jules.tv

Ok so first thing, apologies to ladies, I couldn’t make this pun work with the words ‘Camera people.’

I was watching Andy Marr’s interview with President Barack Obama and I couldn’t help looking at how beautifully it was shot (mostly). These are high pressure circumstances I’ve no idea how long they had to set up or rehearse but I do know that they had a fixed 18 mins to do the interview. When Marr’s earpiece went down during the interview he overran his alotted time and lost the promised opportunity to do a corridor walk and talk with Obama. This would have been a golden shot as a lead in for a voiceover but that’s secondary to the main event.

You’ve got one shot at this type of interview with a huge weight of expectation back at base so ZERO margins for screw ups! Below are 3 stills I’ve grabbed and what you can learn from them. There were 3 cameras for the interview, probably a fourth to shoot the Presidents’ arrival in the room for B-Roll (In this case footage to use over voiceover / cutaways to build to the scene).

This is the money shot, you simple can’t fluff this one as it will be on screen the longest. See how the background is thrown out of focus (long lens, wide aperture, distance from subject) so the focus is all on the face and the busy background doesn’t distract. The dedo rail is dealt with by positioning top of the shoulders, not cutting through the ears. The flags and painting all give a sense of the American people and history. Soft lighting on the face and a hint of backlight separates Obama from the background.

Andy Marr, the second most important shot. Same thing with the picture frame, it’s positioned so it doesn’t cut through his head or distract. Nice backlight separates him from the background. Notice the incidental lighting (the table light) is left on. Easy to forget this, It adds warmth (it’s tungsten balanced), makes the room feel real and adds depth to the shot. If it was switched off it would just look flat and odd.

Not to be picky but this is where it falls down a bit. It’s a nice wide shot which gives you a visual map of where they are sitting. Again the room lighting switched on gives depth. My main gripe is the messy cables, of course as mentioned at the top they were short of time and lucky to get the interview so may have not had a chance for a final, final tweak.

It’s always worth a detailed microscopic check of all the shots before you shoot, not just looking at your subjects but all the props and details around them.

When I watched the interview it became obvious the Director noticed the cables were in shot during the recording and started to get the Wide camera person to crop them out by zooming in. So the tip is if you notice something wrong don’t just let it go but adjust and take action.

I suggest you have a look at Brendon Burchard’s video sales funnel for his forthcoming training course ‘Total Product Blueprint‘. These videos often get taken down after the course goes live so do it now. I’m pointing them out because they demonstrate how, if you can get a nice space to film your sales videos in, and you are clever with props you don’t have to go anywhere near Camtasia or Screenflow.

Let’s face it making sales videos using screen capture is a lot of work, especially to make them look really good. To make a great one you might need to hire in graphics people and a pro-editor to give them a kick. Also used alone with no real world footage of you on camera, screen capture videos can get really samey. They also make it harder to really connect with your prospects.

Brendon manages to captivate and deliver his message being on screen from top to tail with just a set of artists easels, notepads, stickies and whiteboards! Yes of course he’s a captivating speaker but I still reckon you can make an effective video like this with a little on camera practice and coaching.

You’ll notice the nice spacious room with the ‘high key’ lighting. My hunch is you probably know someone who has a spacious apartment or house that could fit the bill. It doesn’t have to be modern, as long as it fits the your product and is either easy to light or has loads of soft natural light.

When you watch the videos you might be daunted and think he’s been word perfect for the entire duration (some go to 40 minutes in length) but realise every cutaway of the hands or the boards is a point he could have broken off and picked up again where he left off. These are ‘edit points’.

There’s also a priceless video in the sequence where Brendon shows you step by step what message to include in your sales videos. Plus, he asks the viewers to create a sales video that follows his principles and share the link from YouTube in a facebook comment to win a $1200 prize (US only).

This is another great marketing tactic to utilise user generated video to spread buzz about his course via YouTube and facebook.

Go check the videos out while you can. You need to opt-in on the page to see the videos I’m talking about.

Ps. I’ve watched all the videos so far and the course he’s going to offer looks amazing. If you want to create information products, from e-books, to membership sites, DVD’s to live seminars this training will guide you along the way.

I just tested the Traffic Player plugin and really liked it. It’s handy because you can get a sales/squeeze video up on your WordPress site without eating your bandwidth or having to set up hosting.

The video looks like it’s professionally hosted as you can configure it to be without the YouTube logo, playbar and title line which can make you look like a cheapskate and removing the links stops people leaving your site.

If you set it to autoplay you’ll also build viewcount back on YouTube which helps the video rank higher.

If you make videos for clients and they use WordPress they could invest in the plug-in and have some nice looking skins on their site without visitors realising they are hosting on YouTube.

One downside I just noticed is the YouTube logo still appears when I view the video on my iphone. But that’s not a deal breaker.

See more skins and all the details here.

You can also see the page I used for my test in the video above here.

Warning: This video is a little racy so don’t watch if you are underage, at work, in an Islamic country, or in a marital crisis.

Australian realtors Adrian Jenkins and Ian Adams have clocked up 650,000 views for this video promoting 15 Queen Anne Court in Queensland. It’s definitely a twist on conventional Property tour Videos. Ok so it’s nothing new that sex sells and this is blatant in the promo. But let’s strip it down further so to speak.

The video uses a mini-narrative weaved into the glossy shots of the property. You could create a narrative that doesn’t involve girls in their underwear to use in your promo.

The first 10 seconds grab you by the short and curlies. There’s so much pace and drama you’ve got to keep watching. You need to do this in your videos.

The video parodies bad action movies or commercials so as a viewer you have a reference point of familiarity. You know it’s not going to be too hard to watch. Can you parody something that would fit your video marketing strategy?

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Ok so here’s a little rant. Unlike me I know ! I’ve decided (for this week at least) I hate kit, in fact I declare myself a kit minamilist. But why?

1. Because it’s way too expensive and messy. Yes you can pick up a mid-priced DSLR that shoots awesome footage that could be on HBO but by the time you’ve added on all those other bits of nonsense it racks up a hefty bill, and you’ve got to pull in some serious work to pay for it all. Plus it clutters your house.
2. Because as a freelance Videomaker/Video Coach I have to really choose carefully and agonise over every decision I make, but that amateur guy, you know the Plastic Surgeon with the fat six figure salary can just swan right into the camera store in front of me and buy a 5dmk2 and a couple of lenses to use on his Sunday walk in the woods and I can’t ! In other words – kit makes me jealous!
3. Because all those endless blogs that talk about kit, and rumours about kit and which kit to buy, and look at this shiny bit of kit and blah blah blah are so dull. They don’t have soul.
4. Because so many people with a tonne of kit don’t make good Videos, they need to meditate more or something and get in touch with their inner Videomaker. They are so lost in a world of frame rates and codecs and nonsense they can’t move forward creatively.
5. Because kit gets outdated so fast and you can easily put off making Videos until you have the next  bit of kit, otherwise you are utterly convinced your Videos will be rubbish so why bother!

That’s it, rant over, now I need to order that new lens I’ve been lusting over.