Corporate Video Production – Part 2: In Production
October 15th, 2011 in Video Production Posted by cathy
It’s important to realise that, whether you’re making product videos, a training video, or a marketing video it’s not often that viewers will be rushing home excitedly to watch a corporate video.
Why not set out to make TV? Business TV. The difference is more than just semantics, it’s a whole different approach. It’s about making something that people want to watch. Something that entertains as well as informs.
If you’re looking at a corporate video production company’s portfolio, ask yourself – does this look like TV? You don’t need to know all the ins and outs of video production – if the answer is no, then keep looking!
So how do you turn a corporate video into a TV programme?
My aim here is to help you to get the best out of your production team and ultimately, better results from your investment.
One of the first things you’ll need to decide is: who will speak and deliver your message? a presenter, interviewees or a voiceover?
PRESENTERS
A presenter speaks directly into the camera and so it feels like they are talking directly to you, and you are a participant.
Using a presenter allows you to script your message so your video can cover a detailed or complicated subject in a very clear and concise way.
Jennifer Johnston presenting in Vienna
You might consider using a celebrity to front your corporate video. Using celebrities who are associated with your industry can add authority and credibility to your company and your message.
You don’t always have to use a professional presenter. Employees can be just as effective. The trick is to keep their script to short soundbites, record lots of takes and film plenty of cutaways.
INTERVIEWS
Interview-led programmes are very common in the corporate world.
Interviewees will generally be looking off camera at the interviewer and so as a viewer you are more of an observer.
You can ask interviewees to answer directly into the camera. This is very effective if they’re delivering a short personal message to the audience and feels more relaxed and off the cuff.
Wherever your interviewees are looking, the eyeline must be consistent throughout the programme. All interviewees must look either at the camera or not. If just one looks into the camera, they become promoted to a presenter. It looks wrong and is confusing to the viewer who will be thinking about the eyeline and not about what the person is saying.
CUTAWAYS
Whether you’re producing a presenter-led or interview based programme, you are going to need cutaways.
Cutaways are shots that you cut away to. If you need to remove a section of an interviewee’s answer, you need another shot to cover the edit point. Cutaways give you control over your message.
It’s rare that you’ll see a person talking on TV for long without a change of shot.
Because we’re all used to this level of visual stimulation, it’s really hard to watch the same shot for more than a few seconds without starting to lose focus on what’s being said. It doesn’t matter how interested you are.
So if you want viewers to absorb your message, then you need to keep things moving. If you’re making a corporate training video, it will really help the audience to see footage of the subject matter.
Filming cutaways usually takes longer than it does to film the actual interview itself, so time needs to be allocated in the shooting schedule.
Cutaways need to be planned.
If you only have a few hours with an interviewee, you’ll need to film quickly. This means that location permits, extras, stand ins and props all need to be organised beforehand.
Of course, you can’t plan shots to illustrate an interview unless you know what the interviewee will say. So, the director needs to speak to them prior to the shoot. This also helps to establish a rapport and gives the interviewee chance to voice any concerns they may have about the filming.
It may not always be possible to film shots of the subject matter. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t film cutaways.
The interview/talking head shot is very corporate. The more cutaways, the less corporate and the more engaging your programme will be.
What makes a nice shot?
Well, ideally you can leave this to your video director and cameraman but you may be asked to find a filming location so here are a couple of pointers.
Never interview people up against a flat wall, even if it does have a poster on it!
There’s nothing more unoriginal than an interview in a meeting room with plain walls and a plant in the background. Avoid at all costs.
Even if it’s the CEO you’re filming, get them out into the call centre, outside, in the cafeteria, on the stairwell – anywhere other than a blank walled meeting room.
So what should you look for – well, the larger the filming location, the better. The more depth behind a speaker, the more interest there will be in your shot.
If you’re on the shoot, look at the shot on the monitor. If you see something in the background that looks messy or strange, move it. If you don’t, this is all you’ll ever see when you watch your video. Your production team should be studying this and tweaking things and people as they go.
SOUND
A quick note on location noise. The rule is that background noise is okay if it’s a consistent level and you can see the source of the noise in the shot. So, for example, if you’re going to film a shot in a call centre and you will see people working in the call centre in the background, then call centre background noise is okay. But if you can’t see the source of the noise, it’s really off-putting and as a viewer you feel like you want to look around the corner of the screen to see where it’s coming from.