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How To Be Ready For Your Video Production Shoot Day

sony video camera

By following these tips, you’ll find you will save a little time, aggravation, and money on your shoot day. You’ve hired the production team; they’ve created the script, scouted the location, and started the planning process. They may have even hired some professional actors for the shoot. Here are the steps you can take to improve the video outcome.

Solidify Your Needs

Knowing what your objectives are for shooting is important. Defining them early is even more important. There is nothing more frustrating for a client when they change directions, change objectives, and find out how much it will cost them because the script doesn’t accomplish these tasks. Anytime a client decides to change directions, a cost is incurred later. Clarify your objective and needs before doing anything else.

Communication with the Producer is Critical

Do you know what you’re going to do with the video? Communicate it with the producer. Do you know you’re going to need commercial for TV at a later date? Communicate it with the producer. Do you know that you are going to use these for multiple websites or multiple blog postings? Communicate it with the producer. The more the producer knows in the beginning, the better the planning will go and the better the results of the project.

Save Time (& Money) in the Edit Suite

Video production includes editing, cutting clips together, importing video, color correcting, adjusting audio levels, and exporting. All of these tasks take time. Editors work on an hourly rate, so if you can assist in the planning stage, you can often save time in the editing portion of the project. Time saving happens when the editor is able to ‘batch tasks’ and completing multiple projects simultaneously. When this happens, you save cash.

Do you need some help in the video production planning stage? We can help.

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3 Tips from a Video Production Pro

Want some lessons from a professional video production pro? With years of experience and hundreds of videos created, we can provide some insights into how you can better create a high-quality video on a shoestring budget. Since it would be nice to have an unlimited budget, it is unrealistic. We realize that. So here are a couple of tips that can help you improve your DIY video. Remember, nothing beats a high-end camera, high-quality lighting, and the right audio components; but, you can get some decent video for your video blogs by following a couple of tips:

Know your angle. This doesn’t mean the angle of your story, this means the angle of your camera. So many people use their iPhone to shoot some decent video. With the addition of HD video to many mobile phones, many people believe this provides the best there is. It simply doesn’t; but, it can provide enough for some websites. If you’re going to hold a phone to do a video, please hold it the right way. Think about your TV. Is it taller than it is wide, or wider than it is tall? That’s the way you must hold your phone. In fact, most computer screens are shaped the same way. Shoot your video accordingly.

Steady as she goes. Even the pros use tripods. Holding a camera or phone steady is very difficult. Don’t fight this fact. An expensive tripod isn’t necessary, only something that will hold the camera steady. Remember, people want to watch your video, so make it appealing by making it steady.

Video isn’t all.Lavlier, Audio, Video While it is usually referred to as video, one other important component is the audio. The audio can turn people off very quickly. If it’s difficult to hear, has a strong echo, or the audio is muffled, you’ll want to add a lavalier microphone (or lapel microphone). These are relatively inexpensive (less than $50 at Amazon or Best Buy) and well worth the expense. We like to say that “A professionally produced video can draw clients in just as easily as a poorly produced one can drive them away.”

If you must do your own video, we hope these tips help. Every single tip listed here was inspired by at least one DIY video that we’ve been exposed to when sitting down with potential clients. These are the things that they don’t like about their video and call us to fix. Video is more difficult than it seems, so don’t be afraid to call us for some other tips!

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When Is It Time To Add Video to Your Marketing Plan?

image of video camera with words

Websites used to be just a way for people to find you. And it still is. But it has become even more than that. For example, when done correctly, your website should be interactive, solution driven, and easy to navigate. The website world is changing quickly. Websites used to be pretty static, unchanging, and a place for people to get basic contact information. Not anymore!

Today, people are researching companies, people, and groups via Google, Bing, or other search resources. It’s time to manage your online identity. One way to manage your identity is provide good information about what you do and how you do it. This can be accomplished through video. But, when is it time to add video? Here are some perfect times to add video to your repertoire:

When You Are Rebuilding or Re-Launching Your Website

Video is a critical part of new websites. If you make the video the showpiece of your site, you’ll find people spend more time on your site, improving your stats and, possibly, your SEO metrics. In less than 2 minutes, you can describe what you do, how you do it, and why a potential customer should contact you.

New Product or Service Offering

If you’re providing a new product or service, this is usually a good time to add video to your site. A video will allow you to describe the new product or service quickly and even provide a demonstration. Highly powerful. Always effective. Additionally, if you have a product that must be assembled and are having some difficulty getting your customers to assemble the product correctly, a video might be just the solution.

Re-Branding

If you’re in a position of re-branding your business, think about how you might add video to your site to describe why the re-branding has happened, what is the benefit of the new brand, or, if applicable, why the re-brand won’t affect your current level of service. Just make sure the video launch coincides with the entire branding strategy so that you can lengthen the shelf-life of the video.

An Event

If you have a tradeshow, a fundraising event, or you’re unveiling a new product, people love a video presentation. A video always does better than a PowerPoint presentation or speech. No matter the size of your business, a video supporting an event is highly productive.

The best way to stand out and apart from your competition is a video. When you invest in a high-quality video, your business stands out. Let us know if we can help!

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Predictions About Video in 2014

crystal ball for fortune telling

We at Plum Productions may not have a crystal ball, but we can see the trends that are both affecting our business and driving our business. Here are a couple of trends that we think you’d like to know about in 2014.

  1. Mobile. Video on mobile devices has grown extremely fast in the last couple of years, but we think it will grow exponentially in 2014. We believe the larger number of smart phones in the marketplace and the addition of a much faster 4G infrastructure has increased the ability for video to be an option. Cisco predicts that mobile video will increase 25-fold between 2011 and 2016, making video the largest consumer of data traffic.
  2. Short Videos. Although we’re not a proponent of short videos, the trend is on the rise. We believe this to be a great tool to tease a product or service, but not as a promotional piece by itself.
  3. Elections. We believe nothing tells a story better than a video. During the 2014 midterm elections for the U.S. Senate, House, and the state and local government roles, we believe we’ll see video endorsements from groups and families promoting one candidate or another. While not different from other years, this year we believe there will be more of them. Layer on the comment system built into YouTube and we should see a full fledged political war online.
  4. Testimonials. We see testimonial videos as continuing to rise and continuing to be successful for business. Nothing tells a story better about how good a business is than hearing directly from their customer. The trend is to shift from paid actors/actresses to customer testimonials.

We think 2014 should be a great year for video. Whether it’s corporate video, web video, or both, we can help you make the right choices about what do and how to do it correctly. Give us a call to help!

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Is Video Good For Business?

How Video Helps

Studies have shown that consumers will search Google, Bing, or another search engine for information about your business before buying. Some businesses use this to their advantage while some do not. The goal is to have great quality content posted on a consistent basis along with engaging information. That’s where video comes in.

Video In Action

Here’s a great example of how an organization needed video to show the benefits of their services. Roominate showed how girls and boys not only learn differently but can add a significant value to the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math.  They highlight the skills women bring to the table that might not otherwise be noticed or acknowledged. Additionally, they show how their products engage young girls in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math.

Organizations that want to express a challenge in the marketplace and how their product or service can solve that problem should use video to express all the benefits in one place.    As a client told us the other day, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth millions. We couldn’t agree more! A video fully expresses the most critical components in a concise method. Without video, an organization like Roominate might not get their point across about how important it is for girls to experience science, technology, engineering, and math. Their video is able to express all the important components of sharing key buying decisions for those who visit their website. This is why we say that a website without video is like reading a newspaper. One can get the information they need, but it’s a lot more fun learning via a video.

Creating a web video is simple. Contact us for information about scripts, web video components, and video campaigns that can help you drive your placement in SEO.