Dec 9, 2020
Video has never been more important for businesses, whether it’s a Fortune 500 corporation or a brand new startup.
The average person watched six hours and 48 minutes of online videos each week in 2019. So if a business doesn't have videos out there, there’s a good chance its competitors do. And that can create a lot of “noise” in any channel.
But think about it this way. Videos generate 1,200% more shares on social media than text- or image-based posts. That means a well-made video can have a much broader reach than any other content, and it makes investing into video content more important than ever.
To help make corporate video production easier, I’ll give you five simple things you can start doing right now, whether you work on a big team, as a one-person crew, or as a freelancer.
Earlier this year, we surveyed over 1,000 filmmakers, YouTubers, and advertisers about their production process. One of the questions was about struggles and difficulties, and the answers covered everything from “finding work” to “limited gear.”
But the two most common responses were “time management” (38%) and “budget” (32%).
These obstacles are all too common for creators, especially when it comes to corporate video production. As a project gets bigger — with more people, more edits, more stakeholders, etc. — these obstacles quickly grow from your standard track hurdle to a medieval castle moat.
And that makes my first step especially important:
This might seem like a no-brainer, but hear me out. We all think of pre-production as the ideation stage. That might mean client calls, stakeholder meetings, writing scripts, choosing locations, or any combination of those.
But you can push that even further. Using tools like storyboard and shot list templates put ideas down on paper, which can also help you get better feedback from the people who tend to request the most edits later on down the road.
In other words, if you find the right tools and use them early in the process, you can (hopefully) reduce some of the revisions and repeated work during post-production.
Sound is just as important as the visuals. And that covers everything from your song choices to the audio quality of the narrator.
You’ll want to put some thought into sound design, even during corporate video production. (Here's a list of great video production cameras, if you're curious.) Ambient sounds and music choices might not seem as meaningful in a marketing video compared to, say, a vlog post or a short film. But the truth is that audio is what establishes emotional connections for the audience.
So if you want to deliver a knock-out video to your client, take a more cinematic approach to your sound design.
And hey, giving people “the feels” might even cut down on the number of versions you’ll have to make. That’s just an extra bonus.
Knowing where your video will end up can make a big difference. Sure, that could be part of pre-production...but the reality is that things change. Staying up-to-date on these changes can help you reduce the amount of time you’ll spend when it comes to editing and exporting.
Aspect ratios, file size, and codecs can be a nuisance, especially if you’re sharing files and collaborating with other people. This becomes even more important when you think about the fact that people watch and experience videos differently on different platforms.
As much as 85% of people watch Facebook videos without sound. And 75% of all videos are watched on mobile devices. These statistics are examples of the fact that optimization matters — it’s the sort of thing clients will care about, so it’s something that you should take into account too.
Take the extra step to ask for these details, then double check on them at least once during your post-production work.
No, not the literal stock market — I’m talking about a stock media marketplace.
Finding royalty free music and sound effects or stock video can go a long way in saving time and budget. Looking for some b-roll after a client requested a big change? Grab some stock footage and edit it to match the rest of the video.
Want to find background music, but don’t have thousands of dollars to license the latest hit? A good royalty free library will have the catalog and filters to help you find multiple songs that capture the client’s vision while also saving you a ton of money.
This might seem counterintuitive. After all, if you spend all this work on your production process, why wouldn’t you want to get outside help?
Well, in this particular case, it can make a difference. Finding the right freelancers might have a higher price tag up front, but it can be an easy short-term fix. You can start making more and better video content by collaborating with the right people, and that should also mean a more efficient production process.
And more video content means more engagement, and more email captures, and more sales… You get the idea.
(Obviously this step is irrelevant if you are the outsourced help. But while I’m talking to marketers and agencies, knowing your value as a freelancer is always good to remember.)
Most people can retain up to 95% of a message they saw in a video. Compare that number to only 10% retention from a blog post or email they read, and the writing is on the wall. Video content is more important now than ever before, and that means it’s going to become a bigger priority for companies.
So whether you’re a freelance editor or part of an ad agency, these five steps can help you streamline your corporate video production process and (hopefully) make your life a little easier in the process.
Interested in reading more top resources and getting our best filmmaking tips and tricks? Here are a couple of our most popular articles from across the Soundstripe blog:
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