There’s a reason TikTok has exploded in popularity and YouTube serves up over a billion videos each day.
Videos are naturally engaging!
But you don’t have to hire an expensive multimedia team to create company videos.
In this clip from B2B Forum in 2022, video storyteller Tony Gnau shares his tips on creating your own quality videos that connect with your audience.
Watch the clip or read the transcript below.
If you do fall into the DIY categories and you wanna do your own videos, here’s some good ones that you can start with.
What I’m trying to do here is provide you a progression. I wanna build your video skills as you go along.
The vlog is probably the easiest DIY video you can produce. It is a great way to get your feet wet. You know, it’s just the video version of a blog.
So get somebody on camera talking about something important to your business or your industry, whatever it might be.
Shoot the video. If you wanna do a little bit of editing, chop off the top, chop off the end. Nice, clean start and finish. And that’s it. We’re building your video skills!
Once you’ve done a few of those, maybe you wanna do some short behind-the-scenes videos. Maybe [your audience wants to see] how the products are being produced. Or maybe you wanna introduce team members behind-the-scenes.
We’re building our video skills. We’re getting used to using the camera.
Now all of a sudden you wanna do an “about us” video, which is my favorite corporate video because it tells people who you are, what you do, and why you do it. I think it’s the one that every business needs.
Now, we’ve built up our skills a little bit and we can tackle a more complicated video here.
And last but not least… I mean, marketers, come on. We all love us some testimonials, right?
First and foremost, if all you have is the smartphone in your pocket, that camera in your pocket is better than the professional camera I was using 10 years ago. They’re awesome. They’re really good. So if that’s all you have, that’s totally fine. If you wanna enhance things, a microphone is your first purchase.
A microphone is the first purchase.
I can tell you this, the easiest way to distinguish an amateur video from a professional video doesn’t have anything to do with the way it looks.
It’s how it sounds.
A professional videographer is always gonna bring in pro sound equipment. So if all you could afford is a $20 microphone, guess what? That $20 microphone is still probably better than what’s built into your phone or the camera that you have. So definitely get a microphone.
I’m gonna give you a pro tip that every professional videographer knows, and that is: the tripod is your friend. Use it. Get one, even if it’s an inexpensive one.
Another way to distinguish amateur from pro videos is the lighting.
You don’t wanna just use the existing lighting that’s in the room. Even if you can just grab a lamp to help you light your subject, whatever it might be, it’s a good thing to do.
You want a great hack for lighting? If you’re in a room with a window, use the natural light that’s in the room, the natural light that’s coming in through the window.
You’re shooting a person? Have them stand right in front of the window so that natural light is shining on them. Instant good lighting. It is a great hack.
Do this, not that.
We could have an entire session on DIY shooting. Suggestions and stuff. I’m gonna give you just a couple.
Look at the bad image. Okay? Way too much headroom. It’s too wide. It’s just the existing lighting that’s in the room. You see like those shadows under my eyes and on my beard and everything there? I look terrible! I look awful. I’m also in the center of the frame.
Now look at the good one. I’ve moved a light in front. Now, I’ve taken away all those shadows. I’ve decreased the head room in the image there. I’ve made it tighter.
And here’s a good one. The bad one, I’m centered in the frame. Amateur videographers always put everything in the center of the frame!
You wanna vary it from side to side.
I want you to think of your viewfinder in thirds. Left, middle, right. Equal portions.
If you can slightly off-center something just a little bit… Why does that look better? I don’t know. I have no idea why it looks better. But it does.
And I’m not saying that you can’t put anything in the center of your shots. Go ahead and put stuff in the center of your shots. You just want to vary them.
Published 8/02/23
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