|
July 2002 Product Development Technique
Video Tapes Part III
Packaging and Duplicating In
Part I we talked about the
mechanics of video. In
Part II we talked about
scripting and laying things out in an orderly fashion to save you lots
of money. In this issue we'll talk about packaging
and duplicating your video product. There are several
ways to package a videotape depending on the number of tapes in the set
and also on how fancy you want to get. The quantity you plan on
producing also plays a role in the decision of how to package your video
information product. SINGLE VIDEO TAPES
Labeling the tape If you are producing a single
video tape you can make the labels for the actual tape on your own
printer or you can get them printed elsewhere. To print
video labels on my own printer I use the Avery Deluxe label program
http://www.avery.com and Avery
VideoTape labels. A box of labels normally has face labels and spine
labels included. You may have to order these if your local Office Depot
or Staples doesn't have them in stock. Usually you can get them in a day
or so. I generally use this method when I need a small
quantity or even one custom label for a client or speakers bureau.
If you want fancier labels you can usually stop in to your local quick
print shop. Most of them have a catalog where they simply take your
order, mark up the price 50% and order the labels for you. Plan on a
week to ten days unless you pay extra for a "rush" order.
Using this method you can get many different colors of ink and really
high quality foil or glossy labels stock. For a high quality info
product, I suggest this over trying to do it yourself on your home
printer. You don't want your product to look homemade.
Exterior packaging For single tapes I use a hard
plastic case that has a clear plastic pocket. I print out a high quality
color cover and then have the cover duplicated on a color copy machine
at Kinko's. I have the Kinko's people cut it to the exact size to fit in
the pocket. Using this method you can create an extremely good looking
package and make them one at a time if you want to. Pay attention to
quality because I've seen some pretty lousy looking printed pieces put
in the clear plastic cover which negates the quality look you were
striving for. I get my hard plastic covers at
http://www.polylinecorp.com .
I use white, but they also have black and maybe some other colors too.
You'll have to check at the time you read this. I use
Corel draw to make the cover. I'm not very artistic, so I keep things
simple. If you get a nice piece of artwork though you can surround it
with simple text and still have a dazzling cover. Check out
http://www.antion.com/teleseminarkit.htm . Even though this is an
audio set, the same idea applies. Sleeves
For simple packaging you can get white (chincy looking) or colored stock
cardboard sleeves very inexpensively. Check out
http://www.prolabel.com/Cases.htm to see some. They also have some
of the hard plastic cases I mentioned above and softer plastic sleeves.
http://www.avccorp.com/
Click on the tiny link for "Video Sleeve Printing" to see some samples
of custom printed sleeves. You normally have to do a pretty big quantity
to make this cost effective. MULTIPLE VIDEO TAPES
The labels on the actual tape itself are made in the same ways described
above. When you have multiple tapes you have to decide if
you want them packaged individually and simply shipped together or if
you want the exterior package to hold all the tapes. This is the way I
do it. Check out
http://www.antion.com/speakervideo.htm to see an example.
If you decide on packaging the tapes individually, you simply follow the
directions above and name the cover Tape/Vol 1, 2, etc.
If you want to put all the tapes and maybe some additional written
material in the package, then you generally use the big vinyl albums
pictured at the link above. I get mine at
http://www.polylinecorp.com
and I get the color inserts from Kinko's. In the bigger
vinyl albums you usually can't print out a color copy big enough on your
home office grade printers so you put the file on a disc or email the
file to Kinko's for output. My big covers are copied on a
large sheet and then cut down to fit. The cut down area on some of my
tapes is so big, I hate to waste it. So, I print on it too and when the
paper is cut apart I get a cover and a color coupon out of the same
piece of paper. Other There are
some holders you can get that fit into a three ring binder, but I have
never used them. You could use the same method for the outside cover
though because you can get three ring binders that come with the clear
pocket on the outside. DUPLICATING
This is NOT something you want to do at home for even small quantities.
Sure you can do one or two by hooking two VCRs together when you're in a
pinch, but it's time consuming and the quality is generally poor.
Simply look for "Video Duplicating" in your online yellow pages and you
will surely find several choices in your area. Try to get the
duplicating done as close to your home/office as possible to save on
shipping costs because videos are heavy. The place I use delivers them
for free right to my door and puts the labels on for me.
PAL If you are doing business internationally, you
probably want to have some PAL versions of your tape(s) on hand. This is
the video system used in Europe/Australia and other place around the
world. This is a little less important because many new VCRs are able to
play both the US system (NTSC) and PAL. The cheapest thing to do is get
a PAL master made right at the start and then the duplicates are cheap.
You don't want the duplicating house to have to do the actual
"conversion" every time you order some PAL because that costs alot more.
Other upcoming topics
Back to July 2002 Index page
|
