The advances in technology have made this problem worse. We used to shoot most things with film which required a separate audio system and professionals. Now with everything going digital and budgets under attack, some people are questioning why we need to spend all this money on sound when the camera records it already.

With this background, I present the 10 most troublesome myths about production sound:

You don’t need a dedicated sound department: Yes I said department. Even on a small shoot, there needs to be someone responsible only for getting great sound. If they’re worried about the camera and lights, odds are they will miss something.

Picture is more important than sound: Ever see a good movie with bad sound? Ever see a low budget indie movie with not so great camera work but was moving thanks to a killer soundtrack and dialog? Or how about a television commercial that was all type and sound but no moving pictures?

Cameras are a great way to capture sound: Very few cameras actually capture sound at the same quality a professional location recorder can. And none of them are manned by a dedicated sound professional that will be able monitor and control the input for best results.

Lavaliers (or any other type) are the best microphone: There are lots and lots of different types of microphones created for different purposes and environments. They all have their pluses and minuses. Lavs for example are great at isolating voices and are almost always better for wide shots. But they’re also susceptible to interference, rustling, and don’t do a good job with environmental sound.

It’s better to scrimp on sound than anything else:  Good audio is going to cost you. But not nearly as much as your camera department or talent. May as well save money on something like lunch, maybe hotels or how about that masseuse the producer wanted.

You can easily fix spoiled audio in post:  If you have enough money you can do just about anything in post. Just ask George Lucas. Big budget movies use a lot of ADR. But reconstructing audio in post is no easy task and it requires reassembling your cast, potentially weeks later, for a costly audio session at another location while trying to match the same energy captured on screen. Good luck and please don’t send me the bill.

What a location looks like is more important than how it sounds: This is only true if you are not shooting sync sound. If you are shooting sync sound, the way a place sounds if far more important than what it looks like. Sorry art directors.

A PA can do it: A PA probably shouldn’t even be holding the boom. If a PA can actually do it well while following the dialog, she probably deserves a promotion.

Shotgun microphones are for capturing sound from across rooms or are supposed to be attached to camera: They’re designed to be on a boom or stand, and usually just above the talent. Period. No matter how sensitive, a poorly placed microphone can sound perfectly awful.

You can easily enhance an actors voice or a thin recording in post: Yes there are post production tricks to make someone sound different. But if the recording is weak it will only get weaker the more affects are applied to it. Think of it like making a photo copy and then making a photo copy of the photo copy. The more times you repeat the process the fuzzier the image becomes.

With the explosive growth in tablets in the last year it’s safe to say it finally, truly was the year of mobile.

Transitioning to video business this year and creating a start-up video business in September, I can also say that online video is truly on the minds of everyone in the marketing, interactive and advertising businesses. Creating video content for audiences now interacting more often on less work related devices that are more suited for video content, I believe will fuel more growth in video next year.

Internet TV has received a fair amount of buzz this year. GoogleTV has popped up on lots of new devices and Netflix has had some major success and failures. I think IPTV is definitely the wave of the future as it is in phone technology. We should see continued growth here.

QR codes of course have also been all over the place this year. Here’s to hoping they get more thoughtful next year.

Location based apps have become ubiquitous — well, for anyone owning a smart phone. I have to say folks, I’m about sick of seeing you check into work, lunch, and then work again.

Probably the best part of the year has been that people are starting to understand social a little better. Fewer blank stares in meetings and also less reliance on the guru types. Social is also no longer the thing for the intern “cause they’re young and they understand that stuff.”

I haven’t seen any overall statistics for the year yet but just from what I’m hearing and seeing is a lot of pain in the small to mid-sized ad agencies while the larger ones doing better this year. But not nearly as well as the larger interactive shops. This is also a trend I think will continue until traditional small ad agencies find a way to make themselves relevant again or the economy shifts dramatically.

2011 has truly been a mixed bag — lots of cool tech but stagnate growth. Here’s to 2012 being a little more positive on the growth side.

I’ve written a lot here about the rapid change in technology our industry is experiencing right now. I’ve also written a lot about how smaller to midsized advertising agencies are finding it hard to staff with enough talented people. And how marketing departments struggle just to keep up with their workload in their downsized departments. Everyone is stressed these days just to keep up with the work while business leaders are looking for strategies to stay profitable in the new economy.

Fortunately social technology has enabled new ways of working, connecting, and collaborating that, when leveraged correctly, can have real benefits to the cost and effectiveness of providing services to clients. How so?

One example is Basecamp that enables project management and collaboration with no regard for proximity or even brick and mortar. The cloud has freed us from the need for large and narrowly structured organizations to complete complex projects.

This means my business and even a group of freelancers can function within your project just as if we’re an integrated part or your organization. Suddenly, collaboration isn’t pain in the butt for a project manager but a chance to bring in expertise and fresh thinking from anywhere on the globe.

It also allows business to add expertise and services without having to take on the significant costs of moving to a bigger space and hiring more people. Because collaboration is so much easier these days, my business can integrate with your business in the cloud on a project by project basis. Imagine the flexibility and the cost advantages you suddenly have.

Collaboration make you competitive. It can turn men into giants. And give small businesses the reach of mega corporations. Now each project you touch can be so much more effective and drive more ROI. Truly, collaboration is the new competition. How will you use collaboration to become more effective?

What’s a marketer, an agency, or a content producer do? Discuss maximizing the production before the cameras roll or even the script is finished. A small investment in a longer shoot day or an extra shoot day can yield a campaign that works on four screens instead of one. On a television, YouTube, iPad, mobile device. One that works on a homepage and not just as a 30 second spot.

Making great content for an iPad isn’t just encoding an mp4 of your TV spot. Consideration should be given to the media in the creative process.

Things to keep in mind:

Wide shots feel epic on a 50 inch plasma but just small on a mobile screen. Get lots of footage at various focal lengths and consider using multiple cameras to maximize your production time.

You often have longer to tell a story online, so make sure you get longer takes and give your actors time to breathe. It’s often more convincing in the end too.

Your brand’s engagement most likely isn’t an interruption if it’s on YouTube or your home page. Treat your audience with respect and make sure the content is actually entertaining.

The online environment has so many different platforms it can confuse even the oldest hats. Make sure you work with people who know a codec for a file container.

But what does it really mean to those in the creative industry facing more and more challenging budgets, timelines and clients? Does this mean everything can now be shot on a Canon Digital Rebel in your brother-in-law’s basement? Not even close.

What it does mean is in the hands of a professional director of photography, with solid crew and on the right project, amazing results can be achieved from a camera system that costs less than your house. It also means that your workflow can be quicker and more responsive. Saving you time and adding creative freedom for your team.

10 years ago it was popular to shoot reversal film and process it for negative. Five years ago it was popular to shoot tungsten film outside and then desaturate it in transfer. Film stocks gave us an extra tool to express our creativity. Now this new wave of digital cameras is giving us a similar toolbox but this time with cameras that have different strengths and weaknesses.

Here’s my oversimplified cheat sheet:

DSLRs are like 16mm was, nimble less expensive to produce with. But they are not the pinnacle of image quality. Right now, compression is still an issue for some applications.

Panasonic AF100 is like shooting super 16, many people won’t be able to tell the difference between it’s image and 35 mm film but it’s smaller sensor size means less options for lenses, greater depth of field, and its compression, thus image quality, isn’t as good as the big guns.

Arri Alexa is like shooting a 35mm negative, it preserves the most highlights, giving you amazing image quality on par with 35 mm film.

Red Epic 5k is like shooting super 35. This camera provides a larger image that give even greater room for cropping, plus Red Raw preserves more color information and latitude for manipulation in post.

These are just a few of the more popular cameras often discussed with commercial shooters. When your bidding your next job, ask the director why they want to use a particular camera over another. It’s not just a budgeting choice, it’s a creative one too.

Like when Gale Tattersall chose to shoot House with Canon DSLRs because it was the best way to shoot in confined spaces. He then worked within the systems limitations to achieve great television.

Or maybe if you’re shooting on a set, you don’t need the same depth of field so the workflow of the AF100 could save you money to use in post or the art department.

This is probably one of the more shocking numbers on the rise of video on the Web but maybe not the only one that will amaze you:

Did you know that Netflix accounts for 30% of internet traffic.

Or that iPad users watch three times more video?

Or that video traffic will exceed 50% of mobile traffic this year?

I don’t need to flog the newspapers. We know that printed word has lost its dominance. Video content has established itself as the primary form of mass communication. And web distribution is quickly becoming the best way to reach diverse audiences on their own terms. And as connected devices including tablets, smartphones and set top boxes become more important that computer desktops, Web video will not only be important but essential to a brand’s success.

Your audience no longer just has a lean in, “interactive”, work relationship with the web. Today it’s also social, relaxed, playful and fluid. It goes where she goes. And you have to too. That’s where Fluid Films comes in.

I also believed in what I was doing. It was the right thing for the clients.

This passion birthed a business plan. One that I feel very strongly about and that I had hoped to execute with my former employer. But that didn’t happen.

When others don’t act you can sit around and complain or you can harness your passion, work with others that feel the same way, and do something creative. The world today is a tough place but it’s up to creative people to make the most of it and create opportunity for us and others.

So today, my business partner, Jason Gorbett and I are officially announcing the founding of Fluid Films. Over the next several days, I’ll be sharing our vision for a transmedia company and how what we’re doing is the right thing for companies and institutions. Please stay tuned.

Studios are reporting the biggest Memorial Day weekend ever.  Why is this important? The advertising industry is consumed these days with articles about the “changing” media landscape, detailing why it will never be the same. While it’s important that we keep up with the advancement of media technology, it’s also important to recognize that we’re not experiencing a rapid, wholesale transformation of an entire society’s media consumption habits. People still love to go to the movies, watch cable television, and, gasp, read the occasional newspaper.

What we’re experiencing is more of an evolution. Some people are quickly adopting  new technology – but not everyone. And many of the adopters aren’t necessarily dumping the old media but rather adding another way to consume media to their diet. Here are nine statistics that might surprise you if you’ve spent too much time reading and listening to the gurus.

• While every social media expert may own an iPhone, most Americans still don’t own any smartphone at all.
• Unlike me, most people aren’t dumping cable for Internet TV. More people than ever are subscribing to broadband Internet and cable TV.  Only 3.9 percent have broadband.
• 45 percent of all ads recorded on DVRs are actually viewed.
• Only 10 percent of Americans have devices that connect their TVs to the Web.
• The top bandwidth hog for mobile is e-mail, not social networking.
• Pop stars are still selling millions of singles.
• E-book sales may be skyrocketing, but only 5 percent of people own a dedicated device to read one on.
• People are using iPads with TV, not instead of it.
• Most people are not interested in owning a 3-D television. In fact, most don’t even own an HD set yet.

So what’s the takeaway for a marketer who wants to make the most out of the latest technology? Know your customer, learn her habits, and you’ll find it easy to speak to her where she is.

How should you proceed? Well, if you have the budget, hire professionals — heck, hire me. If you don’t have the budget, here are a few tips to help you improve your production quality.

Start with a script. Winging it is for improv artists, not for serious marketers. Get a script that speaks to your audience, demonstrates a key benefit, tells a story, and stays true to your brand. And why not make it entertaining? No one wants to listen to a talking head drone on and on about product benefits.

Plan your shoot. That’s awesome if you’re going to keep it simple and just shoot yourself in a simple setting. But know exactly what you will need ahead of time including appropriate clothes, props, snacks, equipment, and helpers. You should even create a formal schedule. An art director I used to work with taught me to literally draw a frame for every single second of a 30 second spot.

Location, location, location. It may be real estate parlance but it’s just as important in film and video. In your case it’s not about wow factor, it’s about finding a place that’s quite, easy to light, will fit all of your gear, and looks good. You want it simple, uncluttered and without any bright colors or patterns.

Use a great microphone. It’s not the one attached to your camera. If you’ve ever been to a regional film festival, you may have noticed that bad films usually have really bad sound. Bad sound makes it hard to follow the story and renders your production a worthless marketing tool. Professional films always have great sound. Your brand marketing is professional, right?

Hire a cameraman. You wanted to do this all yourself, but if you don’t know how to properly level a tripod or check your focus and exposure maybe you should get some professional help. No budget, well at least RTDM.

Rent the appropriate camera. I’ve written about cameras before so I won’t go into great detail here but suffice it to say, the better the camera, the better the end product. Also, the more expensive the camera, the more complicated. Your $100 flip camera may have an HD logo on it but it doesn’t have and XLR microphone connector (or any microphone connector) or decent glass attached to it. Just go rent a camera and ask for advice on which one to select.

Use a tripod. And don’t move the camera while it’s recording. Heck, don’t move it between takes either.

Hire an actor. Sure, you may be great at meeting theater but if you were destined for the big screen you’d probably have been discovered by now. Personal dynamism and what shows up on the screen are different. Trust me, I’ve met some pretty insecure actors who blossom in front of a camera. And speakers, that can hold a room in the palm of their hand, yet falter under the lights.

Bring a stopwatch. What for? Well, you wrote a script and know how long this thing is supposed to be, right? There are also a lot of placement opportunities for web video that are in 15 second and 30 second increments too. You’ll need a stopwatch if you want to make sure your timings are correct.

Light it properly. Lighting is photography and it’s also cinematography. I can’t teach a reader to light in one paragraph. So I’ll just say get one of those LED light panels and position it at a 45 degree angle to the side and above your camera. Provide enough light to “fill” the subject but not make the subject considerably lighter than the background. Pay special attention to the eyes.

Shoot more than you need. Those stories about directors doing it all in one take – they may be legend but they’re also myth. It’s not going to work out well for you if you try it. Stanly Kubrick was famous for shooting hundreds of takes. You’re better off using him as a role model – without the surly demeanor, of course.

Review. Review. Review. In the old days they’d say check the gate to make sure their was no dust that could have spoiled the negative. Today we can actually look at our digital capture and make sure it doesn’t suck. Do this before you move to the next shot. Once you move the camera it’s unlikely that you will get it back in exactly the same place, ruining your ability to inter cut.

Back up. Hell, back up twice. If you’re shooting on location send one with your partner and one with you. You never know, your car might catch on fire on the way back to the office (yes, it happens). Heck, I’ve even met producers who won’t fly with the rest of the crew for this very reason.

Watch your footage with a note pad. Then watch it again. Take lots of notes.

Hire an editor. Give her your notes and your footage. Want to do it yourself? OK, use something like iMovie and dig in. Remember to keep it simple and don’t use any silly transitions or special effects.

Sound mixing. When you’re done with the edit seriously consider whether the sound needs professional help. If you’re mixing music and dialog or you have any problems from your footage, you do. Also, make sure your levels are 0 db. Don’t know what the means? Hire a pro.

Color correction. This is when you adjust the color balance and output levels so that all your footage matches and looks great. Apple Color is a great low budget tool to accomplish this. Most editing programs have limited tools for color correction. If you’re using Final Cut, try the 3-way color corrector but make sure your monitor is color correct before you start moving sliders.

Use simple titles and graphics. Professionals do this in After Effects and Cinema 4D. Since you probably don’t have these tools or the training keep it simple. White type on a black screen has been used successfully by Woody Allen for 40 years.

OK, so now you have some of the information you need to make a video that will live up to your brands reputation. Break a leg, as we say in show business.

Most large ad agencies are like Major League Baseball teams. I don’t mean creative boutiques, design shops, and interactive shops. I mean big, lumbering, traditional ad shops that are often owned by publicly traded holding companies. Here it goes:

You’ve got your CEOs and presidents, they’re the team owners. But they still have to answer to the League and the commissioner that tell owners how much money they should spend and then help them slice up their media revenue. In the ad world, these folks are called holding company boards and CEOs. Though not all powerful, these the agency president/team president usually has enough gravitas to not be the one out on their ass after a loosing season. (We’ll get to who is in a minute.)

Then you have the front office. These would be the folks who’s responsibility it is to bring revenue in and maintain business relationships. In advertising, we call these people AEs. This is a high pressure job but is more stable than that of a player or coach since client relationships can be fragile.

Most ball clubs have a GM. This guy is in charge of managing the on-the-field pay roll, prospects, and setting a long term strategy for success. At big shops this guy might be called a Chief Creative Officer. He’s usually in a lot of meeting and new business pitches and not down in the trenches doing the day to day creative work.

This brings us to the managers or in advertising, creative directors. They’re in the thick of it with clients, account service, and jr creative teams. Motivating, selling and making sure the work is great and profitable. When things are going well they get glory, perks, and fat contracts. When things got to hell, they or the CCO usually take the blame. It’s actually fairly rare to see the president get the blame first.

Of course the manager has his coaches — pitching coach, batting coach, third base coach. These would be your Group CDs or ACDs. In a large part their success is tied to the manager’s success. If things don’t go well, a new manager (CD) might be brought in and they could all be replaced with his guys. After all, why would a new manager field exactly the same team that got the last guy fired.

Now the players/creatives. You might think these are the most important part of the team. They actually produce the product (or play the game) but most of them are seen by management as interchangeable parts. And frankly some team presidents don’t even care about winning (garnering a gold pencil or Cannes Lion) the game. As long as they field a team, they’re collecting TV revenue (media dollars) and gate receipts (billable hours).

But there are a few players/creatives who do make an impact with management — these are your franchise players who are there to please the fans/win awards. You know who they are. The guy who gets a pencil and then agency hops for a big salary bump but always seems to be liked by the industry press, and management. Sometimes these guys make management and themselves sometimes they flame out by 35 or 40. It’s not easy being a star in the big show.

Most creatives are just journeymen players though. They’ll play for a team for a season or two then get cut in a management shakeup or a client loss or maybe even sent to the minors (a small town, healthcare or tech agency) for a stretch. They keep plugging away through till they’re in their 40s hoping they’ll make creative director. They know the business better thank anyone, they have a passion for it. Heck, they deserve a shot to be the CD. Maybe they even get a shot in a second tier market. But most end up looking for exit plan by age 50.

Maybe the old reliever becomes an announcer (45 year old freelance copywriter doing voice over work). Or maybe they become a scout  (40 year old former agency art director working as a head hunter). Or heck, maybe they even play in Japan for a few years hoping to make a come back (take a agency network job in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, or Southeast Asia.)

So that’s how the ad life is like pro baseball. Agree?

OK, so I left media out but that most of that job has been farmed out to a holding company arm any way. I don’t mean to be glib in this analogy. I suspect that people who’ve been around the industry will both find fault in it and a little truth.