Video production Archives - Page 2 of 6

Steve Stockman In Video Marketing, For Pros

Why Making Video “Ask for the Order” Doesn’t Work

This week a post on Linked-In reminded me that all good video must “ask for the order” and contain a clear “call to action.”

This concept was, as far as I can tell, invented by someone in an ad agency, maybe in the ’80s, and repeated enough that many people take it as gospel. The idea is that your marketing video must tell the customer exactly what you want them to do, and then request that they do it.

Thus a TV commercial that includes the magic phrase “Buy a Toyota tomorrow and save $200!” is presumed to be way … Read the rest

Steve Stockman In Tips and Tricks, Better Home Video, Your Questions Answered

Tricks to Storify Your Travel Video

I shoot videos and landscapes when I travel overseas. Obviously, I cannot shoot to a script or have much of a plan, since this is an unplanned vacation.

How would I construct a story from random scenes in Berlin, Warsaw, Vienna, Budapest, etc? Usually I end up with a string of shots without any story. This is not what you recommend in your book.

My friend Wendy will be travelling with me, but how could I include her in the video? Shots of her looking at the Danube from Buda and from Pest don’t seem to have much interest. Shooting

… Read the rest

Steve Stockman In Teaching and Training, Feature Film, Television, For Pros

Yeah, But is it Any Good? Learning from Mediocre Video

People hate going to the movies with me. It’s not because I talk or text during films, because I religiously don’t do either. It’s what happens after the lights come up. “That was good” says my wife. “I enjoyed it” says my daughter. “The dialogue in the battle scene in act three sounded like it was cribbed from ‘Alien'” I say. And that’s when the conversation usually slows way down.

As you get better at the film and video thing, what has happened to me may also happen to you: Your tolerance for mediocre work plummets.

Terrible is terrible. Most … Read the rest

Steve Stockman In Tips and Tricks, Feature Film, Television, For Pros

The Curse of the Inactive Hero: Lessons from “Ant-Man and the Wasp”

A hero is who your story is about. A mute woman rescuing a monster she loves, a lawyer facing down the bigotry of his 1930s community to save a man’s life, a woman of color who wants to do math for NASA to save a mission– all great heroes. They each take big risks and strong actions. Seeing how that action turns out for them is what pulls us through the story.

Generally speaking, the stronger the hero and the tougher the odds they face, the better the story. Which is why superheroes, who are larger than life by … Read the rest

Steve Stockman In Tips and Tricks, Video Marketing

10 Tips for Doing Better Marketing Video

You write a lot about movies, home video, story, etc. It’s all great, and I use it when I shoot stuff. But I need to convince my company to do better marketing videos and I’m not shooting those.

Any advice?

-Jackson D., Denver

The only thing worse than shooting awful marketing video is paying someone else to shoot awful marketing video for you.

Critical in this age of video overpopulation: A crash course in video literacy for companies. The more you know about how video really works, the less likely you are to waste money and time on something nobody … Read the rest

Steve Stockman In Video Marketing, Feature Film, Television, For Pros, Your Questions Answered

Shoot Just Enough and No More

Throughout your book you talk about cutting, trimming, deleting, editing until you’ve removed all of the bad, redundant, boring parts of your project.

What happens when you cut out all of the bad stuff and then you realize that you don’t have enough good material to complete the project? Are there strategies to make sure you shoot enough great material to edit?

It’s too late to fix my first project (a music video), but I’d sure like to make sure it doesn’t happen on my next one.

–Fred

Knowing how much to shoot may be the second biggest issue a … Read the rest

Steve Stockman In If you’re new to video, Teaching and Training, Press

New Edition of the Book in Stores Now!

Workman Publishing has just released an updated and revised new edition of How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck!

It’s available now wherever you buy your paper or pixel books. Look to your right for handy links!

This new edition is mostly a touch-up. It turns out that even if you try not to use terms that might become dated, they sneak in somehow. And for fans of my Do It Yourself Film Graduate School list of movies that you really must see, there are new additions.

New Edition FAQs:

Do I need to run out and get this edition if I … Read the rest

Steve Stockman In Video Marketing, For Pros, Your Questions Answered

How to Make a How-To Video that Works: Part I

How do I create a series of online class videos that are How-to’s, but creative and interesting, while also teaching?

My upholstery course videos are pretty wide shot/closeup. I know I can do better. I’ve asked every video and film maker I know if they can think of a clever technique for doing these classes. They’re all going to get back to me on that. (ha!)

–Shelly Leer
modhomeec.com

Before we get to the “creative” how-to video, let’s look at the basics- the marks a how-to video must hit.

How-to videos helped me save $200 replacing my own sump pump, … Read the rest