The internet is an international medium. It doesn’t matter where the material originates from, if it entertains it’s all good. It does have distinct advantages over traditional marketing material which we shall discuss here.

The most common marketing tool used to be the brochure. It was tactile, could illustrate and describe the product or service and promote the company to those who saw it. But what happens when you’re dealing in an international marketplace? Firstly the brochure has to get translated, then the meaning has to be interpreted and anything that doesn’t translate well into the receiving culture has to be edited out.

The finished product can often end up a shadow of its former self by the time it’s finished. It’s often much easier to have a brochure designed and targeted to the particular culture and country. This can involve several versions, all saying the same thing in different ways and can be cumbersome and expensive.

A website can say so much, but still has the language issues that a brochure does, even if it has the facility to display in other languages. Images do a lot for understanding but still leaves a lot to the imagination.

The most effective way of communicating internationally, while ensuring the meaning doesn’t get lost in translation is by using visuals. A video production reaches across continents, cultures and languages like no other medium. As a species, we are visually oriented, we had to be to survive. Marketers and advertisers make use of this in their campaigns, and you should to if you’re trying to promote something.

Having a professional quality video production either as marketing material on DVD, in a booth at an expo or on a website is the best way to communicate a concept, idea, product or service across cultures. The pertinent factor there is professional quality. If you can produce it yourself, call the professionals. Having a poor quality video online is worse than having none at all.

Research for the Australian Board of Trade in 2007 found that video is up to four times more effective at communicating than a brochure, no matter what the language. As we are visually stimulated and can recall more from visual stimulus than others it’s no surprise.

While voiceovers and narration might need to be translated the video can demonstrate a service or product in “real life.” Seeing it in action is the next best thing to seeing it in actuality and removes many barriers between a prospect becoming a customer.

Making videos available on the corporate website allows prospects to access them whatever time zone they’re in and allows free access to your whole range of products and services. By being able to see the action, the prospect to connect the product to their own situation and see almost instantly if it will be suitable for their situation or not. It would take a salesman hours to do what a video could do in seconds, such is the power of the video.

Different types of light are actually different colors, but we don’t see this with our eyes because our brain filters them for us. A camera sees color and light for what they really are. Therefore a little filtering has to be done in order to get the best out of a shot taking all that into consideration.

Many smaller home digital movie cameras have automatic white balance and will change the color temperature to fit a certain profile, like outdoors, indoors, portrait etc.

White balance is necessary in order for the camera to shoot the proper color. Even if we don’t see the light as the color it actually is, the imbalance will affect the other colors in the shot and throw it all out. Having the correct balance will enable everything in shot to appear as the colors they actually are.

For example, sunlight is actually blue, the light reflects of moisture particles in the air which turns it blue. This is why the light at the coast has a different quality to that inland, because there is more moisture around to reflect. Fluorescent light is actually green and incandescent is orange, yet out eyes filter them all to make the colors that we actually see.

If the camera didn’t adjust, these colors would influence everything else in the shot, giving them a blue, green or orange hue. White balance, either manual or automatic adjusts the camera so it sees light though our eyes.

Color temperature is much the same. It is measure in degrees Kelvin but doesn’t relate to temperature. The higher the number, the “colder” or bluer the light is, the lower the number the “warmer” or more orange the light. Remember, even though we’re talking about temperature and using Kelvin, it isn’t about hot or cold.

Sunlight is around 5400 degrees Kelvin whereas a street light is 2700. The street light is orange, and therefore warmer. This doesn’t have to be technical, to adjust the white balance of a camera manually or automatically, point the camera ay a white piece of card in the light you’re going to shoot in. Adjustment is easy.

You will need to do this every time the location changes, or throughout the day if it’s a prolonged shoot. The light will change as the day progresses so manual white balance should be checked regularly.

Using white balance presets if your camera has them is a great time saving tool when you’re shooting. Taking some time out to present the white balance for different situations or times of day is great because instead of manually adjusting it, you can activate a preset and it’s all good.