Art Unscripted

Branching Out - The Value of Video

You know PageSage as the award-winning team behind our library of instructional DVDs for the hobby and craft industry.  We love inspiring your creativity, one DVD at a time.

Today we wanted to tell you a bit about some of our other projects. We've been branching out beyond hobbies and crafts. In fact, we are working with a variety of clients to produce videos for their individual needs. We've learned how one savvy professional is parlaying what he learned while earning his black belt into business success. Lately we've had the joy of interviewing dynamic and successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley to get their take on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Why do you need a video? Consumers applaud transparency...companies that reveal more about themselves than a sell sheet. We want to feel confident that we are working with great companies (sidestepping the AIGs, Enrons, and Madoffs of the world). Letting consumers know a bit more about you makes them feel more comfortable spending money on your products and services. 

Video used to be in the "nice to have" category for many business. (Fax machines, overnight delivery services, and websites used to fall into the same category.) The paradigm has shifted. Today you need video clips on your website and on YouTube™ to remain competitive.  Your video quality needs to match or exceed the quality of your products and services. (Crappy videos communicate to your customers that you produce crappy products.) We can elevate your marketing material and videos to a higher level. After all, we did not win those awards without focusing on quality every step of the way.

Our DVDs elevate our artists' careers to new heights. How can we contribute to your success?

Predicting the Future

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a crystal ball?  We could peer into it and discover what lies ahead.  Predictions could be flawless.  Alas, that is a fairy tale.  Instead, we make our best guesses at what the future holds when we set dates for different events.

For PageSage, the glimpse into the unknown revolves around estimating release dates for individual DVD titles.  Sometimes, just after you set a date for something, life throws you a curveball. Maybe we were not able to film all of the clips we needed for a DVD during the artist’s first visit.  We’ve filmed several titles where the artist visited our studios more than once to film all of the clips.

We learn a lot from our review team.  The PageSage Review Team previews every video during the post-production phase.  These tireless crafters represent a broad spectrum of crafts, hobbies and countries.  They ensure that we produce the best possible DVDs.  We take their feedback seriously…cutting projects and sometime entire DVD titles that don’t live up to our quality standards.  We want our viewers to be both inspired and delighted by our DVDs.  Our reviewers push, prod and nudge us in the right direction along the way.  They help us pick every nit before DVDs are released.

The past year has brought some unique challenges.  One thing we had to change was our manufacturing solution.  Our previous partner dropped the ball too many times on our projects.  We can’t ensure we produce quality products if the manufacturing process is flawed.  We now have a new partner that has already done some great work for us.  Along the way, however, every time we need to manufacture more of an existing title (that we have not yet done with our new partner), we need to remaster the title for manufacturing.  Now, in the ideal world, that is not a big deal.  Every DVD title is archived on its own hard drive.  Alas, as we mentioned earlier, we live in the real world, not a fairy tale.  In the real world, hard drives fail.  When that happens, we have a lot more work to complete to remanufacture an existing title.  The good news is that we have multiple archives around here, so we can always recreate an existing title.  Sometimes it takes a matter of minutes…other times, well, a week or more is required to get everything reassembled.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing is when we are so busy re-creating existing titles that we cannot focus on the newer titles that are in process.  We’ve received email from several customers…so we know that you are as excited about our upcoming DVDs are we are.  Thank you for your patience while we make sure that new and existing DVDs continue to live up to the PageSage quality you’ve come to rely on.  Our goal is to inspire creativity, one DVD at a time.  

Free Lunches?

Our posting about how businesses balance the magic trinity: costs (cheap) schedules (fast) and features (or accuracy) inspired some interesting discussions...both in our office and online.  As we listen (and participate), we find ourselves wondering, are there really any free lunches out there? 

We all want to receive as much value as possible from every hard earned dollar we possess...and that is on a normal day.  In the midst of economic challenges, our need to stretch every dollar grows exponentially. We are all cutting costs...from large corporations to small businesses to individual consumers...and the allure of a four-letter word glows:  FREE! 

Can something really be free?

The print media world is a great example.  In that last six months, we've seen numerous magazines and newspapers fold. The San Francisco Chronicle (our main local newspaper) is uncertain whether they will stay in business. Readers are moving from the printed page to free online sources.  As the readership shrinks, ad revenues shrink too. Meanwhile, in this tight economy, advertisers are cutting their budgets. The traditional newspaper business model is no longer viable.  Free lunches starve their budgets.

Some news providers will successfully carve out new delivery models online. There will be fewer news sources because not all content providers will survive the transition the new model. Meanwhile, in general, consumers are demanding more content and more choices, not less, for free.

Who will fill that gap? In our increasing demand for free are we also willing to lower our standards to an amateur level? Or are we happy to accept thinly veiled infomercials as manufacturers strive to replace their traditional advertising channels? On this trajectory, is all content eventually reduced to the quality of a poor cable reality TV show?  As consumers, is that a free lunch we really want to eat?

I want more.  I am renewing my subscription to the San Francisco Sunday Chronicle today.  I get a lot of my news online these days...but I love the weekend ritual of reading the Sunday paper. It is something I've enjoyed for decades...from pouring over the colorful comics as a child to working my way through the crossword puzzles today, I would hate to start a Sunday without the paper awaiting me at the front door.  If the Chronicle folds, then on Sundays I will be less informed.  My Sunday news rituals are based on relaxing away from work (and the computer).

In the end, some cliches continue to ring true...you get what you pay for. Mom was right: There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Updated Home Page

Thank you for your notes about our video sneak peek that we posted on our blog a few days ago.  Based on your feedback, we just finished updating our home page to include the video clips as well!  We love hearing from you...and have made it even easier to find us online with all of the links we added to the home page.  We hope you'll keep sharing those great ideas!  Now that we've finished updating the website and the blog, we're off to do some crafting of our own before the weekend disappears!

Crafting for Cash

We noticed a wonderful posting from Crafty Chica's blog this morning.  She shared some great ideas for how crafters can earn cash from their crafts.  I met Kathy for the first time last year when she graciously agreed to participate in our Art Unscripted LIVE event.  (I still chuckle to myself when I think about her custom apron and glitter necklace.  Kathy knows how to rock her unique couture!)  

We've had the pleasure of meeting some amazing artists.  We love it when they share their ideas and creativity freely.  Kathy is like that.  Oh...and we LOVE Kathy's sewing machine.  (Of course, we hope that Kathy doesn't mind that we copied this photo from her blog.)  You'll have to ask Kathy or read her new book to learn more about her sewing machine bling...both in the projects she creates AND the tools she uses.

Next Sneak Peek

We are delighted that you are enjoying the sneak peek inside Rubber Paper Scissors.  You've let us know that you want to see more.  We've put that on our to do list around here.  The question of the day became which DVD do you want to peek inside of next?  Together, we are all part of a wonderful creative community where we can inspire each other.  How can we best inspire you and your creativity? 

Keep the conversation going by commenting here on our blog, sending us an email, or tweeting with us on Twitter. 

Recogition Feels Good

A little bit of recognition...especially from professionals that you respect and admire is a wonderful feeling.  We were delighted when we discovered that our blog has been added to Alltop.  If you love reading blogs, that you are going to be hooked on Alltop.  It is one stop shopping for finding great blogs on your favorite subjects.  It is like an online magazine rack for blogs!  We are flattered to be one of the cool kids selected for the Alltop site!  (You'll find PageSage in the Crafts area.)

90 Seconds to Aha!

I will never forget the first time I had the pleasure of meeting Guy Kawasaki.  Guy was one of the original marketeers (they were called evangelists) at Apple Computer, Inc.  In that role, Guy championed the Macintosh to software developers in Silicon Valley.  A computer without software just wouldn't be a compelling offering.  Since then, Guy has inspired countless entrepreneurs through his books, venture capitalist endeavors, and prolific writing.  For me, however, the inspiration was more personal.  The thought that spring to mind when I think of Guy is "90 Seconds to Aha!"  (In truth, Guy advocates 30 seconds...but the 90 seconds aspect is where it became a more personal story...perhaps fodder for a future blog posting.)

Let us know if you enjoyed this sneak peek inside of a PageSage DVD.

Quality Worth the Wait

Any kind of project, from producing DVDs to launching a rocket boils down to managing three things:  costs, quality, and schedules.  As I type this, I am reminded of a computer consultant friend of mine that has the best business cards:  "Fast.  Accurate.  Cheap.  Pick any two."

PageSage isn't any different. We balance the same business dynamics.  We've already made the big decisions.  We are committed to producing the best DVDs possible.  (Thumbs up to Accurate/Quality!)  Sometimes that means that projects take longer to complete.  Or, we may need to invest more money in a project than we had planned.  For example, for Art Unscripted with Carol Duvall, we did not originally plan to do any filming at Carol's home studio in Michigan.  But, when we reviewed the footage we had from our event in California, we knew that we needed more.  The only way to get more was to put our crew on a plane and head out to Carol's neck of the woods.  This is the only way we know how to make sure that every DVD we release is one we ourselves would purchase. 

In our quest for high quality, however, we sometimes sacrifice our original release date estimates. Nobody loves it when that happens.  The truth is we hate disappointing any of our customers when things are delayed.  (We remain pretty confident though that you agree with our philosophies here.  You've told us as much in your responses on our Creativity Survey.)  In the interest of not disappointing anyone, we've decided that we will do our best to avoid announcing a release date before a title is actually released to manufacturing.  In that spirit, we've updated the release dates on our web site for all DVDs currently in progress to TBD.

In the end, we are okay with being slow as long as we can continue to be the best (and the only award-winning) video/DVD publisher in the craft industry.  We hope you are too.  We suspect that if you really wanted low-quaility video, you would be watching amateur video clips on YouTube™ instead of reading our blog.

Recycle, Reuse, Rewards...

We've attended the CHA Winter show for a decade.  Every year we find something that inspires us...a new product, a new technique, a new artist.  This time, however, the focus was on eco-friendly product and ideas.  (We love that...in fact PageSage was the first video/DVD publisher in the industry to go green last year.)

We got our first peek at some of the booths during set-up.  Breezing through the Deisgner area, we spyed Sarah Hodsdon (Sarah-n-Dipitous Designs) putting the finishing touches on her booth. We already know that Sarah is wickedly creative.  (We are working on editing her DVD right now.)  But when we saw her booth, we were blown away.  Here she was showing us the flower bouquet and vase she made out of cardboard.  In fact, her entire booth was constructed from cardboard!

Little did we know at the time that this was such a small glimpse of the magic she designed.  Next we got a glimpse of her press kit.  Sarah designed both a compelling press kit AND a unique display for her kits...all out of cardboard.  We weren't the only ones impressed by Sarah's press kits.  She won the best press kit award at the show.

We chatted with Sarah as she continued to construct her booth.  She explained that the booth represented the tree house in her press kit display.  Oh how we loved the tree!  Sarah's team was in the midst ot erecting the tree in her booth as we chatted.  The tree is covered with hundreds...no...thousands of paper blossoms.  The booth walls are a collage of different textures...all recycled of course!  The floor is woven strips of cardboard.  The furniture is cardboard as well (and totally functional and comfortable)!

The next time we got a chance to catch up with Sarah, the show was open and her booth was completed.  She had added cardboard crown molding...cardboard strips woven together like the gum wrapper jewelry.  She even had a cardboard butterfly soaring along one wall.

We weren't the only ones blown away by Sarah's creativity.  Her booth charmed everyone...including the folks at CHA.  She was awarded first place for her booth design in the Designer section.  She was surrounded by some incredibly talented designers...but Sarah's design inspired us to embrace recycling in everything we do.

We snapped a quick photo of her awards before we had to head home.  Our artists inspire us every day...but at CHA, well, sometimes they just go and pull out all of the stops like Sarah did.  I only wish that you could have all seen her booth in person.  Surely a cell phone camera just can't do it justice!

Tweeting in the New Year

Have you discovered Twitter?  There are a variety of social networks out there...but thus far, we like Twitter the best.  It is an elegant solution for a short note, link, or thought to share (under 140 characters)...less than a typical blog posting.  Click on the bird to follow PageSage on Twitter...you never know what tidbits you may learn. (The bird graphic itself can be found here with other cool Twitter graphics)

May 2009 be filled with creative opportunities for us to express ourselves, whether it is from a keyboard or our studios. 

Happy New Year!

Craft Sales Increasing in the Recession

Economic news these days has been more doom and gloom than anything else.  Yesterday, however, the New York Times wrote about increased sales in the craft industry.  Hopefully more industries will follow suit soon.

Giving Thanks for Creativity

We hope that everyone enjoyed a wonderful holiday weekend.  We ate too much and were thankful for the blessings in our lives amongst the chaos in the world at large.  One of our biggest joys is working with artists and sharing those experiences on DVD. 

Something special happens when we learn how an artist made something...what did they use?  How did they create an effect?  What else can they make with the same technique?  We are swept away, leaving the daily grind behind us as we feed our own creative muse.  As I create some holidays gifts for my friends and family, I wonder who is really getting the gift.  Is it the recipient...or is the real gift mine...taking the time to play in the studio and make stuff? 

Either way, the best way to learn new craft techniques is with PageSage DVDs.  We’ve extended our $10 off coupon for online orders through the rest of 2008.  You can use the coupon code more than once.  To get the coupon code, please share your opinions with us via our Creativity Survey (http://www.pagesage.com).  If you already took the survey (and don’t remember the coupon code), email us for your code.

More Winners

We continue to grow from your feedback.  Thank you to everyone that has participated in our Creativity Survey.  We've had a few more winners since our last post.  Wendy Roberts from Wyoming won a free copy of Carol Duvall's DVD. 

And then there is our grand thank you prize winner!  Jan Hoefler in Wisconsin won a full library of PageSage DVDs!  (They should be arriving any day now.)

Third Weekly Winner!

We are delighted that Carol Duvall and seven talented artists are jetting their away across the country...on DVD.  Our lucky winner this week is Mary Summers from Missouri.  

With all of the economic challenges in the world today, it is a rare privilege to be the bearer of good news.  Lately, our favorite job is letting a winner know that they won.  We've all received those phone calls from someone we don't know...from a company that we did not call.  Your gut instinct is that someone is trying to sell you something.  The magic moment is when the tide changes, and the person on the other end of the line learns that no, we are not trying to sell them anything.  Instead, we are just trying to thank people for sharing their time and feedback with us.  That moment inspires us. 

This is a wonderful way to celebrate our mantra...inspiring creativity one DVD at a time.

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Millicent Owen of Mesa Arizona!  Her Creativity Survey response was randomly selected from those that were submitted in the last week.  Millicent selected Millefiori Story for her upcoming creative inspiration.  Millicent is already an avid rubber stamper and paper crafter.

We look forward to seeing how she begins to incorporate polymer clay canes into her projects.

Thank you again to all of you that are sharing your comments and feedback with us via our Creativity Survey.  Your input continues to be invaluable as we grow our company.

Our Second Weekly Winner...

Just a quick note to let you know that we are trying to contact our second weekly winner right now.  We love being able to make that phone call to let someone know they have won a PageSage DVD of their choice.  It is a real luxury to be able to make a good news phone call these days.

We'll post the name of our winner before 6 PM PST today.

First Weekly Winner

We just got off of the phone with our first lucky winner.  It is our pleasure to congratulate Sandra Staley.  Weekly winners can select the DVD they desire.  Sandra chose An Altered Journey.  Tim (well, Tim's first DVD)  is now en route across the country to Sandra's studio.  Some of you may already know Sandra.  She is one of the moderators for the Artists of the Round Table discussion group.

We hope that Sandra's new DVD will provide endless creative possibilities in her studio. 

Thank you again to all of you that continue to take the time to share your ideas and feedback with us.  We are honored to have such great customers!

Creativity Survey FAQs

We want to answer the questions we've received about the Creativity Survey. 

FAQs
Which DVD will I receive if I win a single title?
Winners receive their PageSage DVD of choice.

How are winners selected?
Each week, we look at how many surveys we received that week.  The survey automatically numbers each response.  We then go to the Random Integer Generator.  Once we have a random number, that survey  number is our winner.  (Today's lucky number was 66.)

If I win a weekly prize, am I still eligible for the Grand Thank Your Prize?
Absolutley.

When will the Grand Thank Your Prize winner be announced?
Saturday, November 1st by 5 PM PST. 

How does the $10 coupon work?  Are there any restrictions?
You can use the coupon for $10 off any PageSage order placed via our online store.

Can I enter more than once?
No.  The survey is designed to only accept one entry per person.

If you have any other questions that we have not answererd here, please email us and let us know.

Art Unscripted Reviews

As many of you know, Art Unscripted with Carol Duvall is a unique DVD, featuring multiple artists and crafts.  We are honored to be able to work with such creative and talented individuals on this project. 

S.S. Reflections posted a review for this DVD.  Sure, we love the fact that this review has some nice things to say.  You can tell that Judy watches every DVD she reviews.  Our favorite part, though, is being able to see Judy's artwork that was inspired by Art Unscripted. 

You can see another thorough review (and lots more artwork) on Scrapfriends.

We love seeing how PageSage DVDs inspire your creativity.  We hope that more crafters will show us what they make after they watch our DVDs.