When Video Budgets Are as Tight as Your Hipster Nephew’s Skinny Jeans

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Customer Evidence, Marketing Musings

It must be conference season! I’m getting many requests from clients who have an event coming up this summer and would love to showcase their customer stories on the event screen. One common thing standing in their way is that they don’t have a lot of budget. But don’t fret. You can develop a fantastic video even on a tight budget. You just have to be smart about where you focus your funds so that you get the best return on your investment. Here are a few tips:

Leverage existing b-roll.

For many companies, this is probably not their first video. Always check with the public relations department to see if they have b-roll or stock footage they have already captured for a previous project. Having back-up b-roll is pretty common for enterprise companies. If the b-roll is shot well and can be used for your video, it could reduce your video shoot day by a few hours and save close to $500 based on production rates. But be sure to view the footage before you remove b-roll from your shoot schedule! You wouldn’t want to get home after the shoot and realize they shot it in SD and it would look horrible on an event screen.

Pre-interview the customer.

Have you ever shown up to a video shoot and the customer wasn’t prepared for the interview? You can save a lot of time by scheduling a pre-interview with the customer before you fly out to their location. Be sure to let them know the amount of time you need on the shoot day, review the questions you’ll be asking, and block off time with them for b-roll shots (if you need them). If you are up front about your needs and what you plan to capture on the shoot day, you can avoid running around on the shoot looking for people and reviewing questions before they get in the hot seat.

Use freelance/remote crew.

One of the big (and I think extra) costs for videos is flying a very experienced crew across the country or world for a one- or two-day video shoot. Although you probably have your heart set on an amazing videographer in your area, I’m sure there is an equally great one based in one of the nearby metropolitan areas. Ask your video crew to cut costs by leveraging their freelance network. Many companies have connections to crews across the world and can help you get connected. They’ll also get a cut of the project, so don’t worry about them getting taken out of the loop. This could save around $2,500 per person, depending on the location.

What should you not skimp on?

Audio

Nothing is worse than listening to a crackly video at an event. Your audience may completely disengage after 20 seconds, so be sure that your audio is crisp and free of all background noise. Invest in a great boom mike or verify with your production crew that the audio will be crisp for the video. Things to avoid on the set when listening for good audio: fans, air conditioners, people answering calls or typing in the background, a humming refrigerator, etc. You may not hear it very well in person, but a great microphone will quickly prove that you have horrible hearing. Quiet on the set!

Lights

Wouldn’t it be terrible if your audience was watching your prized customer on a very dark event screen in a dark venue? Your audience would be squinting! You don’t have to get fancy with the lights—just make sure that the set is bright, colorful, and the hues and shadows on the camera show the customer in a positive light (no pun intended).

(The example on the right does not use good lighting and by the way, Projectline did not shoot this.)

For more video best practices, download our Customer Video Tips and Tricks.

If you have any links to videos that are great examples of the topics above, please share in the comments! Questions or tips? karinz@projectlineinc.com

Getting your video’s audio right, part 2

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Customer Evidence, Marketing Musings

Last week, we covered the first step in making sure your video evidence is backed up by great audio: capturing high quality audio to work with. This week we’ll focus on the crucial second step: the editing process that brings it all together. Have you ever watched a video where you can’t understand what’s being said when the person talks softly? Maybe you want some music in the background, but the music can’t be too loud or you’ll miss what’s being said. Good post- production is how you get this right so your customer’s story can shine.

Audio post-production is a valuable function. Frankly, I recommend you find an audio professional for this part. It takes certain skills, hardware, and software to get it done right, but the results are well worth it.

Audio compression is one very important part of the process, particularly with speaking (like in an interview). It reduces what’s called the “dynamic range” of the audio content. This process makes the soft parts louder and the loud parts softer so every word can be heard clearly without the viewer having to adjust the volume while watching. When done properly, this step alone can have a huge positive impact in a business-oriented video.

Background music is nice, so that would get added in this step. But the music should “duck” under the dialogue, meaning that when the music plays, it gets softer when someone speaks, then turns back up again during conversational lulls. This ducking makes for a smooth, natural soundtrack.

Sometimes it can be useful (and fun) to add a few sound effects to your video for extra impact. Post-production is the time for these extras, too.

All these elements—dialogue, music, sound effects—need to be combined in a way that makes sure only one thing stands out: your message. This process is called mixing.

Almost done. As we know, the files will need to be compressed to conserve space and ensure reasonable download times and streaming speeds. Unfortunately, file compression can wreak havoc on audio. A mastering step is needed to put final tweaks in place so your audio will sound as good as possible once it’s compressed and uploaded.

Your audio professional then melds this sweetened, mixed, mastered audio with your video, and you’re ready to upload a quality video that drives your message home while making a statement about how your company always focuses on producing quality results.

Good luck!

Getting your video’s audio right, part 1

by
Customer Evidence, Design Services, Marketing Musings

For effective customer evidence, it’s hard to beat video: it lets the customer’s story shine through, pairing visual context with the familiarity of listening instead of reading. We certainly believe in video—we use it to share our own happy customers’ stories as well as producing video testimonials on our customers’ behalf.

Many companies are self-producing video shorts these days. The lower cost of high quality cameras, even in HD, makes this more practical than ever. Companies post videos on their own website as well as using YouTube channels so clients and employees can stay plugged in.

Self-producing video is all well and good, but it’s easy to end up frustrated with the resulting audio quality. After all, even the most visually-appealing video isn’t going to do the job if people can’t hear your message. Poor audio also leaves a negative impression about the quality of results your company strives to achieve. Getting good quality audio involves two steps: capture and post-processing. Let’s consider audio capture first and we’ll follow up with post-processing tips next week.

First: Capturing good workable audio.

Very little can be done with audio that’s captured badly, so we need to make sure we get good stuff up-front.

Really, it’s all about the microphone! The type and placement of the mic are the critical factors in capturing decent audio. Consider the standard camera-mounted mic. The on-camera mic is as far away from the subject as can be. Even though it’s “directional,” meaning it tries to be more sensitive to sound coming from where the camera is pointing, there’s still too much sound coming from other sources, bouncing off walls and ceilings, and even coming from the camera operator, to capture decent audio. We need a better mic–and we need it closer to the subject.

Many cameras have a “mic in” or “line in” jack. If yours does, life just got a lot easier. If not, better audio isn’t impossible, it’s just more complicated. Let’s cover the “mic in” case first.

The “mic in” jack allows you to connect an external mic to the camera that will override the mic attached to the camera, i.e. a cable attached to a mic that your subject holds by hand like a news reporter. You’ve now moved the mic much closer to your subject—a good thing.

One step further is a lavalier, or “lav” mic. These are the small clip-on mics you see used on talk shows. Lav mics can be wired (i.e. plugged directly into your camera) or wireless. The wireless versions are particularly useful. Your subject wears the mic connected to a transmitter pack. A receiver pack attaches to your camera and plugs into your “mic in” jack, and voila! You get great audio, and your subject is free from wires and mic holding. You have a good quality mic literally attached to your subject.

The best audio requires another person. On film sets you’ll often see a person with headphones holding a long pole with a mic at the end called a “boom mic.” The mics used in this fashion can be very high quality (also high priced!), and having a person dedicated to capturing audio ensures the best result. But this technique isn’t practical for most self-produced projects. A good handheld or lav mic wired into your camera will do the trick.

Now to get back to those of you with a camera that has no “mic in” jack.
In this case, you’re stuck recording decent audio separately from the camera. This can get tricky, as you’ll need to make sure you can later join the video and audio together, and that can sometimes be difficult. In these cases, audio is usually captured into a computer-based audio system with “frame-accurate” capabilities that make matching the audio and video in post-production much easier. You’ll need the help of an audio professional to make sure you have the right equipment and software to record this way.

Okay, we’ve captured good audio. Excellent! Next week, we’ll cover how to manage audio during the editing process for a clear, quality final video.

Any tricks that work well for you? Any recommendations about what to try and what to avoid for really great audio results?