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- Joined
- Aug 12, 2007
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- 715
Joe Franco is a friend of mine. He is a natural bodybuilder, a personal trainer and a contest promoter. He also runs a posing class in his gym. He’s a good teacher, it’s a great class and he’s recently released a video clip to promote an instructional video that he is working on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPNwUMRX5wk
I told Joe that I didn’t think the promo was doing his class justice. I really don’t think he’s communicating the message that he wants to communicate. I offered to Joe 5 quick ways that he can improve this promo vid, without having to reshoot any of the footage!!
1) Explain what I’m watching.
A voicover would go a long way toward making this vid much more persuasive. Tell me why your DVD will be useful to me. You must answer these questions for the viewer within 30-60 seconds:
Will it work for both men and women?
What is included?
How long is it?
Are there any free extras?
When will it be available?
Where can I get it?
How much it will cost?
Never forget that this is a commercial and your prospective customer needs this information in order to decide whether or not to purchase!
2) Shorten it.
Three and a half minutes is WAY too long to watch something of this nature. There’s a reason that TV commercials are 30-60 seconds long. Attention span!
Most people will click away from a Youtube video after 5 seconds. Even those who are interested will not watch for more than 30 seconds if there isn’t a variety of information being well presented. There are many shots in this video that are repetitive or don’t show very much going on. They are the first that should be cut. I:30 is the max length of time I think this video should run with the footage you now have.
Competition is fierce for your online audience’s attention. You’ve got to capture them right away and hold them!
3) Make it POP!
This video should be in color. Many novice video producers think that black and white makes a video classier or “grittier” and helps it stand out from the rest of the things you see on YouTube. I disagree.
Not this...
More like this...
Black and white has a MEANING in the context of film and video. Unless you are trying to create a 40’s film noir look, (which has its own specific rules of lighting and editing) black and white should only be used to signify something.
In the context of telling a story black and white is often used to signify “the past”.
In the case of a commercial, black and white usually means “the wrong way”. You’ve all seen it before, the woman struggling with her old mop is in black and white but the one with the new EZ Floor Zweeper is in eye popping COLOR!
Black and white on Youtube looks drab. We need to capture the audience’s attention any way we can. Make your video POP off the screen with color!
4) Vary the shots. And lose the special effects!
The camera angle wasn’t changed during the shooting of this video. The shots don’t vary much and that gets kind of boring. I can see that the editor knew this and s/he tried to spice up the video with some of the “cool” transitions that came with the editing program.
Warning! Whenever you think that a funky transition will add excitement to your video it means you have fundamental problems that no amount of effects will fix. Instead of using effects, try re-cutting the video first. Change the order of the clips. Remove some entirely.
To create more variety from this footage you could take advantage of the ability to re-crop clips if you are using advanced editing software like Final Cut. For instance, a clip like this one below can be enlarged and used over again in different ways. By enlarging and recropping I can focus in on individuals in the group and create visual variety.
Too much enlarging would be a no-no for a DVD because of the loss of resolution. But in the case of a promo for YouTube, the resolution is already lower. People are used to Youtube videos looking somewhat soft. In other words, you can get away with a lot more online than you can on TV!!
5) Call for action!
Always end your promo by telling the viewer what you want them to do and how to do it. “Go to www.fitfranco.com and buy your DVD now!”
That says it all!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPNwUMRX5wk
I told Joe that I didn’t think the promo was doing his class justice. I really don’t think he’s communicating the message that he wants to communicate. I offered to Joe 5 quick ways that he can improve this promo vid, without having to reshoot any of the footage!!
1) Explain what I’m watching.
A voicover would go a long way toward making this vid much more persuasive. Tell me why your DVD will be useful to me. You must answer these questions for the viewer within 30-60 seconds:
Will it work for both men and women?
What is included?
How long is it?
Are there any free extras?
When will it be available?
Where can I get it?
How much it will cost?
Never forget that this is a commercial and your prospective customer needs this information in order to decide whether or not to purchase!
2) Shorten it.
Three and a half minutes is WAY too long to watch something of this nature. There’s a reason that TV commercials are 30-60 seconds long. Attention span!
Most people will click away from a Youtube video after 5 seconds. Even those who are interested will not watch for more than 30 seconds if there isn’t a variety of information being well presented. There are many shots in this video that are repetitive or don’t show very much going on. They are the first that should be cut. I:30 is the max length of time I think this video should run with the footage you now have.
Competition is fierce for your online audience’s attention. You’ve got to capture them right away and hold them!
3) Make it POP!
This video should be in color. Many novice video producers think that black and white makes a video classier or “grittier” and helps it stand out from the rest of the things you see on YouTube. I disagree.
Not this...
More like this...
Black and white has a MEANING in the context of film and video. Unless you are trying to create a 40’s film noir look, (which has its own specific rules of lighting and editing) black and white should only be used to signify something.
In the context of telling a story black and white is often used to signify “the past”.
In the case of a commercial, black and white usually means “the wrong way”. You’ve all seen it before, the woman struggling with her old mop is in black and white but the one with the new EZ Floor Zweeper is in eye popping COLOR!
Black and white on Youtube looks drab. We need to capture the audience’s attention any way we can. Make your video POP off the screen with color!
4) Vary the shots. And lose the special effects!
The camera angle wasn’t changed during the shooting of this video. The shots don’t vary much and that gets kind of boring. I can see that the editor knew this and s/he tried to spice up the video with some of the “cool” transitions that came with the editing program.
Warning! Whenever you think that a funky transition will add excitement to your video it means you have fundamental problems that no amount of effects will fix. Instead of using effects, try re-cutting the video first. Change the order of the clips. Remove some entirely.
To create more variety from this footage you could take advantage of the ability to re-crop clips if you are using advanced editing software like Final Cut. For instance, a clip like this one below can be enlarged and used over again in different ways. By enlarging and recropping I can focus in on individuals in the group and create visual variety.
Too much enlarging would be a no-no for a DVD because of the loss of resolution. But in the case of a promo for YouTube, the resolution is already lower. People are used to Youtube videos looking somewhat soft. In other words, you can get away with a lot more online than you can on TV!!
5) Call for action!
Always end your promo by telling the viewer what you want them to do and how to do it. “Go to www.fitfranco.com and buy your DVD now!”
That says it all!
