How to MAKE GREAT VIDEOs

Chris Snider | Drake University

Chris SniderAssistant Professor in Drake University School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

I teach classes in social media, web design, multimedia and visual communication.

2016 is the year of video• Facebook and Snapchat each serve up 8 billion+ video

views per day.

• Twitter says video views grew by 220X from the end of 2014 to the end of 2015.

• 4 times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.

• 1 in 4 consumers actually lose interest in a company if it doesn’t have video.Source: animoto.com Feb. 2015

Video and your business• Multiple case studies show a large increase in click-

throughs for emails that include video versus those that don't.

• Viewers spend much more time on your site because of video. Cars.com saw an increase from 30 seconds to almost 6 minutes of the average time spent on their site after it revamped its video strategy.

• Video gets the decision-maker to take action. 65% of executives have visited a vendor's website after watching a video.

Source: branddrivendigital.com

The problem is… most people don’t know how to make quality video.

But you can do it with only a smartphone.

https://youtu.be/KWaK1Yy5_EM

“Snowbird” by Sean Baker

https://youtu.be/gyOogqIqgmc

FiLMiC Pro Contest Reel

How to make great videos…

1. Shoot in shots• Don’t shoot in one continuous movement or hold

one shot for too long

• Shoot a series of unique shots and put them together to tell the story

• This is a terrible video (with millions of views): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

Move, point, shoot, stop. Move, point, shoot, stop. Move, point, shoot, stop.• Frame your shot, then press record until it gets boring.

• Then stop and move on to the next one.

• Shoot more than you think you’ll need (you don’t have to use it all)

https://youtu.be/vcq8GFVvDvI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo8HR711y2w

2. Camera movement…

• Pan - move the camera horizontally

• Tilt - move the camera vertically

• Zoom - move toward/away from to subject

• Follow shot - follows the action

• Always begin and end stable

… avoid camera movement• Any sort of camera movement is advanced

technique

• Hold the camera still and let the movement happen inside your composed shot

• Most great TV/movies are a series of still shots

Example: Shower scene from Psycho: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atjhOhH-V3E

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2x74fi

3. COMPOSE YOUR SHOTS

• Take charge and properly set up the shot.

• Pay attention to backgrounds.

• Don’t be afraid to rearrange the furniture (in non-documentary situations).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=232&v=OVnRcIXEqaU

RULE OF THIRDS

Source: http://ecvphoto.weebly.com/the-art-of-composition.html

FRAMING

Source: http://ecvphoto.weebly.com/the-art-of-composition.html

LEADING LINES

Source: http://ecvphoto.weebly.com/the-art-of-composition.html

FOREGROUND/BACKGROUND

Image by Georgie Pauwels. Used with Creative Commons Attribution.

4. Shoot wide,

medium and cLose

For close-up shots, look for hands and faces

https://youtu.be/LsYOKWXi4iA

Let’s SHOOT• Shoot shots for a video called “Lost on Campus”

• Storyboard how you would do this

• 3 close-up shots (faces, hands, feet)

• 3 medium shots

• 3 wide shots (focus on composition)

• 5-10 seconds each / everyone shoots

• Bring back and we will edit on your phone

EDIT IN SPLICE on iPhone

VIDEOSHOP on ANDROID

A BETTER VIDEO APP: FILMICPRO

• $9.99 in the app store

• Professional video tools such as smooth zooming, lock focus, lock exposure, sound levels.

IPHONE EDITING: IMOVIE

• $4.99

• Includes many of the same features as the desktop version

ANDROID EDITING: KINEMASTER

• $5/month

• Includes many of the same features as the desktop version

SIMPLE VIDEO EDITING: CLIPS

• Quickly turn multiple clips into once movie

• NO LONGER AVAILABLE - but watch Google Photos App for these features soon

5. Shoot in sequences

• Think in terms of scenes

• For each scene, follow the action, shoot wide, medium and close-up

• Reconstruct the event so it appears to happen in real time. Look for things that repeat (so you can shoot more than once). Or have your subject repeat them (if possible)

Showing continuity• One shot should follow another in a logical, or

sequential pattern, creating the illusion of one continuous action.

• The most common way to show continuity is to cut on the action so the audience pays more attention to the action rather than to the cut.

• Another is to cut on the look, when the character looks at something and then there is a cut to show what they're looking.

Let’s BRAINSTORM

• What are seven different shots you could use to show someone making eggs?

• Think wide, medium and close-up.

• How would you put that together into one sequence?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaiJIaQAvUI

STORYBOARDING

• It’s important to think through all of your shots ahead of time.

• Easiest way is to storyboard what you will shoot.

LET’s TRY IT

• Storyboard someone brushing their teeth

• 12+ shots

• Wide, medium, close-up

6. shoot when you see the whites of their eyes

• Half of our communication is through our eyes.

• Miss the eyes and you miss half the message.

• http://vimeo.com/24147165 (1:10 mark)

7. Capture emotion and motion

• Emotion come through loud and clear on video

• That explains the double rainbow guy

• Viewers also respond to motion (ever watch a school board meeting on TV?)

• That explains cat videos

8. Tell a story• Every video will be better if it tells a story.

• A story should have four elements

• A hero

• A beginning (where we meet the hero)

• A middle

• An end

Hold part of the story back

• Don’t give away the story too early

• You want to intrigue the viewer and keep them around

• Your shots should raise questions, not necessarily answer them

Let’s BRAINSTORM

• Choose a topic: the not-so-great outdoors OR trouble at birthday partyOR first-date disaster

• Who is your hero?

• What happens in beginning, middle, end?

LET’S TRY IT

• Shoot a story with a hero, a beginning, a middle and an end

• Make it so you can edit down to 15 seconds

• Topic ideas: lost keys, watch out for that pencil, dead cell phone battery

Focus on: Storytelling, whites of eyes, emotion/motion

9. Zoom with your feet, not with your lens

• Shoot at your camera’s widest setting, and get close to the action

• 10x zoom = 10x shakiness

10. Let your subject enter and exit the frame

• This will represent passage in time and make it easier to transition to another shot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoUH7O-XjAs

• Tip: A subject who exits frame right should enter the next shot frame left. Otherwise, it appears they turned around and are walking in the other direction.

11. you’re only as good as your audio

• A video that is difficult to hear will turn off viewers.

• Avoid locations with bad acoustics.

• Avoid distracting background noises (busy areas, heavy machinery, lawnmowers, etc.)

• Use an external microphone for quality audio.

INTERVIEW: What we need

• Tripod (Amazon Basics)

• Tripod adaptor (Shoulderpod)

• Better microphone (VideoMic Me, iRig Pro + lav mic or stick mic)

• Light

https://vimeo.com/64729691

Shooting an interview…

LET’s TRY IT

• Interview a classmate for 30 seconds

• Where did they work in high school?

• Listen to audio.

• Repeat.

12. avoid vertical video*

*Unless on Snapchat, Meerkat or Periscope, etc.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA

13. use the 5-shot method

• Extreme close-up of action detail

• Close-up of face of person doing action

• Medium shot - face and action together

• Over-the-shoulder view of the action (point of view of person doing action)

• One more different angle (be creative)

https://www.facebook.com/insidetrip/posts/775762839171102

LET’s TRY IT• Interview a classmate for 30 seconds

• Shoot 5 shots of B-roll using 5-shot method

• Use…

• A tripod for still video

• A microphone for quality audio

• A well-framed shot

• Edit together into a story

Editing tips• Cuts should be seamless, so that one shot transitions

to the next naturally without without distracting from what the viewer is watching.

• Matching action from one shot to the next creates the illusion of one continuous motion.

• Cut on motion. Motion distracts the eye from noticing editing cuts and is the most common way of achieving the much sought after match cut. So, when cutting from one image to another, always try to do it when the subject is in motion.

Sources: http://www.videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/10-rules-for-video-editors http://cuvideoedit.com/rules-of-editing.php

Editing tips

• The types of shots (wides, mediums, close-ups) should be varied, to create a dynamic sequence.

• The pacing of the shots should also be varied to create different moods.

• The length of the shot is determined by the amount of information it contains. Once this information is conveyed, it's no longer necessary to linger on the shot.

Avoid jump cuts

• A jump cut occurs when you have two consecutive shots with dramatic differences. These differences can be based on movement, screen position, etc.

• Jumps create a disconnect for the audience, it makes the cut very obvious and makes them take notice. Cutting to B-Roll can cover up jump cuts.

Common cutting patterns

• Conventional – begins with the wide shot and then cuts to the medium shot, and finally the close-up, working closer towards the character.

• Reveal – begins with a close-up shot, then cuts to a wider, revealing more information about the scene.

• Matching Action – cutting on movement makes for slick, dynamic cuts

Creative videos: Quik

• Free

• Quickly make videos, add text and music

MOTION GRAPHICS: LEGEND

• $1.99

• Add animated text to your videos and photos

PHOTOS TO VIDEO: STORYO

• Free

• Turn your photos into a video slideshow

EXPLAINEr VIDS: SPARK VIDEO

• Free

• Combine text, icons, photos, voiceover

MORE VIDEO APPS TO TRY

• Cinamaker - Film with multiple cameras

• 1 second everyday - very short videos over time

• Hyperlapse - timelapse video while you move

• Nutshell - creative storytelling app

• Videon - video shooting and editing tools

• Action Movie FX - Hollywood effects for your movies

QUESTIONS?

Follow Chris: @chrissnider

chrissniderdesign.com tinyletter.com/chrissnider