Video, being both a visual and audible medium will be a representation of the voice, character and personality of your brand. Your brand is all the experiences gained from everything you do and say to your audience, good or bad.
If your brand is knowledge and quality is not an important aspect then sure, go ahead and deliver your knowledge through a video without thought to how it looks or sounds. But if your brand is about quality service, quality products, quality innovation etc then don’t make the expensive mistake of damaging the perception of your quality brand by presenting a poor quality video.
A few images of the crew hard at work on a video production shoot. The video is all about Values – Based Education.
We filmed for 1 day covering the whole of the school day from arriving through assembly and classroom work. The video includes interviews with the students, teachers and external people such as parents.
The young pupils were fantastic if not slightly distracted by us using a Jib to shoot a number of the clips including the assembly. A very inspiring school and video subject.
On the basis that no-one probably knows more about how to use your products than you, have you thought about making a “How to video” to grab some product interest from your prospects and customers online.
Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3 says: Instead of looking for the funny, ironic, or gross viral hit, make something of use. For example, let’s say you make outdoor equipment. Why not do a series of videos on how to set up a tent, or waterproof your boots, or build a snow cave? Or maybe you’re a bank. What about videos on how to balance your checkbook, or how to save for retirement.
Then, when you’re done, create a YouTube channel to house your how-to videos (such as “How to Achieve Financial Independence, from Bill’s Bank). And don’t forget to syndicate your videos out to the how-to sites – including WonderHowTo, Howcast and 5min as well. While these videos will never get the kind of viewership of The Old Spice guy, they’ll deliver consistent value to your most important prospects.
A very popular use of video for companies at the moment is to get clients to provide interviews or referrals which you can then place on your website.
Excellent idea. Problem is, concept and reality don’t always line up so here are a few tips to keep in mind.
People don’t always say what you might want them to. You can ask them what you think is a prefectly simple question with really only one answer but you will be astonished by how different their answer can be compared to the one you had in mind.
Maybe it wasn’t quite as positive as you hoped or they don’t include some of the key points you thought would come rolling off the tongue. Invariably your confident client isn’t quite so collected when a camera is stuck in front of them and they either lose their natural voice or launch off on a much longer and rambling answer than you need for your short and punchy video.
The common problems with interviewees are:
They don’t like the idea of being on camera. They look the way they do quite happily all day but as soon as you point a camera at them they are suddenly very self conscious.
They don’t think they will say anything sensible. They know the subject inside out but a camera gets them all flustered and tongue tied
They speak over the top of the person asking questions. We do it in conversation but when you don’t want the question in the video then it is a headache to edit.
They say way too much – the answer doesn’t really know where it is going and while they search for the answer they ramble.
Where did it all go so wrong?
In the planning of course! Most of us enjoy being able to converse with people easily all day every day. We ask a question and we get a natural answer and then we ask another question and so on. Our brains can handle the natural interaction of a conversation bur for a video it doesn’t work quite so easily as that and so we need to adapt things a little bit.
It would be wonderful if everyone delivered the perfect soundbite for the camera but unfortunately it doesn’t tend to happen that way unless you have done some preparation.
Don’t just tell the client or staff to come along and get them to answer some questions and hope it will work on the day. You need to think very hard about what questions you are going to ask and how you word the question to ensure you get the answer you want.
Here are Sous Productions top 10 tips for getting the best out of your staff / client interviews on camera.
Start your planning by establishing the answer you want – write it down.
Then write the question(s) that will get that answer.
Write the question slightly differently in case you need to ask it again.
Time how long it takes to say the answer. Decide if you can get in all the answers within the duration of the video. If not you need to revise 1-3 above.
Explain to the interviewee what the interview is being used for and its objective.
Describe the sorts of questions you will be looking to ask and what kind of answers you are looking for including how long they need to be. This is not scripting the answer. They use their own words. Dont let them write them down on paper. It becomes a nightmare!
Explain they are talking to the interviewer not to the camera – This almost always makes them feel a lot better
If you don’t want to have the interviewer questions in the video (it keeps the video shorter) then explain to the interviewee to pose the question in their answer. For example Q – What do you feel is the key benefit of the service ….. Answer – I think the key benefit of the service provided is ….. Some find this tricky!
Ask the interviewee to let the interviewer finish their question before starting to answer it so that you don’t capture an unknown voice in the interview.
Take control of the interview. If you feel any or all of the above are not working well then it is fine to stop and go through the relevant point again as a reminder before trying again.
Take time to put interviewee at ease
I tend to find that by conversationally going through these points while I am fixing up the mic and checking camera framing etc, it actually helps distract the interviewee’s mind a little and gets a bit of early rapport going.
As a part of the Sous Productions series of informational videos that look at some of the elements of a professional video production, we are now proud to present the making of “What the hell is a track and dolly“?
As with “What the hell is a jib“? this latest video was also shot in the grounds of Mad Dogs Television offices in the New Forest, UK.
In comparison to the setting up the Jib, the track and dolly was an altogether much simpler product for Andy to assemble for us. The track came in a bag as a number of easy to assemble (plug and play) plastic poles or tubes, some curved and some straight.
The Dolly comes as like a giant briefcase which actually forms the base of the dolly and all the wheels and stanchion etc are all held in side the case.
The model we were working with was relatively lightweight and easy to put together, even if you were forced to work on your own. Unlike the Jib, the track and dolly does not require a specialist operator although frankly I think to get the best out of it you should be a pretty competent camera person in the 1st place and you need to allow yourself some time to get used to it before using it in anger.
From what Andy tells me, there are no major considerations to think about in advance. I think it is important to understand how the track and dolly can add value to your production and pick your moments carefully. The great thing about the dolly is that if the ground is uneven you can run it along the track to get a really smooth motion but if you were using it on a smooth surface then you can mount the dolly on to the neumatic tyres and again it will run along really smoothly.
It worked a treat for us on very uneven ground although in hindsight I wish we had thought to demonstrate examples of it being used in a number of different situations. Maybe something we can add in to the video as time goes by.
The track and dolly is a very useful and easy to use piece of productions equipment that helps add an additional level of gloss to your final video. The gliding motion enables you to add interest and can provide important reveals and movement around foreground objects.
As a relatively inexpensive product, it really can add significant value to your video production. Well worth considering.
The video was great fun to make and I have to say I was very impressed and Andy did a great job demonstrating as usual.
If you want to read our earlier blog about “What the hell is a Jib“? then take this link or if you want to watch the preview video take this link to the Sous Productions YouTube page.
Come back and join us when we add “What the hell is a voiceover“? which we will be working on over the next week or two.
Sous Productions spent a day down at our video equipment hire company, Mad Dogs Television in the New Forest last week filming “What the hell is a Jib”? and What the Hell is a Track and Dolly in what proved to be a fun and interesting days work. I am not sure we can really even call it work.
One of the things I found I was being asked a lot was exactly that question. What the hell is a Jib? So my colleagues and I decided we would set about answering that very question for you and the plan is to do a few more over a period of time. Time and funds allowing!
Our day started by arriving at Maddogs for around mid morning to meet Andy & James from Mad Dogs Television who were going to host us for the day. Mad Dogs provide most of my equipment hire needs and I know that Andy is an excellent Jib operator having used him on one of my recent projects.
The plan was to film the Jib and then a Track & Dolly being built while I ask Andy for some key about the value that each piece of equipment might bring to a clients production and also provide shots taken on the equipment to demonstrate what can be achieved.
James set up two timelapse cameras to record the full build (I hope to see the results later this week) while I had Ben Harding operating the PD170 to capture the build and conversations between Andy & I regarding the Jib. Of course, once the Jib was built we also had the shots coming from the Sony DSR camera mounted on to it.
To take full advantage of the occassion, I also wanted to take some pics on my iPhone and tweet as we went. Unfortunately this wasnt so easy as the reception in the new forest is not so good and I was rarely able to get enough signal but we did manage to get one or two pictures out.
The weather was threatening to let us down with a light but constant drizzle but by the time Andy had the Jib built and was ready to mount the camera, the sun came out to play.
With the all important balancing of the Jib completed we were ready to go. Andy provided examples of the camera drifting over foreground and in to a reveal with me doing a piece to both the static and Jib cameras. It amazed be how the 18 ft reach of the Jimmy Jib could look so graceful in motion and when I saw the resulting shots it looked even smoother again.
Andy went on to provide various other shots to create the effect of movement in the foreground to make a shot look more interesting that it would from a tripod mounted camera.
The day went extremely well. I am very pleased with the results although I now have a video somewhere in the region of 25 mins long and I only really want about 5 mins! I havent quite decided on how the edit will be styled but the basics are in place and below is a link to a short section to give you a flavor of what is contained.
Thank you to Ben Harding for his camera work and thank you to Mad Dogs Television for providing the equipment, location and skills to help get the film done.
Watch out for the post on the filming of the Track & Dolly. We also did a “What the hell is a Voice Over”? later in the day with Matt Hopper and I will be adding that video in to the series too.
If you have an recommendations on what items of equipment to include in our “What the hell is a “? series then let me know.
Some interesting statistics in this article to support the need for using video to help in the promotion of your organisations products, services and events.
Well thats a question I have been asked many times by prospects and clients alike and so I want to answer it. I could of course write the answer down here right now but it would be a load of boring text and yeah, wow some pictures. No. I am not going to be rushed.
Next week, weather allowing, I will be filming the answer to “What the hell is a track & Dolly” for you down at Maddogs.tv and they are kindly going to put the whole thing together to show you what it is, how it works and explain / show why you would use it in your video.
OK, fair enough, you can google it or YouTube it but ours will be really up to date, very English (that’s got to be worth something hasn’t it) and “interesting”!
Oh, and we are thinking we might cover off What the hell is a Jib too while were there. Value or what?
I will be updating progress on Twitter @sousproductions and when I have done the edit I will be posting up here on the blog and on our Youtube site http://www.youtube.com/sousproductions
Got any specific questions you want me to ask the clever guys at Maddogs.tv? Let me know by leaving a comment
Just stumbled across this report and wishing I had the budget available now to spend on this camera. I would love to have a go with it and in particular evaluate it’s 35 mm cinemagraphic capabilities, variable frame rates, and the impact of being able to use a range of SLR camera lenses. Note: you will need to invest in the lenses and lens mounts so your budget needs to go beyond the cost of the standard camera itself.
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