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Part Three – Setting up your video shoot:

With a rapid increase in the popularity of online video, how can you get your message heard above all others?

Part three of this blog series, offers useful tips on how to shoot your video so that it looks and sounds more professional. There is an extensive amount of production tips and advice out there. I am highlighting just some of the main ‘tips and tricks’ to give you an overview of the broad spectrum.

With the advances in mobile phones and digital cameras, video making has become widely accessible. Anyone can pick up a camera, shoot some footage, string it together using a basic video editing software, but the finished result (more likely than not) will not utilise the professionalism needed to make a marketing video stand out.

Setting up your shoot:

• Steadiness Techniques: Get as close to your subject as you can without causing them distress. This will enable you to work at the wider angle end of your lens thus avoiding the instability caused when working on full zoom. However, avoid full wide angle as this is likely to distort your subject.

• Shot Sizes and Angles: When setting up your shot, keep in mind which shots will be edited together; two images shot from the same angle with the same sized subject, will cause a problem with visual continuity.

• Lighting: Video recording systems tend to have a weakness in their inability to cope with contrast and backlighting. A good test to apply for all shooting situations is the “squint test”. Screw your eyes up until they are just slits and you can just about see the subject. Look into the shadow areas. If you can still see detail in the shadow areas then all is OK. If not, you can use reflectors to reflect light back into the shadow areas.

• Sound: Get the microphone as close to the subject as possible. This could entail moving the camera closer to the subject. If this becomes a problem, look to using external microphones that can plug into your camera mic socket and monitor the sound with headphones.

• White balance: To get a more accurate white balance, best way to do this is to set your camera’s white balance to a manual setting. You can then place a white card/board in front of the camera, zoom in so it fills the viewfinder and press the white balance button to adjust the colour cast of the light.

Many organisations are unsure about whether online social media is an appropriate way for them to build their brand. As I mentioned in my previous blog, social media is not right for every brand and finding the right type of social media is critical to developing your brand successfully.  If you’re interested in developing your brand using interactive online ‘conversations’, then social media is right for you.

There are many benefits for using social media to develop brands online:

1. Low cost – Social media marketing is very appealing to organisations due to its low cost investment. The majority of social media sites are free to join so it only costs your time to build your brand effectively online.
2. Wide audience – Social media sites can reach a large audience, especially the major sites such as Facebook.  Social media is increasingly being used, with the majority of internet users becoming a member of a social media site. For example, Facebook now has over 200,000,000 active users (http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/12/social-media-web-20-internet-numbers-stats/). Social media sites used to be associated with the student community but it has now attracted a wide range of ages with different demographics. Niche social media sites have a huge potential due to their diverse audience.
3. Loyalty – Building a strong brand community online is likely to encourage brand loyalty among members due to the relationship building advantage. Consumers often affiliate with the brand and become part of the brand so they are more likely to trust the brand and recommend the brand to others.
4. Increased traffic – By developing online relationships with social media users, they are more likely to visit your website and increase the traffic to your website.
5. Immediate – Social media has the ability to share information almost instantly so consumers are always up to date with the latest news. Social media can help monitor any negative comments online, such as by using Google Alerts, in order to quickly respond and avoid the brand’s reputation from being tarnished. Social media helps to manage the reputation of your brand online to make sure the desired image is being created.
6. Increased awareness – Due to the increased popularity and reach of social media, consumers are increasingly becoming aware of brands and are using social media as an alternative to find out more about your brand compared to traditional methods.
7. Market Research – Social media can be used as a great way for collecting market research due to its potential to monitor a large audience in one place.

Part Two – Storyboarding:

Example of a visual storyboard

With a rapid increase in the popularity of online video, how can you get your message heard above all others?

Part two of this blog series, offers useful tips on how to create effective storyboards during the pre-production process of making your video.

So Why Use a Storyboard?

Alfred Hitchcock was ‘notorious’ for having used storyboards, so much so, he considered this phase of production to be the actual process of making the film. For him, shooting the film was a necessary evil; the making of the storyboards was where most of the creative work took place. (Steensland 1995:1)

Storyboards are essential tools that visually and/or audibly explain a scene in good detail. They also help to visualise how a scene should be shot and act as an excellent asset to get approval from sponsors or clients.

There are four main types of storyboard you can use:

• Basic storyboard – This storyboard is principle when your creative ideas start to flow and you need to get them down on paper.  It enables you to sketch out visual representations of your video when words alone become difficult.
• Audio storyboard – The first thing you should think about when you come to producing a storyboard is whether your video is going to be visually or audibly led. Audio storyboards are helpful if you plan to use a detailed script, use text on screen to tell the story or use a voice over. You can also add in music and any other audio elements i.e. sound effects.
• Visual storyboard – Visual storyboards can be used if your video is going to be visually led. This gives you the opportunity to paint a picture of each scene and add in other visual elements that will drive the narrative.
• Editing storyboard – These storyboards can be used to plan any video effects and transitions you may use during post production. If your video is going to include a lot of effects or animation, these storyboards will help make planning easier.

If you would like to receive any of the above templates, please email me (Tiffany Clowes) at: tclowes@changeworkscom.co.uk

Work sited

Steensland, M., ‘How to Create a Storyboard’, Video Maker, http://www.videomaker.com/article/2313/ (Oct 1995)

Social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are increasingly being used by organisations to help build and develop their brand online. Branding is essential for organisations to stand out and develop a superior status.

The brand’s personality must be clearly conveyed so that consumers can relate to the brand as it is the consumer who ultimately creates the brand’s meaning. One key way which social media helps develop the brand personality is by creating a community which allows consumers to affiliate and become part of the brand. By building the brand online, loyal communities are likely to develop with consumers who trust your brand. However, organisations have to ensure they are genuine about communicating the brand’s personality to avoid confusion and so consumers can relate to the brand and feel that it matches their personality.

There are several key things to do to ensure you successfully use social media to build your brand:

• Define your objectives – Define how you want to use social media to develop your brand. Social media will not have long term benefits to your brand if you do not have a clearly defined objective of how you want to position your brand
• Identify your target audience – Once you have determined your target audience, you can choose the appropriate social media sites to reach that audience. You can then create targeted and relevant content for your audience so they will be interested in joining your brand community. For example, if you want to develop a fashion brand online you may want to target a community interested in fashion, such as Fashion Network.
• Networking – By actively networking with other social media users, relationships are more likely to develop with your target audience, who will visit your site and help build your brand.
• Link Building – By including links to relevant sites with a similar or higher status to your own will potentially increase your own status and traffic due to developing a positive association.  By including frequent referrals in your own blog posts, other social media users are likely to reciprocate and refer to you as well. This will ultimately help develop your brand community.
• Monitor your reputation – To make sure you reach your branding objectives in using social media you have to monitor what other social media users are saying about you. This way you ensure you are conveying your intended message and you are creating the right brand image.

By following these key tips, you can use social media to successfully develop your brand online.

Online video-making

Part One – Planning:

With a rapid increase in the popularity of online video, how can you get your message heard above all others?

As part of a series of blog posts, I will be offering useful tips on how to create effective and successful online videos for your business, from pre to post production.

It is essential that documentary videos take audiences on an emotional or intellectual journey. For the purpose of marketing, your videos need to focus on the latter whilst incorporating the former. They need to inspire your audience to want to find out more about your message and take action.

Getting Good Grounding:

First of all, an effective way to get good grounding of your video is to map it out on a piece of A3 paper and set your objectives (spider diagrams are good for this). It is essential that the following points are thought out thoroughly:

1. Know your audience: It is imperative that you know exactly who your target audience is and your video ideas cater for their needs. Questions you need to think about here are: What does your audience want to know? What do you want your audience to think, feel and do? What benefits will it give them? What is it that you know but your audience does not? What would be their concerns? What would be their likely response?

2. Plan your message: When you have identified a topic area for your video, you need to think about what the initial take home message will be? It needs to be inspiring and informative, something that will make audiences act on what they have seen and heard.

3. Watch your time: Attention spans on the web are limited so keep your videos to approximately 4-5 minutes (pure talking head videos should be no longer than 3 minutes). Make a note of this and keep in mind when storyboarding.

4. Educate your audience, don’t hard sell: Using online video gives companies the opportunity to educate their specific market and audience sector. Videos that instruct, inform and enlighten will have far more impact on audiences. So, think about learning objectives for your video and make a note of them.

5. Structure your video: It is important that your videos have a beginning, middle and end and answer the questions: What? Why? Where? Who? and How?

6. Where will your message be heard?: Most online video sites have sharing and embedding capabilities. You and your video users can share videos with friends, colleagues, customers or clients on other social networking sites like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. Think about where your videos are going to be hosted and who will have access to them.