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Creating Business Videos: Planning, Execution, and Equipment Tips - Transcript

Getting Started with Video

Planning WHAT to shoot?

00:00:00:04     Hi in this episode I'm talking about the planning side of things and making it easier for your staff to get filming. Hi I'm Nigel Maine the founder of salesXchange now. It's great to have loads of ideas but it's important to get them down and

00:00:33:15     then write them up into some form of logical plan. Now it can be an exciting prospect to get out there and start filming but filming more. What I want to do is I want to run through certain themes, i.e. What is your reason to do it. You know it could be educational, sales, or comment or whatever, what the objective is, so why you're doing it. Is it sales, is it P.R, is it attraction. The format and style location,

00:01:06:12     schedule, script and duration, the format and cues, the cast, using staff or not. Or extras, and then you got things like A roll, whether to use one, two or three cameras and B Roll, the supplemental stuff I talked about before whether it should be your own, or stock or come from an iPhone staff

00:01:28:07     phones, or action cameras, that kind of thing. So let's get started. In terms of theme, it's about what you're gonna shoot. What's the theme going to be about, is it going to be educational, to teach people how to do stuff. Are you looking to sell, or is it about comment, or an interview. Is it gonna be a one off, or is it going to be a series.

00:01:59:22     And if it is going to be a series, how will you present it. 

00:02:06:21     So, it really comes down to what your next thought needs to be about in terms of your objective. Is it to create PR and attract new prospects. If it is, what should your call to action be? And if you've got a call to action is it linking to a landing page? Is it about thought leadership or is it just PR.

00:02:39:23     And in terms of the call to action, is it training video. Is it a product launch. Is it to sell products or services, so then you've got the format and style. So before you embark on your filming program you need to determine if the video format is just going to be talking heads or two people having a

00:03:08:23     conversation or one person interviewing another. Is it going to be an explainer video or product video with some interesting filming angles and lighting because you're looking at selling your product. You then have to really think about location. Once you've decided what you can to film, the next decision is going to be to choose location. And if you've got your own office that's great. And if it suits what you want to do then you know of course you going to

00:03:41:08     use that, but if not, hire a studio, there's loads them. Hire an office, hire a meeting room, hire a hotel room, I mean these are pretty simple things to organize as you already know. But the main thing is to create the right impression and I think if you're

00:04:04:14     looking at that side of things you've got those things taken care of. 

00:04:11:10     Next up is deciding the schedule in advance and you can  do that as much or little as you want but the more time you spend planning in advance means the less time you need to spend actually shooting. And this is what we're doing now is an example of our production schedule, but they can be as intricate and as complex as you like. So the bottom line, is the five 'P's', perfect, preparation, prevents, poor, performance and I think, really, you've got to make sure that 'they',

00:04:48:02     because you're not gonna be doing it. 'They' know what they're doing. And then you can let them get on with it. I mean, i cover this in a bit more detail in the next video but then, there's the cast. You need to decide who would appear in the video. And whilst we're not looking at casting couch issues or things like that it's important to decide which of your staff have got the aptitude and

00:05:14:13     ability to appear relaxed and comfortable in front of the camera. So I suppose in a way it's like don't forget there's There's nothing wrong with using actors either. To do the work for you because at the end of the day this is all an act anyway and it doesn't mean that you have to do everything that you have to do the acting and you have to go in front of the camera. But if you did... it would certainly mean that the personality of the

00:05:46:07     business would come across loud and clear. 

00:05:49:22     And that's what this is all about. I think you've also got to think about scripting and the duration and format and cues. I mean, we're not talking film epic scripts here but it's a serious part of the planning. And really no one can can just wing it all the time when it comes to B2B filming unless this is an interview of course or a podcast and you got two or more people involved and then you get a bit of banter and a kind of conversation going. But if one person is going to do with talking like my I'm doing, then

00:06:24:03     you've got to invest some time in writing up what needs to be said. I mean, even if they rehearse, then all well and good but if not it's definitely, seriously, worth using a teleprompter which is why I'm using. I mean we picked ours up for like £250 quid and it gets used with an iPad and it's a lifesaver. And I think if you know that a page of A4 takes about four minutes to read three minutes or there about's it is pretty straightforward working out how

00:06:55:03     long your productions are going to be. So, there's no definitive duration and agreed, more people might be prepared to watch a short video, but if you've identified your market, then a focused audience may watch a longer video.

00:07:17:16     This go in a way kind of goes without saying. But there's also the matter of subtitles which I mean I mentioned this in an earlier video according to Facebook. 

00:07:29:15     80 percent of viewers watched videos in silence. With the sound off. So, again advanced preparation is always going to be better than trying to get away with short cutting the work. So, i just want to touch on the subject of video structure starting with A Roll. Now. It might seem pretty obvious to you, but there's A Roll which is that the main camera, filming the talent like what we've got right here,

00:08:05:02     but there's a bit more to it. So when when shooting the main character or the people talking it's good form to use a couple of cameras because it keeps the viewer engaged, the audio stays the but the camera angles change... It just makes it more interesting. If you've seen it before, there's a shot from the front and a shot from the

00:08:31:08     the left and then you've got a close up from the front. But all these angles represent the A Roll filming of the main subjects and then there's the B Roll. And this is where additional video clips of either activities or people or pictures or products are inserted into the video to create more visual interest and these kind of incidental clips enable you to cut away from the

00:09:02:14     person who's still speaking like I'm doing now. So the key takeaway is to film each of your intended B Roll clips for about 15 to 20 seconds even though you may only use a couple of seconds of each, but this is all about making your videos pleasing to the eye and engaging for the viewer. 

00:09:28:03     So this is your, I suppose the best way to describe it... ...Your opportunity to shine and using B Roll shows that you want to make this a great experience for your viewers, which in turn will be indicative of the way that you sell and serve your customers. And finally, there's the cameras. So whether you want to shoot with one or two or three cameras using sliders

00:10:00:23     and tripods and gimbals or handheld, deciding in advance is all about the five P's again. So I'm only talking from my own experience as I mean we're using two identical cameras like I mentioned before. And if we want a third, then we could use say an iPhone XS which shoots in a raw format so that enables you to blend all of them together using the same color grading which I mentioned before as well without changing too

00:10:29:02     much in color. So it's really up to you but it always comes down to keeping in mind that you're adding to or supplementing or even replacing some sales people. This is, I think, an opportunity to create some great content whenever you

00:10:53:17     feel the need to and make it available 24/7. We all know people are a revenue expense and video can become your best sales ally, enabling you to output your accurate tone of voice as a business owner and know that people are getting to experience your sales style that made your business what it is today.

00:11:25:11     So, that's it for me for this episode. 

00:11:28:16     I hope you found it useful and I will catch up with you in the next one Bye for now.