Athletic Recruitment Videos/Highlight/Scouting Reels: Not All Are Created Equal

See sample highlight reel with all HD footage
Highlight video with animated graphics
Highlight video with basic graphics

Highlight Reel Sample

Not all highlight footage is equally created.  Pawpro produces high quality video footage of athletic teams or individual athletes which may be used as a coaching tool, or to highlight team and personal skills/strengths.  Be aware, this is more than just generic game footage which most highlight and recruiting reel companies are mass peddling to schools and parents.  Many companies produce footage that is grainy and out of focus.   Pawpro videotapes a game with HD cameras, so the footage is crystal clear.  See the difference between HD footage and standard definition (SD) footage in the two stills below.  These stills are both captured from one frame of video footage.  Notice that the field of view is larger with the HD footage, but also the details are sharper.  The difference is even more dramatic when the camera focuses on an individual player.

Standard definition (SD) still from video.
Pawpro (HD) still from video.
Pawpro HD still from video

The great advantage to parents, players and recruiters in today’s multimedia revolution is that your footage can be viewed readily and instantly via a link.  No need to snail mail endless DVDs and hope that they play for coaches and recruiters.  A highlight reel is an essential tool for serious athletes looking to maximize their college placement potential.

For teams and coaches, we do offer full season or multi-game, team video coverage.  Call or e-mail for pricing.

Pawpro Media will graphically and visually highlight your player by editing-down game footage to the best moments.  Videos may also include any stats or contact information.  ( We will compile footage shot by others.)

Highlight reel pricing depends on the amount of footage to be screened,  editing extras such as special effects, animated graphics, music, voiceover, and the number of finished minutes in the completed video.  Game footage pricing may vary depending on the number of games to be videotaped and the distance of travel to the game location.

Don’t expect to get a highlight reel out of one game’s footage.  That’s too much pressure on the athlete and the videographer.  We shoot what happens, we don’t make it happen.  Our best advice for producing the best highlight reel is to pay for a professional sports media outlet to shoot as many games as possible so that the athlete is given multiple chances to showcase her talent in front of the camera.  One game’s footage isn’t enough even for the best athlete.  A professional should ensure that the quality of the footage is high.

The Roots of My Photography

photo by Kenneth A. Linn

For many years I have been exploring my ancestry, and I recently made an interesting discovery. It appears my love for almost all things related to photography may run in the family.  My grandfather’s cousin, my first cousin twice removed, was, and is, a relatively well-known photographer in New York whose work is still sought by collectors and galleries. His name was Kenneth A. Linn and he studied and taught at The Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York City which was the first school to teach photography as an art form.

Allen and Sadie Linn

Photographic collections from this prestigious school, which operated from 1914 to 1942, are held in the Library of Congress and in private collections such as the Coville Collection. This small school is credited with producing some of the most celebrated photographers of the 20th Century who were innovative in their approach to this evolving and emerging medium, which incorporated design, aesthetics and illustration.  I wonder what their reaction would be to today’s imagery, and the viral, visual bombardment from the television and the Internet?

Kenneth A. Linn

Kenneth A. Linn was the son of Allen and Sadie Linn.  Allen was a silk salesman in New York and Sadie, formerly Sadie Neafie McCollough, came from a well-to-do family, I’m told.  My side of the family through Robert A. Linn, Allen’s brother,  stayed in Ohio and West Virginia selling life insurance–need I say more!

Since being given my first old camera I’ve loved the sound of the shutter.  I would walk around taking pretend photos, no film in the camera, just to hear the shutter movement.  Somehow even though the direct lineage should have made me a salesman, I got the photo gene.

Anything Is Possible 5K Race Series

On Sunday morning,  Nov. 6 in Reno, Atlanta, San Diego, DC, Viera, and Seattle runners will race against the clock on the night of Daylight Savings.  Your participation will benefit two charities Hope for the Warriors and Team Red, White & Blue which both work to provide support services to our troops returning and recovering from injuries and duty.

Click to register for the race

These are the same charitable organizations associated with the American Odyssey Relay, a 200 mile relay race from Gettysburg, PA to Washington, DC.

One way or another I will be participating in this race.  I may drag the whole family–just because it’s there, and because it’s my anniversary, too.  Drag your neighbor, and especially drag your friend who says, “I can’t run that far!”.  It’s only 3 miles!  No excuses.

Pawpro’s American Odyssey Relay video to be featured on Active.com

American Odyssey Relay Medals

Just found out that one of the videos Pawpro produced for the American Odyssey Relay is to be featured on Active.com, a Website that promotes and features athletic and outdoor activities around the world, i.e. races, registrations, equipment, training information, and so on . Active reports 4.5 million visitors per month.

Both American Odyssey and Pawpro Media are eager for it to go live!

Experience The American Odyssey Relay

Click Photo to view
American Odyssey Relay Video

What a fun project this has been for me.  Experience The American Odyssey Relay, a thirty-six hour, 200 mile relay race including exhausted runners, smelly vans, comical and authentic moments, but most of all, tons of fun along the way.  Teams run day and night through some of the most historic and scenic countryside in PA, MD, WV, VA and DC.

A second video highlighting team t-shirts, van decorations, a.k.a VanGos, and general good-natured, craziness will be released very, very soon.

Heros on the Hill for Horton’s Kids

Horton's Kid Video

Online video appeals via e-mails and social media sources by charitable and non-profit organizations have a proven success rate.  Nearly all online searches involve a searcher watching videos.   There is also a proven success rate for harnessing the power of inbound marketing, that is being at the right place, online, at the right time–when a person interested in your charity goes Google.  Make the best use of that searcher’s time by providing an appealing and clear video message.  This is what Pawpro Media does best.

Pawpro to Cover American Odyssey Relay III

Pawpro received the call of running relay organizer Bob Fleshner to shoot the third annual running of The American Odyssey Relay, a 200 plus mile foot race from Gettysburg, PA to Washington, DC. This will be 36 non-stop, exhausting hours of movement for the runners and teams, as well as Pawpro’s video crews. The race begins April 29 and ends on April 30. americanodysseyrelay.com

This race traverses some of the region’s most beautiful and historic landscapes including the battlefields of Gettysburg and Antietam, two covered bridges, Harpers Ferry National Park, the spring foliage emerging along the C&O Canal, Georgetown, and culminates in the Nation’s Capital alongside the monuments and the Potomac River.

Runners will face many challenges including one ear-popping leg called Andrea’s Ascent with a six-mile, 1171 ft. ascent. Former DC Mayor Adrian Fenty participated in 2009 and 2010. So far, there are 126 teams registered, and there’s still time to sign-up.

Pawpro will produce a series of marketing and informational videos with inspirational stories and images from the race. Good luck racers, and bottoms-up energy drinks for the videographers!

Business Benefits of an Inbound Marketing Strategy Via Video, Blogging and Social Media.

Pawpro Media Video

The benefits of inbound marketing via blogs, social media, content publishing, and search engine optimization grows stronger with each passing year, and statistics now show it surpassing outbound marketing both in effectiveness and cost per lead.   A recent survey of 644 companies entitled, The State of Inbound Marketing, shows a shift in marketing budgets away from the conventional outbound tactics of direct mailings, phone solicitations, and print marketing.
Instead, companies are opting for marketing sources that bring in customers who are actively looking for information about their products online.  The Internet has become the vehicle of choice and convenience driven by consumers searching for products and services through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  And, all of these approaches utilize multimedia to increase organic search results and pull-in active consumers.

This survey distributed by HubSpot showed that the more companies directed their efforts towards inbound marketing, the greater the reward in the form of more leads at a lower cost per lead.  Specifically the data showed that outbound marketing efforts cost $373 per lead, while inbound marketing efforts cost $143 per lead.  In a struggling economy this is a price differential which has not gone unnoticed by businesses.  In the survey, most companies said they plan to expand their use of inbound marketing in 2011 because of past successes in this arena.  In fact, 27% of these companies consider blogging, social media usage critical to their businesses, and 85% dubbed these mediums either “useful”, “important”, or “critical”.

Pawpro Media produces high quality, creative videos that motivate and cause consumers to respond.  Video is a critical and cost-effective element in an inbound marketing strategy.

Pawpro Hears and Sees the Whos of Horton’s Kids

What’s that sound? It’s not coming from a dust speck, people! It’s coming from the great efforts of Horton’s Kids, a Capitol Hill based organization which provides tutoring and support to students and families of the lowest-performing schools of Ward 8 in Washington, DC. Pawpro Media will be producing a series of videos for this great organization led by Brenda Chamberlain, and founded by Karin Walser. It’s only fitting that we make this announcement on Dr. Seuss’ birthday.

While filling her car with gas in 1989, Karin had a chance encounter with a group of children from this troubled area of our nation’s capital, and it inspired her to recognize their need as well as their presence in the shadow of her everyday life working on Capitol Hill. It was as if they were calling out, We are here! We are here! We are here! just as the tiny Who’s in Who-ville did in the infamous Dr. Suess book, Horton Hears a Who.

For 20 years Horton’s Kids has advocated, transported, and enriched the lives of these neediest of children with educational tutoring, mentoring as well as the basic necessities of food and clothing when necessary. Horton’s Kids’ work is funded entirely by donations. Please visit hortonskids.org/donate.html if you would like to make a donation.