When Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile he set a whole new mindset for a world of possibilities and now Google has made yet another major announcement that could change the internet world as we know it.

Do you remember dial-up internet & how time consuming it was to sit there waiting for a website to appear on the computer screen or heaven forbid, trying to watch a video?

Well, if you ever had any doubts about the importance that video will play in the world of real estate marketing you may want to sit up and take notice of what Google are about to embark upon. Read the rest of this article »

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Will the recent launch of the Apple iPad mean the end of the Listing Presentation Folder or FlipChart style presentation? Will we see agents showing off their listings via the iPad? Or perhaps they’ll be using it to watch real estate training sessions or live streamed sales meetings? Either way, could it be a Game Changer? Read the rest of this article »

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http://www.goldcoastforsale.tv Or. The questions, and issues surrounding aggregating ‘content’ and giving new relevance to old media.

A lot us talk about doing stuff. And certainly there’s a 101 great ideas for shows of all types and sizes on property. I’ve had about a dozen myself.

But there’s a country mile between the talking and the doing.

The ‘doing’ is called going ‘the extra mile’ – and there’s not a lot of traffic on it.

Which is why I raise my ‘cowboy’ hat to a guy called Shane Gore, who’s managed to pull together a two-hour show on Gold Coast real estate – with rates, Shane explains, that go head-to-head with The Gold Coast Bulletin.

I don’t understand media buying, as I’m not in that game. So I can’t comment.

But any exercise in draining VPA from ‘The Establishment’ is not going to make for a very happy camping ground.

It has taken Shane about three years to pull it off; and he’s done so by looking at all the content suppliers on the Gold Coast, and then, very gracefully and creatively ‘pimping’ all of our services; mashing them up in a very GC show – that’s being posted by the super slick operations of BlackLab and Cutting Edge.

And these outfits are VERY SUPER BROADCAST SLICK. No doubt about that.

Plus. I use the word ‘pimping’ in, actually, a very complimentary fashion.

And no doubt Shane will take great exception to the term. But I was ‘pimped’ before I knew it, as a lot of content was downloaded from the Internet and cut into a ‘pilot’.

Without our knowledge. But there’s no great gain without a great risk.

And I like Shane and what he’s trying to do.

I’ve even signed my Non Disclosures and my Copyright waivers; and supplied copies of the $21 million in public liability insurance we need to operate in public as property ‘video’ shooters.

In fact, I have never been ‘pimped’ any better, in what is the ultimate exercise in aggregating existing content and re-purposing it for what I reckon is a dead duck medium.

And that’s TV. Closely followed by newspapers. Its a rolling bet which line of dominoes falls first.

Short of the next series of UNDERBELLY on Nine, I see nothing compelling about what’s on offer on TV anymore.

TV needs all the help it can get. I mean it IS there. We turn it ON. But it is still an idiot box.

Concepts like Shane’s that can bridge the gap and drive viewers to portals are interesting.

In fact. I wish I’d thought of GOLD COAST FOR SALE myself but I’m still very much in the bridge-mending or bridge-building stages, between myself and various competitors, so I can attempt to deliver some impartial postings – post the controversial ‘Banning Adjectives in Property’.

Shane approached most of the content suppliers on the Coast; from those offering the dreaded ‘Ken Burns Slide Show’ – which is not video, despite the fact it happens to be ‘moving’ (while anything and everything in the frame itself remains ‘still’) – and most of the digital cinematographers specializing in property.

From the GC to Brisbane.

The good. The bad. And the ugly.

I’m supporting GOLD COAST FOR SALE and we’ve licensed about three years of Gold Coast HD lifestyle for this new series.

The Burning Questions:

Will two-hours of Gold Coast real estate ‘rate’ on a Sunday morning? I’ve personally lost half a million investing in a series called JUST FOR THE RECORD on Ten. Which didn’t. The Comedy Company got my slot and the rest was history.
And will it sell property?

These are two real hard hurdles to jump.

If GOLD COAST FOR SALE can clear them, the ground rules will change.

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When one of the country’s best news directors, Peter Meakin, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Meakin) crossed from what was then the No 1 News Network of Nine (Kerry Packer – God Bless his soul) to Seven, one of the first things he did (I heard) was ban adjectives from all news and current affairs reports.

Peter’s direction was subsequently reflected in the ratings, and the standing of the 7 team. Seven gave Nine merry hell. Writing for such a visually descriptive medium as film (TV or video) doesn’t require descriptive words (adjectives) as you’re presenting content to an audience with a preconceived notion/opinion on what’s “beautiful” or “awesome” based on individual life experiences.

Reading an article actually triggers a very different  level of the brain. We reason with copy. On TV (or the net) you can’t argue with video, because what you see, is what you get. Heavy? Not really. Let me explain. An Agent walks into a kitchen and says: “This is an awesome kitchen, with Meile appliances and an island bench-top. ”

Well. We, the viewer, know it is a kitchen, because it has a fridge, and a stove – because we can see it. The Agent is just stating the bleeding obvious. But ‘awesome’? If you’ve seen the Grand Canyon, you’ll know what ‘awesome’ is.

The fact is, writing for film (online video) demands a completely different approach; one based on the combination of story construction – and emotion.

Because, let’s face it; by the time a potential buyers clicks on the link (if they can find a video link on any of the major portals), they ALREADY know all the facts. Why regurgitate them?

They know it has four bedrooms and a pool.

All media, print included, has a place. But the message must be different – using the unique aspects of each media.

Information delivered in a the property film needs to take the audience to a new level, and introduce sub-text to the conversation: “…in summer, that lemon tree in the garden blooms and fills this kitchen with a fragrance you have to be here to experience.”

As Barney McGrath said to me in my very early days in Sydney real estate: “Your job as a film-maker in the property business is to sink an emotional hook.”

If this link gets past the Editor, you’ll know where I’m coming from.

http://www.platinumhd.tv/video.php?sc=3a9f17ceb9

We’re not going to do that with “awesome kitchens”. But if you don’t believe me: spend two hours reading all the real estate ads in the local paper and count “spacious” and “open plan”. Try writing some copy without adjectives. Try making property films that compliment all your media.

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About December, last year Canon released the 5DMII – a DSLR camera delivering 1080p video. The full-frame camera totally blew Nikon’s D90 out of the water and no doubt sent sirens screaming at digital cinema outfits like RED.

For here, for the first time, was a ‘video’ camera drawing on Canon’s vast armory of pro glass, meaning we could finally shoot homes on wide angle lenses.

Canon 5D MkII

When video first started making its presence felt on the real estate market, the work horse was Sony’s Z1P. Not a bad camera for its day but the lens was nowhere near wide enough. When it came to showing off a bedroom, the bed was about the only thing that filled the shot. While still images could be pulled from the video, the format was interlaced. Beyond lifestyle, the property video in those days was more of a pre-listing tool.

Then along came SONY’s EX1. Full 1080p, with miles of throttle. Slow motion and extremely slow shutter speeds introduced evening time lapses. The camera came with a slightly wider lens attachment; now we could almost see the legs of the bed. But still no bedroom.

The 5DII changed all that, with lenses that Canon call’s ‘Beyond Human Perspective’ – without bowing (distorting horizontal lines), allowing the property video to come into its own right – and delivering both photographs and HD video at the same time. It also presented a very steep learning curve for suppliers. All of a sudden, photographers had to learn the skills of film-making; story construction, motivated movement, editing, music scoring – and the work-flow behind a 30fps camera now being deployed in a 25fps PAL world.

And then there’s the storage and computing power needed to move these assets around. Re-touching a 26 megabyte RAW 1 photograph was relatively easy. Editing 16 gigs of HD content for your average property is far more demanding. Cinematographers, on the other hand, were probably in a much better position to take advantage of these converging skills. All they had to do was learn to press a button.

But make no mistake, the lines are being blurred between the Film and Photographic industries and cameras like the 5DMII have not only leveled the playing field.

They’ve changed the whole game.

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