Help me name my business!
 

Hi, I am planning to start a business doing video work soon. I have a JVC HD-100 to shoot with, and I plan to shoot whatever I can to get experience.

Hopefully I can shoot some weddings, business videos, etc for a bit, then grow into some really fun stuff.

I have an idea for a name, but I need a little help refining it.

I want to name the company "Second Mouse ...." something. Originally I was thinking "Second Mouse Productions" But maybe that's a little too big for me, I'm only one guy with a camera, and a love for video.

Would "Second Mouse Video" be more appropriate?

Any other ideas?

Also, Domain names need consideration. Someone already has Secondmouse.com, and 2ndmouse.com. Secondmousevideo.com is open, as well as 2ndmousevideo.com.

I'm trusting you to not run off & register the best name just to make me pay you for it!

-The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

err how bout JD Productions? or JD Studios

I think its cool.. sounds a lil more professional imo

You could try
"S&M Productions"...

Sorry, sorry..not funny...
Gareth

If you like the name second mouse productions you should go for it,of course it's not to big for you...alot of videographers are just one guy with a camera myself included, you can still get the two man shoot look with just one guy all you need is a second camera thats locked off. You have to take yourself seriously otherwise how can you expect other people too.

I would stay away from names with the word 'video' in them because it may leed people to think that they will be getting a VHS video which could deter people. I actually like Peters idea of 'JD studios'.

Andy.

Gareth Gareth.


I like Peter's Idea of JD Production. All though that does sound like that character off of the Dukes of Hazzard.

One of my favorite subjects; music video and commercial production companies in Los Angeles have a lot of fun with this. Keep in mind there's a LOT of such companies in LA, and they all want to stand out. Also, they are usually hell bent on projecting a very creative image...so eventually you get some real weird ones. Here's some of my favorites:

1-"DOOM". That's it, just the word DOOM. Their ads in the trades in the late 80's/early 90s were just a full page of black with their name in a different shade of black at the bottom.

2-"Anonymous Content". Huge very successful company. Fincher's there.

3-"Bob Industries". Another very successful company, home of Dayton and Faris.

4-"Smuggler"

5-"Villains"

Somebody will point out that these are lousy names, because they don't convey what the company does. The rebuttal is that it doesn't matter, because everybody in the business would already know what directors and exec producers the company has.

I say go with Second Mouse whatever. It's fun, whimsical, and people higher up in the business (ad agencies, etc) will understand. I second the motion about tagging "video" on the end, though...it's a little constraining.

p.s. Your logo will be a cartoon mouse confronting his own clone eye-to-eye!

I would personally go with Coleslaw Video Productions.

Um, no on the S&M idea. I've already been down that road once. I wanted to sell good looking computers, so I named my little venture "Eye Candy Systems" To me, Eye candy doesn't necessarily imply skin, but to others it did...

Thanks for all the good ideas, I think I like Second Mouse better than JD. The idea is that it's different. It makes people ask "what does that mean?" Nate pointed out that once I get a reputation, it really won't matter what my business is called. And that's my goal, to get to where Everyone who matters knows the name.

I'll tag productions back on, I'm so used to the idea of high quality DV, I forgot the rest of the world still has VHS on their brain.

Any thoughts on domain names? (for the web site) I can't decied wether to abbreviate second to 2nd, or make you type the whole word to see my stuff. What do you all think? I could always get them both.

http://www.secondmouseproductions.com or http://www.2ndmouseproductions.com?


And thanks for the vote of confidence Andy, I do hope to get a second camera some day, and then who knows, maybe a second person to operate it. Maybe a boom operator.... Who knows where this could lead?

I just wanna add something someone said to me when I was coming up with a name, and I was thinking of changing it, because I felt it sounded corny

"Corny is catchy...everyone will remember a name that stands out!"

I'd stick with Second Mouse, and I'll third the Productions suffix. The trick is finding a way to get people to know your company's name. A teacher I had for a business class told us a story of a bar he had called Dingo. He asked the 4 year old son of one of his employees to draw a rough picture of the face of a dingo. (basically a V with two round circles for eyes, and two dashes for a nose) and they posted signs all over the town of copies of the drawings with the caption "Have you seen this dog?" and had this going for about a month before they opened, and two weeks before they opened put, "The Dingo, Friday June 24th" (made up the date, couldnt remember when it opened) and posted them everywhere. The week before opening "The Dingo" and then had the adress listed below on the signs. Opening night, he had a ridiculously long line down the block and had extremely strong traffic for months just because he had a catchy name and a clever way of marketing his business.

The whole point of that story is, IMHO dont ever make a business a boring name like Mikes Video Service, mostly because its not going to stick in your clients minds, and you'll have a much more difficult time trying to use clever marketing tactics. You can always add on additional cameras and employees down the road. My business is called Me Myself and Eye Productions, my logo is an stylized eye with four thick triangular lashes and a swoosh below it to make it look like an e, and then i have two m's to the left of the eye. People always tell me they love the logo and ask me how I turned a common expression into a unique, marketable concept. (sorry for the long post by the way) GOOD LUCK!!! keep us posted on your progress!

How about, "Deming Video Productions?" Or "J. Deming Video Productions?" ;-)

How about www.2ndmousepro.com ?

it's available, and that's the same way I did mine to keep the name shorter, abbreviated "pro" for productions. Seems to work well

wetpaint. And .bz is available. And painters will post advertisement for you all over town.

LOL!! I don't even offer VHS for God's sake!

I suppose anyone too lazy to check out my website might get that impression!

Maybe I should change my name to "DVD On-Sight"

Deming Films, Deming Productions

How 'bout....
 

How 'bout this one:

Justin's Video / If it moves, we tape it.

Deming More Productions :)