How To Create Professional Video Content From Home

Covid19 has created a large number of challenges for businesses the world over. At Captive8 Media, we are up and running albeit in a much smaller way, clearly not able to film on locations or at events we would normally be filming but we are still operating and still working. I thought I’d put this blog post together because in these crazy times people are doing some different things and thinking about different ways that they can communicate. I’m seeing lots of different companies putting together their own videos. Some of them are really good, some of them not so good but they’re nearly there and I thought while I’ve got a bit of time that I’d put this post together to help companies improve the production quality a little bit. There’s a few very simple techniques and tips that I can give to help people.

This is really a way to reach out to let people know that “we’re here”, to give thought and support to companies big and small all over the world and hopefully there’ll be a few nuggets of information that you might be able to make use of.

VIDEO CONSUMPTION
There’s no better time to talk to people by video. You can’t get out and about on the road but also everybody’s doing things in a different way and clearly people have got a bit more focused time to look at their computers and to consume information and to hear from people.

One of the exciting things for me as a video professional is that people are consuming video. Clearly, they’re at home and they’re watching things like Netflix and Amazon, people are doing video conference calls people are watching things that they might be not watching any other time of the year. It’s actually quite interesting idea anyway, but also because that’s “what we do” – I should be a bit of an expert in this. We are a video production company – we do all sorts of different things and hopefully there’s a few skills that I can pass on to people that are doing videos to help them on their way.

THE CAMERA
One of the first things is really the camera. These days most people have ready access to a very good quality camera in their phone. My phone is a couple of years old and it films in perfect quality HD everything’s automatic. It’s got me in focus and it’s exposing correctly and so you’ve actually got a really good quality camera. Quite often they’re filming in 4k – certainly high resolution so you’ve got a tool right there that you don’t have to spend any money on now. Clearly, you’ve got to have it held up in front of you. Now some people might want someone to be filming but actually that could be quite difficult because it can be a little bit daunting having someone behind the camera that you’re talking to and you might be distracted and you don’t want to look silly. What I would probably suggest is something like an in-car phone mount. There’s got to be something that you can stick it to – put it on a chair, stick it on a wall – some fairly basic way to hold a camera. It’s going to be a little bit better than having someone that might be moving around, might get distracted, might get bored and as I said it will probably make it a bit easier for you to talk to nothing rather than someone.

VERTICAL OR HORIZONTAL
One of my personal hates is video that’s filmed vertically rather than horizontally. We’ve got eyes that are horizonal across our head – we’ve got peripheral vision – screens, monitors – we’re used to watching things in horizontal not vertical. If you’re filming on a mobile phone unless you really want to and unless you know your videos going to be consumed on social media like social like Facebook then I would really suggest you can hold it horizontally not vertically. Don’t forget that if people are watching on their mobile phone, they can twist it and it will be seen in a much better perspective – it’s more natural. Don’t go too far away. A lot of people seem to want to be quite a long way away from the camera. The thing to remember is that if people are watching on a mobile phone or on a tablet then the video is going to be pretty small and you’re going to be tiny within that video frame. People can’t really see your face if it’s less than the size of a thumbprint! You might as well just be doing audio rather than video. I’d certainly bring the camera a little bit more forward than you may be comfortable with. It can again be a little bit daunting but it’s going to be much better in terms of when someone watches it. They’re going to make eye contact with you and it’s going to be a much better way for them to be watching you.

CONTENT IS KING
The content is obviously really important. There’s no point in doing a video if you’ve got nothing to say. Let people know your status especially at the moment with this the craziness. Let people know that you’re open, what your capacity is, how you may be impeded, how you might be able to help people. Reach out to your customers, talk to them about how your business is going to evolve or change to help them at the moment. It can be reassuring to have a friendly face – to have an opportunity to communicate with your customers face to face “virtually” – it’s actually really beneficial. Even your staff – quite a lot of people are doing conference calls and if you’re not doing that then to give people the reassurance that things are up and running, to let people know you’re thinking about them. Video can be a really powerful tool. This is also quite a good time if you’re sat at a desk and you’re trying to adapt to what you’re doing for your work day. Give a little bit of thought about how video could help you – if not now, with these kinds of videos but in the future. What other projects could you be doing at a later stage? We certainly help customers with things like “frequently asked questions” and training which can be for customers or for your customers to teach them how to use your products in the best way. Or talk about ways that your products could be adapted to different uses. A time like that this is probably quite a good time for you to think about those kinds of things. and but also if you’ve got old video content – whether its video content that we filmed or by other video companies. Or anything that you’ve got historically – this might be a good time to relook at that. Look at ways that the content could be repurposed. It could be re-edited to work in a different way or to give a different message or just to keep it fresh. Even just to repost your old content so that it’s fresh in people’s minds. It’s probably pretty good time to do it.

AUDIO
The audio is probably one of the quickest ways to establish if something’s been homemade or not. On-board camera microphones are pretty good. Again, you’ve got to be pretty close to the camera in order for them to sound good but they are always going to pick up lots of ambient sound. Especially if you’re at home if you’ve got kids running around – washing machines on the go – you’re going to hear those just as much as you’re going to hear your voice! If you’re able to, if you’ve got the time, then you can get really good quality but cheap microphones which will plug into the audio socket of a mobile phone. You may well need a breakout cable. There’s a TRS cable which you can plug into the headphone socket of a mobile phone. You’ll have one side which is for your microphone and one side which is for your headphones. That’s quite an important thing if you are going to get a plug-in microphone if it’s not one that is designed especially for mobile phones then you will need to get one of these breakout sockets. If you’ve got a microphone that you use with your computer for example – that will plug into one of these breakout cables and that will be a really great way to record audio. One big tip will definitely be just to listen to your voice in certain environments. Have a listen to other sounds like any ambient sounds. Things like washing machines in the background, air conditioning, the fans on computers if you’re doing it in a study. They can be quite loud but you ignore them. Your brain is filtering out all these noises which you’re not often aware of. One quite funny thing is when I am on location with clients. They will insist that there’s a really quiet room. As soon as I get there, I will hear all of the echoes. I will hear some of the reverberations, vibrations, air conditioning above their head, some road works out in the street. Because these people are used to these environments, they filter them out and they’re not aware of them. Just have a listen to how things can be impacted. One little tip is if you’ve got soft furnishings maybe some pillows around if you’re in a small environment. Maybe put some pillows up or some blankets up. That can actually absorb a lot of sound and can actually make a really big difference and raise the production values of your video.

LIGHTING
Another difference can be lighting. Right now, it’s a really nice sunny day – funnily enough in England we’ve actually got some Sun! This room is quite bright and I’ve got overhead lighting. You might not have that and using a light will really make a big difference. I haven’t used any proper lighting just to illustrate. I’ve got a very small light above the camera and that’s actually making quite a big difference to bringing the foreground out as opposed to the background. That’s what a lot of lighting is all about – giving you a foreground and a background and putting the focus on where you want the viewers eyes to be. Having a light will make a difference even if you’ve got a desktop lamp or a lamp that you use in the garage or something like that. Those kinds of things will make quite a big difference to raising the production quality on your video. Obviously when we work, we have different professional lights. Lighting is quite often something that is missed by people but is one of the things that will make a video look professional as opposed to homemade. If you are able to do just one or two little touches then that will really make your video much better.

BEING IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA
Being on camera is a lot of people’s worst nightmare. We work with so many different people that have never been in front of a camera before. There are numerous subtle techniques that we will use to make people relax and get the best out of them and to get them used to being in front of a camera. If you’re doing a video yourself you won’t have the benefit of those kind of things so do your best to relax don’t overanalyse what you’re doing. Don’t be too critical of your voice and how you look. People aren’t used to looking at themselves on camera or hearing themselves and they hate it but as soon as you put in front of someone else, they will reassure you that you’re good, it’s working and it’s great.

CONTENT IS KING
Content is king so if you’re doing a video, you’re already most of the way there. Just relax. One big thing to help you will be to write some bullet points of the things that you want to talk about. You don’t want to be rambling – you want to cover the points that you want to get across in the video. Don’t write a script! If you’re starting writing a script you might as well just send them an email! this is all about making the communication with your customers and your viewers. Don’t try and cover everything all in one go. Don’t be afraid to take a pause and to change topics. Break the video down a little bit. Don’t feel that you just need to talk for 10 minutes because one the video might get a little bit dull – it makes your job really difficult. For the viewer it’s much better viewed if you’re a bit more to the point and covering all the bullet points you’ve done on your nicely prepared sheet!

EDITING
You are going to need to do some form of editing but it’s probably going to be pretty basic. You’re going to want maybe your company logo, a title, then cut out any gaps you might have made and then right at the end put your logo again. I’m not going be able to tell you the best software to use – there’s so much resource out there. Look on Google or YouTube. You’ll find lots of guides but you can keep it very basic. Find something you’re happy to use and you’re comfortable with. There’s lots of it for free as well so you don’t have to put any money into it to find something that will be able to put your video together in a much more professional way.

DISTRIBUTION
You need to make sure that you get your video out there. You need to get this uploaded and I would always suggest that you upload it to YouTube. YouTube is really good for your search engine results because it’s all tied in with Google. This is something that we work on with our clients to optimize their search results and there’s various techniques and things that we do to help that. Make sure you use a really good title. Don’t just put “company update” because that’s never going to be found. Use a sensible title and then you can post that video to all your social media to Facebook and to Twitter and Instagram and various social media. clearly those platforms also have their own hosting solution so you can upload the videos to there as well. Make sure that you spread to your video as far and wide as possible if you’re reaching out to customers. Obviously if it’s an internal message that’s a little bit different, or if it’s specific to specific people.

I really hope that this has given you some food for thought and some practical tips. If you are doing video, hopefully this will help you. If you’re NOT doing video, hopefully this has given you some inspiration for what you can do.