A bluffer’s guide to shooting the best video from Digital PR Experts

Blog

Digital PR experts share top tips on storytelling through video

How to Guide: Shooting a Video

A picture tells a thousand words, but what if that picture came to life?

Videos are exciting, catchy ways to tell a story and stamp your message in the minds of consumers. With cameras in our pockets, making videos has become easier than ever before – so why the hold up?

To help you out, our digital PR experts have outlined the key components needed to make the perfect video with just your phone.

1. Plan

Before you begin, you’ll need to sketch out a plan to detail the concept and purpose of your video. Like any other story telling plan we’ve broken it down into: What, When, Where, Why, and How.  

One thing to be mindful of is the orientation you shot your video from. If you switch between portrait and landscape the final product will have a choppy finish, so stay consistent!

For example:  If it’s an Instagram story then the orientation will have an effect on the way that its viewed and may make the decision easier for you. Below is an example of a portrait video and a landscape video as an Instagram story.

Once you have the video plan it’s time to get to shooting! Most phones have decent cameras meaning quality won’t be compromised, but there are a few things to look out for which can easily make your video go from a 10/10 to a two.

2. Edit

Once you have your shots, its time to edit them together.

There are endless options of editing software to use. You can edit the video directly on your phone using an editing app, or transfer the videos to your computer and use Adobe Premire Pro, Final Cut or even Movie Maker if you want something cheap and simple.

When editing your video together there’s a few things to be mindful of – transitions, sound and text.

Transitions

Moving one clip to the next sounds very simplistic but often this can be what makes a video really great. Creative transitions can help move from one scene to another in a more interesting way, catching your audience.

For example, the video below demonstrates the ways in which quick and smooth transitions make this video stand out from the crowd.

Sound

To compliment your transitions, you can use sound to help make the transition come to life. Whether that be to sync a song to the moment a clip changes or to incorporate sounds that align with the scene, there are endless possibilities.

The video below is an excellent example of how the transitions and the sounds compliment one another. The videographer includes snippets of water dripping to road traffic to make the video vibrant and put the viewer in the shot.

Of course, these are all professional videographers so don’t be put off by the quality of their videos. Something as simple as choosing a really great song and aligning it with your shots can be all it takes to make it go from good to great.

Text / Graphic

Finally, including text or graphics can help communicate your story and make a mark in audiences’ minds. The choice of font and positioning of text are important elements to be aware of and can be the difference between a high-end video and a budget video.

3. Publish

Finally, its time to export that video and publish it for your viewers to see.

If posting a video on a website or on social media, be sure to imbed the video so that viewers can read your post and click immediately on the video to see your content.

Give it a catchy caption and you’re good to go!

Our Digital PR team is here to help boost your business. Get in touch below for more information.

Getting in touch with our social care PR team couldn’t be easier. Phone us on 0131 561 2244 or take a few seconds to fill and submit the simple form below and we’ll get straight back to you:

Contact Form