Photo: Duncan Harris on Flickr cc/
One of the really useful takeaways I picked up from BlogWorld 2011 was Brian Matson’s “You may not win an Oscar but your videos won’t stink either” session. A presentation on how to create great video on a small budget.
As Director of Marketing for Fargo-Moorhead CVB, Brian has created over 100 home-grown videos for their YouTube Channel – all with low budget equipment, member venues and a little know-how with easy video editing tools. Even with very few (any?) staff members to manage their video outreach, Brian makes FMCVB appear to have a whole A/V department. His work looks professional and proves that with just little elbow grease, locations of any size can offer a great video experience to potential visitors. We all know people love video. Brian gets this. And he’ll tell you what we all know: these days you NEED video content on your blog and website.
Brian produced this quick little video for Fargo-Moorhead’s Children’s Museum, complete with a short interview, titles, links, and live action of people enjoying the attraction. All in all about 30 minutes of shooting, editing and uploading. How easy is that?
Brian’s tips for bringing video into your marketing plan
- Set yourself an editing calendar. Make room for fitting video production into your existing budget and schedule.
- Strive to capture the right now, strike when the iron is hot. Forget about planning a 6 month production window for one little video.
- Find cheap ways to create your own equipment. Like a steady cam, green screen, props. Experiment with homemade props.
- Just shoot it. A short session of good filming can create reusable shots for B roll to use in other videos.
- Use short bursts of clips to string together for a longer full video.
- Shoot less for better use of editing time. Its far more productive to edit 15 minutes of film than 4 hours.
Video is multi-use content for
- Website content
- Blog posts
- Search SEO (Properly tagged videos often come up at the top of Google search pages)
- Social media
- Helping promote your partners
- Gaining the trust of the community
- Being that destination spokesperson
The power and versatility of user generated video
- Builds credibility
- Builds trust
- Increases relevancy
- Flexible and consistent
- Generates comments and reviews
- Is low cost, low time
Brian’s Wish List for low budget equipment
- HD camera ($100-$200)
- Microphone, audio recorder same $100-$200. You can overlay great quality audio recorder onto your video. And it’s not as intimidating to people you might be interviewing. Do your audio and video separate.
- Video editing software like iMovie (FREE on a Mac and so easy to use) or something like MovieMaker and other built-in programs for PCs.
- A HERO camera, ($300-$400). Its a little square brick. Like an extreme sports camera, but great for all sorts of filming, extreme or not. Waterproof, sticks to things with suction if you like. Gives viewers a real perspective from the videographer’s eye.
- Wireless audio device ($400)
More useful tips for creating compelling videos
- Video length: less is more people will watch a shorter video before committing to something more than minute.
- Story boards help you get organized
- Don’t wait for something to happen just begin it’s in the storyboard
- Shoot when your subject is busy with action
- Get 5-10 shots max
- Get fronts of heads and teeth
- Limit the shots to 5-10 seconds
- Always ask for permission for individuals you’re filming, if you’re focussing in on people and kids. Don’t make your subjects uncomfortable.
How to look like an ace videographer
Be a human tripod
Lean into something, widen your stance, don’t walk while shooting. Keep the motion nil. Just get the shot. You can make it interesting in the editing round.
Keep the light behind you, Especially the sun.
Bad audio ruins great video. Mute and shoot if it’s windy then overlay with music or a voice over when editing.
Go to the horse’s mouth to get your soundbites.
Interview the museum curator, the park ranger, whoever is in the know about what you are filming. Lends an credible voice to the content.
Upload and fill out all the fields on your YouTube or other video channel.
Tags, title, categories, descriptions, date, geo location, etc. Make it as easy to find and share as possible.
Make “Video” part of the your post headlines
Add “video” to your titles in your posts. Example: The Yunker Express in Fargo-Moorhead [VIDEO]
Socialize your videos, and often
Tie everything together on Facebook, twitter, blogger, YouTube. Plug your videos a number of times throughout the year, whenever appropriate. You might use the same video, or parts of it, for annual event promotion.
Sandbag mediocre videos
Even you think they aren’t that great or substantial, keep them on the side for down times when you can’t produce something new on the fly.
Be authentic, keep it simple, and don’t take yourself too seriously
Don’t be afraid to make an ass out of yourself sometimes. Sometimes you have to be that person who sticks out of the crowd like an idiot.
Brian, thanks for such a great intro into getting on board with video. I just ordered that HERO camera for myself. Now if I can just find a go-kart track in Burlington…
Thanks for sharing Laura. This is good info and love when people share information we actually can use versus touting their own horn. You’re site looks great btw.
Great job Laura;
Very cool to find a fellow tourism marketing professional offering great solid content to help our tourism industry prosper.
Keep up the good work and please stay in touch.
To your success, Tourism Tim Warren
Thanks Tim! Glad this resonates.