TeleStory Pictures Blog

Infusionsoft - Why I Switched. Finding Freedom With Infusionsoft

2010-11-06T20:20:00.005-04:00

What is the most effecient way to grow your business? Find the best way to reach a lot of people in the least amount of time. We're all looking for a way to stream line what we do in business. I don't know of anyone who went into business to spend more time there. Most people I know, including myself, went into business to have more time to do what they wanted in life. There can be a freedom to running your own business if you find the right systems that allow you that freedom and doesn't bog you down as your business grows.

As a New York video and film production company we found the best way to reach a lot of people in the least amount of time. Here's the story of finding that freedom and what it's done for our business and that of our clients. Enjoy the show!

Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards 2010 Honors Springsteen & Mutombo

2010-04-27T12:40:00.003-04:00

Here it is, the video we produced for Roots Television and Ellis Island. Bruce Springsteen, Dikembe Mutombo, Andrea Jung, and Peter Peterson were the award recipients of the event. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful event! Enjoy the video!!

Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards 2010

2010-04-24T12:39:00.007-04:00

TeleStory Pictures had the privilege of covering the Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards 2010 for Roots Television on April 22. Among the award recipients was Bruce Springsteen and Dikembe Mutombo. Megan Smolenyak of Roots Television was there to interview Dikembe. See the photos below. Stay tuned Tuesday on Roots Television to see highlights of the event.

Koch & D'Amato Say "Throw The Bums Out" at Long Island Association Breakfast

2010-04-15T20:00:00.002-04:00

Former Mayor of New York City, Ed Koch and Former US Senator Alfonse D'Amato were guests today at a Long Island Association Executive Breakfast. Koch reiterated his recent statement, "Throw the Bums Out" referring to the politicians and public servants who are dishonest and bogging down the economy. D'Amato agreed the "bums" needed to go and said the New York state teachers unions are holding the system hostage and the reason for high taxes in the state.

As a sponsor of the event, TeleStory Pictures filmed the engaging conversational setting with the two guests and Matthew Crosson, President of the Long Island Association, whose last time it was to host such an event on Long Island after nearly 17 years of services. Mr. Crosson has taken a position in Las Vegas as the President of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. See the video below.

TeleStory Pictures Produces Video For US Nonwovens

2010-04-01T20:03:00.001-04:00

TeleStory Pictures recently partnered with US Nonwovens, a global disposables manufacturing corporation, to create its latest promotional video for its private label, national brand baby wipes manufacturing plant. The ten minute promotional video was produced under an extremely tight deadline. The production included the full gambit of research, scripting, location scouting, nearly two days of on-site filming, post production, voice-over talent casting and recording, and final authoring to DVD in just two weeks. "Normally something of this magnitude takes one to two months to develop and complete, "said Michael Mills, Executive Producer for TeleStory Pictures. "The team at USN was fantastic to work with and extremely accommodating to assist us in getting this video produced for them. That made it possible for us to meet their deadline with a rock solid promotional video that really strengthened US Nonwoven's brand, its capacity as a company, and most importantly, the management team at USN loved it!"

High-Definition Virtual Tours

2009-11-17T21:11:00.005-05:00

Our clients are loving one of our latest services, High-Definition Virtual Tours. These are not your virtual tours of the past. These are full-screen, highly interactive, guided hotspots, and high-res, high-definition virtual tours. All our clients can say is "WOW!!". And that's all we keep hearing. We think they're a pretty fun experience too! Take a look for yourself. Click on the image and take a tour. They take a moment to download, but the experience is well worth the wait.

These tours can be used for:

Hotels
Restaurants
Catering Halls
Business Operations
Malls & Shopping Centers
Resorts
Studios
...and More

Let your imagination go. Our clients are and having lots of fun. It's a powerful tool for any business.

Russo's On The Bay Website Gets Facelift

2009-08-31T13:24:00.008-04:00

After months of collaboration, design, and filming, we launched the new Russo's On The Bay website this morning. Russo's On The Bay saw what we had done for other catering/event facilities in the industry and approached us for assistance with their website and branding. The goal was to give website visitors the Russo's On The Bay experience online and increase the conversion of website visitors to sales contacts. Additionally they wanted future control of content since Russo's is always evolving and adding new and exciting things to their events.

We developed a Mediterranean feeling that captured the European/Italian themes throughout Russo's On The Bay's extraordinary facility.

More than a week was spent filming wedding, social, and corporate events and interiors/exteriors of Russo's in high-definition video. These were edited in our Avid post facility, colorized, sound mixed, and finalized for full-screen, HD video viewing on Russo's On The Bay website as well as a company DVD.

Several days were spent shooting state of the art, high-resolution, virtual tours. The end result was full-screen, 360 degree tours of the entire facility with guiding hotspots and maps. A real "wow factor" for online visitors and the team at Russo's.

A Bridal Planner section was built to educate and assist Russo's brides with their wedding plans using planning tools and podcasts/videocasts. The Flash front page includes some very fun, real time elements and a special surprise at night. I won't give it away, but it's worth taking a moment to visit there. The final implemented content management system allowed for very easy access and changing of content for Russo's website.

The site combines some of the finest media tools TeleStory Pictures has to offer. For a real Russo's experience, visit them online and then consider booking your next event there.

Vendor/Client Relationships

2009-07-25T23:30:00.001-04:00

A friend sent me this video. It shows the unfortunate situation business owners sometimes find themselves when trying to provide clients with services. In a great economy or tough economy, I firmly believe that a man, or company, is worth his/its hire. Things don't come for free. They never have. What are the services of a company worth to your business? Will they make your business better, stronger, and more resilient. Will it affect the longevity of your company? Your employees, your image? To trivialize the monetary investment in a companies services is to ask that company to risk their ability to be solvent for the benefit of your pleasure, company, needs, or wants and to ask that is only attempting to cheat yourself. Any good business person wouldn't venture down that road for their sake or yours. Good business relationships take time to establish. Such a road leads to you being without great services the next time you need them. Besides, price is all relative. Quality come at a cost. And isn't quality what your company needs and wants anyway? Award-winning quality gets attention. Attention puts you in a position to grow your business.

Frank McCourt Tribute Video

2009-07-21T16:26:00.003-04:00

We received a call over the weekend from Roots Television. Frank McCourt, Pulitzer Prize winning author and NYC school teacher for nearly three decades had just passed away. Roots wanted us to create a tribute video for Frank. Below is the video we produced for Roots Television.

Long Island Bride and Groom Make-Over

2009-07-01T16:46:00.001-04:00

Talk about a wedding make-over. Here it is!! After months of planning, developing, redesigning, and implimenting, the new Long Island Bride and Groom website launched this morning. It was a challenging project that incorporated hundreds of pages, a large back-end database, and a lot of material. The goal was to give the site a new look and feel that didn't overwhelm visitors (namely brides) with too much content and include a video player that acted as a television. Stu Freeman, owner of Long Island Bride and Groom, was very interested in incorporating the media trend of videos, iPods, iTunes, etc, into the site and allow brides/visitors to be introduced to vendors through the visual medium of video. Brides would be able to choose what they wanted to watch and yet the content needed to play continously, with ad spots and so forth. The old site had content overload while the new site was visually cleaner and allowed visitors to focus on particular elements. Below are samples of the old and new sites.

Long Island Bride and Groom Old Site

Long Island Bride and Groom Make-Over

TeleStory Pictures worked closely with Stu Freeman and his great team at Long Island Bride and Groom to develope the new look, content, brand strengthening, video player and elements including, scripting, voice-over casting, production, post, special effects, and animation. See the new design by visiting Long Island Bride and Groom.com

Haley-Baff Genetic Family Reunion

2009-03-02T20:26:00.003-05:00

LONDON, UK
This past weekend, one of our favorite clients, RootsTelevision.com, asked us to join them in London to cover a very important announcement and reunion. In 2007 actor/filmmaker Chris Haley, the nephew of Roots fame Alex Haley, was persuaded by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak and Ancestry.com to take a DNA for geneological research and entrance into the Ancestry.com DNA database. There are millions of names and DNA data entered into this database with the whole purpose of using science in geneological research, where other research and papers trails have gone dry. Chris Haley didn't see any results for some time, until about two weeks ago. The results would confirm his uncle's belief that they came from Scottish descent. TeleStory Pictures was given exclusive access to the historic meeting of Chris Haley and his newly discovered distant, Scottish cousin, June Baff-Black. Chris and June were a huge hit on BBC Breakfast, BBC News, and the talk of 2009 WDYTYA? Live! event in London.

Annie Moore Memorial Ceremony

2008-10-14T16:47:00.004-04:00

QUEENS, NEW YORK
The famous story of Annie Moore from Ireland, the first immigrant to step foot on Ellis Island, came to a restful conclusion this weekend. TeleStory Pictures was there to capture New York City history for RootsTelevision.com. After a few years in New York City, Annie Moore had been thought to travel to and die somewhere in the midwest. Research in the past few years found this to be a different Annie Moore and the search began to find the real Annie. Veteran Geneologist/Researcher Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak soon discovered that Annie had never left New York City and was buried in an unmarked grave, along with her children, in her own backyard, Queens, NY. This video is of the Annie Moore Memorial Ceremony, an emotionally stirring moment for many who gathered from as far away as Ireland to honor their ancestor.

Unveiling the Mystery of Video In Under 2 Hours

2008-07-24T15:07:00.006-04:00

Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to address a professional group and unveil the mystery of video production; how to light, setup a camera, get good sound, edit the footage and post it on the internet. It was a fast and furious, hour and half long, workshop of demonstration, question/answer, and teaching. Most had no idea what was involved in something that looks so simple. They were a great group to work with and very appreciative of the information. It gave them the opportunity to learn more about a tool they needed to use more readily in their businesses.

Are you using video in your business? If not, then keep reading. If you are, then still keep reading.

Video is a very powerful tools for your business. Take a look at the statistics. There are more than 1.4 billion internet users worldwide. More than 247 million in North America. In the fall of 2007, 75% of United States internet users watched more than 3 hours of video per month, averaging between 7.5-9 billion videos per month. That's three out of four users watching video online. The average American spends three more hours a day online than watching television.

As to the influence video has on sales and buying decision, the Wharton School of Business did a study. It showed that video increased the sales of a product or service by nearly 80% over conventional marketing and advertising tools like print and photos. Madison Avenue and Hollywood understand this. That's why motion pictures and television sell.

What can that do for you business? A whole lot. Leveraging the power of video on your website, as a sales tool, at your tradeshows, in your waiting area, as a marketing brochure, and more, can increase your bottom line significantly. Video and film moves people in ways that nothing else can because it reaches nearly all the sense.

Move your audience. Increase sales. Use the power of digital media in your business.