We love Irish clients, a bit biased that way (as we are from the fair green isle ourselves- well half the team anyway) So when the guys from Squad plus approached us we rolled out the red online carpet and were more that delighted to be working on this project. The team were very decisive and after just 2 phone calls and a bit of negotiating the project got underway.

Look and Feel

Our designer made one frame with  the main characters to show the prodominant colours we would use for the video and an example of fonts. This is what he came up with, a little bit different to what we are used to as we have a new animator on our team – we think he did a rocking job! And our client seems to think so too – “Exactly what I was hoping for – very professional but not boring. I think the graphics on this are excellent … compliments to the designer  ”

A few tweaks to the typography and footballers jersey colours and we were ready to boogie on to the next stage.

Voiceover and music Design

We sent the team at squadplus a number of voices for them to have a listen to, they decided on Steve Reed  as he fit best with there brand. They felt the deeper voices were probably too “serious” sounding for their needs, so  settled on Steve’s up-beat, enthusiastic tone. We source all our voice talent from Piehole.co.uk.  Not just because we like their name and we’re into nepotism, but because it’s a quality controlled voice over directory,  it’s from the top drawer.

All of our voice castings are done by Marjorie who is our expert casting director – should you need help on casting drop her an email

 Finishing Touches

After animation and a few sets of iterations, We put the final touches on the video, wrapped it up in a pretty bow and sent it out to the world – TAAAAA DAAAA this is what we ended up with.

<embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=67081627" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="300"></embed>

We have to commend our new Producer Aurelie who is the latest addition to the team on her first successful production, Congratulations!! It turned out fantastic with her creative direction and style, and everyone involved was super happy, so happy in fact that the client went ahead with a second project with team Piehole. =)  All round happiness!!

Schedule a creative consultation

To have a quick chat with a Piehole producer or writer, just enter your details to chat now – or later.  Click here.    We’d like to hear more about your product first (we specialize in nerdy tech products), and then we can tell you about our availability to potentially work on your project and give you price options.

  Our industry has suffered a great loss this month with the death of Ray Harryhausen, a legend in the world of animation who created a form of stop-motion model animation known as “Dynamation.”

There is always an argument for the perfect length for explainer videos, 1min 2mins 3mins… But how to know what is best?

- We at Piehole firmly believe shorter is better. Keep it short and punchy, dont bore the life out of your clients with too much info and blah blah blahs! A one minute intro to what you do and why you do it better than everyone else is more than enough to reach your target market and keep them engaged. But don’t take our word for it, here is a fab info graphic we came across (courtesy of wistia.com) that sums it up nicely!

If your interested in creating your own kickass video or want to discuss the different options drop us a line and we’ll pop you in for a quick chat, might be longer than 1 minute but we’ll keep it short and sweet =)

 Creative Consultation

To have a quick chat with a Piehole producer or writer, just enter your details to chat now – or later.  Click here.    We’d like to hear more about your product first (we specialize in nerdy tech products), and then we can tell you about our availability to potentially work on your project and give you price options.   =)

Does your Start-up need a kickass video to explain what you do?? – Then look no further, Piehole.tv has an offer with your name on it!!! We’ve developed a special pricing sheet for Startup Chile entrepreneurs. Designed to be Startup friendly, and reimbursement friendly.

• - Our prices start from 3,300USD – this discount price is for you suppers only  =)
• - We are fully reimbursable – we are ex start up so we know the ins and outs of reimbursement / paperwork etc
• - Your 1min video comes complete with – scriptwriter, professional voice over, animation,music & sound design, and your own dedicated producer.  Amazingness is thrown in for free.
• We can also arrange flexible payment plans (e.g. over 3 payments)

How we work

Team Piehole is super responsive, we pride ourselves on our communication and are available during working hours PST and EST, via phone, email, skype, linked in and carrier pigeon! The team is headed by Priscilla Groves, Ruler & CEO who has won numerous advertising awards for brands such as Heineken, Nescafé, Ariel and Bank of Scotland. Christene Bucknell & Aurelie Rimbaud are our two fantastic and experienced producers, having completed over 60 videos with team Pie.

Our videos

We have 3 transparent pricing plans:

Basic -

Simple but cool.  Simple animation style and/or plain backgrounds.  Still fun and funky stand-out style… making complicated concepts, simple! Check out out Spareroom.com and Presstler videos for reference

Standard -

Uses more characters and detailed animation and/or multiple “scenes” and backgrounds. Check out our Property simple and Gifties videos to give you and idea of styling.

Pro -

This uses more advanced graphics, multiple colours and backgrounds and can include stock footage and photography or 2D character animation. Smartvault and Dashbell are some of the pro videos we have developed.

Creative Consultation

To have a quick chat with a Piehole producer or writer, just enter your details to chat now – or later.  Click here.    We’d like to hear more about your product first (we specialize in nerdy tech products), and then we can tell you about our availability to potentially work on your project and give you price options.   =)

With all the time shoppers, browsers and regular Joe’s spend on line these days it really is the best medium to get your business out there. So many avenues, facebook, twitter, pinterest, blogging……the list goes on and on and on. 72 hours of videos are uploaded every minute (on you tube alone)  46% of facebook users will share a video on their page and 500 tweets every minute contain video links.

So where are your clients browsing? Just look at the stats below (courtesy of http://www.bitrebels.com) you would be mad not to make the most of this social marketing era!!  To find out more about creating a video for your business drop us a line & have a quick chat with a Piehole producer or writer, just enter your details to chat now – or later.  Click here.

Creative Consultation

To have a quick chat with a Piehole producer or writer, just enter your details to chat now – or later.  Click here.    We’d like to hear more about your product first (we specialize in nerdy tech products), and then we can tell you about our availability to potentially work on your project and give you price options.   =)

“Dollar shave club” now who doesnt love their video pitch?! Our client came to us with a similar elevator pitch. Why spend heaps of money when you can have your product come direct to you at a discount – KNOCK KNOCK brilliant plan!!  So we got our thinking caps on and put the wheels into motion for one kick ass explainer vid. Here are the steps to making magic….

Look and feel

We designed bright characters and bold backgrounds for a bit of ooooomph!! 

 Storyboard

Our amazing designers then created a storyboard for the project, this  shows all the keyframes that will be in the video. Things to look our for include -

• all visual elements and colours
• storyline on the storyboard
• typography (e.g. titles or typos)
• Any references to prices or facts are correct

Voice over & Music Design

We sent the Green life team a number of voice samples reading their script. We decided on a narrator and character voice for this video, something a bit different.   The voices chosen were Lisa Rice on narration and Kieran Phoenix Chantrey as the voice of Mr Rich.   We source all our voice talent from Piehole.co.uk.  Not just because we like their name and we’re into nepotism, but because it’s a quality controlled voice over directory, the type of talents listed are the same guys that the big ad agencies use, so it’s from the top drawer.

Then it was just a case of animating it all together, make a few sets of iterations and….

TA-DAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Schedule a creative consultation

To have a quick chat with a Piehole producer or writer, just enter your details to chat now – or later.  Click here.    We’d like to hear more about your product first (we specialize in nerdy tech products), and then we can tell you about our availability to potentially work on your project and give you price options.

When Rbutr approached us they said they wanted something AWESOME and colourful and stand-out. YESSSSSSSS!!!!! We love it when our clients say that to us.   Rbutr have a great little nerdy product – which allows people to follow inter-website debates and easily find counter arguments to pages they are viewing. It’s kind of technical, which is why they needed an explainer to simplify the message.

Look and feel 

Voiceover

The guys at Rbutr decided on Dave DeAndrea as their rocking VO – Dave was perfectly suited to the project with his “Casual, Cool, Corporate, Commercial…and a little bit Crazy” sound. Paying particular attention to the “who wuda thunk it” phrase!

A few tweaks, a kicking sound bed and some tender love and care and BINGO – One kick ass explainer video

Schedule a Creative Consultation

To have a quick chat with a Piehole producer or writer, just enter your details to chat now – or later.  Click here.    We’d like to hear more about your product first (we specialize in nerdy tech products), and then we can tell you about our availability to potentially work on your project and give you price options.

How much does an explainer video cost for your website?  The answer can be anything from $2k-$20k, depending on who you ask.  We are closer to 2 than $20k, mainly because having most of our operations running out of Santiago, Chile, we can cut out the costs that many other video production companies have in the States.

3 tips on how to get the best price for your video:

1. Ask for it.  It seems so obvious, but very few people actually ask us for a discount.  There is no harm in asking, and most of the time, we would try to meet people on their budgets.
2. Timing.  There are certain “quiet times” of the year in the production world.  January, February and March are, in our experience, the quietest times of the year.  As a result, prices will always be better in those months, so if you have flexibility, strike a deal while the iron is hot.  In Jun/July/Aug/Sept things are much busier and not all production companies have capacity during those times, and hence, charge more.
3. Ask for 3 estimates.  Provide a production company of 3 reference videos that you like. Tell them you’re on a budget, and ask them which video would be the most cost effective to produce.  Then the production company knows you’re on a budget, and will (100% guaranteed, give you a better rate)…. plus some styles are easier/less time consuming to create than others, so you could get a better price by have a “cheaper” style.

Hi Everybody!

We are looking for talented freelancer copywriters to start…Right now!!!

•  - 3 to 10 scripts per month, so we’re looking for someone who can do fast turnaround (24 hours and then same day iterations on feedback)
• - Our “style” is quirky/funny/ballsy. You can see some videos we’ve created here:

The Piehole Team

We’ve noticed an interesting trend happening recently with our explainer videos.  More and more American start-ups are choosing British voice overs.  And more and more British/Indian/other startups are choosing American voice overs.

So… which voice over accent is more effective?

In an Eyeview survey, they found that Canadian and Americans thought that the British accent was more “trustworthy”.  And for the Indian and British public, they thought that the American accent was more trustworthy.  So consider your target audience, if most of them are in India, go American!

Here is a slide taken from Piehole’s presentation at VOICE 2012 in California to sum it up:

Male or Female voice?

The right voice for your explainer video

The most important thing is not accent or gender. It’s performance and awesomeness.  A good voice over can transform a video. When we create our explainer videos, we sample a number of voice artists (male/female and different nationalities).  And we keep looking until we find the right one.  All our voice talent we find on Piehole.co.uk (why, because they are the only quality controlled voice over directory out there).

Would you like to schedule a creative consultation with a Piehole.tv producer to make a kickass video?  Click here.