Filming Your Commercial

Filming at EnSky

If you live in New England, you can film your commercial at EnSky's studios in Rochester, NH. We are about 2 hours north of Boston off Rt. 16., an hour and fifteen minutes from Portland Me, 45 minutes from Manchester, NH and a half hour from Concord, NH. We shoot on Mini DV and mic you with a hidden wireless lapel microphone, ensuring the best audio results. A typical session for a 20-30 second commercial, because it must be memorized prior to filming, usually takes less than 15 minutes. You should arrive a half an hour prior to your scheduled shoot to meet with the director to go over your copy, and make any costume, script, or make-up changes.

What to wear

We suggest dark colorful clothing, as we shoot on a white background, with that said, we have had good success with white or cream, on occasions where we had proper lighting. We don't provide make-up artists for your shoot. There are numerous local hair salons that can help with stylings and make-up. If you shoot in winter and your wearing winter type clothes and you're sending your card out in July, what are pleople going to think? Dress in something that you would wear yearround or bring a change of clothing and shoot 2 of each message. Glasses tend to reflect the light, so if you can speak with your glasses off, that's best.

For the best results

Your commercial must be filmed in one take. We can't edit parts of your monologue together...it would look bad. Write your monlogue and memorize it while you're in your car, and then practice in front of a mirror. Start with a smile, introduce yourself, have a place to smile in the middle of your monologue, and then end with a smile with an invitation for the intended audience to contact you. Tip. Plan on shooting more than just the one commercial. Once you get started with the one card and begin to see the results you are going to want 10 cards! One to say a general thanks, one for happy holidays, one to use as a follow up, one for one product another for a service, you get the picture. It's only $100.00 for each additional commercial! If you had your commercial shot on one of our out of state shoots, you'll either have to film your additional commercials on your own or wait until the next time we come back to your city. All commercials should be timed to be under 30 seconds. You will have a chance to see your take and we require a verbal sign-off to move it to production.

Filming at your office or a studio in your city.

For companies with card orders of 32 (that's one day averaging 4 people per hour) or more, we charge $1600.00 per day + travel and expenses. For other individuals, we make frequent trips to major metroplolitan cities. New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Miami and others to film EnSky Flash Video Card Commercials. If you live close to these areas or if you want to be added to the list cities for future consideration, call us. Basically if you can find 63 other people to do cards with you, we will come to your city.

Why you can't film these yourself.

You can! We will waive the $50.00 filming fee too! If you have a Mini DV Video Camera, (we only accept mini DV) adequate lighting, a white background to stand in front of, a lapel microphone or other suitable way of capturing your audio to your camera (most camera shotgun mics don't work well enough, because you can't get close enough and frame the subject [you] properly). You also need a stand for your video camera. You should be about 4 or 5 feet from the camera, and standing so in the view finder of your camera styled so that the top of your body, head and shoulders to the middle of your chest is visable with some room above your head, and your right shoulder is touching the left side of the frame or even somewhat cropped leaving white wall to the left of you, which is where we place the business card information. We suggest that you look at the sample video cards on this website for reference. The business card template that we designed requires room at the top and bottom and the right for contact information. If you appear too close you will be cropped to fit in the space..so make sure that you are framed properly.

When you finally get a take that your happy with, mail your mini dv tape in with your video card receipt (so we can track your info with the commercial) which is emailed to after you placed your order. Our address is in the footer on every page of this website for your convenience.

Please remember that built into the cost of each commercial is creative direction provided by EnSky. Our people are trained to know when you have delivered the best take. If you think you would benefit from having a professional work with you to ensure you achieve the best results, either film at EnSky or get us to come to you.

Why aren't there different card designs?

Our Flash Cards are priced low because we have developed a very nice template, which speeds the process of processing the cards. Larger companies with bigger budgets that have specific design requirements can expect full customization of their end product for tight brand integration. All cards include the capability of adding a logo.