Geoff Motley

With more and more organisations turning to video marketing techniques to promote their message, high quality production values are becoming ever more important. A year or two back companies using home-movie productions to promote themselves on the web were able to get away with; they were seen as pioneers and the fact they had embraced the medium at all gave them prominence. Now it is different; online video is becoming ubiquitous and so it is not only the quality of the message, but also the way it is crafted and displayed that will guarantee viewers, successful communication and ultimately success.

Inevitably – particularly at the micro-business level where marketing budgets are likely to be slim or non-existent – some opt to shoot their own video. And why not? As these tend to be straight forward ‘talking head’ pieces, only a very modest investment in equipment is needed and as long as the presenter is clear on their message and can deliver it succinctly they should be able to achieve a passable result. Except all too often basic lighting mistakes are made. In most cases these are easily avoidable and not expensive to fix.

So often, I have seen an otherwise credible presentation to camera wasted because the speaker’s face is in shadow. In one regrettable film, there was a table lamp, beautifully framed next to the female presenter, that illuminated the wallpaper behind perfectly while the all important subject’s visage was cast in deep shadow! It rendered the piece totally unwatchable; what she had to say was actually very interesting, but as a viewer there was absolutely no incentive to keep watching… unless you were attracted to the wallpaper of course! Most annoyingly, whoever shot the piece could have taken two minutes to do two simple things that would have transformed the end result;

1. 1. If proper video lighting was not available, simply placing a reflective surface to bounce light back into the subject’s face
2. 2. Switching to ‘Manual Mode’ and adjusting the camera to expose correctly for the face and not the background

Often the difference between a professional video that reflects a business in a positive light (multiple puns intended) and a waste of tape that makes people ask “why did they bother” comes down to such small and simple actions.