Avant Productions

Category: Creative

  • Our Orange County Video Studio

    Our Orange County Video Studio

    You need something filmed? We’ve got you covered; From our full, wall to floor green screen capabilities, to our full lighting grid and crew to help bring your vision to life! At AVANT, we know it’s important for your footage to look good. So, that is why our Orange County video studio is the perfect place for all of your video needs.

    Just this last week, our clients at The Boxer Law Group needed some video work done for their website. They wanted to bring in the element of one of their lawyers doing a walk on, introduction for visitors coming to the site. So, the perfect solution was to head on over to our green screen facility, set up the teleprompter with their script, and shoot with our high definition cameras to capture a stunning image. But, the process didn’t stop there. We then took the footage into one of our advanced keying systems to remove the green screen, touch up with a little bit of color correction, and create a file that would bring the welcome message onto the website with a transparent background. We know, quite the undertaking.

    But, at AVANT, we love going above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that our clients receive the best Orange County video production to help elevate their business to a high-tech level… especially when it’s all about first impressions.

     

     

  • Vanguard University Lighting Workshop

    Vanguard University Lighting Workshop

    Lights. Camera. Students!

    We recently had 20 Vanguard University students at our Orange County video studio to learn the basic of good lighting and beyond. These future filmmakers got a boot camp style seminar on how to create fast, simple and effective lighting techniques without a big budget or crew. AVANT’s Executive Director, Clark Severson, was off and running with creating real-world situations through demonstrations and hands-on practices with setups of our production facility’s lighting grid, equipment and green screen. The result? These students are now confident in creating polished and dynamic lighting that set the mood and capture an audience.

    What started with questions like, “where should I put the light?” or “how do I get rid of that shadow?” Well, with Clark’s expertise and over 20 years of lighting video projects all throughout Orange County, these students left the AVANT studio with a head full of great ideas for their next project.

     

     

  • Webinars at AVANT

    Webinars at AVANT

    Webinars are fast becoming the most exciting and and sought-after training experience on the internet. Why read a boring online tutorial or travel to a hotel for a seminar when you can log in and connect from home? Webinar participants don’t just watch your message, they engage in a dialogue with your presenters, asking questions online and taking polls with results presented in real-time.

    At AVANT we recognize the power of webinars to deliver your message in a personal but powerful way. We have recently invested both time and capital in outfitting our Orange County green-screen studio and facility with everything you need to run a successful webinar.

    Using a combination of well supported open-source video technologies and a suite of custom-developed web applets we have created a turn-key solution that embeds your webinar directly on your website with your own unique branding. No more logging into a faceless 3rd party website to view your message.

    And with our unique green-screen setup we can produce not just a live webinar with impeccable audio and lighting, but also a full-quality DVD with professionally keyed virtual backgrounds after the fact. Host your live webinar one day and be delivery fully authored DVDs for sale of the same material less than a week later. After all, at AVANT we are all about bringing your more business and helping take things to the next level.

  • Voice Overs Done Right

    Voice Overs Done Right

    At AVANT we pride ourselves on the quality of our work and the care and attention we give to every project. No where is this more evident than in our meticulous handling of voice over sessions.

    Recently we recorded voice-overs as part of an ongoing project for a children’s educational DVD series. The producers wanted a variety of voices to be represented, male and female, old and young. How young you ask? Joining our regular voice-over talent pool was 9-year-old Olivia, performing her first-ever professional voice-over session.

    Recording such a young actor is about the same as recording an adult. Careful microphone placement produces a naturalist sound and our fully isolated “room-within-a-room” voice over booth does the rest. That and some patient direction from the control room nearby.

    Our facility was originally built in the mid 1970’s as a production facility for live television programs and we at AVANT have benefited from the amazing room design and construction techniques that were used back then. Our sound room literally “floats” inside the surrounding building, isolated from the surrounding outer walls, greatly reduced sounds that would be transmitted from outside.

    Add to this the latest in digital recording technology and computer-based digital audio workstations and you’ll see why we take voice-over recording to the next level. At AVANT we’ll make you sound fantastic, whether you’re 9 or 99.

  • Green Screen Magic: Matching Reality to 3D

    Green Screen Magic: Matching Reality to 3D

    An important component of creating a convincing green-screen composite is careful selection and adjustment of the virtual background placed behind the talent. At AVANT we have perfected the art of matching 3D rendered imagery with live-action footage.

    For a recent series of training videos for Cloud-Townsend Resources our creative team started with a 3D rendered virtual set and expertly blended it to match footage shot in our green-screen studio featuring Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend.

    Because 3D renders are pure RGB images our first step was to adjust the black, white, and mid-tone values of the background to mimic the values of our HD video footage. Next we reduced the amount of color information in the background slightly and adjusted the hues to match the lighting setup.

    The final steps for enhanced realism were to add grain and a vignette around the edges of the virtual set background to help recreate how a real room would have been photographed had it existed.

    In the end all this attention to detail resulted in a seamless green-screen production that allows the Cloud Townsend audience to concentrate on the message and not the technology used to create it.

  • Television History to DVD

    Television History to DVD

    Remember when there was no reality TV? Remember when television consisted of timeless stand up and sketches? Sid Caesar was a genius who took television to the next level in the late 1960’s with his show “Caesar’s Hour”. Well, over 50 years later, Sid is now splashed on AVANT’s monitors as we help prepare the PBS show that reunited the Caesar writing team to soon be released on DVD.

    Caesar’s Hour was a live, hour-long American sketch comedy television program that aired on NBC from 1954 until 1957. The program starred, among others, Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Janet Blair and Milt Kamen. PBS brought this incredible team back together in 1996 for a special event at the Writers Guild Theater in Los Angeles, CA. The evening’s events eventually broadcasted on PBS under the title “Caesar’s Writers”. Now, AVANT has the opportunity to be a part of the team to bring this historic production back to life by creating the DVD to master for duplication and worldwide sales. WOW!

    So, at AVANT, we’re all about today’s productions along with the helping memorialize the productions from long ago that helped get our industry to where we are today….reality TV!

  • Website Development to Harness Users

    Website Development to Harness Users

    The Internet can be overwhelming… Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Sometimes it can feel like a full-time job just managing all your different accounts. Yet, what if a website could be the driving force to help heal your personal life? No, we’re not talking about the latest dating craze. We’re talking about Cloud-Townsend Resources – the latest project to come through to our Orange County production facility; building an entirely new web presence and media-delivery platform for the personal growth and development gurus.

    At AVANT we don’t believe in websites, we believe in Movements… especially when dealing with Cloud Townsend’s target audience who are seeking resources to help heal from a hurtful past and ensure a healthier future. A Movement to help change lives. So, this just can’t be a simple, 5-page website for the two NY Times bestselling authors who have sold nearly 5 million books. This has to be an entirely new platform with data-driven strategies, a complete new branding plan with over 4oo products and a new infrastructure for digital downloads, along with intuitive navigation that creates a seamless visitor experience to ensure success.

    Definitely not an easy task, but the AVANT team is truly excited about the process. After all, we value our work and the results we achieve for each and every client. For the web, we understand the need to connect immediately with people because web visitors start to build a relationship with a website from the very first click. Trust. Loyalty. Friendship. Security. What is the last website you visited telling you? What is the AVANT website telling you? Give us a call and let’s chat!

  • From Green Screen to Video Editing

    From Green Screen to Video Editing

    Every week it seems like a new production is coming to AVANT’s Orange County video production facilities to utilize our green screen studio. From indie bands, to non-profits, to babies… yes, you read that right, babies! Recently, we shot the young cast of a new DVD series to help babies learn how to read. With ten kids under the ages of 2 scattered throughout our offices we had our hands full. Placed on the green screen floor, shot with our high-definition cameras, then transfer the footage to our Final Cut Pro edit system and immediately start piecing the scenes together.

    Video editing is one thing, video editing green screen footage of excited kids is definitely another! We had our hands full once again, but it’s been a fun and rewarding process placing these adorable children in far-away places.

    Take a look at Before and After…

    green-screen-facility

    green-screen-video-editing

  • Orange County Video…as in “The OC”

    Orange County Video…as in “The OC”

    Yes, AVANT is located in Orange County, CA… or shall we say “The OC.” Yes, AVANT is located in the heart of Costa Mesa with a spacious green screen studio, multiple video editing bays, and high-definition cameras. Yet, what does it take to create Orange County video for clients that need a compelling project that is going to shine? Well, let’s break things down…

    • At AVANT we Create.
    • At AVANT we Connect.
    • At AVANT we Define.

    What does that mean for our clients who need a corporate video, non-profit fund raising video or website that can be easly found on Google or YouTube or widely shared on Facebook? Well, let’s break things down even further…

    First, we love to Create. We take pride in our creativity. It’s always a thrill to take things to the next level and push ourselves to make sure when someone watches a video we produce they know that it was done by professionals who “know their stuff.”

    Next, we Connect. If your video production or new web presence does not connect to your audience then, really, what’s the point? It’s all about building a bridge that connects your product or company to your client and market. It’s about creating a relationship through the screen, on the web, or on your smart phone in order to generate the results you are looking for. This definitely doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes strategy. It takes us connecting with your vision to help in connecting your audience.

    Last, we shine with our ability to Define. Understanding your project, your vision, your needs in order to translate them into results that deliver your message and Connect with your audience. See, how things just came back full circle? Pretty clever, huh?

  • The Creative Process of Video Editing

    The Creative Process of Video Editing

    Everyone with a video project they want to bring to life wants to gain in-depth insight into the creative process of post-production – creating polished transitions, fix screen direction errors, edit multi-camera high-definition projects, create fantastic effects and graphics, use filters creatively and composite like a pro.

    What makes for great video production is often the mostly invisible flow of time and mood. So, the question becomes, what do you want your audience to take away after seeing your non-profit fund raising video, web video or latest corporate training video. Do you want them to be motivated to action? Do you want them to be motivated to click “buy now”? Do you want them to be motivated to open their wallets to donate? Videos can help inspire a multitude of things, yet without good video editing all that we just mentioned is irrelevant.

    The concept of video editing is how humans process the moving image…well rather, how you manipulate humans to process those moving images. Because there are many factors that come into play – cutting a clip on action, on emotion, on a musical beat, adding color to the image, taking away color, adding sounds effects, adding an original score of song. Video editing has countless elements and factors to consider to really bring a project to life.

    At AVANT, we take this task very seriously. We take every single one of our client’s projects seriously. We’re in the heart of Orange County with our four editing bays in Avid Media Composer or Final Cut Pro, along with our audio mastering suite and on-location sound booth, we can take your project from script to DVD with no problem. Or concept to web download. Or pictures to website. You get the picture!