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Any Recommendations on How to Make a Marketing Video
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[Sam Cornelis] “And yes, many professionals say that good work can only be produced by experienced people with expensive equipment. This is something I read in a lot of places in this forum.
In my opinion, this is not true. One reason is: it is not the equipment, that makes a video that people love to see. It is the idea and the creativity that is important.”
Thanks for reading my other post. I realize it’s TL;DR. This one is too.
I’m afraid I have to disagree that creativity is more important than standards.
If you are living in a house, flying a plane, or driving a car made by someone else, would you prefer it to be built creatively, or with standards?
Not everything in this business is done to entertain. In fact the majority of it is not, and there are many, many jobs that there is no premium placed on the entertainment value.
So do you like to shoot sans lighting and mics, and go au naturale and avoid all that expensive gear? I actually hope you don’t because using an on-camera mic sucks, and most people fail miserably at using available light. Who wants to spend time doing things that suck? I don’t.
Maybe we should just start doing in-camera edits too. NO, let’s not. That would suck too.
The newbies just don’t want to invest the time, or money into doing it the right way. Instead it’s a lot easier and cheaper to just not have any standards, and say that those that have some are snobs. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that crap.
That’s OK for some folks, but I’m never going to be an advocate for lowering production values. Even if it is the current rage. I learned to use, and own what you would call “expensive equipment”. I want things to be lit, have good audio, be shot with the sticks and have B-roll to cover the edits, etc. I know having standards makes me somewhat of a dinosaur, or a snob, I’m OK with that.
This reminds me of the demonetization of the rich, and the people that want to tax them ‘just because’. This make the assumption you will never get rich, or don’t aspire to be rich.
To advocate for, or even just accept the lowering of standards as being OK, is the same thing. It is saying that you have no interest in moving your career to any level above entry level, or having knowledge of intermediate, or advanced skills. Whats the point of getting in this business if all you want to do is schlock work?
Look, you may think that shooting some 60 year old CEO’s annual speech to the stockholders isn’t creative enough for you, or isn’t interesting enough to do more than a half-ass job. But that guy is a paying client and deserves the best.
He deserves to be lit, mic’d and made-up properly. He deserves to have his camera on a tripod, and have a well composed frame. He deserves to have the people doing the lighting, shooting, audio, and editing to have skills in their jobs he is paying for. It may seem quaint to do all that for something that isn’t very interesting, or very creative. But he is a paying client, and it is interesting to him, and that is what professionals do. Anything less than this falls below the threshold of what ‘professional’ is. And believe it or not, that type of work is a lot of what video production is.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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Scott, Tom, I think were are close to a conclusion here … after all, that’s what discussions are meant for: to learn something.
(Scott, what do you mean with TL;DR?)Scott, maybe I should clarify myself. If I speak about using cheaper equipment, I am not talking about in-camera edits nor do I ever skip proper lighting. Let’s take the example of lighting. A red head set is is not that expensive. You can even rent it on a project base. With good use of 3 to 4 red heads, you can achieve great results with a camera of, let’s say 2500 to 3500 Euro’s (I am European – so all Euro’s here). Yes you can use a 10-20.000 Euro camera as well – but since many corporate videos are viewed on the internet – no one will notice the difference. Especially if the content of your video is good. As a requirement for the camera, I’d say you should be at least be able to adjust most things manually (white balance, exposure, … you know). That’s where most consumer camera’s fail – but most prosumer or low-end professional camera’s can do it.
My point is – if you are starting, you should practice a lot with the equipment that is available to your small budget. With that practice, you can achieve surprising great results. Of course, you need to learn the rules of the game, such as the influence of lights and sound.
Sound … let’s go to the 60 year old CEO of your post. Actually, that kind of job is even more challenging your creativity than you might expect. Why ? Because most CEO’s are not-so-good-speakers-as-let’s-say-Steve Jobs or the average TED talk-speaker. (I don’t want to use the word boring here, but … you know). You can take the sound from the available audio equipment in the house – and/or you can use a thing like a Tascam digital recorder. Camera … it is not that difficult, since those guys don’t move a lot. Make sure your lighting is ok, and maybe use two camera’s: a wide angle and a close-up. Lighting, camera, sound … you can use the cheaper gear, or the expensive ones. This doesn’t give you an interesting video – if the CEO is not a good speaker – the video will be boring. So what do you do then – since you are paid to make a great video? You will use your creativity. You will start to listen to what the CEO is saying, and try to find a way to illustrate what he is saying. You may integrate photo’s, graphics, small animations, slides of his presentation, other corporate footage … in your video to make it interesting and get the message to the audience. This has nothing to do with the price of the equipment, but has a lot to do with using your creativity. It is certainly not lowering the standards.
(if the CEO is a good speaker … everything becomes more easy of course – just show him. Look at all the TED talks)So, Scott, I agree with you that lowering the standards is not the way to go. All I want to say is that you don’t need to swear by expensive equipment to produce good quality. In fact, keeping high standards is your main weapon to protect your business. The question is: how do you reach the high standard.
I would never call you or anyone else a dinosaur – I have great respect for experience – since I believe it is experience and creativity that produces great results. But not the tools.(FYI, I am not making entertainment video’s – my topics are for most people even more boring than the annual CEO’s speech. We are specialised in the creation of instructional video’s and animations for high tech equipment … . The video’s are only liked by the people who have to work with the equipment. But nevertheless, these video’s are very challenging to produce. That’s why I felt I had to reply to the original topic of this thread).
Tom, … I’ll answer your post in a next post.
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Tom, you are right, this is the true question: how do you make money from it? I honestly don’t know, but I have some thoughts about which path to follow, a path that fits for us. Time will tell if it is a good one.
Lowering the rates is certainly not an option. Putting a different value against those rates could be an option. If we start a new project, we don’t assume it will be a video in the first place. It may be a broader experience – think website, campagne on narrowcasting systems, campagne on USBstick/DVD … . Maybe animated graphics combined with video will show the message in a better, more spectacular way. The thing is: all those extras are software driven. And using software means automations and templates, means re-usability, means lowering production time, lowering cost – but giving a greater value. This means you can sell it at the same rates (or even higher rates), and with a lower cost you can increase your margins. I call it being creative with technology.
We have to invest a lot of our time to constantly improve ourselves – but it is fun to do, since you can achieve great results and those results are easy to sell at a good price.
I never said you will be in trouble when you tell no-pro-youngsters to go away (that was someone else). I just wanted to say that you can’t stop them by acting like that, nor can you bring anyone else in danger by advising them. Actually, everyone’s situation is so different that everyone should follow their own path: being it the broad approach, being it the high-quality approach, being it the I-don’t care companies you mentioned, or even being it the cheap stuff.
As long as the end result is something interesting to look at, its okay for me, and if it is not … I’ll find something else to look at.
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mmm, the thread seems to be a little bit mixed up. This post had to be placed before my previous one.
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[Sam Cornelis] “(Scott, what do you mean with TL;DR?)”
It’s net-lingo for ‘To Long, Didn’t Read’. I’m saying I know it was a long post, and wouldn’t blame anyone for not reading it.
I’m glad to hear you are not advocating, or tolerating the lowering of standards. For a while it seems as though you might have been. My mistake.
I think there is a difference in who we are talking about. There are the new and inexperinced people, that are learning but still understand this is a professional craft that has standards and requires a certain level of commitment. These people know that everyday is a learning experience.
And then there are those that think it’s so easy a caveman can do it, just because they have some hits on a youtube video. They disrespect those of us that have put years in learning our trade, dismissing that, as the stuff for the oldtimers.
They are people that operate well below the threshold of what a lot of us would call minimum standards. They don’t own, rent, or even use lights. Tripod, whats that? Shoot it all handheld. Putting lots of jump cuts in your finished work makes it more ‘arty’, why shoot cut-aways? And of course reading the manual is for geeks, not us creative types. Does anyone know where I can download some sick light leaks and lens flares for free?
These are just a few examples of what I’m talking about. They have never taken the time to learn the basics of the craft, and don’t want to invest in what most would consider the bare minimum when it comes to equipment or skills. They do this because they would have to charge a higher rate, and no interest in the time it takes. And with their experience they’re unable to justify a higher rate. So to compete with the rest of us, they shoot everything in a run-n-gun style, junk it up with a lot of free plugins, and edit with some bootleg copy of whatever they got from some cracked serial number website, or by using an academic copy of the software. The cut every corner possible. They are the equivalent of those people that are selling burrito’s they made in their home kitchen, out of the trunk of their car. Real restaurant owners that pay their taxes, have insurance, permits, employee’s and equipment overhead have every right to complain about the bootleggers. We do too.
These are the people I’m talking about. The people that are dragging the average rates down for everyone. The people that got into the business last month, and are driving around in their GMC Denali with the magnet sign on the side that says “Joe Blow Video Production”. Last month the sign said, “Joe Blow Amway Dealer”. And then when these people get in over their head, they get on here at the last minute and expect us to help them. There is at least one of these posts on the Cows somewhere everyday. I don’t consider these people my colleagues, and don’t feel any obligation to help them. I understand that some of these folks are just niave’, or put in this position by their boss, or a hundred other excuses. But it doesn’t really matter why they are doing it. Helping them hurts the true low budget working professional in that market, as Tom and I have been pointing out. It’s is the same as acting as a ‘look-out’ for the burrito seller, and letting them know when the food inspector is coming so they don’t get caught. I’m not talking about the guy that has been doing this working for someone else for a few years, that is starting to do some lower budget freelance work in his spare time, who has some education, and professional experience.
There are a couple of standard arguments. One is that you can’t stop the gate crashers. True, or not, that doesn’t mean I should help them drag our rates down. And if one of these guys gets in over his head, and crashes, maybe that is the chance a colleague could use to get a much needed gig. Another argument is that the rest of us should be able to beat these Johnny-come-lately guys with our skill. Often that is true. But, sometimes these guys ofter a little better rate and underbid the job to get the guy on the hook, overstating their abilities and experience. Then they just take much longer at their lower rate, to run the tab up. You never get a chance to tell the client that paying someone that is more experienced is often more cost effective, and delivers a better product. Especially if some Cow member comes swooping in like Superman from the other side of the world to save the day when these guys have an epic failure. Not everyone works in a market where the client has the experience, or is sophisticated enough to understand who the pro’s are. And the other way these people drag the rates down is by doing this, and making the client think this is “how it is”, and lowering expectations.
And then there’s the “who do you think you are” excuse, from the very people I’m talking about. They get on here and make excuses for their behavior, and try to assert your some kind of snob, bad guy, etc, if you wont do all their work for them for free. They quite often demand help as if this was some type of vendor provided customer service, and get indignant if you call them out for not doing their homework, or cutting corners.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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