IF YOU’RE a_ business shopping around for a cor- porate video, look out. There are literally hundreds of video production .com- panies vying ‘for your dollar, all promising to deliver top-of-the-line pro- ducts. By Evelyn Jacob News Reporter IT DOESN'T matter what kind of equipment a video produc- tion company has. Creativity is key to a good video, says Guy Robinson of the Vancouver- based Force Four Productions td. Johanne Olsen Through Dan Interiors, Johanne presents a complete shopping experience from furniture to unique gifts and quality kitchen accessories, “Our store offers such fine lines as Kosta Boda, litvala, and Arbia of Finland. We also have a complete fine of coukware, including Cuisinart," layostina, Sigg, and Copperware. Remember us for exciting acrylic lines for patio and boaters.” A bridal registry is also available. : For those who appreciate the difference. Bern interiors Park Royal South 922-1181 NAME; Guy Robinson BORN; Mission, B.C. RESIDENCE: North Vancouver AGE: 44 OCCUPATION: Vice-president, Force Four Productions Ltd. FAMILY: Married, one son. HOBBIES: Hockey, golf, reading, gardening, watching TV As technology continues to . make leaps and bounds, today even inexperienced video pro- DRAPERY SPECIAL 25% eg eg. Price Drapery Fabric, Bedspreads Introducing our BEDDING DEPT. DUVET, PILLOWS, ETC. HunterDouglas Window Fashions es: ducers can churn out half-decent work at relatively little cost. But all the other elements that go into making a video — acting, good scriptwriting, lighting — often get left behind. For the consumer, it’s becoming more and more a case of caveat emptor. “Te's a problem for clients," says Guy Robinson, vice-president of production at the Vancouver- based Force Four Productions Lid. “Someone will go out and buy a video camera and shoot a couple of weddings and suddenly they’re -a corporate video pro- ducer. People looking through the Yellow Pages don’t really know one (producer) from another.” Robinson, 44, has seen some pretty atrocious examples of videos that get passed off as legit- imate product. One of his clients shelled out $10,000 on a short film that wasn’t worth the tape it was shot on. “We looked at it and said we cannot salvage even one frame. The shooting was awful, the editing worse than amateurish, they hadn’t even written a script.”’ Scores of fly-by-nighters are trying to capitalize on the cor- porate video boom, but'there are .a handful of companies in town turning out. like Force Four high-calibre work for major cor- porations. Robinson, who got into the business via the stage, joined the company in 1984, one year after president Hugh Beard left CBC- TV to set up his own business after 22 years of service. Working with writer John Rit- chie and a talented staff of nine, Robinson and co. have turned out dozens .of award-winning videos that cover everything from in- house training and motivational videos to image-boosting and marketing videos. Force Four has won 10 ITVA awards (International Television Association) in the last three years alone — more than any other video production company in Canada. Robinson says their ideas have to be top-notch because the TV generation isn’t willing to tolerate _ BLINDS & BEDDING 927-1709 — 1441 Clyde Ave., West Vancouver &4 Someone will go out and buy a video camera and shoot a couple of weddings and suddenly they're a corporate video producer. 99 «Guy Robinson second-rate production values. Necdiess to say, decisions at Force Four are not made lightly. Ideas get bounced around between Robinson, Beard and Ritchie. And the client's wishes are taken very seriously. Robinson and his colleagues work with the latest in video technology like Betacam SP CCD cameras and a state-of-the art AVID 2300D off-line non-linear digital editing suite. (Robinson compares’ it to the difference between using white- out fluid on typewriter paper to pressing a single command on a word processor.) A video can run you as much as $80,000. But not all companies are look- ing for Academy Award-winning productions. Sometimes a straightforward documentary will do the job. The important thing is getting the client’s message across. “Hugh’s got a great line, and | think it’s quite apropos: if it doesn’t do the job it’s the most expensive video ever because you UNE just can’t use it,’? says Robinson, who lives in North: Vancouver and holds a master’s degree in Engiish literature from Tufts University in Boston, . It's a rare talent to make mind- -numbing material scem interesting, but it’s a requirement Force Four comes up against: fre- quently. ; A recent project for the Na- tional! Occupation Classification book (a huge manual that lists all the jobs in Canada), for example, ‘called on all their creative juices. choices Sound like sleep-inducing sub- ject matter? You bet, but Robin- son and his team carne up with an idea guaranteed to Prevent people from nodding off in spite of the dry subject: they used a game show format loosely based on the popular Jeopardy! and brought in TV personality Wayne Cox to host the program. As technology continues to rev- olutionize the video production process, what Robinson and Force Four do and how they do it will radically change. : Whether it is delivered by video compression or distribution systems that use digital subscriber loops from telephone companies, multi-media technology will soon change the face of both video and television. Videotape will go the way of the eight-track and . corporate videos will be presented on a disc format, with clients able to access huge amounts of information — that would rival the number of books in a library. FOLLOWING THE CONCLUSION OF OUR GOING-OUT-OF-BUSINESS SALE, | THE REMAINING STOCK AT ~ SUPER WAREHOUSE MUST BE LIQUIDATED AT THE. FALL OF THE GAVEL. UNRESERVED PUBLIC AUCT! HUNDREDS OF FINE QUALITY GENUINE HAND-KNOTTED ROOM-SIZE AREA RUGS AND RUNNERS OF ALL SIZES IN WOOL & SILK-AND-WOOL BLENDS. ALL MUST BE LIQUIDATED. IF YOU HAVE VISITED SUPER WAREHOUSE IN THE PAST AND SEEN CARPETS YOU WISHED YOU COULD AFFORD, NOW {S THE TIME TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE EXTRA SAVINGS AVAILABLE AT THIS UNRESERVED AUCTION. AUCTION WILL BE HELD AT 295 TERMINAL AVENUE, VAN. 632-2100 SATURDAY, MARCH 13. AUCTION 2:00 P.M. SHARP (VIEWING 12 NOON) SUNDAY, MARCH 14 MONDAY, MARCH 15 TUESDAY, MARCH 16 AUCTION 2:00 P.M. SHARP (WEWING 12 NOON) AUCTION 7:00PM. SHARP (VIEWING 5:30PM) AUCTION 7:00 P.M. 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