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Scott K.

Faculty

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

11/2/2021

"Great remote Online Production tool!"

5/5

What do you like best about OpenReel?

The customer service is very professional and helpful. They made sure to have a tech person attend our first production and were always available when we needed help. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenReel?

The openreel platform currently only works with iPhones. It would be nice if there were a way to include all cell phone companies as some clients don't have apple products. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Logan Ferro of OpenReel

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Hi Scott, Thank you for your feedback! We are excited to share we now support Android devices! Please check out the link to learn more. We are happy to hear you were able to cut costs and scale your video strategy overall. We pride ourselves in making remote video capture accessible and easy to use and so often those ideas come from users just like you. Thanks, again!

See how OpenReel improved

MP

Mark P.

Director, Qlik Replay

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5/25/2021

"A qualified thumbs-up"

4/5

What do you like best about OpenReel?

Remote through-the-lens iPhone controls. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenReel?

Lack of support for iPhone optical zoom. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering OpenReel:

Understand that OpenReel addresses the middle 10-15% of the remote video capture process and that what you do in preparation and post will still determine your ultimate success or failure, just as it does with any project.

OpenReel is a high octane tool with a steep learning curve, and its administrative interface is not something that I would unloose on the average business user. Despite (or because of) the complexity, it very elegantly exploits what the iPhone camera has to offer, with image quality and controls that far exceed Apple's own native app. Support and onboarding have been fantastic and the ease of file transfer from the iPhone is a godsend.

One thing that OpenReel does not have is support for optical zoom. Despite all the other brilliant capabilities, this gap has proven to be a near deal-breaker for us as we are forced to shoot wide and crop digitally in post.

I would also like to see support for other external microphone solutions, specifically USB microphones that couple with Apple's USB-to-Lightning adapter.

I have not used the webcam features nor have I migrated to version 2.0, so cannot speak to those.

All in all, I rate OpenReel highly. Just be sure you are ready to sweat the details. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OpenReel solving and how is that benefiting you?

Ease of file transfer from iPhone. Image quality superior to iOS native app. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Teresa Hill of OpenReel

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Hi Mark! Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback! The patented, granular settings do allow for a lot of details to be controlled by the Director. It's great to hear from customers, like you, who are continuing to push the boundaries of remote video creation, so we can use those learnings to prioritize our product roadmap. While Optical Zoom is on our roadmap, we think you'll be thrilled with the new mic detection and optimization updates in 2.0, as well as our 1080p webcam and screen recording capabilities for Subjects filming on their computer. Cheers!

GS

Giovanni S.

Senior Multimedia Producer

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/25/2021

"OpenReel has been instrumental to capturing interview subjects for productions at Ithaca College."

5/5

What do you like best about OpenReel?

The customer service, training opportunities, and support materials have been a highlight for me. Every team member I've worked with has been extremely helpful during my time with OpenReel.

The OpenReel software itself was easy to learn and use. Within a week, our team was able to start using it in our productions. This meant we were able to stay within a tight deadline for our marketing initiatives.

Being able to capture the highest quality file from a phone or device has been huge. It's meant that our productions in a remote setting could have the polish that we were struggling with prior to using OpenReel. This also gave us more flexibility in editing, as we were able to capture many moments in 4K if we were using a new iPhone with a subject. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenReel?

I'm eager for us to be brought into OpenReel 2.0. Many of the updates in the new version are solutions to the parts that I dislike about the current version. Right now, I'd say the way you can't bulk download or organize by projects in the current version is my biggest complaint. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering OpenReel:

I'd recommend scheduling a demo with the OpenReel team if you can. If you can get a chance to see the back-end of what you'll be doing when using the software, it will start to click as to how you can start bringing this into your work. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OpenReel solving and how is that benefiting you?

At first, it was capturing interviews from home during the start of COVID-19. During the start of the pandemic, our Multimedia Team at Ithaca College needed to record messages for our virtual commencement ceremony and produce virtual tours of our residence halls. The ease of use to bring subjects into the OpenReel platform, give direction, and record the highest quality of source footage was extremely valuable.

But, I've now realized that our team could continue using OpenReel as another capturing tool for gathering a wide range of subjects as we move forward in productions at Ithaca College. I can see our team benefiting from this software beyond the struggles we had during COVID-19. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Lindsey Hotaling of OpenReel

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Thank you for the meaningful review, Giovanni! We're thrilled that our technology and attentive support staff have helped higher education institutions, like Ithaca College, film more nimbly and efficiently. It's also great to hear that you've been able to experience how the impact and benefits of remote video creation will continue to serve your needs even as the world normalizes. We can't wait for you to get your hands on Remote Capture 2.0 and utilize the bulk download and organizational features that are sure to help you glean even more value from the technology and streamline your workflow.

NR

Nick R.

Director of Marketing

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5/24/2021

"Quality and Convenience"

5/5

What do you like best about OpenReel?

I have extensive film production experience, so I found OpenReel highly intuitive to use. Moreover, it provides all that's needed to produce quality corporate remote videos. Now, what it genuinely phenomenal about OpenReel is how easy the tool is for a participant who has absolutely no experience as a subject of a filming session. They receive an email from OpenReel with an embedded link, they follow the easy prompts and that's it! From the participant's perspective, using their webcam or smartphone is so straightforward. And the feedback I have received hasonly been positive. And the suport team is fantastic. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenReel?

I have not experienced any downside whatsoever with OpenReel. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering OpenReel:

It's a no-brainer. Quality, ease of use, cost-effective, contantly updated with new capabilities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OpenReel solving and how is that benefiting you?

COVID-19 has prevented us from filming clients and board members' testimonials on location. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is soon to be behind us, we have realized that we would continue to film content remotely. And OpenReel is a high production quality cost-effective solution Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Lindsey Hotaling of OpenReel

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Hi Nick! We really appreciate you taking the time to provide your valuable feedback. It's validating reviews like these, that energize the team to continue pushing the boundaries of what is technically possible with remote video creation, while providing a seamless experience not only for our customers but also their valued Subjects. We're thrilled that OpenReel has opened up new filming possibilities for your team and we look forward to continuing to innovate our solutions to even better serve your needs. Thanks again for sharing!

RB

Robert B.

Lead Brand Photography and Video

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5/25/2021

"the best quality for remote recording hands down"

5/5

What do you like best about OpenReel?

The 1080P or even 4K video quality of a subject's camera or iPad has been a life-saving, game changer to record executives KO else and even our patient stories. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenReel?

The gain on the audio when recording with a external microphone, trying to have an actual conversation with the subject and not being able to use the first three to five seconds of audio makes it not practical. Second item that needs help is the teleprompter feature, having exact speed setting would be great rather than just sliding back and forth without actual control of timing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Lindsey Hotaling of OpenReel

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Hi Robert! Thanks for taking the time to share such valuable feedback. We're thrilled to hear that our remote video solutions helped you easily capture executives and patients without sacrificing high production value — our mission since day one. We're pleased to share that your expressed microphone concerns will be alleviated in our Remote Capture 2.0 platform update, and we've also completely overhauled the teleprompter feature to enable additional positioning, speed, and rich text settings that will allow you to better personalize it for your Subjects in real time.

UM

Verified User in Market Research

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4/28/2022

"A Must Have for Remote Production"

5/5

What do you like best about OpenReel?

High quality video without bandwidth issues Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenReel?

No links for Watchers like there is for the Speakers Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Logan Ferro of OpenReel

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Thank you for your review! We are happy to hear you have had success recording remotely with our product. We also appreciate your product feedback in requesting an option for Watchers to join like a speaker. I will share this request with our development team. To stay in the know of the latest product updates, please subscribe to our Product Updates blog linked below:

Product Updates Blogs: https://www.openreel.com/category/technology/product-updates/

UM

Verified User in Medical Devices

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5/25/2021

"HD remote recording with clean audio. I can't find anything like OpenReel."

4/5

What do you like best about OpenReel?

I can't find anything out there that records as nice as OpenReel with a teleprompter. The teleprompter was the biggest selling point for our leadership. They love using OpenReel and request it for their shoots. It makes them look good and sound good with clean audio & teleprompter. Even without use of the teleprompter, the quality can't be beat.

Quality -- Doing 4K interviews and staff messages during COVID-19 was amazing! OpenReel allows the director to take over control of the iPhone's camera. You can set record qualilty, focus, exposure, and white balance. OpenReel records in the iPhone that is recording using the OR Capture app, so even if the signal breaks up, it is uploaded with full quality depending on iPhone setting. We get great lighting results using a light ring!

Audio - OR suggested buying a "PoP voice Professional Lavalier Lapel Microphone Omnidirectional Condenser Mic for iPhone" from Amazon for $14. I was skeptical. But that quality has been so much better than not going with a mic. It's a tad overmodulated, but it can be fixed in post. Best part, I recently recorded an interview outside with a mower within 10 yards of the subject, the mower didn't exist on the audio. The iPhone and that mic got rid of the mower.

Overall - OpenReel is the best solution I've found and would highly recommend it. It gives you a peace of mind the the video and audio is being captured no matter what the livestream looks like. I once recorded an important interview and the livestream was so bad, I couldn't see or hear the subject. We used Zoom for the questions. I just guessed at setting the AE and AF. When we downloaded the video files later, everything was 100% and we couldn't have been happier.

Technical support is really good and they know their stuff. They have a 50/50 record of getting back to me during a shoot. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenReel?

Price - OpenReel is really expensive. We purchased a suggested package for far too much, and we were never told that the time bought would expire. Buyer beware! Use it or lose it. We learned the hard way. I would suggest buying low and increasing over time. Also, must pay more to use service overseas.

Clunky UI - It just takes a lot of experience to get the hang of what works and what doesn't. Can't manually control iPhone exposure, but it shows you can. When you set AE (auto exposure), it doesn't lock it in on its own. If you lock it, the next time you go to set it, it unlocks the AE and if you forget to lock it, it drifts. Focus works fine. If you don't manually set white balance, it will drift the entire time (you MUST remember to manually set WB).

Almost unusable teleprompter - The teleprompter takes a long time to get a hang of, most never do. It's a great tool...but teleprompter control is extremely jittery. The recording iPhone needs to be hooked up to make most changes with the teleprompter (font size, white/black background, etc.). This was the biggest selling point for our leadership, but the behind-the-scenes is tedious.

No "Do Not Disturb" option - People who use their phones to record need to figure out how to turn their phones to "Do Not Disturb" or they get texts, phones calls, emails, etc. It would be nice if the OR Capture had an option for that. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Teresa Hill of OpenReel

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Appreciate your thorough review! We're thrilled to hear you've been pleased with our technology and support staff, while experiencing more peace of mind filming remotely using OpenReel. We try to provide as much value for our annual agreements and mitigate the extra operational costs of filming overseas as much as possible. We are excited to have OpenReel Capture 2.0 into your hands now. The updated UI features a clean dark mode and even stronger camera controls, allowing you to confidently set white balance, resolution, auto mic detection, pro audio features, and more. We've also updated our teleprompter so that you can save scripts across Sessions within a Project, set script status for your teammates, enjoy improved formatting options, and easily adjust scroll speeds and screen placement for your Subject. Cheers!

GG

Glenn G.

Founder & Executive Producer

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

2/5/2021

"A true partner in creative production."

5/5

What do you like best about OpenReel?

The level of support from purchase through implementation is exceptional. It's a surprisingly simple and easy to use, and the inevitable surprises in a project are easily handled by knowledgeable support staff. Moreover, they are so collaborative and responsive they get to the root of an issue- not just offer a band-aide. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenReel?

It solves the need for remote production at a low cost, so initially, we had to "settle" on things not being the same as in-person. Ultimately they continually refine the offer to address shortcomings (e.g., teleprompter functions) - so there are no shortcomings! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering OpenReel:

If your application has challenges, ask the OpenReel techs- they are creative problem solvers! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OpenReel solving and how is that benefiting you?

OpenReel is like an anti-gravity beam to help us leap over COVID restriction hurdles. Allowing presenters to work from home makes them more comfortable and authentic. The simplicity of operating the technology makes the whole process approachable- presenters are willing to embrace it.

The ability for my Director to manage and coach "real-time" gives us a better finished product than simply receiving some poorly shot selfie video. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Lindsey Hotaling of OpenReel

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Appreciate the amazing review, Glenn! We're so thrilled to hear that you've been pleased with the ease-of-use of our platform and hands-on onboarding + support experience. Our team strives to provide white-glove service for all accounts, so your mentions of being a true strategic partner is music to our ears. It's great to hear that you've been able to offer a seamless filming experience for your Subjects and we look forward to delivering even better functionality — and more impressive teleprompter features to you.

CK

Conrad K.

Senior Account Manager

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

2/8/2021

"Remote capture like a pro with OpenReel."

5/5

What do you like best about OpenReel?

OpenReel Capture provided an essential service during the pandemic lockdowns and creates new opportunities for how we conduct business moving forward. The idea is solid and the technology is improving to match our needs. Something for me that sets apart this company from other remote capture solutions is the people on staff and how responsive they have been. The ability to capture high quality interviews with subjects wherever they are is opening up a whole new world of possibilities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenReel?

There was a little bit of a learning curve with getting up and running. I have so many ideas on what I would like this platform to do and not everything on my wishlist is possible just yet. I am excited to see some of the new 2.0 features being discussed in action. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Lindsey Hotaling of OpenReel

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Thanks for your feedback, Conrad! We're thrilled that OpenReel has helped your team navigate the video production-related uncertainties of the last few months, as well as expand your video creation possibilities. Also, it's great to hear that you had positive experiences with our attentive onboarding and support staff when you were getting up to speed. It's rewarding to work with customers, like you, who can see the vision for the end-to-end platform OpenReel can be. We look forward to getting 2.0 into your hands and continuing to expand our feature set to help chip away at your wish list!

PG

Paul G.

Founder & CEO

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/27/2021

"The Very Best of Remote Video Capture"

5/5

What do you like best about OpenReel?

The quality of the captured video and audio is very high. I've been using OpenReel for several years and I'm still sometimes stunned at what I'm able to capture with the system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenReel?

If I was still working with 1.0, I'd tell you that file handling, the teleprompter, and communications needed work, but all of these have been addressed in 2.0. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Lindsey Hotaling of OpenReel

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We appreciate you taking the time to leave a review, Paul! Over the last few years, it's been especially meaningful to work with our long-time customers to help them make remote video their competitive advantage. We're thrilled your concerns have been addressed in the updated version of our Remote Capture platform and we look forward to creating with you for years to come!