Tips on techniques to get traction for your efforts

Target audience: Nonprofits, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, cause organizations, brands, businesses, Web publishers, videographers, filmmakers, educators, film students.

Every person, cause and business has a story to tell, and a few key video techniques can help bring these stories to life.

Here are a few ways to achieve effective storytelling with video, allowing you to spread awareness and advocate for a cause that deserves greater visibility.

The process: Discover the real story

When going into an interview, leave preconceived notions behind. Stereotypes are not only often wrong, but they also sometimes color perceptions. In the 2-minute story Living a Balanced Life, Major Multimedia tells the story of Charlie O’Leary, executive director of the Santa Fe Conservation Trust by day and artisan of one-of-a-kind custom bikes for racers, commuters and nature lovers by night. (See video at top.)

While we researched a story concept, developed a set of interview questions and prepared a preliminary shot list prior to the initial interview, once we began talking with Charlie we recognized the conservationist angle — what motivates his bike building, living a more balance life — was a much more interesting story. In the interview, listen deeply to your subject and deviate from your script by delving into the areas that could make a more interesting story.

Once you’ve captured the initial interview, the first step to discovering the angle of the story should be the transcribing process.

Crafting a captivating script

Write down the entire interview or narrative, word for word. If you don’t want to invest the time, hire a service such as Voss Transcription, who can turn the video narrative into text in one day turnaround typically. Read and re-read the transcription several times, then …

1) Highlight the best parts of the interview.
2) Add corresponding time codes and clip numbers from the video footage.
3) Edit the text down to a script (just the highlighted parts).
4) Make sure there is a really strong beginning and ending.

Also, to reel in the viewer, building an arc in the middle of the script (a conflict or struggle) is often desirable as well.

Get the key shots to support the script

Once the script has been defined, the key shots should be acquired to support the script. This B-roll footage – supplemental/background footage intercut with the interview – usually requires going back for a second day of shooting.

Three different types of shots work in sync for storytelling. They are: wide, medium and close-up. A good ratio of a sequence of shots for one particular scene is 25% wide, 25% medium and 50% close-ups and extreme close-ups. Notice how effective using a variety of shots can be for setting the mood of Charlie’s story and drawing the viewer with a series of shots in one particular sequence.

The “close” shot should typically precede or follow a wider shot. “An essential part of storytelling is to raise a question and then quickly answer it. Q: Whose hands? A: This person — this face”.  For example, in the scene of Charlie working on the bikes, we shoot a tight shot of Charlie’s hands (shown in the video thumbnail above) followed by a medium shot of his face switching the angles as well to make it more interesting visually:

And an even wider shot to give a sense of place:

Try to get a variety of shots in each scene even if you don’t think you you use them. They may come in handy in the editing process. And don’t forget the cut-away shots — walking into garage, leaving on bicycle — that bring the viewer from one scene to the next.

A few more tips:

Always hold the shot for at least 15 seconds. It will give you some wiggle room to edit and make sure you get some workable footage. What if the camera shakes for a few seconds or accidentally stops recording in the middle of a nice shot? The “15-second rule” will help you get at least a few seconds of good stuff. Remember you can always take a 15 second clip and make it a two second clip – but not the other way around! Be willing to record for longer than you think is necessary, and take risks with more creative angles. You won’t be sorry.

Related

• Creating compelling advocacy videos for nonprofits

• Techniques to add dazzle to your advocacy video

• Resources for grassroots media makers

The post Online advocacy video best practices appeared first on Socialbrite.

10 tips you need to know before picking up that camera

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, brands, educators, video producers, Web publishers, storytellers, individuals.

Guest post by Steve Stockman
Writer/director/producer, Custom Productions, Inc.

Videos are made out of passion you have for your cause — the people you are helping, the changes that need to be made, the story that has to be told. They’re a powerful cause marketing tool. But no matter how good your cause is, one truth stands between you and successful communication: Nobody watches bad video. A poorly done video — one that bores people to the point of clicking away — gives you no chance to inspire, to inform, ask for donations, or share your passion. And if nobody watches, you might as well not bother.

The good news: stories about people, struggle, challenges and passion are entertaining — as long as you know how not to push your audience away with a lame video. Turns out that with a little bit of awareness, planning and practice, you too can make video that doesn’t suck.

Here are 10 things you need to know:

1The audience comes first. What kind of experience is your video providing for the audience? If it isn’t going to take them on a fun or emotional ride, maybe your project should be a memo instead. Give the audience a good time and they’ll love you. And vice versa.

2Video shines at communicating motion and emotion. Facts and figures? Not so much. It’s a human thing — as animals, we’re wired to pay attention to things that move (Food! Danger!) and the communications of the tribe (Is he going to hit me? Does she want sex?). If what you have to say is best said with charts and lists, it may just not be good video material.

3A good video can be summed up in a single sentence. That sentence should consist of a noun, a verb and a result. “Our executive director” is not a video. “Our executive director confronts congresspeople on the street to ask about Global Warming” is.

4Think in shots. You won’t see a lot of long, rambling shots on TV. That’s because a video needs detail and action to hold our attention. Don’t run your camera non-stop. Instead, find something interesting. Aim. Shoot. And, when it stops being interesting, stop shooting and point somewhere else. Your short shots will add up to a shorter, more professional video.

5Cut bad sound, bad lighting and bad photography. It’s disrespectful to ask your audience to suffer through dark scenes, hollow, echoing audio or brain-hurting camera bounces. Worse: They’re instant tune-outs. If it looks bad on the camera’s little screen, it won’t get better when you look at it later. Cut it from the finished video.

6Humor and music, done well, always work. People will sit through tons of drudgery for a good laugh (see the 35-year track record of “Saturday Night Live” for example). Nobody ever said about a video, “It’s too funny. I hate it.” Yet cause marketers especially shy away from humor. Don’t. The right music can be just as visceral, which is why you almost never see an unscored movie. Always try music when you edit. It’s easy enough to take out if it doesn’t work. More often than not, it will be the magic ingredient that pulls your video together.

7Keep your video short. That movie trailer you hated because it showed you the whole movie? Two minutes and thirty seconds long. Your favorite Super Bowl TV spot: 30 seconds. Average time spent looking at a Web page? 15 seconds. How long should your video be? First, this question: Does it star the Victoria’s Secret models and is Martin Scorsese directing? No? Then take the length you intuitively think it should be, and cut by two-thirds. That makes your 10 minute video more like three minutes. Which will still be too long if it isn’t great.

8You know in your heart when the shooting is bad. Your brain will try to convince you it’s OK. This is normal. Nobody wants to throw away a shot that took time to shoot or money to pay for. Trust your gut. If it feels wrong, it’s wrong. Stop. Think. Fix it. Re-light, rewrite or reshoot — whatever it takes.

9Don’t strive to go “viral.” A viral video is a response by an audience that’s so excited by your video that they urgently and quickly share it with everyone they know; or, in other words, it’s a hit. Hits take skill, vision, artistry, marketing savvy and a huge amount of luck. You can hire all but the luck — but it’s expensive and still may not work. Best not to base your strategy on going “viral.” You can still be good, though.

10If you don’t love video, don’t shoot it. You wouldn’t have people who suck at sales run your sales department. You don’t want the guy who’s bored with brain surgery cutting into your head. Add your own metaphor here … and then apply it to video.

But don’t worry! You may already have other video enthusiasts in house that you didn’t know about. For every 50 people in your organization, I’m guessing there are two with a knack for video. Since you didn’t hire them for that, you’re going to have to figure out who they are. Easiest way: Just ask! If your organization is too small to have a video hobbyist, or they’re too busy with their real jobs, hire pros. For big important projects, call the big expensive pros. (Note: Socialbrite’s new in-house expert, Lauren Major, specializes in video and multimedia production for nonprofits — and isn’t expensive.)

For day-to-day stuff, you may be able to make do with a talented recent graduate or intern from the film department of a local college. If you have a very video-centric organization and a strong website, you can train your entire staff to do videos for fun and to build community.

The post How to make cause marketing video that doesn’t suck appeared first on Socialbrite.