One of the many things our team has learned throughout the years is the importance of leveraging video content to reach and engage with priority audiences. Video marketing has been on the rise as social and display advertising becomes increasingly effective. A recent study showed that 64 percent of consumers said watching a marketing video on Facebook influenced their buying decision.
Engaging photography? Excellent. Awesome video content? Even better.
Those who have worked in video production are aware of all the behind-the-scenes hard work that goes into the beautiful 30-second, 1-minute, or 3-minute final cuts. What’s not seen in the final product are the countless hours of concepting, storyboarding, planning, production, and editing.
Here are four key steps to producing a fantastic video:
Storyboard. Storyboard. Storyboard.
Creating a storyboard helps elevate your concepts to an actual arc that has ups, downs, exciting moments, music, tone, and more. Think about a video piece that has truly moved you. Just like a feature-length film, a shorter video piece is developed from a frame-by-frame storyboard that helps strengthen your story, build characters, and emphasize key messages.
Storyboards are also crucial as they help video production teams visualize how shots will connect and flow together. Specifying frame type, audio, movement and more can help correct any major production mistakes before they are made.
Always keep the frame in mind
It is hard to tell how a live action frame will compare to the one on the storyboard. Therefore, it is important to be meticulous with each frame to ensure the end result matches the vision.
Master filmmakers keep their attention focused on set and in video playback throughout even the longest production days. Doing so pays off in important ways by making sure there’s never an accidental soda can in the back of the frame or white noise coming from another area of set.
Less is more
While longer-form storytelling is still very effective in some circumstances, working with brands teaches us that succinct, engaging video content helps get the message across in the most effective way. Gone are the days where a viewer has the time or attention span to watch a 5-minute corporate video.
Proof of this? Popular video advertising medium Facebook counts a “view” if a user watches a piece of video content for 4 seconds. If brands are racking up metrics for such a short amount of time, it’s clear that short and sweet is the best strategy.
Production schedules are your best friend
Production schedules can sometimes be deemed as the “bad cop” in the good cop, bad cop scenario on a video set. Good cop wants to try new things and follow inspiration. The bad cop wants you to adhere to a set schedule, get the exact shots you need, and wrap up on time. You need the bad cop.
Why? Production schedules dictate the entire depth of a video piece including which shots you’ll need, the locations you’ll travel to order to achieve them, and all other possible logistics in order to nail your video project.
One of TVA’s commercial shoot lasted 14 hours and flew by in the blink of an eye. The final product? Just 30 seconds.
Interested in learning more about video production? Drop us a line at letschat@thevidaagency.com.