The Power of the Podcast: Unlock Your Brand's Marketing Potential

From Symphony to Screen: A Masterclass in Visual Storytelling with Toni Dolce

• Pedal Stomper Productions - Josh Troche

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Ever wondered how a background in classical music could translate into a successful career in video production? This week, we sit down with Toni Dolce, CEO of Purple Critter Media, to explore her unique journey and uncover the secrets to captivating visual storytelling.    

Toni shares how her passion for music organically transformed into a thriving video production business, emphasizing the power of movement, meticulous planning, and a deep understanding of the target audience.  Whether you're a seasoned content creator or just starting out, Toni's insights into crafting compelling narratives through video will leave you inspired and equipped to elevate your own content game.    

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It seems like every day I'm hearing about some new video techniques, some new gear, something new that's happening all the time. And there's people like this week's guests that are able to keep up with that. Toni Dolce is the CEO of Purple Critter Media. They're based in New York. They do a lot of very, very cool things. If you would like to learn how to capture better content and do it in different and new ways, stay tuned. It's oh, Toni, thank you for coming on. I'm excited about this. You guys do some amazing stuff. So this I know this is going to be a great conversation here. You've transitioned from a successful career in classical music to now video production. If what motivated that shift? Well, Josh, thanks so much for having me. I'm glad to be here in conversation with you. Really was an organic shift. My husband, who's also my partner in business, and I both began in classical music, and we still continued to be in classical music. And what happened is that around 12 years ago, we were at this point where cameras were becoming a little bit more affordable for the consumer. And so we said instead of paying somebody to do a music video for us or photography for our latest CD, what would it look like if we invested in ourselves? And we decided to buy a camera, and back then I think it was 2009 or 10, actually. Gosh, we've been yeah, we've been doing this for longer than I thought. Okay. So like let's say for 15 years. So back in 2009, 2010, 2011, around there, we had got our first we bought our first camera, which was a canon five D, and at the time it was, you know, the most amazing camera that could do video clips and it could also take great photos. And so, now we look at it and we're like, but for just starting out, that's what we had. And I actually have a picture of us where we were. We were so excited about purchasing the camera, and I held like a little flower as a microphone, and it was just kind of like, oh, look at us. We, like, just got our first camera. This is so great. And we really started making stuff for ourselves and for our careers. And we made our own music videos. We shot our own content. Andy had an established audio business already before I came into the picture, so he already knew the audio component. And then we learned the video component together. And we have really organically grown. So it started out where we were making stuff for ourselves. Our colleagues noticed, hey, who did your music videos or who did your photography for your CDs? And they asked, could you do ours? So then it was okay. We began just within our circle of influence, those colleagues, and then it branched out where over the years, our colleagues would get additional jobs at universities, whether they were teaching or becoming administrative and in administrative positions. And they would say, hey, we need to do a campaign for the school. Would you mind? So we really built within our community. And then around eight years ago, we really made a shift to be concentrated outside of the classical music community, because we knew it and we knew that we had to branch out and that our skills were getting better and our teams were getting bigger. And the technicality of what we were doing is really advanced. When you do ten camera multi capture for a symphony orchestra and then it goes to broadcast, there are many ways that you can use those skills to make more money in the private sector, outside of music, in the arts. And so we had to make a shift. And so now about 50% of our work is we're so within classical music, and now, 50% is outside of classical music. So really an organic build. And we still are, we still do music and we're still in music, but we also have a business and we have no children. And our business is our baby. I understand that also. Yes. It's because I mean, it's well, what do you spend your time doing? Not soccer games, not volleyball games, not swim practice. We just work. Yeah. No, I, I get that part with that. Something that anyone that does like content creation, you can always see kind of where their background started. How do you think coming from the music and coming from like knowing that area so well, how do you think that changes or what do you think that does with your style in terms of how you guys capture things, being artists and being in front of the camera and then also being behind the camera informs a decision. So when we're directing or producing it allows us to have that knowledge of, okay, what would look good artistically here? I also really love movement within the cameras. Even for corporate capture, they're used to having static images, even for a, interview setup. We always want to bring in some sense of movement, whether it's a gimbal, whether it's a dolly, whether it's a jib, just to create a bit of excitement within the capture. And as we all see what's happening, our attention spans are really very short. And unless there's some bit of movement within a shot, you're not going to hold the viewer. And and so I would say that artists actually what we've come from helps us inform our, you know, our classical music capture in wanting to have movement within it, but because think about it, it's musicians that are sitting on stage in the chairs, you know, playing. They don't really they're not much. They mean they're moving their their instruments or they're moving their fingers or their mouths, but they're just sitting in chairs. So it's really kind of boring if you just watch that. So we have to create a sense of movement and then that translates to what we do, for our corporate capture as well. It's funny you mentioned those, those pieces of movement because it's something that I've always liked and admired too, because once again, you're you're able to add interest without stealing the show. So you guys do things with the camera that that involved that movement. But once again, people don't really think about the movement. They just find it more interesting. So I absolutely love that if someone's looking at that, like on a budget. So what what would you suggest for someone like, hey, I mean, should they start with the gimbal? Should they start with like one of the DJI Osmo or something like that? And and what's a key that they should be paying attention to when they're doing some of those movements? Okay. There's a couple of things to answer within that question. If you're on a budget and you want to create movement, of course, finding something that is whether it's a DJI product or a knockoff that you can get for a cheaper point at a price point, go ahead and get it. I think the experimenting and keeping the shots steady within their movement. So whatever you're using, making sure that the flow of that is not jittery, that it's steady within the movement. And I would practice with your phone so straight away you can use a phone. My husband, Andy has a really nice, phrase. It's not the arrow, it's the Indian. So. Oh, I like that. Right? So really, whatever tool you're using, you can get great stuff. And an amazing photographer could get something out of just maybe a Nokia phone. So it's really it's really about practicing and you know, look at Adorama bench for used equipment for somebody that's just starting out, you can even get creative and you don't have to if you don't have any money. Let's say that you found within your children's toys, something that was like a train set. You put your phone up on a train set and you use it as a makeshift dolly. I think that your creativity is really what informs it. And then the money will come, and then you can work with their budget, and we'll see. You can rent equipment. I guess it's like the creativity is one thing, and then the budgets the next thing or either. So just to really to start out with is just trying stuff is build your own not necessarily the tools but build the skills instead of the tools. Yes, I love practice and just be experimental. Have fun. So speaking of experimental, you've mentioned camera movements. You've mentioned ten camera shoots. You've mentioned these elaborate things. And as a video company, we know the more moving pieces, the more chances there are for it to go absolutely sideways and horribly. What do you guys do operationally? Do you guys have check sheets? Are you guys I mean, really, is there a flow to things or is there like down and dirty? This is all buttoned down because you guys do some experimental stuff. So to me, it's like I always wonder how other production houses, I guess I would say keep it from coming off the rails, with some moving pieces and, and just the look on your face, you can be like, it doesn't always stay on the rails. Well, that's actually one of the things that we're really proud about is that we, our clients, hire us because they anticipate that it's going to be okay. And thankfully, in some of these high pressure shoots where we're doing a live stream of a concert that, you know, the the it's in many ways very high stakes because the concert isn't going to stop if we can't capture it. So we have to continue on to speak to your question about standard operating procedures and SOPs. So we have a whole bunch of checklists that are not just only with the technical. So, you know, when you're dealing with a lot of equipment, there's going to be equipment checklists and then there's going to be set up checklists. And then there's going to be, checklists for shots. And so all of those checklists are tweaked. And after each job we make sure that okay, what worked what didn't work. And then we built in redundancy. So for anybody that's starting out or if you're uplevel ING and you're getting bigger jobs and the risk of something going awry because you may have, maybe you have, maybe you used to just do B-roll and you didn't need to have audio, but now you have to have audio. But you can't actually just depend on one channel of audio. You have to make sure that you're have two channels of audio, because if one fails, then you would not be able to complete the shoot. So building in redundancy. So having we have extra cameras that are on set, we have extra audio that's on set, we have extra lighting. The sun set and building in risk assessments. So I like that. Yeah, we have to build all of that in, but I don't know to which your audience speaks if they're sort of newbies or if they are established enterprises. So whichever level you're at, you're always going to want to build in. What's the worst case scenario? Anticipate it's going to happen and already have a checklist of what to do if it does happen. I love that as a former I'm former operations guy. So for me, yes, everything has a checklist kind of ad nauseum. But yeah, that's it makes a lot of sense. You mentioned audio and you mentioned having backup audios because especially starting out, everyone has been there. They have gotten back to the editing bay and all of a sudden they're like, oh, that doesn't sound good. Do you feel like when it comes to like video to me, something that we talk about with people a lot is audio quality. We've said, at least this is the way I feel about it, and I'd like to get your feedback on it. People will watch a video that may not be the best quality video, but if you sound terrible, they're probably out of there. Do you feel the same way with it? What are your thoughts on that? I guess I would say I think that a moving picture is two parts. It's the visual and it's the audio. So they're equally important. And I think that your summation is completely correct, that if it's bad audio, there's something within our, maybe there's a scientific, article that can that can tell us why that is. But whether it's this the top end, if it's if it's peaking or if we can't hear it, we don't want to have to strain too much versus our eyes are maybe more advanced, and they can already parcel out all the images and our brains can put it together. But if it's sounds horrible, we just want to turn it off. So yes, for any movie makers, for anybody that's in the visual arts, the audio is super important. And if you don't have the skills for audio, you can learn them. It. Yeah, it's something that and it's funny, I found so many people that do video, especially small businesses that are trying to create content for themselves. So like how do I look? How does this present and you're like, it doesn't matter, you sound horrible. Spend the hundred dollars, spend the $200 on a microphone that will actually do okay. And then we'll be good. And it's funny, we talked about this beforehand, how you're miked up and the way it's set up. And I was I was kind of glowing about like, look, the the background that you have behind you is, is once again, I believe that's a little bit of a marketing thing. Being Purple Critter and I absolutely love it. But when you talk about the microphone, how it's set up, it's a top down mic, it's all very nice and you sound great, which so many other people don't always necessarily get that piece to it. You've mentioned something else that like throughout like some of the purple Critters stuff and like on your LinkedIn and that about how storytelling is a key. So is there with the are you are you trying to lay out a story too, with the cameras and stuff like that? Or, and I guess, is it a different storytelling approach between an orchestral piece and a marketing piece, or is the orchestral piece in many cases done for marketing with every client? We start with the question, what do you want the viewer to think, feel, and do when you're watching and so whether it's corporate capture or classical music or capture or any of our small business clients, we always start with that and then we work out what the requirements are. So the storytelling within the cameras or within the B-roll or within the additional graphics that we would put up or artwork like there was one of the symphony pieces that we did that was on PBS, where we hired, illustrator who did amazing illustrations that helped tell a story while there was an underlay of music. So we would cut to the orchestra, and then we would cut to her drawings that were moving drawings. So that client needed to cater to an audience. It was more children. They needed to educate. So they wanted their viewers to be educated. So when we when we asked that, what do you want the viewer to think, feel and do? It's really important because that informs what we're going to do with the camera, that informs how long the piece will be, that informs how we're going to set them up, what we want the on camera talent to do or say or be. You mean if we want a CEO that's delivering a message that they're going to be laying off people and then they need to communicate this to their internal comms, like through an internal communication, and that's going to be through video. Maybe we don't have to go so heavy. Maybe they need to relay a message that isn't the best news. So we would say, okay, well what do you want your employees to think, feel and do after that? So if they if they want their employees to think that they're safe, that they're being taken care of and that they want them to fill out a survey at the end of the video, I don't know how smiley I would have that CEO be. I don't know how, you know, extra I would have them be. I would also figure out what they're going to wear, what are the colors that they're going to wear, what's the makeup going to look like? What's their background going to look like? How are we going to film straight to camera? Are we going to film it where they're off speaking to someone where it's more of interview style? So all of those things inform how we're going to tell the story and how we're going to market it. That's it's it's interesting because in so many cases, people go to the the light and fluffy videos, and I actually do love the fact that you went to something that's a bit heavier. It's one of those things where we've all filmed things like that, where you've got to get a message out. That may not be the rah rah happy go lucky message, and it's trying to figure those things out in terms of like, how do we have to do this? Because yeah, we do. We want the lights dimmer. Do we want a more relaxed look? We probably don't want them with a fireplace in the background looking comfortable. Let's, let's put them in the most uncomfortable chair we have. Those are all the things that that get considered when, like, when working in a situation. And I'd love to go into that. Like, maybe I don't want to say darker, but maybe that more difficult situation where it's not the happy go lucky or it's not this triumphant story. What do you find the most difficult part of that? And trying to get, once again, that message out to people, what's the thing that that makes that the, those, those videos, I guess I would say more challenging and, I don't want to say more fun, but sometimes the challenge is fun. When you're working with people that aren't natural talent in front of a camera, I think the challenge of getting them to be authentic and truthful in front of camera is exciting, because then you really are getting through your toolbox of, okay, I can do this job. I know that technically if we're going to capture them, fine, but how is the personality going to come through? Because you want that message to be believed. You want it to connect with the viewer. And so if it's teleprompter, I mean, we work with a lot of C-suite where they're doing teleprompter communication. So we'll work with them on delivering the teleprompter message to make it seem like they're not being delivered on teleprompter, because it's so boring. If you're just reading something and the people behind the camera can, they know, oh, you're just reading this to me. Like, can we connect? Can we get them to deliver authentically what the message is? So the challenge of getting somebody who's not so good on camera to be good on camera is part of what excites us about our jobs, because we like working with super smart people that maybe aren't superstars in front of a camera and drawing that out of them so that they have a new skill. Moving forward and that they feel comfortable. I love that, and I love hearing that because that that truly, truly, truly is a skill. We all have. Anyone that has ever stood behind a camera has a horror story of someone in front of the camera where you're just standing there like, oh, this is bad. This is just bad. But you realize that we still have to get this done. We still have to make them look good. We still have to make them sound good, and we still have to make this presentable. I have multiple stories of working with someone for 2 to 3 hours to get that 45 second long video that we're still going to cut up. We still took this sentence, that sentence, that sentence in a piece from over up over here, maybe two words from up over here. And we're like, this is where it sounded good. This is what we're going. We all know that struggle. That being said, that struggle seems to change over the years and like getting good audio and doing those other things. And it's it's still very much a skill, but it seems that that skill set is changing. And the levers that we have to pull are different. Now, there are some tools out there that will help polish things up. Help? I mean, once again, garbage in, garbage out. But we can get away with a little bit more than we used to be able to. As far as and I guess I would like to ask this as a two part question, what do you see as the future for video in terms of marketing for people, and what do you see as the future from a production side for video? Okay, so let's start with the marketing and what, what I think future trends will look like just in video. Overall, I think that we are going to be that video will continue to be used as an advertising tool to get us to buy things. So how does that integrate? If I'm able to on my phone, watch something and be able to say, wow, I really like that top, and then just press on the top and be able to have a hyperlink that will go straight to buying something, then we're going to see that a lot more. The technology is already there. It just hasn't been rolled out for mass consumption yet, but the technology is there, so it will continue to be used to get money out of our pockets to buy things that we probably don't need. But the, that we want and, you know, and conversely, it will be used in good ways to get us to buy things. So video will continue to be super heavy. I think that it will also be used in every industry, and that those that haven't thought about using video in the next five years, they're going to see that everybody in their industry, whether it's a chiropractor, whether it is the local auto body shop that within your town, if you're the one using video, you're going to be the one leading within your industry. So small businesses, small town, anybody that's going to be wanting to uplevel their business are going to have to use video that will create a lot more video, like a video jobs or digital media jobs support jobs within the industry. So it's all up word for video. What's interesting with the production side is what I see is like when you look at your five D I mean, that was the camera that everyone got. You could take that out and you could shoot different things. But now when you look at in-body and in lens image stabilization, what used to be shot on a gimbal, now you can shoot handheld and get pretty good. Some of those tools are what are, I guess I would say, what's a tool or two that you see on the production side that's going to change the game here coming out regarding production, I think that there's going to be a lot more integration regarding the 360 and also the immersion into the virtual world where you are just in in it. So video that's going to be created for that 360 world is going to be, I think that this generation, like 13 year old kids, by the time they're 20, that's just going to be part of how they live. So for us, in our 30s, 40s, 50s, we're going to be catching up and saying, like, how do I do this? Are we in a simulation? So figuring out that type of capture, that 360 capture, how our clients can use it, anybody this in the industry staying on the cutting edge? I don't know if you're going to go to NAB this year, but I think that there's going to be a lot of, a lot of roll out of this new technology. I mean, is it new? No, but is becoming more commonplace. Yes. And so figuring out how as a production company, we can first of all, know how to use it, know how to capture, know how to tell our clients how they can market and so that they get a return on their investment. So those are the things that I think are going to be, coming up for video, that it's just going to be constant, that we will we're in a good industry. I don't think it's going anywhere. I don't either. It's it's funny you mentioned the 360 stuff because it's something that we've started to like, look at and like, okay, this is to be aware of and what's interesting is is it it truly changes how we have to do things. Because now, I mean, we would stand behind the camera. You can't do that anymore. There's no behind the camera. The cameras sees everything. So it's it's figuring those things out. It's figuring how do we light that? How do we I mean, because you can't put the lights just up, but like, in here, there's two lights there. There's one up behind me. There's one up above me. You can't hide those because it's going to see everything. So how do we integrate those? I love that, and I think that's where some of the skill is going to be very cool. That's coming into the industry. You've had I have also and you've had a diverse career path. What advice would you give to someone younger as they're coming out? Maybe they're saying, hey, I'm going to get into video or hey, I'm going to get into marketing or what's one word of advice, what's not one word? What's one sentence of advice that you would give someone as they are starting their career? For someone starting out in whatever endeavor, whether it's a creative endeavor or if it's just new outside of the box of whatever they're doing, I would say that the biggest thing is to say yes to anything that sort of crosses your desk, because you don't know what's going to resonate. When Covid happened, we ended up taking clients that we'd never had, ever were not on our forecast. Right. Saying so, I think that. But by saying yes, it allowed us to challenge ourselves. And we figured out, oh, we're really good at this portion. This may not be the right industry for us, but we learned skills that then we can bring to our clients or ideal clients. So someone just starting out, they don't know everything they have probably a good core set. And I would say that it would be important to figure out what your key set of skills is, and then delegate out what you're not good at so you don't have to learn everything. But I think you have to be aligned. And video is very collaborative. I mean, unless you want to just be a one man show, which can get really taxing, it's a lot. That I would bring in other people that are experts in something or that they're passionate so that you can build a team and you get to have fun. I mean, you're in a creative space. Video marketing, it's like a really fun, interesting career path and just say yes and start building a team. I love that that's that's I love that answer and a few parts and one, I guess I would say is you don't know what you don't know. So saying yes to some things, if you don't like it, you'll figure that out after you've said yes to it. But especially younger starting out that that is phenomenal advice. I wish someone had told me that we're not going to discuss the number of years. I wish someone had told me that a number, a large, very large number of years ago, we both I think one of the thing that I guess I would say is kind of kindred spirits, I work a lot. People like you work too much, and I'm like, I love this. I absolutely love this. I mean, there's certain things, okay? Paying the taxes. Not exactly in love with that. Doing the accounting. Not as much in love with that either. But so much of this I absolutely love. What is the most rewarding piece to you and what what is it that that what's that one big rewarding piece that you like? Yes, I get to do this. I get to give people money and pay them. That is really what's rewarding to me. I love the fact that I'm able to put together a team and at the end of the job say, here's your money, job well done, let's do it again and continue to build. There's something empowering. And as a fellow Goldman Sachs 10-K spear, I think that there's something really empowering about building a small business and making it impact in your community. And also the creatives that you know, and being able to say, hey, I've got this really cool project. I'd love for you to come on and and give people jobs. I love doing that, and I love being able to be collaborative in our approach. I cannot do it all. I am not such an egomaniac to think that I can do it all and nor do I want to do it all. So I love to bring in people from all ages. I mean, we have we some of our cameramen are very, very senior and we pay them well and we bring them in for their expertise. I mean, they're in their 60s, 70s. They've been doing this for a long time. And then we have assistants that are 18. So bringing in people from 18 until 70 to all work together in a collaborative fashion on a creative project. We also, we pride ourselves on making sure we pay like, not just pay our people, but, feed our people. So when they go on a job, they know that it's going to be a long 10 to 12 hours a day, they'll get fed. So I think that having fun, we get a choice, right? We get a choice within our careers. We get a choice within what we want to do in life. And I want to have fun. I want to be around really great people. I want to work with awesome people. I want to have a good time while doing it. I want to eat well. I want to travel and I want to be creative. So this kind of combines all of it. I love that it's it's funny when you said the pay people, that struck a personal chord with me, my social media manager, the she's part time and a lot of stuff with us. She's getting married here next year. She's like, Josh, I'm going to send you wedding invite. And I said, don't you dare. I said, I hate weddings, I'm not coming. She's like, you better. You're paying for the whole thing. And I'm like, oh, I, I guess I kind of am. And it's it's that same thing when you said, we get to pay people to do this, to me, the fact that we get paid to do that, not only the production side, not only deal with those challenges, but once again, to pay other people to do what they enjoy is really, really, really cool. To me, that is an awesome place to leave it. Toni, I really appreciate your time today and we will have to reconnect and revisit this again soon. You bet! Thanks for having me, Josh. Best of luck as you start 2025 and let's make it a great year. Sounds good. Thank you. There's one main thing that has stood out to me, and it stood out to me for the past couple of shows, and that is the passion that people have for what they're doing. And that's what shows in the content that they are creating. They they truly love what they're doing. And to start up a camera and talk about it isn't a really big ask. It's the same thing. I mean, Toni may be behind the camera, behind the scenes in so many cases, but it becomes so easy to do it because she absolutely loves what she's doing. To me, that's such, such, such a big piece of this content creation. If you love what you're doing, it becomes so much easier to tell the world about it, and you should make sure that you are telling the world about it. That being said, I want to hear what your passion is. What is it you're working towards? What? What is the thing that that's driving you? What is what's going to get you in front of the camera? That is what I would really like to hear from you. I'd also would love a review. Any suggestions you have about the podcast? Any guests you may want to see on the podcast? We'd love to see and hear those things from you. As always, do me a favor. Take care of yourself and if you can take care of someone else too, I will see you very soon.

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Josh Troche

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