Video allows you to connect with customers in a variety of ways not just on your website; it’s a fantastic inbound marketing tool for sharing on social media channels, raising brand awareness and growing your client base.

This month, HMA’s video specialist Richard Stickland shares his top ten tips.

  1. Plan
    Plan your video/animation carefully. This includes storyboarding/scripting where possible. It may seem like it will take longer to do but it will help in the actual production of your video.
  2. Professional equipment
    Use a professional camera, sound equipment and specialist crews. There are many easy and cheap ways to produce video but they are no substitute as they cannot produce the same level of quality.
  3. Quality
    Do not use video for videos sake. Bad quality video can hurt your brand just as good video can help it. A badly scripted, shot and edited video can give a negative impression to the viewer and look very unprofessional.
  4. Message
    Get your main messages across quickly and keep your video short, otherwise people will stop watching. Ideally corporate videos should be around two minutes in length.
  5. Location
    Pick your location carefully and think about each shot that you have. For example if someone is on camera being interviewed, try not to film them against a window as the natural light may come and go throughout the video and you will end up with a video half in darkness and half in light.
  6. Release forms
    Make sure all subjects that are in your videos have signed release forms. This is also important for any locations featured. The reason for this is because a copyright claim by someone may mean that you can’t distribute or publically show your new video.
  7. Music
    Music is very important in videos as either a main track or a bed. It is however important to make sure that all copyright is cleared for each track. If you are unsure, PRS will be able to help you. Videos that use music which has not had copyright cleared cannot be distributed or shown.
  8. Editing
    Take care in editing your video. After you have spent a lot of time on the video production make sure that it has the correct pacing.
  9. Sound
    Pay attention to sound. Often sound in video is forgotten about, especially in the editing process but it is just as important as the video itself. If you have people on camera who can’t be heard properly or gaps in the audio it will detract from the viewer’s experience.
  10. Grading
    Remember to grade your video. Make sure that in the editing process someone changes the colouring of the shots to give the video the look and feel that you require. If a video is left ungraded it can look washed out, flat and unprofessional, people can tell the difference.

About Richard
Richard holds a postgraduate degree in directing and producing film and has a strong and varied background in video production, working on projects such as animations, corporate videos, web commercials and TV adverts.

 

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