The agency holiday card done differently

During my agency days, every year the creative department would "gang bang" on a "Christmas card." Which later became the holiday card. And then became the digital holiday card. And then the holiday video. (I can safely say that many agencies should have stuck with cards.) The idea is to…

Top 10 bad reasons to fire a client

We've all had bad clients. Some are just annoying and some are abusive and deserve to be fired. Here's a list that may help you tell the difference. 1) They're plain stupid. If they don't get it or don't understand what you're trying to explain to them maybe it's your…

Five tips for video shoots with celebrity clients

If you work in advertising and marketing long enough you will eventually find yourself working a celebrity shoot. And almost always, celebrities are not like the rest of us. Their lives are different and therefore they must be treated differently on set. Here are a couple pointers. 1) Most have…

New URL for jimmy-gilmore.com

Do you want to know what happens when you pay your domain registration late with certain domain providers? First, they won't take your money Second, they come up with a bunch of expensive charges Thrird, they won't release your domain I'm sure this nets them a lot of cash from…

Being a great creative won’t make you a great agency owner. Or 10 reasons why creative shops fail.

If I had a nickle for everytime a creative agency failed in this town. Then I wouldn't need to be in a creative business. But I am in the creative business and am currently on my third start up of my own and have also worked at two other start…

Bending the triangle. Great production quality in an unreasonable market.

In the agency world and production it's long been a trope that there's a triangle with three sides named good, fast and cheap. You can have any two sides but you can't have all three. Agency professionals understand this just as well as those of us on the production side.…

Top 10 myths about sound for video production

It's unfortunate that sound for video isn't better understood by marketers and even some creative professionals. I've had the pleasure of working just about every kind of production in the nearly twenty years I've been a creative professional. I've done lots and lots of commercials, Web videos, POP videos, trade…

Content creation is no longer a one screen process

Most single-media projects I've worked on in the last few years have included an afterthought. "Wouldn't it be great to use this ______." Fortunately I tend to over shoot things and have had the creative ability to find solutions for these afterthoughts. But the average commercial production these days usually…

The great camera shootout – What it means for agency producers and creatives

Recently Zacuto, a cinema gear company finished it's Great Camera Shootout 2. They tested many of the most popular cameras now used in commercial production as well as 35 negative film. The results were surprising to some and proof for the initiated. But what does it really mean to those…