What to Expect in a Pre-Production Call for Your Video Shoot
Once we schedule your video shoot, the next step is to set up the pre-production call. This is one of the most vital steps in the video production process.
Here’s what we cover during that call to ensure your video project goes smoothly from start to finish:
Who is Speaking?
The number of speakers is determined in the discovery call. We go into more detail during the pre-production call. We need the names and titles of the speakers so we can include that information in the editing process.
What Are The Topics?
We need to know what information you want to ensure is covered in the video. We also ask that you assign topics to different team members if there are multiple speakers in the video.
This allows us to create the shot list for your shoot so our production assistant keeps everyone on task and organized.
Most importantly it helps us to ensure the video hits your business goals.
B-Roll Shots:
B-roll is the footage that supports the speaking parts. We go into more detail in this article: What is B Roll Footage in a Video.
Our goal with every video is to avoid using stock footage for b roll. During the pre-production call, we will determine the best strategy for getting this footage.
It’s always best to have your actual team members in the shot. An example would be having us capture footage of a team member performing the task you’re talking about in the video.
Best Area To Shoot:
It’s our job to guide you on where we should shoot the speaking parts of your video. However, we will ask you on the call where you think the best places at your office or job site are to film. We look for good lighting (although we always bring our professional lighting) signage that your company name/logo, and overall aesthetics.
Clothing:
The next item to address is what you and your team members should wear on the day of the video shoot. Branded clothing is always best, but what you would normally wear to work is typically what we recommend.
For more in-depth guidance, we wrote an article on this as well: What to Wear on a Video Shoot.
Inform Office Members
We will also remind you to inform any team members that may be on location the day of the shoot that we will be filming so they don’t make an unexpected cameo 🙂
Confirm Location, Date, and Time:
Once we schedule the video, we will have the location(s), date(s), and time. It’s always great to double-check to ensure all parties are on the same page for your video shoot.
Logo and Best Number to Contact
Lastly, we’ll have you send us a high-resolution version of your logo and the best phone number for potential customers.
We will add these details at the end of your video for the call to action.
The pre-production call is a crucial step in ensuring your video makes your business money for years to come!
How to Look Better on Camera
Most people we talk to aren’t naturally excited about being on camera, but they understand the impact that a brand video can make for their company. Here are 3 tips on how to look better on camera in your next video.
Talk Slowly
You may be thinking, “How does talking slowly help me LOOK better?”. When you talk slower, you’re more in control of your words and you will appear more confident and trustworthy.
Think about the opposite: have you ever come across someone who talks fast and looks “shifty”? These people tend to have us put our guard up. Slow down your speech and you will look like you’re in command of every word you say.
Also, use your hands when you talk. This makes you look confident as well.
Wear Clothes That Make You Feel Great
We’ve touched on this in a previous article called, What to Wear For a Video Shoot.
You want to pick out an outfit that you know makes you look and feel great. The feel is just as important as the look because you’ll appear more confident when you’re comfortable. I probably look better in a suit, but I feel better in a nice t-shirt or henley so that’s typically what I wear in our videos.
Be prepared
Preparation=confidence. When you’ve rehearsed what you will say before we shoot the video, you’ll be more confident and look better on camera.
It’s similar to giving a presentation: When you know your material, you look more natural and the words just flow.
We ensure you’re prepared by having a pre-production call with your company about a week before the video shoot. We cover all of the details of the shoot, including an outline of what you’ll be saying in the video. Our production assistant will be there on shot day to help guide you, but going over the content beforehand will help you look amazing.
We hope these tips help you look your best on your next video shoot.
What would you add?
Click here for a quote for your next video project: Get a Quote
What Should We Talk About in Our Brand Video?
This is a common question on discovery calls with professional service businesses.
Here are 3 questions that we ask to determine the best content to include in your company’s brand video.
What is Important to You That You Want Your Ideal Client To Know?
When producing a video for your company, it’s our job to guide you, but ultimately you will know your business far better than us. You know what makes you different from your competitors and the services your companies offer.
During our pre-production call, we will ask you what is important for your ideal customer to know about your company, based on your years of experience. This will help us create an outline for you to go over to ensure your content aligns with your brand.
What Questions Do Your Ideal Clients Always Ask You?
Chances are if one of your clients has a question, several potential clients have the same question. Start thinking of questions that you answer day in and day out. Answering these in your brand video is a great way to build trust.
That’s exactly what we’ve done in the articles that we write. We simply address questions we get on sales calls or production meetings and build content around them.
What Are The Main Problems Your Company Solves?
The last question I ask clients is what pain points and problems their clients have that their company solves. If you work for an IT company, you may solve cybersecurity issues.
Law firms solve legal issues, but it’s best to be specific. For example, business attorneys will solve different problems than a family law attorney.
Put yourself in the place of your ideal client. What pain points do they have? What problems do they consistently come to your company to solve? This is the content you should discuss in your brand video.
Your Next Step
Are you ready to take your company’s branding to the next level? Click here to schedule a call to discuss your brand video project: book a call
Preparing Your Office For a Video Shoot
One of the events that triggers the need for a new professional video is when your company moves to a new office. We are working with a financial services firm that recently relocated and they asked us for a quote to produce a new video and to update their company’s employee headshots.
Before we move forward and shoot the video, we recommended that they have their decor set up first as their office and walls are bare. We want the video to look as great as possible. Here are a few things to consider when preparing your office for a video shoot:
Location:
Where within your office are we going to film the speaking parts of the video? The CEO’s office, the conference room, or various offices? These are some of the details that we cover during our pre-production call.
Ultimately, it’s our job to put our creative eyes on your space to guide you, but it’s good to have a plan so the areas are ready (we’ll get into that shortly). Also, we will be getting b roll (shots that support the speaking parts of the video) in various locations of your office.
We also want to select a space in your office with good lighting, although we always bring our professional lighting setup with us to ensure your team looks fantastic.
Clean and Declutter:
It’s not necessary to buy new decor for your professional video shoot. We do ask that the space(s) we will be filming in is clean and tidy. This will help keep the video free of distractions and give your company a great first impression. Details matter.
Let your Employees Know:
Our production assistants do a great job of managing the shoot and it’s much easier if everyone in the office knows that video production is happening. This will ensure that employees who are not supposed to be in the video don’t make an unexpected cameo. This will also keep noise (talking and phones) at a minimum during the recording.
We hope these tips help your video shoot go as smoothly as possible.
If your company needs to refresh its brand video due to an office move, you can contact us here to get started: Get a Quote
What to Wear For a Video Shoot
I was recently asked by a marketing director, “What should we wear” during our initial meeting as we discussed the details of a video and photography shoot. This is a complex answer that has a few variables.
Here are 3 questions we ask to guide you through your wardrobe selection:
What Represents Your Brand?
Suits look amazing, especially if they’re tailored, but if a plumbing company shot a video with all the techs wearing one it wouldn’t quite represent their brand. The same is true for being too “dressed down”. Think about what outfit most represents your brand and what types of clients you’re trying to attract.
A law firm whose target market is executives would opt for a traditional suit, whereas a high-end landscaping company may want to wear branded polo shirts in their video. The key is for you and your team to be consistent in what you wear in the video.
What Are You Comfortable Wearing?
We recently shot a video for a managed IT company and they work with some rather large, professional companies. This doesn’t mean they need to wear a suit and tie. Their reps were much more comfortable wearing a branded polo. If they were forced to wear a suit, they would have come off as stuffy, squirmy, and inauthentic on camera. Instead, they appeared confident and trustworthy, simply by being comfortable in their clothing. Note: I’m not suggesting to wear sweats during your video shoot. 🙂
What Makes You Feel Confident?
The last question to consider is what makes you feel confident? Most of us have that one outfit that we feel amazing, comfortable, and confident in. For me, it’s typically an all-black outfit of some sort. The reason why it’s important to pick out something that makes you feel confident is it’s one less thing to be concerned about when on camera. This allows you to focus on delivering your content instead of worrying about how you look.
If you still need help in the wardrobe selection, don’t worry…we cover all of this in our pre-production call to ensure your team is ready to roll on video shoot day!
To schedule a discovery call for your next video project, click here: Get a Quote
How To Maximize The ROI of a Video
Today, let’s get into how to maximize the return on investment on a video. So when we shoot a video for a client, we don’t just want to produce an incredible video, we want it to perform well and make you money. So I want to give a few tips to ensure it does just that.
Put it on Your Website
You want to be sure to put this video somewhere on your company’s website. Now, depending on the type of video it is, is where you’re going to put it.
For a brand video:
If it’s a brand video, that corporate video that shows off your team and services, you probably want to have that somewhere on the home screen. Depending on the layout, it could be above the fold, below the fold, but somewhere on that home screen to where when someone’s browsing your website, then they watch that video, it usually does a lot of the trust building and selling for you.
For a recruiting video:
Now, if you have a recruiting-style video where you’re more going into depth on your team, you may have that on the About Us section of your website.
For a services video:
And if it’s a video on a specific service, you want to have that on your services page under that particular service.
Social Media Channels
In addition to posting videos on social media, you want to ensure your videos are uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo.
The reason is, that someone can find that content years down the road, and your company can be making money long after the video is shot. That’s important to us because we don’t want you investing money with us to just produce a killer video. We want you to get a strong return on your investment as well.
So hope this helps. Get recording. And remember at 12 Media Group, we put your brand in focus.
Ready to discuss a video project for your company? Click here to get started: Get a Quote
Choosing The Right Video Production Company
When choosing the right video production company for your business, there are several factors to consider. Here are 5 things we recommend to check to ensure you get the best experience:
Portfolio
You’ll want to check out the video production company’s portfolio of videos to ensure their style aligns with what you want for your project. Also, what types of video do they shoot? Music videos? Corporate videos? Events? You want to go with a company with experience in the kind of video you’re looking for.
Proximity
Where are they located? You may find a video production company that fits your creative needs, but do they service your area? We are located in McKinney, TX, just outside of Dallas, but we will travel to our client’s location if necessary. Full disclosure: we add travel expenses to our agreement if we travel out of town. Most of our video projects are shot in the DFW area.
Delivery of Video Assets
A must-ask when interviewing video production companies: When will you receive your video? Our process allows us to get assets to our clients in about a week and a half after shooting the video. Also, you own the videos once we deliver them to you. I’m finding that several companies try to guard your video assets instead of sharing the raw file with you.
Also, how your video is delivered is important. Our preferred method is sharing the files in a Dropbox folder to free up space for you.
Licenses
Music: Something else you need to be aware of: the cool music you hear in brand videos isn’t necessarily free. Any reputable video production company will use royalty-free music from a company like Epidemic Sound to ensure your company doesn’t get in trouble for uploading the video to YouTube, Facebook, or other social media platforms.
Drone Footage: Drone videography looks amazing in a video, but be sure whoever you’re using is licensed to fly a drone. All of our videographers have the required credentials to shoot amazing drone shots.
Budget
You need a rough idea of your budget and the typical project amount of the video production company you’re considering. That way the proposal does not blow you away. Most companies will have a range on our website. Most of our video projects are about $5000 (sometimes more and sometimes less) depending on the project’s scope.
I hope this helps in your decision-making process to choose the right video production company for your project. To schedule a discovery call with us, please click here: Get a Quote
