Mobile Video Production in the Age of Twitter

As Social Media opportunities arise, the general public still struggles to understand all their options and embrace the newest tools. It is difficult to test and discuss the newer technologies when the application of the program is cloudy and gray. Bob Gollwitzer, owner of Pro Mobile Productions and veteran action sports producer of 20 years, understands the dilemma and has taken the charge to help bring some clarity to the possibilities. Where there is Facebook and Twitter, we offer to tell a story with engaging content and a forward-thinking message. Where there is YouTube and multiple, portable video player options, we offer to capture the heart and soul of the individual. Bob’s last foray into this area resulted in the design and development of THPTV.com, a video driven portal for company information for a local Philadelphia homebuilder. Our mission is clear, our passion became focused. Enter Pro Mobile Productions.

Pro Mobile Productions (PMP) was created on the foundation of professionally produced video. Pro-Inline Productions, PMP’s parent company, began coordinating and filming action sports events like inline skating and extreme games in the early 1980′s. Pro-Inline Productions served as the independent production company behind such well known events as “The Ultimate Inline Challenge” at Universal Studios, ESPN’s “X-Games” and NBC Sports “Gravity Games.” The vision was simple – capture the story on video: the moment, the excitement, the passion. Preserve those frames in time, and allow the participants to re-live their moments again and again. Producing the events not only enabled Bob, also owner of Pro Inline Productions, to storyboard each take, but he was able to capture B-roll footage and secondary clips and outtakes. In the end Bob had enough quality film to share a powerful story and re-purpose the many aspects of the event through vignettes and “teaser” reels.

PMP’s objectives are to produce the best video for many of the traditional mediums (e.g., T.V., on-line ads, product promotion, and video testimonials). Taking this business model one step further, we have married quality video production with mobile viewing. We utilize the available mediums to share the video on cell phones, iPods, and web-based video players.

Regatta Rowers at the Starting Line

Not only do we provide customized content for sporting-event participants, we package the entire event so everyone can benefit from the historical archive on video. Social Media has enabled storytelling to the masses; anyone can share, promote, and create an awareness of their idea. We have honed are services to maximize Social Media Marketing for the sole purpose of gaining a following with specific interest in the product, service, event. This advantage is critical to the effective optimization of the story to be told – we create the interest, we find those interested, and we provide the fanatics with what they expect. It is not the traditional advertising model; to the contrary, we provide the consumer with what they have been looking for, in an unobtrusive way. Enter Youniquevideo.com.

The premiere of our proprietary technology will be revealed at Philadelphia’s 2009 Dad Vail Regatta and Stotesbury Cup in May 2009. Our solution to the dilemma of providing high quality video to individual rowing teams is Youniquevideo.com. The site will be launching soon, and it will provide us with the ability to link event data, customized programming, and video footage of the event. This is the culmination of on-site video capture, mobile editing, and global distribution. We will produce individual video segments for each participating rowing team. We will utilize multiple cameras to capture every possible angle, and the videographers will be staggered throughout the event course.

Pro Mobile's modified RV - now on-site production HQ

Our Mobile Production Unit (MPU) will allow for video highlights via hard-wired cameras creating live feeds to be viewed during the event. We will engage the crowd and fans to peak the interest level and maintain everyone’s focus on the rowers and the schools representing the regattas. The keystone to our success is our MPU (very similar to large network TV trucks, but utilizing all digital HD equipment with laptop Final Cut Pro HD for post production) and the on-site headquarters it provides. Not only can we coordinate the video capture and programming with greater ease, we can manage all facets of the production by having adequate IT Staff available to handle the on-the-fly improvisation sometimes necessary at outdoor sporting events. Being at the heart of the action offers us the advantage of quicker team communication and problem resolution.

Youniquevideo.com’s future includes numerous other outdoor sporting events in 2009. In addition to rowing events, like the Dad Vail Regatta, our plan includes events involving runners and cyclists. From marathons to triathlons, for-profit to non-profit events, Pro Mobile Productions has positioned itself to be the primary provider of broadcast-quality video for sporting events nationwide, with one main difference…video as it happens, when it happens, to treasure and share for generations. PMP will take video storytelling to the next level, encouraging it to evolve as the fluid vehicle it was always intended to be. As times change and technology adapts, Youniquevideo.com is the destination for Your Unique Video.

Contact Information: Pro Mobile Productions

Bob Gollwitzer  |  Cell: 610-223-7884  |  E-mail: bgollwitzer@gmail.com; promobileproductions@gmail.com

Later that day while traveling to meetings in Center City Philadelphia, National Public Radio held a one hour discussion from callers all over the United States offering their opinions on the power of social media networks.  It seems sometimes like the world takes years to catch up to reality, but we finally are seeing the fruit of a long seeding period.

I remember my first gig in Hollywood in 1976 at Paramount Pictures as a gopher (production assistant =fancy name) running from the producer’s office to his office on the studio lot…………watching Fonzirelli on Happy Days and falling in love with Melissa Gilbert while she performed on “Little House on the Prairie” set……….then while driving hearing that a man named Ted Turner was going to change the world with an all news network.  The host of the radio show was laughing, the guests were mocking and the entertainment industry responded through its trade papers, Hollywood Reporter and Variety with disbelief that anyone would propose such a ludicrous idea………..that people would watch news during the day instead of the Evening News with Walter Cronkite.