(A Comprehensive Guide)
(and 3 blatant plugs for video production site Wooshii.com)
For the last few years, online video has seen explosive growth! All the studies, reports, and stats back up this fact and naturally more and more companies and brands have started adding video to their websites.
For example, in a study by IAB, 69 percent of marketers and 55 percent of agencies plan to increase their digital video advertising with 22 percent growth predicted in the next 12 months;
One reason is that advertisers are finding that their audiences respond better to Digital Video Advertising (DVA), with consumers showing a higher engagement rate with online video.
It’s no surprise then, that a Tubemogul and Brightcove study found that brands saw a massive 98% jump in engagement in the last quarter there is data of (Q4 2010), and that brands are improving the quality of their content and connecting with receptive audiences.
One of the causes of all this growth and engagment is that DVA is more trackable and targetable and DVA production is less expensive, making it more cost efficient.
IDATE even says web video advertising to grow 55% annually – faster than any other ad format online. But that’s not all: they say that video will in fact be the largest of the three emerging markets in the US and Europe in 2014.
So all these studies and stats show a very clear picture: Online Video is here to stay and it is growing fast.
So how do you get started with Online Video?
STEP 1 – Develop a video strategy
It is all to easy to rucj in to the production side of video marketing. Sites like Wooshii, (plug 1) have made video priouction easy but like all good marketing you should first consider
- What is your goal. Is it to introduce your business? To explain a new product or to showcase your services?
- Your brand, what do you want to communicate and could set the tone of the video.
Once you have that set then you can start looking at how you might produce your video. You have a number of options
- Hire a professional – (Expensive)
- Hire a video professional through Wooshii (not expensive)
- Do it yourself (even less expensisive) (plug 2)
Lets ignore one and two and look at three. There are loads of reasons why you could be creating great video content yourself. Here is our rundown on the why and how.
Step 2 – Production
Video Camera
Nowadays you have a wide range of cameras at every price and every quality.
It also should be noted that more and more video services, (like Youtube) have the HD option This allows you to take advantage of getting great quality video.
At the low end, ($99-$150) you have real simple cameras, (some of them shoot HD) but they have the bare minimum in terms of features. Cameras like the Sony Bloggie Touch, the Kodak Play Touch, or the soon to be defunct Flip cameras.
Of course an alternative is the in built cameras on many mobile phones. The iPhone for example, shoots HD video with a very good quality, and best of all, has got some great apps for filmmaking/videomaking.
Infact not only for filmming, but for all phases of making your video.
5 great apps for video making
- SteadyLens an app that helps you make better Steadycam-like shots;
- iMovie – Apple’s own app, that allows you to edit your videos on the go;
- 8mm Vintage Camera – to turn your footage into 8mm-looking film;
- Storyboard Composer – to make your storyboards and plan your video in advance;
- iSlate – turn your phone into a slate!
Continuing with Cameras, past the cheaper ones you get the Digital Single-Lens Reflex cameras (DSLR), which in the last few years have gained the ability to film some incredible quality video in HD.
Cameras like the Canon 7D ($1850 body only), or the Canon MK II ($8.500 body only) – which can you believe have been used to film episodes of popular TV series “House”? The quality is amazing and it is one of the top choices you could make.
Canon 7D
Sound
Sound is incredibly important, and people don’t often give it the credit it should have, in the final result of a video. Particularly if you’re going to have interviews in the video for your company.
Make sure you have good microphones and make sure the sound is close to perfect, sometimes it really is almost more important than picture quality!
Also keep in the mind the sound mix too, you should be sure to balance well the voices, sound effects, and music. It will contribute greatly to the experience of the viewer while watching the video and their decision to continue viewing.
Here’s a good video with other great tips:
Music
Music can really add “soul” to your company video, so if you choose to have it, choose it carefully.
Do not use copyrighted music that you don’t have the rights for a song. At best it will get your banned on most video sharing sites at worse sued !!!
There are many resources out there for finding royalty-free music, and if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on music these are great ways to go to find a piece a music to perfectly set the mood you want for your video.
5 great resources for finding good royalty free music
- http://freemusicarchive.org/
- http://www.freesound.org/index.php
- http://soundclick.com/business/license_list.cfm
Lighting
Like sound, lighting for videos is often not given the proper attention. Good lighting is key to the quality of your video, regardless of the camera you use.
Sure, some cameras provide a good enough quality with mediocre lighting, but it’s not just about light or dark. There are nuances in lighting, the mood, the tone of the video, that a proper videomaker uses very well in order to make a good video production.
If you don’t have the budget to go around buying lights for videomaking, just look at the resources you have available at your company or even at your house! Not ideal but it will surely help.
3 Tips for lighting your video
- Get lots of light for your camera to work with. Don’t record your video at night, even indoors.
- Move lights around – Get them at the side, infront, light can come from any where windows, lamps etc
- If shooting from the front try and move lights so that you end up with a small spec of light in your pupil. It will liven up your picture (Tip from KickStarter)
Shooting
With digital video, where you have plenty of storage, people are proine to wasting it and time doing many takes, or filming unnecessary details.
Again, planning here is crucial to the video. Make sure you planned the shots well in advance, and shoot just what you want BUT remember to shoot beyond your shot. Leave space either side ( more than feels natural) of every shot to allow you to edit easily post shoot.
Also make sure there aren’t many (or any) interferences on the “set” or in the place you’re filming when it comes to the sound capture, you’ll regret it later if there are!
Editing
Nowadays, there is a great choice in software for editing, and for every wallet. From the non-expensive software that comes with your computer (Windows Movie Maker if you’re Windows, iMovie if you’re Mac), to the highly popular Final Cut Pro for Mac, one of the most used pieces of editing software out there.
If you’ve done everything right till now, things will go go easier for you in this editing phase. It is in the edit that all things come together: if you’ve planned well, you already have a good idea of what shots to use.
It is also key the sequence of the shots – the sequence immediatly before will influence how the viewer perceives the sequence that comes next, so be aware of it or even use it and manipulate it if it fits the tone of your video.
It is also while editing that the very important component of sound will be put in place, not only the music but also the sound effects. And it is this phase where your video will be finally complete!
Distribution
Like most of the things we talked above, these days there are also many choices when it comes to distribution.
Three main video distribution channels
Your website
You want your work to be there, it’s one of the ways people find you and where your videos will fit nicely to showcase what you can do. If you’re a brand, of course people will arrive at your site and a nice video will immediatly tell them who you are and what your products and services are in a rich and engaging way.
Video Sharing Sites
Another solution is uploading your video to video sharing sites, such as Youtube or Vimeo. These sites are also very good at aiding discovery so there is a good chance someone will see your work or brand on Youtube before anywhere else (it is the 2nd largest search engine, after Google!).
Other than that, using video sharing sites means the video will be hosted for nothing reducing your overall costs.
Social Networks
Another great solution is to get your video up on a social network such as Facebook. With vasts amount of traffic and neat mechanisms to share your content Facbook offers an intersting delivary menchanism.
Of course if you really want spread use all of the above. There’s little downside and the benefits are tremendous! Services such as TubeMogul can help you upload to all the major sharing sites in just one hit
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I hope you enjoyed our round up.
If you want any help getting started then just get in touch at Woochii.com ( plug 3)
