Cause Cafe

Some small businesses, like this cafe, are inspired by altruistic motives. In this case, the owner of the Cause Cafe, Stacey Wohl wanted to find a way to give her autistic children a way to make a living and interact with the real world. She has a vision of a chain of cafes that are specifically run to employ disabled people. It was so much fun working on this video.

Mundo Restaurant

The heart of most restaurants is in the kitchen. In this video, Pinar, the head chef at Mundo, talks about how the restaurant was founded on the idea of emulating what it was like to grow up in Turkey eating home-cooked food cooked by her mother. The color & texture of this food photographed beautifully and Pinar was a warm and engaging presenter.

Alice's Arbor Restaurant

For all the great ambience, decor, location, and staff - at the core of a restaurant's success of course is the menu. On a restaurant shoot, we always will ask the chef or manager to prepare their signature dishes and we will spend at least a third of our filming time working in close up and doing our best to make the viewer want to reach right through the screen and feast! Alice's Arbor is a friendly, delightful restaurant in the heart of Brooklyn, with a rustic feeling, but with a very carefully selected locally sourced menu. Best perk of this job? Getting to eat the samples after the shoot!

Cafe Macchiato

When you find a "good" cafe often the most important feature is it's ambience. This lovely little cafe in Newburgh, NY is designed to make customers feel cozy and comfortable. Much more than just a place to grab a cup of coffee and a snack, a cafe like this becomes a spot to socialize, and appreciate art and enjoy being part of a community. 

Salon Valerie

A basic but effective presentation of an owner-led Beauty Salon. The goal with this small business video was to show how good Valerie and her staff are in interacting with their clients, delivering skilled hair and make-up services, and conveying the warmth and friendliness of her salon. A great testimonial from a loyal customer helps deliver the message as well!

FIT Massage

For Jennifer of Fit Massage, as the owner and actual provider of the services on offer, it was important to make the video all about her. For a service-business like this, the customer wants to know how reliable, trustworthy, skilled and personable the provider of the service will be. Jennifer's voice is soothing, compassionate and sincere, and the images of her working with her customers reinforce the sense of her expertise as a masseuse. 

Tye Coe Video Series

How-to and informational videos are an excellent way to indirectly market your small business. In this series, Tye was able to demonstrate her versatility across a wide range of styles and looks while providing useful,free information. Having rich, original information on your website, blog or social media channel will gradually increase your search engine ranking as users click on your videos and follow you. Exposure and developing a base of followers are the key to successful marketing on the internet.

Beauty Solution Skincare

With a business like Beauty Solution Skincare, customers want to know that their experience will be one of relaxation. A video for this kind of business must not only list and show services, but also convey the appropriate atmosphere. We tried to achieve a relaxing atmosphere by using soothing music, and we filmed both the services on offer and visual details which reinforce that impression. Having a good narrator or voiceover artist will help achieve this as well.

New England Collision

The last thing any car owner wants to think about is where they will take their vehicle if it gets damaged or they get into an accident. Collision repair pros know that knowing how to mitigate the unpleasantness of their customer's predicament is key to running a successful auto body business. These guys run a tight shop, and watching them work and deal with their clients was a great lesson in customer service and how to turn a negative experience into a positive one.

AK Auto

Located in a quiet side street just off of Queens Boulevard, Ricky's auto repair business attracts a clientele from all over the city. Specializing in foreign cars, he is able to offer a range of options for replacement parts from premium brand names to grey market options. Often the choice of an auto repair shop comes down to one's own sense of the owner's integrity and trustworthiness. With Ricky you feel like you're in good hands and that he will give you a fair deal. Video is a great way to personalize your business, and give the customer a positive feeling about who they will be dealing with when they walk through your doors.

Acura Dealership

Sometimes when making a video for a mid-size business like a major car dealership, you realize that you are competing with production companies that charge premium rates for what is often a fairly straight forward and simple video. We think that we are competitive both in terms of price and production quality. At City Video we save our clients money because we practically eliminate overheads and put all the production costs where they belong: on the screen!

Whether litigating, defending, or providing first rate due diligence, your clients know that your reputation is based on your ability to honestly and convincingly present their legal cases in the best light and provide flawless execution in their legal affairs. A great video is your opportunity to make a perfect first impression and present YOUR case for them to choose you and your firm.

Your clients come back to you because they understand that having an experienced, caring professional there to guide them through the maze of competing insurance products is worth sometimes paying a little more. Because trust is your stock and trade, a warm, engaging video presenting you and your business in the best light can make all the difference and give new customers just the right boost to pick up the phone.

South Philly Dental

Whether you are you are a well-loved Family Dentist or a talented Prosthodontist you know that your patients need to feel confident that they are getting the best dentistry services that they can afford. A video is a great way to convey your all-important bedside manner, show you and your staff working in real time, and highlight special techniques and equipment that you specialize in. Customers know that their dental health is a long-term investment, and an engaging, informative video can help them make the right choice.

Fran Eichler, D.D.S

One of the most important functions that video allows you to do is to familiarize the client and potential customer with your personality and to demystify professional services that, especially in the field of dentistry, can be a source of anxiety for patients. In this video, an excellent testimonial from one of her patients helps to reassure the prospective client that Dr. Eichler is very careful about providing a pain-free experience.

Debra Jaliman, M.D.

Another excellent way to drive traffic and potential customers to your website is to create videos that provide useful information, which then help boost your site's search ranking. In this video, Dr. Jaliman gives valuable information about a particular skin-related topic and in doing so helps indirectly market her services as a dermatologist. With this kind of content, it is best to think in terms of a series of videos each with a specific topic, which, cumulatively create an impression of expertise and confidence in the services that will be provided.

A great small business like the Rimini Pastry Shop not only delivers a superior product, but it also learns how to serve the specific needs of the community where it is based. Our favourite moment is when Manuela, his wife, tells the story of how John Zito, an Italian baker, would learn how to bake regional and ethnic specialties for the Jewish, German and Irish (and of course, Italian!) residents of Bensonhurst. A classic NYC story.

EMPIRICAL PAINT

In this video, Coleman and his colleague were painting a tiny 1 bedroom apartment on the UES. There wasn't very much space to work in, so in this kind of situation you need to look for good details to film in close up. Luckily, painting has all sorts of cool textures and visuals so it wasn't hard to get some interesting footage despite the cramped confines. A micro-business like Empirical paint trades on the expertise of the individuals who both run the business and do the work - you want the video to inspire trust and confidence in the customer.

CIGAR and MORE

Since people can't smoke in public places much anymore, cigar stores have evolved into social spaces like this one, complete with a smoking lounge area and an unlimited and comprehensive supply of product. This was the first time I had an opportunity to film a cigar store and loved shooting the handmade cigars with all their rich textures and colorful labels and the hardcore afficionados with the smoke billowing around them.

LaRue House B&B

This one was a bit personal! When About.com wanted a series of vids about Bed and Breakfasts, we had the perfect host - Nathan's Mom! She loved being a B & B hostess - and is so proud of her beautiful Victorian house, where she happened to be born (it was once a hospital run by her Grandfather - the town doctor). You can also catch Nathan's Dad manning the phones in the background!

This is a good example of a video that can not only serve as a great promotion for a small business, but can also help boost your search engine ranking by providing actual real useful information to users on the web. Check out more LaRue House B&B series!

Singer / Song Writer

When I first met Sean McCabe - he was a young Irish writer living in Paris aspiring to follow in the footsteps of Joyce and Beckett. At the time he played a little piano, and would busk in the Metro with a steel drum or bongos. Several years later I reconnected with him in New York, and he had since learned to play the guitar and blossomed into a full-fledged singer/songwritier, with a full, rocking band and several albums of original songs under his belt. His songwriting advice here is deceptively simple: he demystifies the process of songwriting pretty effectively.

Gibson Guitar

In this video, Dan at Chelsea Guitars shares his encyclopedic knowledge of all things guitar-related with a concise history of a great American guitar manufacturer. Everything about this little shop next to the Chelsea Hotel is charming and unique - and, in addition to being a great storyteller and host, Dan, like all first-rate small business owners, exudes a love for his trade which rubs off on everyone he comes into contact with

Brain Gym

For an entrepreneur like Mari who helps her clients reach their personal goals and realize their potential, video is a great way to show herself in action. We think this video really exhibits Mari's personality, with all of her sincerity and infectious enthusiasm as she works both with an individual client and with a group.

UWS Cycling

With all it's aerobic benefits, spinning exercise has really taken off in NYC. Videos of people doing physical exercise and sports techniques really help attract new clients to a fitness-focused business. The videos help potential clients visualize their path to personal fitness by showing the enthusiasm of the instructors and the quality of the equipment.