Creating professional-looking and polished videos does not have to mean spending a lot of money on expensive video production equipment and filmmaking workshops. You can successfully produce high-quality videos for your marketing activities by just paying attention to the key aspects that are not obvious at first.
Most of these video filming and production basics will prove to be useful, whether you are shooting a high-end production or intend to create a vlog that your target audience will enjoy watching. Video experts such as Spiel provide valuable marketing advice that can help you quickly learn the fundamentals of creating high-quality content that resonates with your target audience. But if you have no experience in this industry, it’s best to learn the basics and work with a video production company for the first few videos.
Here are tips to help you produce excellent videos for your company or brand for marketing reasons.
Prepare and plan effectively
When it comes to producing high-quality videos for marketing reasons, sufficient planning, and effective preparation necessary. Don’t start filming unless you have a solid plan. In this context, planning and preparation are broad concepts that encompass various activities.
Gathering the necessary video shooting and production equipment is part of your planning process. The good news is that we live in a time when excellent digital cameras have made it possible for the personal and recreational recording of videos. You can successfully practice videography with the gadgets that you already have such as your smartphone camera and other digital cameras.
If you have a budget for your company’s marketing videos, it’s best to hire a video production company. These are experts who have been handling video shooting and production activities for quite some time and have the right pieces of equipment to produce high-end marketing videos that will resonate with your audience.
Another important aspect of planning and preparation during video production is planning your shoot. No matter the type of video you plan to shoot, you must plan for it from the start to finish. This will require you to create a storyboard with all the necessary illustrations and scenes in sequence. A well-planned storyboard will help you visualize the entire view and successfully outline all necessary shoots.
The storyboard will also serve as your guide during the entire shooting and editing process. It will help you determine the right time of the day for video shooting, the most appropriate venues, the camera to be used and make important preparations and decisions before filming. How well you plan and prepare will determine the success of your video content.
Ensure good lighting
Another secret to achieving professional-looking videos is to ensure good lighting during shooting. When conceptualizing your videos, try as much as you can to be intentional about your lighting. Specify the specific types of lights that you will require and where they should be placed to achieve the specific effect you desire. If you are working on a budget and intend to use existing light like the sun and lamps, get a little bit more creative to make the natural light work for your desire the scenes.
Keep the video background simple
Try to make an effort to use simple backgrounds or improve them by removing clutter. Most videographers prefer solid color backgrounds such as a bedsheet, backdrop paper, or a wall and replace the subjects for characters several feet away from it to avoid casting shadows.
The secret is to minimize elements that might make the scene appear cluttered and probably take away the attention from your characters. While there are storylines and elements that benefit from having a cluttered scene, it’s best to consider your target audience, the primary objective of creating the videos, and other important factors to decide how clean your background should be.
Expose the scenes evenly
If you are using multiple video cameras to capture a scene, a common problem is ending up with video clips that are not the same in terms of exposure. For instance, a scene can appear darker in one camera and somewhat brighter on another depending on the exposure settings such as frame rate, aperture, and ISO levels. This is why you should pay attention to how the scenes are exposed and ensure that you have the same settings for all cameras to have uniform scenes.
If you are unfamiliar with this concept, it’s best to hire a video production company particularly if you intend to monetize from the videos. This is also true for companies that intend to use these videos to create brand awareness and promote their products and services to consumers.
Avoid video shots that are shaky
Whether you are panning, darling from one side to another, or doing a crane video shot, the last thing you want is to end up with video footage that looks shaky. Shaky videos are not appealing to consumers and that means they might not help you achieve your desired objectives. Focus on capturing stable footage that can successfully capture the attention of your target audience keep them interested in your video content.
Get your videos edited by an expert
There is so much that goes into successful marketing videos than just creating a script, getting the right characters, and filming the characters as they act. The videos should be well planned to resonate with your target audience and also of high-quality in terms of audio, visuals, and background soundtrack.
It’s recommended to simple but effective video editing software to clean up your video and ensure it’s of high-quality. You can learn a few video editing tips online and if your videos were well shot, you will find it easy to edit them to fit your needs. Some of the simple video editing tips include cutting, correction of video clips, correction of audio levels, and clipping.
If you intend to use your videos for marketing reasons and you are not an expert in creating and editing, it’s best to consult with an expert. After all, the benefits of hiring a videographer outweigh the costs.