When it comes to content marketing, videos rule the roost.
As a content and product marketer I know video is one of the most powerful mediums to build a connection, and influence sales. In fact, according to Invodo, 52 percent of consumer said that watching product videos gave them more confidence when buying. This is one of the main reasons I switched to a consistent video blog more than a year ago.
But how do you know how to get video done efficiently, and well? After 25 years of working with a variety of video vendors, I’m sharing my five best practices when it comes to managing high quality video. The second point in particular is the one that has really been a game changer for me.
I’ve also enclosed a special gift below to go with point number three—a request for proposal template. Check out the video to learn more about how to use this time-saving resource! And leave me a comment to let me know some of your tips around video!
Great video, Pam – as always! Sharing onto several sites for it needs to be seen.
Over delivered and Dazzled-AGAIN!! The value you deliver each and every time Pam Hendrickson is remarkable. Thank-you thank-you and thank-you!
Elizabeth
Pam, this is terrific. Very helpful. We produce a ton of video, but I learned a lot of new ideas here. Thanks so much!
Michael! That means SO much coming from you! I could probably produce 7 books with all the mistakes I’ve made when it comes to video – thanks for reaching out! 🙂
Thanks, Pam, for such a great planning tool to really help think through this process. Will save a ton of time and money in the end!
Also loved that we got to see a little peek into your behind the scenes (great tips on having a redundant mic and clothing not to wear!). Would love to see more of that! I’m curious as to what your camera (just one or more than one for the clos-ups?) and lighting set ups are, number of crew members, basically, some of the logistics. Also would love to find out the number of takes you typically do (was this shoot typical or not given the audio challenges you had) and whether it is edited on the fly or afterwards or a combo of both. Do you use cue cards/teleprompter? Or have you simply practiced your presentation to the point of having it down pat? What’s involved in your planning process? I know you’ve shared in the past about keeping a notebook or other recording device for content ideas but what happens from there?
Obviously, your many years of experience play into here but would love to hear more about your process and what you’ve learned along the way:) We see such a smooth, flawless end product that I’m sure many of us would love to see what’s all involved in getting to that – the nitty-gritty as it were.
Thanks, as always!
Barb
Great questions Barbara – let me take it one at a time and I’ll be as detailed as I can in a blog post comment! 🙂
• This is all keeping in mind that I used to film blogs from an iPhone (with a simple iRig type microphone) and going back even further with a Cannon Vixia HD camera that my husband would manage for me on a tripod (with a microphone). So the production doesn’t have to be perfect as long as you get your message apart.
• Today I use a small production crew. One camera operator and one person on audio (headphone) to track sound and then sometimes my content manager is there to run the prompter and just help coach and manage me in terms of content and delivery.
• To save costs and be more efficient, especially for a blog shoot, we just use one camera – we set the frame to be a little wider shot so we can punch in during the edits (giving the illusion of a 2nd close up camera but this is both (1) easier and (2) then I’m looking into the camera by doing it with one camera that we punch in on some of the edits.
• Lighting set ups I’d have to chart out but we have about 4 lights set up around – a little more sophisticated than the typical 3point lighting system -if you want to do high level production I *really* recommend getting someone who knows what they are doing so that you are well lit (no shadows) as well as the background.
• I typically do 1 take but I have several starts and stops. Because I film in my home, I’m often stopped by planes (Miramar air force base has flight paths that go over my home periodically and Thursdays are a definite no-go as that’s the day most of the gardeners are in our area mowing lawns!). It’s more likely I’ll just redo a segment or chunk vs the whole thing if I didn’t like how it came out. I try to get a lot done in one day though (film shoots can be expensive) so I put more time in the planning so we can just roll when the cameras get here.
• The punched in (close up shots) are where I stopped and started and we needed to make it look seamless in the edit. When I’m shooting for product, I may have 2-3 takes per session as I want to get it 100% right in terms of the content.
• I use a teleprompter about 50% of the time. For sales videos I use a prompter 100% of the time and it’s always scripted out. If I don’t use a prompter, I either have slides I”m looking at (that we’ll edit in later) or a really strong outline so I can stay structured. Typically people are better without word for word script as it’s a tougher skill to master (reading from a prompter without looking like you’re reading the whole time).
• After I have ideas I sit down and brainstorm 3-5 blogs at one time and I write very detailed outlines. For each one, after I have the outline, I either do some research on my own or I have my team help with research to find articles and stories to back up my main points. For product based content, I try to teach it somewhere first (live event or private webinar) to practice the content and get customer feedback before I film it.
• I’m a huge believer in the concept of “blog in batches” in that I’ll film 3-5 blogs at once in one day (I schedule 1-2 film days every 4-6 weeks) and I”ll also fit in 2-3 marketing/sales videos and then sometimes some content for a new product or bonus I’m putting together. SO the film days are full. Again, more time in the planning means less in the execution – so you can get a lot done on film days.
• And oh yeah, I have the house cleaners come the morning of the shoot – otherwise I find myself running around the house cleaning bathrooms before the film crew arrives. TMI? 🙂
• ALWAYS provide snacks, coffee and food for your crew, too!
I hope this helps – it’s a snapshot – a lot of it is designed to be as efficient as possible in the shortest time.
P.S. Maybe I’ll set up Periscope next time I film so you can see that footage of how it all goes down! 🙂
Great, very easy and implementable stuff here from my smart wife! This is why I call her “Miss Smarty Pants”! 🙂
What an awesome resource YOU ARE PAM! This is great info for content creators like me. You have also helped me help my clients avoid many of their common mistakes!
Thanks so much !
Thanks so much Zemira, nice to hear from you! 🙂
Hey Pam, for your next video I want to see some awesome drone footage of you from all angles of your living room. Lol.
You laugh, but my boys have a drone (it’s pretty small and was about $50) and it gets as good if not better footage than many of the shoots I do and from angle that are way more cool! Between drones and new apps like periscope I find myself constantly looking to see if any lenses are lurking around anywhere. I mean, they can capture us from above, below, sideways – jiminy crickets! 🙂
Fab Pam.
Can’t wait to be droned.
I’m still stuck with a camera taped to a skateboard.
LOL
Thanks for your excellence. (:-0
Thank you Pam. I wish I had this form before shooting the event video. It seems like I explained to my video person who I used before for another project. I said I am going to need to film the whole event, I need to have at least two cameras and audio. I am going to use this on the website on my event page( 30 seconds) and the rest of it needs to be available for me to review it for training purposes. I thought I was clear, did not have any proposal so that means nothing was signed by them. It turns out the second camera which was supposed to be on me at all times was too far away. The first camera man moved too much and did get clear views because of the tight angle he was in. The audio was cut at the beginning and much more of this is to come as he still did not submit the rough cut to me for review. I am definitely worried why it takes so long. To be continued….
Thank you Pam
Pam,
Your video is very comprehensive and particularly invaluable to the small to mid size company that does not have a lot of video experience. I guess after 35 years of producing Video & Film for Direct Response TV, TV programming and Internet, I have things on autopilot and Just do it. While I go about video production like riding a bicycle, you’ve done a great job putting the key Principles of Video Production into a succinct overview. As for sharing one golden nugget form my decades of producing video in conjunction with managing media campaigns for Fortune 500’s to small business, it’s that the Dollar investment in Video production and resultant Production values have NOTHING to do with ROI for that project. The more money spent on video production does NOT ensure greater ROI by any means. Let me give you a great example. While creating a Consumer Direct Response TV campaign for the release of the Film Amadeus on Home Video, my client Thorne-EMI-HBO Video insisted our DRTV (and other consumer video marketing elements) MUST be shot on 35 mm Film, have Hollywood slick Voice Overs and be devoid of graphics (Graphics only detracted from the branding LOL). The Execs at HBO insisted on High Dollar spend and High Production values for the project, period. The end result was a Hollywood style 35mm Film TV commercial with smooth as silk VO … running up a tab of over $100,000 for the :60 second TV spot alone. The spot bombed and sales of the Home Video release of Amadeus were pitiful. The client allowed me to “FIX” the problem by employing my well known “low budget” but highly effective Direct Response TV spot techniques and production values… OR LACK OF Production value for that matter. We redid the spots on Video (back then I believe we were shooting 3/4″ or 1″ Masters at a low budget threshold). We added aggressive Direct Response Voice Over with appropriate Call for ACTION missing in the “Branded Hollywood $100K spot. We spend $500 on graphics to use the proven graphic presentation of a DRTV spot, including Movie highlight Captions, 800 Phone numbers, and Special OFFER Prices (remember there were no graphics in the first spot, they were deemed to detrimental to the brand). The total cost of our :60 Video spot with New VO and Graphics was under $4000. A far cry from $100K. The net result. Phone response and Sales were meteoric with the same exact Media buys. Proof that Production Value and Big bucks did not produce the desired CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVE, but low budget video did the trick. I believe for most small to miss size business video projects, this principle holds true. You address this in your video quite nicely, I simply wanted to reinforce by sharing my story. Thanks for reminding me that there is a method to the madness of what we have done for 35 years with Video production, regardless of the prevailing technologies.
Another great episode of valuable tips. Couldn’t agree more that audio ranks as #1 with lighting being second. You can always overlay bad video itself with still shots or introduced video.
Its always amazing how particular you can get about the slightest background noise from dogs barking to the fridge cutting in and out or planes flying overhead.
You are lucky Pam in as much as having a crew to do the work relieves you of most of the restart work such as starting and stopping the record button and making sure you are in shot and the lighting being right.
I find that it is just as easy to go to a studio, walk in with your script, record and walk out. However cost is the bigger factor in doing this. So weighing up the cost or convenience is important.
Then of course there is the editing. So what is a simple 5 or 10 minute vide can take 1 to 2 days to get done from beginning to end.
I always enjoy your videos and believe video is the best medium for getting your ideas across to an audience.
Great points, thanks so much Nobby! 🙂
Great perspectives and “actionable” tips Pam. “Miss Smarty Pants”! eh. 2-3 camera shoot, great sound, and perfect lighting. Got it! Define the outcomes before we begin the shoot.
Thanks for the RFP sheet. Very useful and helpful. Structured and discipled.
Like the “Law of familiarity and expectation” discussion.
Thanks
thanks Pam awesome video, and great pdf. appreciate it!
Thanks Pam. These are great tips. Especially useful to someone just starting out hiring video crews to help with production for all types marketing endeavors. Always great to start with the end in mind. Thanks for the great info.
Pam, you are a natural in front of the camera! I do not have the budget for even a small crew (yet) so I am trying to learn oodles and make blog teaser videos for social media promos using my macbook. It is a DIY for now.
Your tips and the download are wonderful for my client work. I appreciate you sharing it as learning from other marketers is my professional development 🙂 – Anna
Anna, thank you so much for your comments. You can make great videos using your Macbook and, believe it or not, some audiences will respond more strongly to have videos that have a DIY feel. They make you feel real and accessible. I can’t wait to see what you come up with! (And know that I am a “learned” natural in front of the camera. 🙂 All it takes is practice!)