Hoptocopter Films - Colorado Video Production Company

ENJOY MUSIC Series

hoptocopter — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:14:57 +0000

Hoptocopter™ Films is adding a new music series called ENJOY MUSIC. The point of these shorts is to simply enjoy the moment with us as we run across artists wherever we are in the world.

Here are a couple to start us off:

Cyle Talley // “I Think You Like Me Too Much”

The Widowmakers // “Miner’s Prayer”

Support Troy Yocum with “Hike For Our Heroes”

hoptocopter — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:27:46 +0000

Troy has taken an amazing step in supporting military families. Please help Troy by watching his video below, and following and donating at www.DrumHike.com. We’re going to be filming Troy’s final steps on August 2, 2011 in Kentucky. We’re excited to help Troy with getting his message out on YouTube and other online marketing means.

A Million Bucks – Gain’s “Smell like a Million Bucks”

hoptocopter — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:00:10 +0000

Gain (the PGC laundry detergent) has announced the first ever video contest with a one million dollar prize. Gain’s contest is called “Smell Like a Million Bucks.” All you have to do is produce a video under 60 seconds that has the line “I use Gain and I smell like a million bucks.”

Needless to say, as video producers, this got our attention.

THE PRODUCTION

Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 1:00 we started coming up with ideas. 4:00 came around and Seth Schaeffer recorded the music background while Carrington Schaeffer grabbed outfits. At about 7:00 PM we had the team (Carrington Schaeffer, Mary Ruth King, Wade Yamaguchi, and Seth Schaeffer) to film in a donated living room (thanks for the Behrens!). At 3:00 A.M. we had our rough cut and posted our final version of the spot on Friday afternoon. (see behind the scenes screen shots below).

WE’D LOVE YOUR HELP! – Just view our video daily!

The only way to win is to get VIEWS ON FACEBOOK! We’re WAY behind schedule as round one of the contest ends in just a couple weeks and other videos have about 4 weeks of views and promotion on ours.

The terms of the contest state that each person with a facebook account (not multiple accounts from one person) can view our video once every day. We’d love to get your MUCH NEEDED help in viewing the video daily.

We need as many people as we can get to watch the video every day on facebook and share it on your wall as often as you are comfortable with.

Who’s in to help?!

Growth & Business Nostalgia

hoptocopter — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 03:56:59 +0000

We’ve completely redesigned our website. The previous design has treated us well for a few years now, but we’ve decided to spruce it up a bit. If you’ve been a visitor in the past, you’ll noticed some substantial changes in the layout and functionality of this new site. We’ll be working on new updates and functionality (Like the powerful Hoptocopter™ Connect video production project management feature).

The new features are exciting, but every time you move on to newer things, there’s always some level of nostalgia. Below is the design that was with us through the thick and thin of growing Hoptocopter Films to what it is today. It’s the design that went from nothing to #1 for “Colorado Video Production Company” in google.com search.

Adobe CS5.5 is out – EverydayFilmmaker.com

hoptocopter — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:58:14 +0000

I’ve officially started posting videos to EverydayFilmmaker.com and I’ve decided to start with Adobe CS5.5 as my subject. It’s the brand new “half-update” they’ve been talking about. It’s still a paid update, but it’d less than the usual update.

Here’s a quick look at the Adobe CS5.5 software and it’s capabilities with the Warp Stabilizer.

ADOBE CS5.5 – AFTER EFFECTS WARP STABILIZER

Traveling like crazy… good for business

hoptocopter — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:49:37 +0000

Just as the industry typically works, there are many projects we’ve been doing in the last few months that I’m unable to post as “Portfolio” specific material, but holy cow… we’ve been busy. We just got back from a trip to Phoenix, AZ that continued on to Los Angeles, CA. It’s a great thing that my wife is an amazing part of the crew… I can’t imagine it otherwise.

My wife and I are taking at least a few weeks this year to enjoy the finer things of life and travel across the country in our car. We’ll be taking off in just a few weeks to Texas for more projects. Please feel free to follow our travels at www.ShortandHat.com.

An industry tool we’ve all needed… Coming by March 2011.

hoptocopter — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:27:22 +0000

We’re very excited about a few major changes we’ll be making to www.hoptocopter.com. In order to make our traveling days more efficient, we’re working on a system to become much more streamlined. Our goal is to make the communication between the client and our producers as simple and clear as possible for both parties.

WEB:

Jeremy Green with Endo Creative (www.endocreative.com) is helping us reinvent the front end of our website. The homepage will have an easy-to-navigate menu system that will more clearly direct our visitors to the most popular areas of our site.

Seth Schaeffer of Hoptocopter Films will be working on an educational and tutorial platform for industry professionals and clients of Hoptocopter Films.

Jim Blevins with 100 Watt Design (www.100wd.com) will be the mastermind behind improving our ‘Client Control Panel‘ (a more cheesy name is still TBD).

Currently, our clients are able to easily login with their username and password to access files related to their projects. They can browse folders within their client access and download & view files from previous projects.

In the new system, our clients will be able to download and view files as before, manage their contact information, upload files related to the project, view and download model releases, sign off on their pre-production, view scheduled filming & production dates, sign off on post-production, download final videos, download invoices and track whether we’ve received payment on each project.

It will also be one the most easy-to-use and powerful client communication systems in the video production industry.

BUSINESS STRUCTURE:

Jeff Kirtland of Kirtland Communications (www.kirtlandcommunications.com) is our key advisor in moving forward from here. He’s offering priceless insight on corporate structure and client touch (and yes we may be sucking up a quite a bit here… but we already owe Jeff for the amazing work he’s doing for our corporate structure). Jeff will help us determine the major points to work on in the future and keep us accountable in our own growth.

SUMMING IT UP

We’re amping up for what appears to be a jam-packed year ahead of us and we’re excited for what 2011 is going to bring.

Random Filming – Mr. Tim Brown

hoptocopter — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 19:09:20 +0000

Okay… I know that was a bad title. Every once in a while it’s nice to just go do a random video shoot. These posts are just raw, single-take shots that have basic color correction in a dark room. With the daily grind of more intricate set-ups, it’s nice to have the “underground” rawness in some projects like the videos below.

It was later at night at the Rockslide in Grand Junction, Colorado and we decided to spend about 90 seconds setting up the camera, lenses, and the TASCAM DR-100 for room audio recording.

On top of enjoying the simple shoot, my friend Tim Brown is an awesome, natural and enjoyable musician to listen to. Take a listen to his songs below. Great stuff.

DP Demo Reel – Seth Schaeffer of Hoptocopter Films

hoptocopter — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 09:53:00 +0000

Seth Schaeffer has finished his film / video production demo reel for 2010. Please enjoy and comment to your hearts content on YouTube.

The Importance of Blogging Often (w/ noted hypocrisy)

hoptocopter — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 01:02:55 +0000

Blogging is such an important part of a website for any business. It keeps clients, potential clients, and readers (like you) up to date on what your business is doing… but there’s more. Blogging allows businesses to prove to Google that it’s actually an active website. We recently hit #1 on google for the search term “Colorado Video Production” without blogging, but many points of what we did to get within the top five search results was mainly attributed to blogging (as well as help from a company called 100 Watt Design (http://www.100wd.com).

I often stress to my clients that blogging, although it can take some time that seems to be better spent elsewhere, is EXTREMELY important. It tells google, your clients, and anyone else that your website and your BUSINESS is still valid.

That’s it. Keep in touch and stay posted for more information in the future about some awesome changes we’ll be going through with Hoptocopter Films.