2012 was a milestone year for Demo Duck. The launch of live video, a brand-spanking new office (well, new to us) and a third team member, were just some of the great things that happened to us over the past 12 months. So come along while we take a little trip down memory lane and look some of the highlights from the year!
Live Video
We’ve created hundreds of animated videos over the past few years, but at the beginning of 2012 we decided we wanted to venture into more live action productions. We invested a chunk of change into our first video, Introducing Live Video, using a Red Scarlet camera for the production, bringing in a full lighting setup, and putting some time into creating post-production compositing.
Later we worked on a fun piece for Oven2Table, and culminated the year with a video for UrbanSitter. While we’ve had a lot of previous experience doing live video productions, we were happy that we were able to really show our capabilities this year and expect to be doing even more in 2013!
Video Brewery
We launched Video Brewery, our explainer video production marketplace, in the spring of 2012 for a couple reasons. First off, we think our production process here at Demo Duck works pretty well, and by bringing it online, we’ve helped other people put our gained experience to work. Secondly, we’ve been able to help more companies (specifically startups) than we otherwise would be able to. We can only work on so many videos at a time, so by connecting clients directly with creatives, we’ve built something that can scale. Since the launch, we’ve helped hundreds of start-ups and small businesses create engaging videos on all kinds of budgets and timelines.
200 videos and counting!
This year, Demo Duck passed the 200 video mark in less than 2 years! We’ve been keeping pretty busy to say the least. You can’t find them all online, but you can check out a selection of these videos on our sample page, and our YouTube or Vimeo channels. A big thanks to all of our clients and creatives for helping us hit this milestone!
Moving Offices
Out with the old, in with the new. While we were sad to leave our old space, and the great people we shared it with, it was time for something a little bigger. We now have our own conference area, lounge area for brainstorming playing Contra, an area to shoot live video and even enough space to put in a sound booth!
Sound Booth
One of the things we were looking for in our new space was the ability to do more of our production in house – both for small scale productions and sound work. The new space had tall ceilings and an unused, small, non-square room (helps reduce sound reflections) that we thought would be perfect for an isolated sound booth. So, we went to work building this room within a room from scratch.
It’s floating on rubber pads, uses rockwool insulation for soundproofing and is acoustically treated on the inside with a monitor to view scripts and videos. We’re proud to say that you can scream at the top of your lungs and 5 feet away in the control room you can’t hear a thing. Now we have a great option for custom voice over work, foley sound effects, post-production audio dubbing (ADR) and lots of other stuff.
Team Growth
Joining our team at the very end of 2012 was Laura Mancini. When Laura isn’t starring in our videos, she’ll be splitting her time between project management and reeling in new business for Demo Duck.
Holiday Party
We closed out the year with the second annual Duck The Halls holiday extravaganza! Friends, family and co-workers celebrated the successful year with drinks, food and a little sound booth magic. Have a listen to our rendition of Jingle Bells, and check out a few photos from the evening!
Jingle Bells (feat. everyone)
Here’s to a great 2012 and an even bigger 2013. Happy New Year!