Pre-production

Pre-production involves everything from conceptualising your video, creating storyboards, scripting, actors (if you need them) and hiring equipment.

A good point of departure is to set up a meeting with a video services company. If you’re the only one involved in making the video, then you can do this by yourself. Set a few hours aside to plan the flow of the video, the shooting location, the concept and the goal. While storyboarding may sound like something only advertising agencies do, it’s a very important part of any video production because it will clarify where and how each scene needs to be shot. You should also put a script together (unless you’re filming an event) so that everyone will know their lines (you can’t expect people to make up their own dialogue as you go along).

Production

High quality videos require high quality equipment. You don’t have to go out and buy a camera, lights and microphone – rather rent this type of equipment from a reputable camera store. Many video production companies still rent the equipment they use for shoots (the equipment is expensive and if you don’t make videos every day, you won’t be able to justify the massive expense).

Post-production

Video editing is probably the biggest part of the job. You need to cut, slice, trim and add overlays, sound and graphics to your video. While video editing isn’t hard, it can be very time consuming (especially if you’re not particularly experienced in the video editing software you’re going to use). Skilful editing can take any video from good to great, so outsource this job if you want a top notch video.

Need video editing services in South Africa? Contact Camera13 today!

Don’t underestimate the time it takes

People often underestimate how long it will take to edit a video. It takes much longer than the shoot. If you’ve got about four hours of footage, you can bargain on a few days of editing to make the final product look good.

One mistake that people make is to try and cut down the amount of shooting time (if you’ve spent an entire afternoon editing and cutting a 10-minute video, you’ve probably told yourself that you’re not going to shoot for hours the next time you make a video). Even if you want to cut down your editing time, it’s still a good idea to get as much footage as possible. The more options you’ve got, the better. It also often happens that the best footage comes from bits and pieces between the “actual shooting scenes”, so hold on to all the footage you’ve got.

Add music afterwards

If you’re working with video editing software like Pinnacle, leave out the music and sounds until you’ve finished creating the clips for your video. If you’re adding songs and sounds as you go along, you can easily (accidentally) delete parts of the song as you cut away different scenes. Make sure you’ve got the entire video done before you add sounds. This counts for affects as well.

Mix it up

Nobody likes watching an entire minute of single-angle views. Mix it up by adding clips that were taken from different angles (a professional videographer will also focus on shooting from different angles). You can also make the video more interesting by adding photos between the clips.

Plan ahead

Have a clear plan (or “story”) for your video before you start editing. You can’t expect creativity to dawn on you after you’ve cut away half of your footage, so plan the flow of the video before you start editing.

Need a professional videographer in South Africa? Contact Camera13 today!

It’s of no use creating a boring, hour-long video of your marketing manager talking about new products and services. In order to create effective videos, you need to speak directly to your target audience, whether it’s your clients, customers or employees. Here are a few things you can do:

Interviews with executives

If you’re part of a large organization, you know exactly how hard it is to get “face time” with the top executives. One way to really give outsiders (whether it’s field agents, clients or a potential customer) a view of the inside of your company is to interview team leaders, CEO’s and upper management.

You can do executive broadcasts in a number of ways. Get a journalist to come and ask questions, or simply hire a corporate video production agency to film the executives talking about a new project, new strategy or whatever it is that you want to talk about. A good tip here is to not dedicate the video to “marketing speak”. If you’re trying to network with other thought leaders, make a video about new industry trends, innovation or something that many people would want to hear about.

Testimonials

In today’s day and age, people are tired of advertising and marketing. They also don’t want to be the first person to try out a product – they want to hear about normal people endorsing a product. Many of our daily purchases (whether it’s the latest cell phone or an overseas holiday) are based on reviews by our peers, so creating video testimonials that people can watch and listen to is a fantastic way to reach more people.

Conferences and seminars

If your company often hosts conferences or seminars, you should definitely invest in video production services to film these events for you. It’s not always possible for everyone to attend a conference or seminar during the week, but a video posted online means that everyone can follow the presentations.

Need video production services in South Africa? Contact Camera13 today!

Why viral videos work

Viral videos are one of the most unique ways distributing content. We live in a digital age where internet memes and new fads travel quickly. The handy “share” button on Facebook allows people to continually share your viral video with their networks, which can easily create a snowball effect to get your video seen by people all over the world.

Before we can look at how one goes about making a video go viral, you first need to look at the definition of viral. “Viral” comes from the word “virus”, which means to duplicate itself. It also implies that the new contact will become the host and start the process all over again.  In the new digital age, people refer to “word of mouse” instead of word of mouth – the process is faster and stickier than ever before.

Important considerations about making a video go viral:

• You need referrals: Studies have shown that people don’t necessary hop onto YouTube.com and start browsing the website for viral videos – they get referred to videos by friends. You can’t fake this part (by sending out spam mails like “Hey check out this hilarious video lol”) – people are too smart for that and they will see right through it. It has to be genuinely unique, funny or interesting if you want people to refer it. It’s also a good idea to get a professional videographer to help you create a high quality video.
• You need a top quality video: In the past, people could create homemade videos that would go viral. Today, it’s an entirely different story. You need a top quality camera crew to create your dream video.

Need help bringing your viral video idea to life? Contact a professional videographer at Camera13 today!

Here are a few more tips that will help you create a memorable corporate video:

Shoot more footage than you will need

It’s true that the video editing will take much longer than shooting the video, but this doesn’t mean you should try to shoot as little footage as possible (or that you should cut out the scenes you think you won’t use).

The more video footage you’ve got – the better. It will give the video editors more options and it can even lead to new, great ideas that you didn’t think of while shooting the corporate video.

Your video needs a goal

Even if you’re not making a corporate video to sell products, you should have clear goals and objectives for the video. If it’s a branding exercise, try to put concrete goals on paper (do you want 200,000 views on YouTube or do you want people to pick up the phone and call you after seeing the video?). In order for your video to be effective, you need to know what you want it to achieve before it is produced.

Don’t be cheesy

If you want your corporate video to go viral, you can’t be cheesy at all. You need to keep corporate speak, logos and other branding to a minimum (people aren’t going to promote your brand in their own capacity unless the video really resonates with them). Consider working with a creative agency if you’re struggling to come up with ideas.

Last but not least – partner with the right crew. Creating high quality corporate videos takes time and you need skilled camera men and video editors to produce a slick video.

Need some help with your corporate video production in South Africa? Contact Camera13 today!

Making a corporate video, however, isn’t easy. You can’t create an overly formal video of the CEO talking directly into the camera from behind his big desk – you have to put effort into planning and executing something that will be watched (and more importantly, remembered) by everyone who sees it.

There’s no right or wrong way to go about corporate video production, but there are a few things you should keep in mind to make sure your video is successful:

Use emotion

The goal of any type of marketing these days is to make it “sharable”. If you want people to share your video (whether it’s via e-mail, on YouTube or on social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook), you need to insert a bit of emotion. It doesn’t have to be a gut-wrenching tear-jerker – you can focus on making it funny, nostalgic or serious. You can even insert some emotion by making it look like a documentary or hidden camera video. Use your creativity to make sure that the viewers can respond emotionally.

Make a “clip”, not an “episode”

Even if you’re making a training video – you need to keep it short. Most people have developed a type of filter that will help them “switch off” if they think their time is going to be wasted, so you need to capture your audience’s attention in less than five minutes. Remember that most ads on TV are only 30 seconds long (you don’t have to keep it that short, but don’t ramble on and on just to fill up a time slot in a presentation). Use professional corporate video production services to convey your message in a creative way.

Use your own people

If you’re making a video for a new product, get your employees to talk about it. You don’t have to hire actors (and it can add a lot of authenticity if you can put the employees’ names and their titles at the bottom of the screen). So write down a few questions and get the quiet developer or flamboyant graphic designer to talk about the projects they’ve been working on for your corporate video.

Need some help with your corporate video production in South Africa? Contact Camera13 today!

Here’s a list of the main types of corporate videos:

• Training: Teaching a new skill to many different people across the globe has become so easy thanks to corporate video production services. Instead of trying to get everyone booked in on a meeting (which is almost impossible when different time zones are involved) can be an administrative nightmare for the person who schedules meetings. Rather use a training video that everyone can watch at a time and place that suites them. You can shoot a training video in a boardroom, in a factory or it can even be a video of a new type of software that the company will be using by recording what you see on your screen with a voice over and translations.
• Branding: If your company is involved with a new, talked-about project, a CSR project or any type of cause or initiative, you can create a corporate video about the project. If people are searching for the topic, there’s a very good chance they will come across your video on YouTube. You don’t even have to actively promote your involvement, you can simply shoot a video about the project and have the CEO speak about it at the end (or have your logo at the bottom of the screen).
• Advertising: Gone are the days where you had to spend an arm and a leg to create a commercial and broadcast it on television. Websites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn will allow you to reach your target audience without spending anything on advertising (except for producing the video).
• Product launches: New products often need a bit of explanation. Instead of writing a White Paper or a manual, rather create a video that explains exactly how the product works and how your customers will benefit from the product.

Need help with your corporate video production? Contact Camera13 today!

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