Earthtalk Studios Blog

Exciting News from Earthtalk

2009-12-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

Earthtalk Studios is going virtual!

First, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our past, present, and future clients. It’s truly been our pleasure to help you achieve your goals using creative multimedia. We hope you’ve found our services to be engaging, reliable and innovative.

In the name of efficiency and cost effectiveness, we have decided to go virtual. You’ve heard about it, and many progressive companies are moving in this direction. Our close group of creative associates will be working from our home offices. We will be completely connected with each other and with you via the web. We will keep a dedicated meeting space in Bozeman for those times when we need to meet face to face.

This move will in no way impact our level of service and expertise. In fact, we believe it will increase our creativity and give us more flexibility to push the multimedia envelope.

Earthtalk Studios remains your greatest resource for web design/programming, HD video production, and Flash / Interactive multimedia - locally in the Bozeman area, and globally.

Because of our new streamlined structure, we’re able to lower our prices and keep the same level of quality. We are currently offering a 10% discount for returning customers and volume orders. Our hourly rate is more flexible, because of the new structure. Whatever your budget, we can work with you. Please call us at 406-587-1456, email info@earthtalk.com, or visit our website www.earthtalk.com for further details. Please note our new address below.

Earthtalk Studios
Discover the Power of Multimedia!

Best regards,

Daniel J. Smith
President and CEO, Earthtalk Studios

Our new address is
Earthtalk Studios, Inc.
1702 Nelson Road
Bozeman, MT 59718

Our phone number, email, and website remain the same
406-587-1456
info@earthtalk.com
www.earthtalk.com

Earthtalk Portfolio Updated with Awards!

2009-08-20T14:25:00.003-06:00

The Earthtalk Studios Portfolio has been updated yesterday and today to contain information about the awards we've won on certain projects. Look for the trophy icon in the client lists on the left side for all three sections (Web, Video, and Flash).

Visit the portfolio today to see the vast amount of awards Earthtalk has won throughout its almost 20 years of multimedia experience. I work here and was surprised myself to see just how many awards there really are! There are most likely more awards we've won that I don't know about yet... I'll post more as they surface.

Contact us today for ways we can help you build your next award-winning website, video production, and/or Flash interactive experience for less money than you might think!

Earthtalk's Newest Real Estate Fly-Through Video

2009-08-19T15:27:00.004-06:00

Cottonwood Canyon Paradise (08:18)

Direct link: http://www.thisisbozeman.com/detail/cottonwood-canyon-paradise/

4200 Cottonwood Ranch Trail
This beautiful home is tucked away in a forest of evergreens deep within Cottonwood Creek Ranch, a private gated community in Cottonwood Canyon. This three story home sits on 32 acres of land, has four bedrooms, three baths, two fireplaces, wood floors, 25 foot ceilings on the main level, and mountain top views from every floor. It borders US Forest Service Land and also has hiking trails right out the back door. For more information on this property or to see if first hand, please contact Bob Evans.

Bob Evans Real Estate
www.bobevansrealestate.com
Bob Evans
Broker/Owner
Cell: 406.581.6929
Office: 406.585.1325
Fax: 406.587.9482
E-mail: bobe@bobevansrealestate.com

Earthtalk Studios produced this effective real estate marketing video. To get your own fly-through video tour, contact us via email: info@earthtalk.com. We're happy to work within your budget and time restrictions.

A cool new video on ThisIsBozeman.com

2009-08-19T15:23:00.002-06:00

Jux Snowskate Documentary Trailer #1 (03:31)

A new project following a group of today's top snowskaters in the state of montana. Directed and Filmed by Logan Triplet. From loganthomas.

Direct Link: http://www.thisisbozeman.com/detail/jux-snowskate-documentary-trailer-1/

Over the Tapas restaurant video

2009-06-22T16:43:00.001-06:00

This is our latest creation at Earthtalk Studios! It's an informal promotional video for Over the Tapas, a Spanish-inspired restaurant in Bozeman, Montana. We're hoping the concept catches on and we do videos like this (along with left-side advertising on ThisIsBozeman) for all of the Bozeman restaurants! For more information, or to request an estimate for the production of your own restaurant video, please contact us.

Brand-new Earthtalk Studios Portfolio Website

2009-06-15T10:16:00.000-06:00

We're proud to announce our brand-new portfolio website! We've uploaded all of our greatest work in the areas of web, video, and Flash from throughout Earthtalk's nearly 20 years of business. Check out the Earthtalk Studios portfolio website here!

Earthtalk Studios is a Bozeman, Montana based full-service new media production house and marketing firm specializing in web, video, and Flash.

Let us know what you think of the portfolio site by leaving a comment on this blog post.

We won a bunch of awards!

2009-06-12T10:35:00.000-06:00

2009 was a big year of awards for Earthtalk Studios!

1 Gold Montana Addy Award: Gallatin Valley Land Trust video

2 Horizon Interactive Awards (a nationwide competition): ThisIsBozeman.com and Earliest Life: A Microbial World (exhibit video for the Museum of the Rockies)

3 Silver Montana Addy Awards: 18 Miles to the Border video, The Bozeman Video series, and Heart of the Valley Pets of the Weeks video series

We'd like to send out a big thank you to all of our clients for allowing us to work with you on these projects and for giving us the creative freedom to bring your dreams to reality.

Follow or subscribe to this blog to stay in the loop with Earthtalk Studios! See the left column for following and subscribing links.

Earthtalk E-Newsletter System

2009-02-17T13:56:00.001-07:00

An email newsletter is a terrific way for you to keep in touch with your clients and provide information about new products and services. In this challenging economy, we all need to engage our current clients by getting the word out about what we do.

Our brand-new E-Newsletter system is built from the ground up to be powerful and easy to use. Unlike other template-based emails, we will brand your E-Newsletter to your specific look and feel. Then, you're off and running writing content and uploading images through our easy to use and powerful administrative system. Finally, simply copy and paste the generated HTML code into your email service provider (such as Constant Contact) and await the flood of responses!

Your email newsletter will stand out from the crowd because it was professionally designed... not done using a pre-made template that thousands of other people have already used.

We will professionally brand your E-Newsletter for an initial fee of $250. Thereafter, there will be a $25 per month fee for unlimited access to our powerful administrative system, 24/7. See example newsletters here, here and here. For more information or a demo, contact us!

Why mobile?

2009-02-12T13:17:00.001-07:00

Mobile video. It's a big deal. More and more people each day are using their mobile devices to access multimedia content on the web. Therefore, to be future-looking, it's important nowadays to provide multimedia solutions for mobile users. Importantly, just because it's mobile doesn't give you a license to skimp on quality--mobile users want much more than just a basic mobile site: they want video, photos, interactivity, the works.

Every video project we create at Earthtalk Studios is mobile-ready. We've studied the mobile video formats extensively and have an in-depth understanding of video requirements for the majority of mobile handsets. One video format doesn't necessarily fit all mobiles, users, or screen sizes. Some people want downloadable, higher quality mobile video and others prefer streaming, instant-on content. Some want widescreen content while others without widescreen handsets prefer the video to fill the screen.

We at Earthtalk Studios understand this booming market and are constantly discovering new technologies and staying ahead of the curve. You can trust that your video project will be delivered properly to the ends of the earth by Earthtalk's capable team--after all, it's in our name!

Watch 3GP (H.264 & AAC) Example Mobile Video
Watch 3GP (MPEG-4 & AAC) Example Mobile Video
Watch MP4 (H.264 & AAC) Example Mobile Video
Watch DivX (DivX Mobile Profile & MP3) Example Mobile Video

What's so great about DivX?

2009-02-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

You hear a lot about H.264, VP6, and MPEG-4 these days. They are all high quality video codecs that are popular on the web and used extensively by Earthtalk Studios. But what about the DivX video codec? How does it stack up in the mix?

DivX (MPEG-4 Part 2) was originally made famous due to it's remarkable ability to compress big MPEG-2 video files into small DivX .avi files, without sacrificing noticeable quality loss. DivX can take a feature-length film from DVD and fit it on a CD-ROM. That means it can take 4 gigs and compress it down to 700 MB (aka 0.7 gigs or 83% less)--truly amazing. Therefore, DivX became a major pioneer of MPEG-4.

In today's slew of video codecs, DivX still stacks up. The DivX team has now incorporated H.264 into their new codec, and is braving new terrain in the codec world.

The DivX team has made strides in broadening their global reach. Over 100 million DivX Certified DVD players have been shipped worldwide--that's about 32% of all DVD players. This means that DivX content will play on these DVD players, along with traditional DVDs. DivX content can also be played on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and other HD media players that connect directly to the home theater.

The DivX codec and encoding application are available from www.divx.com. The DivX Converter makes it as easy as drag-and-drop for anyone to compress their personal video files into small, high-quality DivX files. DivX has defined profiles for compressing DivX video, from mobile to home theater to high def, to ensure that the resulting DivX file will be compatible with the destination device.

The DivX Web Player enables the embedding of DivX video on blogs, personal web pages, social networking sites, etc. And when viewing HD video on the web, unlike the Flash plugin, the DivX Web Player offers smooth video playback with much lower processor demand--meaning that more computers can play HD DivX video than HD Flash video.

Finally, DivX video is all about the important the 3-screen experience. It plays on mobile devices, computers, and TVs. We find the DivX format to be a viable forward-looking video codec, and hope to see development and adoption of the codec to continue well into the future. The video below is embedded using the DivX Web Player. You'll notice that when you watch it, the desktop begins to dim. This nice feature is built in to the DivX web player (and can be turned off as well).

Bronze Runs Through It Webisode 4

2008-08-26T09:20:00.000-06:00

This is webisode 4 of the Bronze Runs Through It series on ThisIsBozeman.com! It was embedded on this page using the TIB embeddable player, only available in limited release at this point, but soon to be debuted on TIB for everyone to use.

To see the other webisodes, visit www.thisisbozeman.com!

What is EARTHTALK?

2007-10-08T13:36:00.000-06:00

Earthtalk Studios is a production house for fine New Media creations including:

Superior High Definition video Productions
Quality Standards Based Web Applications
CD & DVD based Multimedia Productions
Kiosk based Multimedia Exhibits

Earthtalk Studios is the recipient of numerous National & International awards & recognition including:

2005 Pirelli International GOLD Award for Educational Multimedia
2005 NAI (National Association of Interpreters) Top Multimedia GOLD Award
2005 Horizon (National Award) SILVER Award for Interactive Multimedia
2005 Summit Creative (National Award) GOLD Award for Interactive Multimedia
A/V Multimedia Magazine - TOP 100 Producer (2003 & 2004)
2005 & 2004 Addy Awards (State Award)
- Best of Division - Website
- GOLD - CD-ROM Interactive Media
- GOLD - Animation & Special Effects
- GOLD - Website & Interactive Media
- SILVER - Website (Business to Business)

Earthtalk Studios Blog

2007-10-03T11:56:00.000-06:00

Earthtalk Studios Blog

...a new blog coming soon!