I did this a while ago and just noticed that I forgot to make the 60 second one public.
So I made it public and thought I’d make a short point:
If you’re going to do a 2 or 3 minute corporate video, it’s quite simple to also produce a 60 second version for Instagram or Facebook (or for an email attachment).
This first one below was the 2 minute or so corporate video for Belvoir Castle.
Since the Duchess has a 20-something Marketing Executive, Instagram is now the big thing. Not sure what it’s doing for them since the Instgram public is not necessarily the big-spending public that the castle is after, but hey, it’s pretty simple to do a 60 second version once you have the main one.
Just pick a fitting piece of music that’s 60 seconds long, drop your longer timeline onto it, and start deleting footage down to the essentials and fit it to the music. Add some graphics and you’re done. I know it could be fancier, but does it really need to be?
The Video Whisperer 
Hello,
I’m the guy just mentioned by my pal Wolfgang and here are my two cents: He’s right, I’m filming with a script as a guideline, but always ready to depart from it, plus producing an overhead (approx. 20 – 30% more footage than necessary). I feel, that this is a good trade off between thriftiness and flexibility.
Not sure about your exact philosophy, as I didn’t read all of your blog and really like your visual style btw. But I wouldn’t recommend, what I call „Staubsauger Methode“(=using your cam like a vacuum cleaner), as you may waste a lot of time and creative energy by filming stuff, you’ll never need. Plus, you have to deal with tons of footage in the post.
Given that you’re a solo shooter, that may be fine for you anyway, but if you’re working with a team, they’ll most likely start to hate you at the very first day. Albeit I have to admit, that there are subjects, where you are forced to go that route (wedding videos, reportage … ), but even then, you can separate the trees from the forrest by good preparation.
Best
Jan
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Hi Jan, I completely understand. I worked with film and video teams ranging from 2-3 people to 30-man film units for about 20 years of my life. Mostly as a cameraman and director. It was those decades of experience of knowing what to shoot, how much to shoot, how it will be edited, what requirements editing needs and what the desired outcome is (marketing or otherwise) that allowed me as solo shooter with a small compact kit to think on my feet and shoot fast and efficiently. That’s what the book and blog are about. You seem to know what you’re doing and if you read the book, I think you’d agree with its main message. I even talk about shooting by script and shooting off the cuff based on a firm understanding of what my end product will be. It was written for this new generation of ‘videographers’ who have all the kit but never learned any of the fundamentals of film making which have been codified for 100 years. It was written for those who think their fancy equipment is a measure of their professionalism but don’t know how to use it except as a status symbol, who don’t know how to tell a story and who think editing is using all the latest and greatest electronic transitions as much as possible. I’ve used most of it. Cranes, dollies, sound cameras, wore heads, 18 lb Sony Betacams, original Steadicam, Glidecam and enough lights and equipment to fill two large trucks, and now I’m happy with my small smart cameras, LED flex lights and all other equipment that fits into two cases I can carry onboard an airplane. So I don’t think we really disagree, now that I see your response to my cheeky comment to your friend. Quite right, nothing wrong with good preparation. That’s already built into my kit based on long experience of what is absolutely essential to carry around. As to shooting, in my case doing interview-driven corporate videos mainly, the interview is my script in a way. It may be a 20-30 minute interview that I will cut down to 3, but it gives me everything I need to know and I shoot everything I will need to cover it to the best of my ability with, as you say, probably only about 20% extra because I know what I will need to produce the desired end product. Ironically, my two worst videos were when the local marketing department got involved and started dictating what should be in it. I’m lucky in that 99% of the time, they trust me to take care of the whole thing and I always give them something that’s better than what they expected and much sooner than expected (usually within 3 days) and almost always approved first time through with a few minor amends usually to do with caption wording and occasionally a shot or two. I attribute that to years of experience and understanding the basics of film making, not to any special talent. Having been a cameraman and director for 35 years probably helps too. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I didn’t expect it! Best regards, Joe
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Thanks for your kind words Joe,
I think you’ve got me now! Gonna get your book asap. 😉
Regarding the young generation, one should probably take into consideration, that the job profile (call it; „videojournalist“) has changed dramatically within the last years, at least here in Germany. You are not only expected to shoot and deliver a simple edit like in the old DV days, but also to be an AE-whizzkid , operating 3 or 4 different cameras systems including a drone and configure the results for all sorts of social media or corporate CMS. That’s probably, why the young guns tend to be a bit „gear addicted“ and don’t care that much about basics. They’re simply not being paid for that (if they’re paid by any means).
I’m pretty confident, that your book is a big help for them and probably also for me (that said, I’m also in the business for a while. My first camera was VHS, the second one an Arri 16 BL 😉
I do also agree with you regarding marketing experts/pr agents. Most of them are smart and competent people, but some can mess up the best concept following the idea, that more is always better. That’s another reason, why I like to work with a script and let them confirm it as part of the contract, before I even think about touching my camera. Also helpful: A single but underlined phrase at the end: „There is one revision included in the price“.
Will be a happy follower of your blog from now on.
Have a nice weekend,
Jan
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ARRI 16BL!! Me too. It was because of that camera I learned to operate the Worrel Head. One of our engineers made a sound blimp for the Arri for sound shooting. (it was a quiet camera, but not silent as you know and with the sound blimp it was very big and heavy!). But before that it was the Bolex.
Thought of you today when someone shared their latest video, a commercial for a local Toyota dealer. It was awful. Ironically it had everything I mentioned earlier: every transition you could think of, multiple pointless effects along with bad camerawork, bad staging, awful editing (it was a spoof done to a rap song and he couldn’t even manage to edit to the beat), etc. ad infinitum. Only one comment from someone as clueless as he was. I like to help people, but there was nothing I could say there.
Anyway, I should have said, regarding marketing people (and it’s unfair to paint them with a broad brush), but in these cases it’s just that they were so locked into print advertising, slogans and ‘brand’ that they try to make a video like written copy with all the usual marketing hype thrown in and don’t realise the value of one of their executives speaking from the heart in a well done interview versus the suspicion cast on the viewer when it’s obvious even the CEO is speaking from marketing script. And that’s where it goes wrong. These are the sorts of challenges I talk about in the book.
Anyway, thanks for joining the blog. To be honest, I don’t post much to it anymore, but I mentioned in a fairly recent post that, as I enter the drone age, this summer I’ll probably be posting new videos with drone footage and talking about that. I fell in love with the Mavic Pro 2 (which I rented for a corporate shoot on their request) and hope to get one soon to cover a music festival that happens in my town this August.
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Hello Joe
as you mentioned before; with 2000 bucks, everyone can play the game nowadays, simply bypassing jobs as an assistent, where you are forced to learn the very basics – like how to lit a portrait or just how to clean a lens.;-) Some do feel that deficit at a certain point and work hard to get better – others don’t and die young. Of course, there’s also the other extreme: Old chaps who refuse
to learn new stuff, because „we always did it this way“ and they are doomed as well.
Inevitably we all have to adapt ourselves, also to the fact, that many clients come from the print sector nowadays, as they’re all going online and do need video.Good for our business, but at times you need the patience of an elementary teacher to handle them. I’m also running a small blog on my ws and a text about how to deal with video from the client’s point of view will be one of the next entries.
I’m really looking forward to your Mavic review, as rc flying is one of my hobbies, although I’m currently more engaged in underwater filming.
https://www.zeit.de/video/2017-10/5599003170001/tauchsport-nur-dieser-eine-atemzug
Keep on writing, we do need good blogs on filmmaking!
Best Jan
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Moin, Mr Caneen
(»Moin« means, in Northern-German language: »Hello!«),
I really appreciate Your way of talking about a single-shooter’s
run -’n-gun-experiences,
I enjoyed (and still enjoy) Your e-book.
I had some discussions with a good-friend-videographer
https://lue-film.de/
about Your way of doing the job,
he prefers to set up at first
a strict schedule
about what and how to take the video-shots,
but … I really like the way You are doing it!
I beg pardon for my rusty English,
I’m a German from the north of Germany,
near by Hamburg,
beside that I am not a genuin video-producer,
I am a local print-journalist,
trying to discover the art of video-journalism …
Best Greetings and Wishes
from the river Elbe
Wolfgang Meisel
Sie erhielten diese Nachricht von
Wolfgang Meisel
Redaktion Der Elbmarscher
Am Deich 5
21436 Marschacht
Tel.: 0 41 76-9 44 08 76
Mobil: 0 15 77-3 59 73 98
Telegram: Wolfgang_Meisel
Threema-ID: ENYST764
E-Mail: redaktion@der-elbmarscher.de
Web: der-elbmarscher.de
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Lieber Wolfgang, Danke schön. Vor 40 Jahre habe ich bei München gewohnt (Herrsching am Ammersee). I used to speak German then….but it’s been a long time! Anyway, thanks for your vote of confidence. Your friend sounds very German! Alles in ordnung. Personally I think that’s an excellent quality in engineering, but a bit stifling in the arts. Best regards, Joe
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