Technological advances make production affordable, accessible, more competitive

Dave Ridgway, owner of Blue Mesa Media in Boulder, works at his editing bay. “When I first started,” he said, “everything was copied onto VHS tapes and later onto DVDs. Now with the Internet, we can deliver our product literally worldwide in minutes.” Michael Myers

Valerie Gleaton
With the advent of digital cameras, smartphones and YouTube, anyone can shoot, edit and distribute his or her own videos. But far from making professional video production obsolete, advances in technology are helping to take the video production industry in the Rocky Mountain region to the next level.

For Dan Wierling, co-owner of DGW Video Productions LLC, the Internet has become the primary destination for much of what he produces. Founded in 1995, the Cheyenne, Wyoming, video-production company offers more than 40 video and audio services for everything from event videography to small-business commercials to music videos.

Lately, Wierling said, much of his business has focused on creating promotional website videos for clients such as the Cheyenne Stampede Junior A Hockey League team and the Cheyenne Capidolls roller derby team. The company will soon begin working with the Capidolls to create a series of training videos for new team members that explain the rules of the sport, equipment and other details.

"You can tell someone why they should join your club, but it's a lot different seeing it in action in a video on your website," Wierling said.

Dave Ridgway, owner of Blue Mesa Media in Boulder, is even more emphatic about the importance of the web as a home for video.

"The days of physical media are pretty much over," Ridgway said. "When I first started, everything was copied onto VHS tapes and later onto DVDs. Now with the Internet, we can deliver our product literally worldwide in minutes."

Ridgway founded Blue Mesa in St. Louis in 1998 and moved the business to Boulder in 2003. From the start, he specialized in creating corporate training videos, especially for the food industry. Recent clients include Old Chicago and Gordon Biersch.

"When you're working with a 'made-from-scratch' restaurant like Old Chicago with more than 100 locations, you need to make sure that everyone is making the food the same way, so that customers have the same experience no matter where they are in the country," Ridgway said.

In addition to corporate training videos, Blue Mesa has created TV commercials for local, regional and national companies such as Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Nissan and Mercedes Benz, as well as doing pro bono work for local organizations such as HospiceCare of Boulder and Broomfield Counties and the Emergency Family Assistance Association.

Like advances on the web, video equipment technology is improving at lightning speed as well — which some in the industry view as a double-edged sword.

"The cost to do video has plummeted," said Paul Anderson, owner of Paul L. Anderson Productions, Inc., in Fort Collins. Anderson specializes in corporate videos, particularly for clients in the technical or medical fields, such as Waterpik. He also works with area nonprofits, most recently including Disabled Resource Services.

"With equipment so much more affordable, there's always somebody who will agree to do a job for cheaper," Anderson continued. "It can be a tough business."

"It seems that 'video' production in the traditional sense is a race to the bottom now," said Paul Lee, producer at 42 Media Productions LLC, a video company in Boulder that specializes in creating original content for ventures including feature films, commercial campaigns and television pilots. "Available computers, software and cameras have made it so affordable that anybody can make 'videos' and charge pennies for low-quality work."

"There is a perception that anyone with a $300 camera and an edit package can produce great videos," Wierling agreed. "But that's not going to come close to the quality that a professional video-production company can offer."

Many local video-production companies have found that the best way to ensure their edge over amateur videographers is by capitalizing on the drop in equipment prices themselves and updating their own technologies.

"During the '08 to '09 era, it was like someone turned the spigot off," said Ridgway, referring to the drastic downswing in business during the recession. "Now companies are putting money back into their marketing and education." That bounce back in revenue has allowed both Blue Mesa and DGW to invest around $30,000 each in the last year to upgrade their editing systems.

"We have to make investments in equipment and software to stay on the bleeding edge and achieve the high-end, polished look our clients expect," Ridgway said.

42 Productions also made a major investment in technology when it became the first company in Colorado to acquire the Red One 4K and then the Red Epic 5K digital cinema cameras.

"These are the same cameras shooting some of Hollywood's biggest films right now," Lee said. "With Red leading the way, the bounds of electronic imaging are being stretched every day, and you can really see the results."

In the end, it is this investment in superior technology coupled with years of experience and expertise that determines whether a video production company succeeds in an increasingly competitive environment.

"My clients aren't looking for the cheapest person out there," Anderson said. "They keep coming back to me because of the high-quality product I provide."