Last Cut Video Tour News » Service

Time-Lapse Clips

tbanucci — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:26:52 +0000

I was reading an article today on time-lapse photography and using it as a tool within real estate videos. Time-lapse, when used in the video sense, is basically taking a long amount of video (while stationary) and then fast forwarding that video by about 400%. The effect this gives off are images like cloud moving by quickly, a reflection of light moving as the day goes on, or shadows across the floor. Here is a nice example:

I actually love doing these kinds of shots, but the downside is that they take a LOT of time. You are basically sitting there for anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours making sure your camera does not move, and hoping you set exposure correctly. Our time means our clients’ money, and not many clients want to spend the extra cash for a cool effect.

So because of this, I have come up with a plan to make time-lapse affordable. I am currently creating stock video of different time-lapse shots, that can be easily inserted into any house. Most of these include parks, highways, downtown areas, and other relevant shots to real estate. For all of our packages that run over $500, we will include at least one stock time-lapse clip for free, and sometimes more if the video calls for it. For packages under that, we will be adding a $20 option per clip.

Now what if you wanted a custom time-lapse piece that relates to your specific property? We will simply work at a reduced hourly rate of $70 per hour to create that piece (normally we work for $150 per hour, so this is a deal when it comes to high-end properties)!

Interested in time-lapse? Contact us at any time and we’ll fill you in on your options. Look forward to some of our time-lapse pieces on this blog.

Agent Profile Videos

tbanucci — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:59:48 +0000

Over the past few months, we have been developing "Agent Profile Videos" for Realtors who would like more exposure to new clientele. Our clients have used these videos on their webpages, next to their tour listings, even running on televisions during their open houses!

Here is a sample of one of our profile videos, with Realtor, Laila Fields of Coldwell Banker:

We also have other styles of Agent Profile Videos that we will be posting soon, so make sure to signup to our coupon newsletter to see more of these samples! If you would like more information on getting an Agent Profile Video for yourself, please contact us!

Social Networking, Video, and Increasing Sales

tbanucci — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:00:49 +0000

Internet-based social networking is the marketing phenomenon of 2008, finally getting some real recognition. For those that think social networking is going to parties and handing out your card, well, maybe you were right about that 3 years ago. But now, it’s all about networking on the Internet. Sites like these include Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Classmates.com, and Plaxo.

The heavyweight in this arena now is Facebook, and with good cause. Here are some recent stats:

More than 110 million active users

Facebook is the 4th most-trafficked website in the world

Facebook is the most-trafficked social media site in the world

More than half of Facebook users are outside of college

Fastest growing demographic: those 25 years old and older

So what this means is that Facebook is not just something for the kids, it’s a full-fledged networking tool for business as well. What’s great about Facebook is that they maintain a certain professionalism about the site. You can’t change the look and feel of the site, it’s very clean. Also, it makes a great way of posting your status and ramblings to everyone in your network, without having to email everyone in your network. This has huge advantages to other social media sites.

Let’s say you get a video tour from us, if you ask, we’ll upload it to Facebook for FREE. When we upload it, all you have to do is simply press a “share” button. Once you do this, your video will go out to all of your contacts to see, and if they share it or comment on it, the video will go out to all of their friends as well! THAT is INSTANT networking, and with people you don’t even know!

What’s even better is that your name and picture come up in our video, showing you off as a realtor who makes that extra effort to market your listings. From this, you are bound to get more customers, and more sales.

And all you had to do was press a button! Now that is marketing!

PS- have you seen our Facebook Page? Become a fan!

LastCut.com Has a Whole New Look

tbanucci — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:47:45 +0000

Our mothership, The Last Cut Video Productions, has been around since 2003. Since that time, our real estate, wedding, and commercial business endeavors had all been smooshed into one, very old, website.

Well, 2008 introduced LastCutHomes.com, and now has introduced a whole new looking LastCut.com as well! Go on over and check out some of the samples of other work that we do. Click here to open a new window!

Want money off of a tour?

tbanucci — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:14:06 +0000

We finally have our new site up and want to celebrate! This new site is showcasing everything real estate related, especially our property video tours, which our customers rave about. Along with the new site, we are expanding our operations into southern California as well. Who knows, maybe one day soon we’ll be videotaping Britney Spears’ mansion or Paris Hilton’s hotel for sale!

We’d like to keep growing further, and make video tours the standard for every house in the United States one day. What better way to get other realtors on the bandwagon than offering a promotion on our services? From now until September 1, 2008, if you sign up for our newsletter you can receive a free voiceover and script for your next tour!

In our newsletter, you can look forward to additional money saving offers, as well as viewing our latest tours, and thoughts on the real estate industry. Are you not in one of the areas that we service? Sign up anyway and when we do start filming in your area, you’ll know about it!

Now Accepting Credit Cards

tbanucci — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:12:27 +0000

For the past few years, we have operated on a purely invoice/check basis. The benefit of this for us as a business was twofold: we were able to avoid paying a percentage of our fees to a credit card acceptance service, and customers were more willing to trust us as a company when we created their video first, and then asked for payment upon it’s completion.

However, the negative impact of this was that some customers wanted to pay by credit card, in order to receive frequent flyer miles and other benefits. There was a negative side for us as well: some customers delayed their payments by months… and some even refused to pay despite the quick sale of their property! This resulted in trips to small claims court, which is a huge waste of everyone’s time.

Now, with the advent of Google Checkout, we have decided to change the structure of the way we do business completely! Google Checkout accepts every type of major credit card and is easy to use. It is also fully web based and they charge a low percentage fee, which are benefits to us.

Now, for all future videos we create, we will be invoicing our customers upon booking of their video tour, which will need to be paid before our arrival to the property. If the tour is cancelled by the realtor, their payment will be fully refunded, without question. Before making this change, we polled 15 of our current customers, and 100% of them loved the idea of switching to credit cards. Who wouldn’t? We’re talking frequent flyer miles here!

We hope that you come to like our new system and the ability to pay with credit cards. If you have any comments, please contact us or share it with us below! We look forward to hearing from you!