Diane Strand is the President and Producer of JDS Video and Media Productions, an award-winning full-service multimedia solutions company providing services in forms including video, corporate web packages, graphic design, web design and implementation, and more. 

Diane has an expansive career in both theatre and television producing, working on sitcoms, reality television, and as a producer for The Walt Disney Company and Universal Studios among many other roles. Diane is also the Founder of JDS Creative Academy and JDS Actors Studio and produces a news magazine TV show titled Spirit of Innovation.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Diane Strand explains how she got into the video industry from her expansive career as an actor, writer, and producer
• Why video is such a powerful marketing tool 
• How wineries can incorporate video into their marketing and storytelling
• What mistakes are brands and wineries making when creating videos?
• Diane gives advice for video production (like having quality lighting and audio)
• What attributes should you look for when choosing to work with a production company?
• Factoring price into creating video 
• Diane talks about her nonprofit and working with developmentally disabled adults to teach them about video production 
• Diane shares some of her favorite wines and wineries to visit in Temecula

In this episode with Diane Strand

Are you a winery looking to branch out your marketing strategies? How can you utilize a more dynamic and unique tool to make your brand visible to a wider audience? Video might be your answer, and Diane Strand is the person to talk to.

Diane has over 23 years of experience in video production, working on both the stage and screen for projects like General Hospital and Friends. She founded JDS Video and Media Productions in 2003 and has been helping brands create meaningful videos to enhance their marketing efforts ever since. She’s here to tell you all about the benefits of video — and how your winery can use it too.

On this episode of the Legends Behind the Craft podcast, Drew Thomas Hendricks has a conversation with President and Producer of JDS Video and Media Productions, Diane Strand, all about video as a marketing tool. They discuss how wineries can incorporate video, how to find the right production company, advice on video production, and much more. Stay tuned!

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Barrels Ahead
• Drew Thomas Hendricks on LinkedIn  
• Diane Strand on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram
• JDS Video and Media Productions
• JDS Actors Studio
• JDS Creative Academy
• Riverside Valley Workforce Development
• Spirit of Innovation
• Bel Vino Winery
• Long Shadows Vintners
• BOTTAIA Winery
• Mike Provance on Legends Behind the Craft
• Alexi Cashen on Legends Behind the Craft

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Barrels Ahead.

Barrels Ahead is a wine and craft marketing agency that propels organic growth by using a powerful combination of content development, Search Engine Optimization, and paid search.

At Barrels Ahead, we know that your business is unique. That’s why we work with you to create a one-of-a-kind marketing strategy that highlights your authenticity, tells your story, and makes your business stand out from your competitors.

Our team at Barrels Ahead helps you leverage your knowledge so you can enjoy the results and revenue your business deserves.

So, what are you waiting for? Unlock your results today!

To learn more, visit barrelsahead.com or email us at hello@barrelsahead.com to schedule a strategy call.

Episode Transcript

Intro  0:03  

Welcome to the Legends Behind the Craft podcast where we feature top leaders in the wine and craft beverage industry, with your host Drew Thomas Hendricks. Now let’s get started with the show.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  0:19  

Drew Thomas Hendricks here I’m the host of the Legends Behind the Craft podcast, where I talk with leaders in the wine and craft beverage industry. From data driven marketing experts like Mike Provance, who empowers independent Wine and Spirits stores to compete with the big chains. To today’s guest Diane Strand, whose video production insights help wineries tell their story through video. Today’s episode is sponsored by Barrels Ahead. At Barrels Ahead we work with you to implement a one of a kind marketing strategy. When that highlights your authenticity, tells your story and connects you with your ideal customers. Diane, in short, if you’re a business looking to retain a winery or craft beverage producers a client barrels ahead we’ll figure out a plan to make it happen. Go to barrelsahead.com today to learn more. Now before I introduce today’s guest, I want to give a big thank you to Alexi Cashen. On last week’s show Alexi and I discussed how she scaled our company, Elenteny Imports from its initial bootstrap phase to the global Wine and Spirits logistics company it is today. If you’re looking to scale your business, you got to check out last week’s episode, I am super excited to talk with today’s guest Diane Strand, about how wineries and craft beverage producers can better use video to tell their story. Diane is the Majority Owner and Executive Producer of the award winning JDS Video and Media Productions based out of Temecula, California, Diane’s industry experience is vast and to list all of our accomplishments will probably take up a whole show on itself. The highlights include producing shows for General Hospital, Friends, and Veronica’s Closet to launching the Disney Channel’s Playhouse Disney and built a high def streaming control room at Staples Center for HBO pay per view. Welcome to the show, Diane. 

Diane Strand  1:53  

Oh, thank you very much, Drew. It’s an honor to be here. 

Drew Thomas Hendricks  1:55  

Well, thank you so much for coming on. So Diane, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Diane Strand  1:59  

Well, I’m the Executive Producer here at JDS Studios and we’re an award winning video production company we do a lot of video production for marketing and communications helping businesses communicate whether they’re communicating with their clients or potential clients, or they’re trying to even communicate internally whether that be with training videos, or that the with HR videos and onboarding handshake videos to be able to greet people to bring them in. That’s a little bit about what we do in our corporate video marketing. I also do a lot with Spirit of Innovation. I’m the executive producer of a news magazine show for Riverside County and I live here in Temecula, which is the hub of wine country here we’re taking over storm of California as Temecula marches on with the golden barrel award. So you know, we work a lot with the wineries and helping them get their messaging out and and working with them as well as showing their process. You know, we’ve done a lot of work with South Coast Winery, going in showing how they harvest the grapes and liking them and then how they put them through their their vuitton vintage Mini. I’m not a wine expert to be able to give you all the lingo but they put it through their their winery process to then make the wine I should have watched the video maybe before I got on this podcast. It was a great video just showing their process. So those are wonderful things that we can do for you know, in with video to be able to share messaging.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  3:28  

Yeah, no, that’s great. A little bit like backing up a little bit. What drew you to the video industry? And how did you get your start?

Diane Strand  3:35  

Well, I think I started in this industry like most do, I wanted to be an actor. You know, I grew up in Orange County area and then launched into LA and after a couple years and Community College and pursuing an acting career and started writing and found myself loving behind the camera so much more as I started writing some shows I sold a screenplay. And then as I wanted to finish out and round out my education. I graduated from Cal State Northridge and then from there, I went into working on some of the shows that you talked about, like General Hospital and Friends and did a lot of concerts at Staples Center and things like that. And then I got a little into the biotech world in the corporate marketing, and I really loved it. It was a it was a part of video production that I never really knew existed at that time. Everything was entertainment and everything that I knew, but this was a way to give messaging in a different way. At that time. It was with Amgen Pharmaceuticals and in the biotech industry, but which biotech and you get into the chemistry of winemaking. They definitely you know, come together in there, but it be a new love and passion because number one in the entertainment industry you get in a box if this is your job, you only do your job there in the corporate world. I got to do everything from the writing to the production to the post production And then I felt like I had a purpose because it was helping save a life or give somebody who was stricken with cancer, an answer or a solution. And then as I started to tie that into the other business industries and be able to give their message out, I started refocusing my dream. And I always write now I call myself the dream maker, because I make other people’s dreams come true. And I provide hope, and I define that today is help one person every day, and through video, I do that now. It’s not always, you know, save a life or something like that. But when I can share another business, like a wineries business, or the wine makers business and tell their story, or the heritage of, you know, why are all these little wine countries popping up and a little documentary about them or something like that, I feel like I’m able to help them and help their business. And so you know, it makes a difference. And that’s what I’m all about, you know, I have a lot of different ways that I try and make a difference, but I think video makes the difference. 

Drew Thomas Hendricks  6:06  

That’s great, that’s really good insights, this video making a difference for a winery, what advice would you give a winery looking to, like incorporate video into their, into their marketing and into their storytelling?

Diane Strand  6:18  

Well, video can go much further than just your typical, let’s put a commercial on TV, you know, that’s a great way to share your brand out there, of course, get your commercial on TV, and you need video production to make that happen, of course, but I think the power behind videos, especially you know, for the wine industry, is you show how you make your wine if you want them to come, you know, wine tour, especially now in the COVID world, you know, this is a way for them to really get in touch with your experience at your winery. I mean, we all you know, still let our fingers do the walking, maybe not through the Yellow Pages, but definitely through the Google pages. And, you know, if you can throw a video up on your website, you’re going to increase your search engine market and your search engine optimization, you’re going to increase people looking further and deeper into your website, you’re going to give them an experience before they’ve ever even come to you. And if that’s the experience you’re creating, they’re going to come to to now live that experience. And, you know, we have some beautiful wineries that, you know, Temecula is just pop pop popping all over the place with wineries. And, you know, we have Pandey winery, which then launched both Taya and you know, the video of just being able to see their scenery and their view from sitting on their back patio would make anybody want to go to their winery, you know, so, you know, they say a picture’s worth 1000 words. Well, you know, a video can get to a million words.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  7:53  

Ha, I like that. And it’s so evokes so much emotion. Yeah, absolutely. You’re gonna evoking emotion. So we’ve always we always see done correctly, and we immediately know that’s a great video. But what sort of mistakes Do you see people making with videos right now, especially in the wineries?

Diane Strand  8:11  

Well, you know, I everyone thinks that they can be you know, their own little Spielberg, I guess, you know, I can hold this up. This is a great tool. But it’s not your best tool. If you’re trying to put out a professional front, you know, your phone is great to capture images, capture short little clips of doing something when you don’t have a professional entourage or cameras are high end equipment. But don’t make that be your whole video, you know, create and capture that on your phone so that when you work with your video production company, and they come out and they tell your story in today’s world, you can pull in some Oh, I have some of this footage, and I have some other things and then give that to your company. And they will make that look even better. So you know, my biggest tip is don’t try and do it all by yourself. And another really good tip is to write a script, don’t just think that you know, I’m going to go out and turn on my camera even if you have a $10,000 camera and you put it on there and you’re like I want to make a video about harvesting. Know what you want to say about harvesting so that way you know what pictures to go out and capture with your video camera because you could go out and shoot all day long. And then sit down and go now what do I want to say and then realize, Oh, well I should have close ups or maybe I needed more of an establishing shot here or I needed an overhead or now I’m talking about you know the process of cleaning and I got so you know into clipping back or something but you know, I don’t know enough about it. But as we kind of get into you just want to make sure if you have a script, you have a guideline you can follow along and know What do you want to shoot, make a shot sheet? Mom, that is a very important thing, you know to do a lot of things can be post scripted, too, but if you know and have some organization going along with it, you know, that’s half the battle, you know, because you sit down in front of that, you know, you sit down in front of your computer, and he trying to assemble it all, you got to know what story you’re telling, otherwise, it gets a little civil ish. And as somebody who can be civil with three different businesses, from video to acting to producing television to running a nonprofit and workforce development, I understand civil, but you know, when you’re shooting a video, follow the bullet points.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  10:41  

That’s great advice. The you’ve created your script, you’ve got your shot list, you’ve got your shot day, what advice do you give for the actual production?

Diane Strand  10:49  

Lighting, lighting is even when you’re outside, make sure that you have you know, backlit, you know, things aren’t dark, they can look good through your viewfinder and still not be lit right when you sit down and put them on the computer. So lighting is lighting is key, key lighting, three point lighting, learn about three point lighting, so you can have your fills and your key lighting, that is a really big tip. The other thing is audio, audio is super important. If you are trying to get someone to talk on camera, that you have good mics, and you have good transmission between the mic and your camera. Those are the hardest things to fix in post production, you know, is the lighting, you know, as they say bad in is sometimes bad out. So you know, so you know, and I’m sure you know, all the winemakers know that if it’s not a good grape, it’s not going to make a good line, right? You get that up front, it’s the same thing. If you don’t have good footage, you’re not going to have a good video. And those are the hardest things to clean up in post production is your lighting and your audio.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  12:01  

That is that is great advice. And one of the things I want to go back to as you said, you know, there’s a place there’s a place for the impromptu iPhone shots on social and there’s a place for it even in these well produced videos. But one of the more important things is working with a video production company. And while we want everyone to use JDS Productions, what advice would you give a winery looking to choose a video production company? Or there’s some important questions to ask or some important things to look out for? Because they’re not all created equal?

Diane Strand  12:29  

No, they’re not, you know, when, you know, you get what you pay for it in that sense, you know, and it depends on what you’re really trying to put out. You know, if you’re, you know, if you’re a high end winery, you need to go with a high end production company. If you’re starting out, no one’s going to say, okay, don’t get the college guy who has, you know, a good camera and, you know, has put some things together in that sense, you know, everybody deserves their chance in their opportunity in this industry. And I’m a firm believer in that. But, you know, the the big thing is, is that, you know, you want to be able to collaborate with somebody, if you as the winery can share your vision and that video producer or video company that you’re talking to, can get behind that and you feel the energy and that collaboration, that creativity coming up that your company because those are the that’s where your vision is going to transcend in the video work. If you’re chasing the price, and it’s all about how much is it going to cost me at the end, you’re not going to have your vision translated the way you really envisioned it in the beginning. And that’s an important thing when you sit down with the company, the production company, you know, if you want to be able to share what your what what it is your goal is that you want to get from this video because you can have two videos that almost look identical, but the messaging can be different. Is it a call to action video? Or is it an informative video, so that’s gonna be in the messaging and a little bit of your pacing of your video in in in the end, if it’s a if it’s a call to action video, it should have a little bit more pop to it because you’re getting them excited and you’re revving them up and at the end it’s do something right, if it’s an informative video, you slow it down a little bit you have longer takes more dissolves more more things to go into that video because you’re bringing them on a journey, and you want them to learn something and you want them to feel emotion about something. So you know, I would say that a lot of times when you go with an inexperienced video producer, they don’t understand that aspect of it. They might be able to take great pictures and put a video together that was their concept. Their creation that came from them, they don’t understand how to take somebody who’s not a video person’s concept and creation and message and interpret that the way that it needs to be.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  15:13  

That’s very insightful. I liked the part we talked about, I like chemistry being a very important decision factor, even on price, because you usually think of price, which is this pick the lowest bid, and you usually get what you pay for. But on the flip side, I can see you can also, if you just pick the top person, the top most expensive one thinking that they’ve done so many awesome videos, and there’s no chemistry, you’re not going to get the results you want out of it.

Diane Strand  15:36  

Exactly. You know, I always say, you know, that’s what we do. You know, I’m not the most expensive out there. And I’m not the least expensive out there. I drive my business, it’s about customer service. It’s about creating that collaboration, you know, I found really early on, you know, what my ideal client would really look like? And that’s somebody more from concept through delivery, as opposed to can you just shoot some video for us and then not really understanding what they need that video for? Or I had somebody shoot this video and I can’t seem to put a video a complete video, you know, we shot some footage, but I can’t put a video together, can you help me and it’s like, you know, those are where we as a company can get in trouble too, you know, not to say can’t work out, we’ve made some you know, we’ve made some masterpieces out of other people’s messes, of course, but you know, but at the same time when you find someone that you can work with through concept through delivery, and you can bring your passion into it as the company who wants the video, it’s always going to excel, whether we’re talking about wine, or we’re talking about a wine experience, or we’re talking about a place to come and experience or trying to package it with other things. I mean that that when you sit down and you have someone who you can collaborate with the passion just flies and the end result is usually a good result where you know, money flies too.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  17:01  

Excellent advice. You got what I’d like to shift a little bit here because you um, you run a pretty impressive nonprofit and your work doing, it’s involved with workforce partners, you want to talk to us about that. And you are deeply involved in Temecula community.

Diane Strand  17:14  

I am Thank you, you know, I do sit on the Riverside County Workforce Development Board. So I’m all about creating opportunities. I do work with adults with developmental disability and autism. And we have a training program. So we are training adults video production, camera operation, lighting, writing, editing, they do voiceover we also we have a TV show called spirit of innovation. We’ve had a lot of the wineries on there doing special stories, whether that be facilities winery or South Coast winery. So we’ve worked with a lot of the wineries on our television show that our adults work on and get training, you know, so if there’s any of the wineries that are out there that are listening, if you want your own in house marketing and video, I have some individuals who would be great to put on your team or your staff and work I as being a workforce development person. You know, I know what goes on in our cities around here, here in Temecula, the Temecula city, they have vintage, vintage, say that word for me, I can’t I’m having problem, same vintage the process of it’s vintage. It’s a vintage, vintage culture. So I’m gonna I’m hacking that all up on that. But they have a program to where they take adults with developmental disability, they bring them out to the wineries and they teach them how to harvest. They teach them how to process the grapes after they’ve been harvest and go through the cleaning and the dispensing and that whole process in the in the in that workspace so then they can go out and have jobs too. And the best thing about taking somebody who has a barrier to work to have passion and grit and determination because somebody is giving them an opportunity that nobody would ever give them before and the benefit to the business is you can hire these individuals and it does not cost you the payroll money. They usually come with $10,000 worth of compensation. So the business doesn’t have to incur the payroll, they have workman’s comp all those things are packaged in with it. And you get to have these individuals in your operation for 90 days, six months, you haven’t paid them a penny. They have a coach that comes with them. They are learning and training and then you can step them into a direct hire position. And you have no learning curve. All you have is a great individuals who has passion and grit and nothing but thankfulness because you gave them an opportunity so we are supplying those individuals well trained in the video. Production world. I know our city of Temecula is putting out groups of people to work in the out in wine country, there are a lot of different programs. I know here in California, across the state, there are inland regional centers and Department of rehabilitation centers. And if you connect with them and your workforce development, they will find you ways to get on the job training dollars. Now, this could be for somebody who has developmental disabilities and autism, or this could just be for somebody who needs to be retrained into the business, you want to hire a marketing person for your winery, you know, someone for your gift shop, somebody for your customer service, or your restaurant, or any of the things that go along with the winery, you can find someone from another trade, retrain them not have to pay, you know, you can get 50% of their first $490 I mean, 490 hours reimbursed to you, they come some come if they have any challenges on an intellectual level, they’ll come with a coach, so you don’t have to try and figure out how do we work, this communication becomes organic, and learning from them. There are so many opportunities for businesses and for individuals who, especially since COVID, they need to redirect and learn something new, you know, maybe they want to be a wine master, and they want to learn how to do that. But you know, all they ever did was maybe they worked at, you know, even a company like Abbott or something, and they were in manufacturing, and they had to downsize, but they need to be retrained. It’s somewhat similar, but yet different. And you know, for the first, you know, 90 days, a company gets 50% of that person’s payroll reimbursed to them. And you now train them to be in your wine industry. They have a new wonderful job. And, you know, it was no sweat off the employers back.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  21:55  

That’s amazing work. And so we’re, if you’re a winery in Temecula where can someone find this resource?

Diane Strand  22:01  

Well, they definitely will want to workforce development. There are several offices throughout Riverside County, there is one out at the French Valley airport here that is workforce development that you want to talk to as well as if you just look up workforce development on Google. It’ll give you all the offices there’s, as I said, French Valley airport, Hemet rubato. They have all these different offices that individuals can go and register with and find out about opportunities for jobs, as well as the different training programs, it’d be great, you know, the winery should get involved in workforce development. And we have a couple here in southwest Riverside County that are involved. I chair the Southwest Riverside County workforce development, so we do have some wineries that pop in, but it would be you know, if they get involved in workforce development, you know, there are little tributaries everywhere have different funnels, whether that be for funding or employment or how to bring in, you know, hire veterans, you know, it’s all of those things that you don’t think about hiring veterans at risk foster youth that are aging out of the system, adults with developmental disabilities, anybody who may have to, you know, retrain for a job, you know, they came out of that 85 world, they were all independent contractors doing different things. But now because of California and the labor laws, they have to have a job and they are trying to retrain from what they did before into a new industry. And you know, everybody’s starting up fresh. This is a great way to find resources and benefits and even grant dollars and lots of things to put you know, to help businesses with their bottom line when trying to bring in employees whether they have barriers or retraining. 

Drew Thomas Hendricks  23:48  

Great advice, great advice. As we’re kind of wrapping down the episode I always like to ask what type of wines are you drinking lately?

Diane Strand  23:55  

Well, you know, I love probably a blush wine, that’s kind of my favorite. You know, I leave the the wine connoisseur into my husband, he is the one who goes out and picks them and I really like the the Sauvignons and you know, I don’t get real heavy into the reds. It has to be kind of a fruity flavor for me.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  24:16  

There’s some great ones in Temecula I mean, they love the roses coming out of there.

Diane Strand  24:20  

Yes, yes, they have a really good one. I think I already plugged them once you know I go out to Bottaia a lot. I like I love their patio. I love just sitting by the pool whether I’m just having a glass of wine fully dressed or in a swimsuit. So though I have a lot of fun out there as well as going out to Bel Vino I you know, I love going for their music on Friday night. You know when they have the entertainment one of my favorite Robert Rankin Walker. He plays out at Bel Vino all the time and does a lot of the wineries. Long Shadows is a lot of fun too. So I like visiting the wineries more than I’m like which wine do I like better.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  24:59  

There’s such an experience in Temecula right now. I it’s been a it’s been a year or so since I’ve been up there but I was so impressed. I was so impressed at the way those wineries the experiences that they provide. And I’m gonna check that out Bel Vino, I haven’t been there. And the other one you mentioned was Long Shadows, Long Shadows, that’s another one that I need to check out.

Diane Strand  25:18  

I tend to go to the ones that have a lot of live music. I really like the music industry combined with the winery, you know, if I’m out there for a reason, then you know, kind of thing so the ones that have really great atmospheres are the ones that really draw me and they’re doing fantastic out here in Temecula, me, we’re knocking down Napa one wine at a time.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  25:40  

And it’s so good to see live music returning I missed it so much during COVID so that yeah, that is fantastic. So that’s all ramped back up and tobacco so you guys, get your reservations in and head on out to Temecula.

Diane Strand  25:52  

Yeah, slowly um, they do have still restrictions going on and different things like that, but they are starting to do some Sunday branches and some different things like that at the wineries you know, thankfully, we seem to be maybe on the backside of COVID-19.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  26:08  

Fingers crossed, knock on wood here. Um, you know what, Today we’ve been talking with Diane Strand of JDS Video and Media Productions. Diane, where can people learn more about you?

Diane Strand  26:16  

Um, well, I am all over social media. So that’s a great place to find me. You can usually find me under Diane Strand, whether that’s LinkedIn or Facebook, or Instagram, and then JDS Video and Media Productions, JDS Actor Studio and JDS Creative Academy, that’s the nonprofit where we work on training and education and apprenticeship programs, as well as then we have Spirit of Innovation. So if you’re interested in Temecula wine country, we talk about them often on Spirit of Innovation, which is our news magazine TV show that we produce out here, you can also find some of our participants that we’re training, they have the SOI update, and you can find them seven days a week on 102.5 the Vine, they do a news update seven days a week, three times a day there. And, you know, you can always come find me if you’re here in the area, and you want to learn about workforce development or any of that for your wine business. Get involved in workforce. look me up. I’m happy to answer any questions. I love that this is somewhat local. Even if we are talking up to Napa, or, you know, in the Central Coast there, there are workforce development agencies across the state that can definitely help you bounce back out of, you know, the COVID times and find your new staff and help you in that slow big huge uphill that you have to kind of climb out of so why not get half of their payroll reimbursed as you start training people for new new positions and putting some of that money back in your pocket as you’re trying to help rebuild your business and come back out of this. It would be a great resource and I’m happy to help. So find me from #JDSfamily to Diane Strand and just reach out and say hi.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  28:07  

Awesome. All right. Thank you so much, Diane for joining us today.

Diane Strand  28:10  

My pleasure. Thanks for having me. 

Outro  28:17  

Thanks for listening to the Legends Behind the Craft podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.