This page summarises some of the questions most frequently asked by our clients - along with the answers! We hope that this will help you understand the options and costs in relation to producing videos for your business whether they are for the web, DVD or both.

Q. Can I have music on my video?

Yes you can! And indeed we would recommend it as, generally, music adds polish to your film and helps tie all the imagery together. However, there are a few key decisions to make here.There are several options in terms of the type of music that you can use, each with different cost implications for your production. You can use:

• Well-known recognised/popular music
  In an ideal world we would all like to have the latest chart hits or classic tracks backing our visuals. While it is certainly possible, it tends to cost a lot and can be a bit messy in terms of copyright with record companies, publishers and sometimes even the artists themselves having to give their consent for a track to be used in your specific production. It is also these parties that arbitrarily decide how much to charge for the use of the music and it can be a sizable fee ranging from the high hundreds well into the thousands depending on the project. For this reason, going after the latest Take That tune or using a Queen song as a backing track is generally out of reach for many corporate clients unless they have a particularly large budget.
  
  
• MCPS Production Library music
  Library music gives clients a lower cost alternative. These music track are normally organised thematically to help you find an appropriate piece and most of them are high quality, professional sounding soundtracks.
  
  The main advantages are that the basic costs are standard and known (set by the MCPS) regardless of which track(s) you use and there are literally thousands of tracks to pick from. Currently, music for corporate use costs £35 for each 30 seconds and gives you the right to use the music within your project for 12 months anywhere in the world. There may also be an additional PRS charge in some instances.
  
  
• One-off payment music
  Similar to the MCPS Production Library music but even cheaper and far more straightforward. A one off fee usually gives you unlimited use of a track worldwide, in as many projects as you want, forever. Tracks normally only cost between £30 and £100 as a flat fee.
  
  Although not offering the same quantity of tracks to choose from as the MCPS libraries, they are generally very high quality and more and more websites springing up offering these one payment low cost deals on music.
  
  
• Individually commissioned music
  While the idea of specially commissioned music appeals to some clients, the downside is that you are only likely to be presented with one or two options for your money, typically between £300 - £500 per track, based on your brief. As you can choose from literally thousands of pre-composed tracks online for much less money, Aztec Productions  tends not to recommend the individual commission route to its clients.
  

Q: It would be much easier if I could just read it. Can I use autocue?

You can. Autocue is a wonderful, clever and useful tool but there is very definitely a skill to and there are trade-off benefits and cons to consider...

• Being able to simply read lines obviously makes life a lot easier for the person being filmed but trying to avoid looking like you are simply reading lines is far more difficult than many imagine! The bottom line is that, unless someone is experienced and comfortable with autocue, the performance can suffer.
  
  
• A better and cheaper option is often to film the person speaking to someone sitting off camera. This is how 95% of documentary participants are filmed and offers more flexibility for editing between multiple cameras as well as the option of using off-screen prompts.
  

Q. Everyone is talking about High Definition. Can we have our video in High Definition?

Yes! At Aztec Productions, we shoot all of our material in High Definition using Sony’s latest XDcam EX cameras. As long as you have the necessary hardware to play back the high definition signals; that means a Blu Ray DVD player and an HD ready TV or projector (preferably 1080p for the best results), you're good to go.

Although Blu Ray burners for PC desktops are available, it is still quite pricey to have a Blu Ray disc professionally authored so that cost may need to be factored into budget considerations.

Of course, even if you are not ready to screen your videos in HD just yet, the fact that they are being filmed and archived in HD by Aztec Productions means that they will be ready and waiting for you when you are ready to make the jump to HD delivery.

Q. DV Cam, Digi Beta, Pro MiniDV, HD? What does it all mean and should we care?

There are quite a few options these days in terms of what format to shoot on and the decision of what to use is usually driven by a combination of budget and the end delivery platform. We could bang on about compression rates and media durability but at its most basic, there is a recognised sliding scale of quality accompanied by a corresponding scale of cost. Here’s a basic explanation of the main video formats currently out there:

• Pro Mini DV
  Uses the same basic technology as the consumer versions but is coupled with professional cameras with bigger chips, much better lenses and pro audio inputs. These are still ideal low cost solutions for clips that will end up on the web or smaller TVs.
  
  
• DV cam
  A step up from mini DV not so much in the technical picture spec but in the larger style Sony cameras that use this format meaning even bigger chips, superior lenses and pictures that are just that bit sharper with better colour definition.An example of something shot on DV cam would be a reality TV show like ‘Wife Swap’.
  
  
• Digi Beta
  Until recently the flagship for top quality video production (with a price tag to match). Even better cameras, less compression and the most robust digital tape format available quickly made this format the standard broadcast solution for quality TV programmes as well as films shot on video. Only Corporate clients with deep pockets and a requirement for the best quality available need really consider this format. Most BBC dramas, including things like Dr Who, are still shot on Digi Beta.
  
  
• High Definition
  The term High Definition actually encompasses a myriad of differing sub formats and specifications with Sony, Panasonic and JVC all pushing their own particular flavour of HD. What seems irrefutable, however, is that HD, in one guise or another, is the way forward.
  
  At the lower to medium end of the scale, HD is starting to replace DV cam as the lower cost broadcast solution of choice with programmes like Channel 4’s ‘Derren Brown’ and ‘Hollyoaks’ now shooting on Sony’s XDcam HD format.
  
  HD cameras at the higher end are even more expensive than DigiBeta but with more and more HD programming being commissioned, eventually DVcam and DigiBeta are both likely to be replaced by HD formats.