Critiques Wanted

[Dale C. Elliott]

Hi David,

I just played it again, and I didn't see or hear the interview. Was it before your contact info. or after?

[David Hurdon]

It follows the contact info by a couple of seconds, but wasn't on the dial up version. I've just put up the latest (and last for now) version of the broadband file, which links from my video page and from the centre choice in the legacymedia page. I am now posting a new 56K version with the interview segment at the end, available from the legacymedia page only.
There are still a couple of encoding glitches in these two versions. They aren't in the timeline and I haven't figured out why they're there, but successive encodings repeat them at the same points (two).

David Hurdon

[Peter Wiley]

I think think this is a good pitch. The only thing I might ad is an interview with a statisfied customer saying what such a project meant ti their family. I am still kicking myself for not having taped a 100 year-old realtive who recently died, born in 1900!

Have you thought of making the kit available via PDF? These can be password protected, so you would not be giving away the store.

Once this has a proven track-record, I think you might have another business in training other video people who to do this kind of project -- perhaps even a franchise

[Dale C. Elliott]

Yep, I saw the interview after you added it to the dial up choice. Living out in the country, highspeed is not a viable option yet.

Overall its is good, I would agree with Peter if you could add testimonials from customers it would be an added bonus.

[David Hurdon]

Peter, I'd appreciate some detail on the password-protected PDF idea. I do have a starter kit in PDF on the legacy site, freely available but without important production detail. How can one protect any download from being distributed with the password, and would I want to?
Dave, thanks for taking another look. I cringe at what telemodem-directed encoding does to the original but it sounds like it's better than not offering the option. I wish you could see it in MPG-1 - in fact I'd be glad to mail you a miniCD-R just to make myself feel better about what you see. Let me know at david@contentshop.tv if you're interested. I'm looking for some destinations for the format, to see if a 48 cent stamp and a #10 envelope delivers an undamaged disk.
Thanks to you both for your comments. I do understand the power of an endorsement, and I have them, but I'm concerned about the length of the piece. Maybe I could put the warm fuzzies on a follow-up piece once I knew something about the enquiring party(?).

David Hurdon

[Dale C. Elliott]

Sure I would be interested in helping you out re the testing of mailing a CD-R. I will e-mail you my address.

[Peter Wiley]

Check out

http://www.adobe.com/security/doccontrol.html

There is supposedly a public key system that works with Acrobat. Unfortunately the information is a little vague about how it works . . . and more involved than I remember.

But theoretically it would allow you to have a password for each customer.

In the end, of course, there is no way to completely prevent people just circulating a PDF and a password together. I guess the question is how much of your value-added is in the kit. Are you selling the kit or the skills that go into producing the video? Could anyone really duplicate what you can do easily?

In one sense you are not selling the tape or the skills but a solution to a problem: how can I preserve my the parts of my family's hertagae that will be lost if I don't get the tape.

[David Hurdon]

"In one sense you are not selling the tape or the skills but a solution to a problem: how can I preserve the parts of my family's heritage that will be lost if I don't get the tape."

Peter, I think you've encapsulated the issue perfectly. Not only do people have to care in the first place, they also have to decide that borrowing a video camera or having a friend with one come over isn't going to solve the problem. And in that sense it is the skill-set being offered that matters more than the "how to" aspect described in the kit. The kit, incidentally, focuses on how to get the most from your project through preparation, not on the technical elements.

David Hurdon

[John Locke]

David,

Not only can you lock a PDF, you can also make it unprintable. The thing is those types of files can be pretty annoying. If for any reason the unlocking doesn't go smoothly, or a file gets corrupted, or an upgrade isn't compatible, you wind up having to write to tech support to get a new key.

I bought a couple of e-books that were locked PDFs...and they were such a hassle that I jettisoned them to cyber infinity.

By the way, David...the changes look good. I really like the interview segment you added. I'd like to sit and have a beer with that guy and listen to how he avoided a mid-life crisis.

[Will Fastie]

David:

Regarding WMP9, you are right that not everyone has that version. However, my experience is that the changeover from one version of WMP to the next happens remarkably fast, I guess another tribute to Microsoft's skills. If someone has the bandwidth to view the video, then they have the bandwidth to update, something you could even encourage with a link.

Regarding the pitch, my Vermont-based brother is going to be ticked that you are so far along in commercializing his idea! And it is a great idea. He and I have talked about doing what we can now for our family even though the prior generation has passed on. My brother has talked about doing it commercially.

I also thought the pitch was good. From a business point of view, I did feel that the mention of $15,000 without suggesting a price point for your service could leave folks up in the air. Human nature being what it is, I think a lot of folks will get that price point stuck in their mind and stall. It might be better to simply make the point that technology has reduced production costs to the point that it can be affordable for many more people.

Will

[Carl Slawinski]

David, I think the video is great.

One thing I would recommend is that you remove the David: before the phone number. It makes the operation seem like a 1 horse show (which it may be). Simply saying call xxx-xxx-xxxx is good enough and doesn't leave any impression by itself.

Also, I agree with an earlier poster who said that some customer testimonials would be great. However, you may not have enough of those already. It would be good for the the next generation of the video (pun intended).

just my 2 cents

Carl

[David Hurdon]

Thank you Will and Carl for two good observations. One friend who watched made the same comment about the $15,000 reference, and no one else picked up on the negative side of using my name next to the phone #. Good stuff.

John, thanks for the info and experience on locked PDFs.

David Hurdon

[Robert Simon]

Just out of curiosity, how much would you charge for this type of project. To me it seems like a pretty cool business with a decent, relatively untapped market, and with less stress and time pressure than wedding videography. I just wonder if there is a common price point that an average person is willing to pay.

[David Hurdon]

Hi Robert. I didn't realize a thread this old could be resurrected! The most frequently appearing price point for a basic bio was USD$895 when this thread started. Since then I have seen a number of articles and TV interviews on the subject but have no confidence that anyone is making a living at this, in this low end. There has always been a niche market at the high end of price and production values but the value of these projects to a family over the decades doesn't seem to have sunk in with the mass market. Everyone you talk to thinks it is a great idea and many wish they had done something before they lost the relative with all the family stories, but very few actually want to spend the money.

David Hurdon