studios, new employees and new clients. Sometimes those milestones happen without us really noticing. Today however, we mark a large milestone in the evolution of the studio.Hey everyone!
Just a quick heads up to let everyone know that we’ve updated our demo reel. Enjoy!
PS> We’re cooking up something special for this year’s Christmas project. Check back for more info later!