THE LIST: Video Killed The... Marketer's Will To Live?
How to take the pain out of producing video content.
Good Saturday to you! How was your week - relaxing? Productive? Successful? I went to a real, live, in-person networking event this week and it was a welcome return, although I noted that LinkedIn connecting has replaced the Singaporean tradition of business card collecting in post-pandemic times.
The event was organised by Vimeo a.k.a. “indie YouTube”, to show off their new enterprise offering for managing, reviewing, approving, publishing, sharing, socialising AND measuring your video content. However, to make the most of it you need to be producing lots of videos and I was asked to speak about how to do that without wanting to snap your own fingers off in a clapper board! The short answer, by the way, is this:
Find out what your audience doesn’t know or understand
Build a content strategy (NOT just a video) around it
Hire a producer (NOT a videographer!), either in-house or freelance - someone who is not incentivized by the cost of production
Find a production partner/partners, and stick with them
Get an understanding of the production process
Know your formats (case studies, explainers, interviews, TED Talks, TVCs, etc...)
Apportion an appropriate budget for the expected return
Use dedicated video tools designed for production, review, publication & promotion
You can get the longer and more detailed answer by hiring me to deliver one of our many training sessions just for you, but in the meantime here is a whole lot more education and inspiration to help you find your inner Fellini.
Best, Neal.
Read this…
Not gonna lie but we were in a bit of a bind when my colleague and co-author Mia Brigette Chua rolled up her sleeves and decided to edit her first video on Canva of all things. As it turned out - not a single change was required. See how she did it in this comprehensive ‘how-to’ guide.
Watch this…
I’ve been a Vimeo Pro customer for over a decade as you can see at https://vimeo.com/mooreslore, but even I didn’t know how much they’d rebuilt their platform around the needs of business. For the quickest overview of what’s new and how it can improve your workflow, check out this 2-minute demo video.
Look at this…
Have you ever struggled to describe a visual idea that only exists in your head? Perhaps you’ve been briefing in a video or animation and got stuck trying to convey the motion in your mind? Fear not, for now you can consult ‘Eyecandy’, a website that acts as a massive library of EVERY visual technique! Bang it in your bookmarks NOW! https://eycndy.co/
Listen to this…
One of the most neglected aspects of video production, particularly in the corporate world, is sound design, which can make a massive difference to the quality and depth of your content. Every on screen motion should have an accompanying sound effect and one of the best places to find them is Freesound, a collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds for you to browse, download and use for free from https://freesound.org.
Do this…
If you want to truly appreciate motion pictures and their power to move audiences then I urge you to go and watch ‘Oppenheimer’ in glorious IMAX to see Christopher Nolan, a master of the art, use real 70mm film and zero CGI to to immerse you in his world this weekend. Shaw Lido has the biggest IMAX screen in Singapore at 19m x 9.5m but only a single laser projector - not double laser or real film projection - why does that matter? Get your film geek on and learn something about how formats impact your storytelling, below.
And finally…
After 7 years sitting on my hard drive I have finally mustered the guts to release my Black Mirror-esque story ‘Virtually Innocent’ on Kindle and it’s FREE all this weekend! It’s 38 pages of present-day sci-fi designed to disturb you, and I’m told it works 🫣
But if that’s not disturbing enough, you can still catch me as the evil, colonial British officer Master Blythe in Mediacorp’s ‘The Last Madame: Sisters of The Night’ on MeWatch and YouTube now - see the latest trailer below.