The Video Marketer

Developing a content marketing strategy that includes video will provide your company with few concrete benefits if your clips look like the work of an amateur. Professional polish is crucial if you don’t want to drive away viewers with crackling sound or bad colour management. If you’re not sure how your videos look to the public, watch them with a critical eye whilst looking for these six common problems.

Poor Framing

A tight zoom can show off the details of your product, but it could cut out all of the rest of the action.

Amateurs often shoot at a slightly crooked angle that can drive visitors crazy when trying to view your clip. Proper framing ensures a square and level shot and also requires you to avoid shifting or drifting away from the centre spot whilst recording.

Audio That Peaks and Clips

When your narrator laughs or pronounces certain words, does the recording get so loud that the sound cuts out? This is known as clipping and can happen even with professional recording equipment. Combining a trained voice actor with a skilled audio engineer will prevent these kinds of common problems. Low audio is nearly as widespread. No one can enjoy the information you want to spread when they can’t hear what you are saying.

Blue or Orange Tint

Incandescent lighting will give the entire clip an orange tint whilst florescent lights provide a blue colour. Neither is flattering to your performers and could make it hard to see your product. Many cameras used by amateurs attempt to automatically balance the white value for the recording, but this can backfire and make the tinting even worse.

Blurring and Shaking

Investing in a tripod that costs less than $20 can eliminate this issue, so don’t upload blurry content that shows your hands shaking. Even the most basic family videographers can learn to take smooth, steady recordings with an affordable tripod. There’s no point in having expensive recording equipment if you don’t have anything to brace it against accidental movement.

Does your plotline jump around from point to point? How smooth are the transitions between concepts? Proper scene transitions aren’t the only requirement for a professional video. The storyline and script should also follow some kind of logical path. Don’t jump between product features and customer testimonials unless you want to lose your audience.