{gallery}stories,single=Canon7D.jpg,salign=right{/gallery}Society has become visual-oriented. That is not going to change anytime soon. And yet there is a glut of poorly produced, bad and plain boring videos on YouTube and elsewhere. - Photo from Philip Bloom

What is required to produce compelling videos?


Three thoughts are crucial and shape everything I attempt to incorporate:

Inform - inspire - technically pure.

Inform:

Tell a compelling story. Aim to give information adds value to the viewer; something that they will want to know.

Inspire:

Be creative, illustrating that the time of the viewer is being respected.


Technically pure:

footage should be exceptional and not distract from the story. Audio must be understandable and be mastered.

Here is my breakdown:

Audio:

I use a Rode NTG-2- a unidirectional mike designed to eliminate noises outside of the immediate zone of the speaker direction. I do not want the passing bus or the lawn mower in the distance. Also, I record on a Zoom H4N digital recorder and sync in post. Each scene is started with a hand clap- that digital spike is matched up to the hand clap with the video track. Audio is then mastered to -6db in audio software, using a compressor and equalizer. In studio, I utilize a compressor/limiter with a TBone tube microphone which records a hot signal in warm tones.

Audio is the very first step of good video. Focus your attention here until you have a developed your skillset and can consistently produce good audio.

Video:

I shoot in 1280x720 HD 25 frames per second (PAL). Mostly I use a Canon 17-55mm f2.8f lens, with a short focal length (f 2.8) to blur out unwanted background. If lighting us too bright, I use a variable Neutral Density filter to drop light coming into the lens in order to get the desired f- stop. Also, a very low f-stop is used to eliminate unwanted video noise. Never ever shoot without a histogram.

Lighting:

This is the crucial element in video footage. Presently I utilize soft boxes with cold-lighting. 7 28 watt neon lights, with 5600 kelvin color temperature is brought close to the subject. Most often I use a three light setup: Main, fill and highlight.

Editing:

I prefer Newtek Speededit - mainly because it does not require rendering to edit - which aids in the workflow, plus it will take the QuickTime Mov files directly from the Canon camera. Additionally, I use After Effects to colorized edited footage.

On the iPad I shoot via Filmic Pro, because it implements a video histogram and an audio meter. Editing is done on two apps: iMovie and Pinnacle Studio. Pinnacle Studio allies me to drop in a piece if footage and the audio track stays in sync with the video - something I am yet to master in iMovie. Also, pinnacle Studio renders the footage to a smaller footprint/size, which aids in uploading when I travel. WLAN speeds are notorious for being slow when in a hotel or guest housing.


Previous entries that might be helpful:

Producing videos - Part 1

Producing videos - Part 2

Producing videos - Part 3