What goes into making a video?

Interviews Starting with interviews.  70% of the videos we create for our clients are what we call talking heads videos.  These are based around an interview or several interviews, with supporting footage – or what we call B-roll –  edited over the top; so you’re not just watching a person talk which could get boring. The interview format can be used for different types of videos;  a company overview video, an about you video, a client testimonial, a kick-starter campaign video or even a product video. One of the main benefits of an interview video is that it’s people-based.  So the viewer will either get to know you and see your passion for what you do,  or hear directly from happy customers how good you are.  Other benefits are that it’s usually cost effective,  because you can use your own location and don’t need to hire actors;  you can get a lot of information across in a short space of time  and it’s a familiar format for your viewers, similar to a TV documentary. We find you can get the most natural performance when you use the off-camera interview format,  where the interviewer is off camera and you only see the person being interviewed –  so we mainly use that format.  To achieve this, we make sure the subject gives answers that make sense without hearing the question  and we generally coach the subject throughout the interview to make sure they feel comfortable,  look like a pro and that we have the right content.  And we always fine-tune their performance even more in the edit,  cutting out any uhms, buts or stumbles –  all this results in a really slick interview video that makes you look great.

Some videos, such as educational videos or product demo videos,  may work better with a presenter.  If you’re going down that route, it’s always better to hire a pro,  to make sure the end result looks professional and to instil trust in your viewers about your brand, product or service. Because the presenter will likely be reading off an auto-cue script,  there won’t be many jump cuts, so you can get away with minimal B-roll –  and this can make a presented video really cost effective to produce. Of course if one of your team is confident talking to a camera, then you could use them.  However, it’s a real skill to be able to read off an Auto-cue in a natural way and if done badly,  it can create a real disconnect with the viewer.  Even some of the most experienced public speakers find this hard to pull off,  so bear that in mind. So another option would be to roughly script your video and deliver the message off the cuff.  Practice is key here as the more fluid the performance, the better the end result and the quicker (and therefore cheaper) it will be to edit.

Bumper slides or Section Bumpers are animated slides that break up and organise your video content.  They help to keep your viewer’s attention and drive your key messages home, while increasing the production value of your video.  Bumper slides should always be on brand, by either using your brand’s colours and fonts, or at least be complimentary to your existing style.  This will help your video sit nicely on your website as if it’s all part of the design. Much like bumper slides, kinetic or motion text can be used to break up your content into sections and communicate key messages,  it’s just a simpler way of doing it and can just float of the visual rather than take up the whole screen.  As with bumper slides, the result is a more varied experience for the viewer,  a better structure and stronger focus on the most important information you’re trying to bring across.  Again, you’ll ideally use your brand colours and fonts here to make your video super slick.

Screen capture is where you record the mouse movements someone is making, usually to show how a software platform works.  It’s a great format for software tutorials or demos, but can also work as b-roll when talking about your website within a company video. Screen capture is great for showing the HOW of a software platform, but not so great for explaining the WHY, or the benefits of using it.  Animation works better for this. So we’ve often used a mixture of live action, animation and screen capture for software overview videos. There’s a lot that goes into a achieving a high quality screen capture demo.  Adding zooms and transitions is one way to up the production value, so we tend to record in 4k to allow us to do that without losing quality.  Scrolling usually appears jumpy, so we recreate those sections by animating static images of the platform.  Sometimes we blur parts of the screen to direct the viewers eye to a certain section  or animate part of the screen to make it stand out.  The set-up time of screen capture demos can be time-consuming.  You need to have dummy accounts and data ready for your demo and make sure everything works in the right order with continuity  – this can be a challenge but one we have surmounted many times!

Most videos just don’t feel right without at least some music in the background.  Music massively contributes to the feel of your video and is a great tool to connect with your target audience. Doing an online search for royalty-free music will throw up countless music sites which you can browse and buy royalty-free music from.  Some tracks require you to buy a licence for each video you use them in, while other tracks come with a buyout licence,  meaning you can use them in as many videos as you like for a one-off fee.  It’s important to know what you’re paying for!