Transcripts
1. Introduction: As the Creative Director at NGNG, I work very closely with creative and production teams to create videos for all the brands that we work with. In this process, I have a lot of experience with making sure that we get the right types of video content for all the video platforms that are out there and maximizing the return on that investment. I'm Brooke Milo, Founder and Creative Director at NGNG Agency. NGNG stands for No Guts, No Glory. We are a boutique creative agency that does everything from branding and initial brand concepting to web development, social media campaigns, influencer strategy events and more. Today's class, I'm going to be teaching you about how to produce a video for your company. It's important to know how to have the creative ideas behind these videos, but also understand the production process to be able to execute those videos. Around every campaign or product launch you have, you can create unique and engaging videos specific to that campaign and make it really fun and engaging for your audience. This will allow you to have higher engagement on your company's social accounts and also have better aesthetics on your website. Today we will start with, before going into the creative setting, our strategy and goals for what we want these videos to have, then we will do a little bit of the creative process, calling visual inspiration for your videos and how that's done, going into production planning, finding the right people to work with, and then ultimately, post-production editing and how that's done. I wanted to teach this class because the way social media is developing today, video is becoming more important than ever. As marketers, there's a very fine line of skills that we need to have in the creative and production space. Today's class is going to teach you how to bring together those elements and create some amazing videos. This class is perfect for content strategists and social media managers that want to level up their skills in production and be able to produce more videos for their team. Throughout this class, we will work on the class project, and by the end, you will have a fully ready to go production plan for your video. I encourage you to upload your plan into the project galleries so that I can see it, ask me any questions or share feedback in the discussion section. All right, let's get started.
2. Why is Video Important?: Why is video important for marketing? More and more, the lines between marketing, creative, and production teams are becoming blurred as there is this huge increase in the need for video. Marketing is all about capturing your audience's attention in unique and engaging ways. What better way to do that than to video. Let's run through the numbers. According to The Daily Carnage, mobile video consumption rises by 100% every year. In 2021, there was an 800% increase in global watch time of ad-supported video content. According to The Daily Carnage, 83% of marketers say that videos help them generate leads. So, are you convinced yet? By the end of this class, I'm going to teach you exactly how to create a video and you will have all the plans in place to create an engaging video for your audience.
3. Defining Your Strategy : As marketers, having a clear cut strategy behind everything we do is extremely important. Your strategy is your roadmap that will lead to the success of your video. In that strategy, we will define the goals for the video, who we're speaking to, and why it's important. This will help us later on as we begin to plan. I'm going to walk you through an example of how this strategy is built from a recent video shoot that I did it for a brand called Gatherall. From the goal setting sheet, you can see I listed out some different questions to help get us started. Gatherall is a brand that creates silicone, adhesive, sticky bras. Our goals were to introduce the Gatherall brand to the world and showcase their mission for empowering women. I also asked, what are the top three objectives for your video content? Some examples can be introducing a product, introducing a brand, launching a collection, teaching customers how to use something, or selling a product or service. In this case, we are focused on introducing the brand, teaching customers how to properly use the product, and of course, selling the first collection. Our next question is about defining the target audience. When you think about your target audience, you can definitely think about any types of questions that will help define who this person is, but you want to be as specific as possible. This will influence the way your visuals look and the types of aesthetics that you have in your video. It will also influence the video platforms that you choose to have your video hosted on. Different demographics are more active on different platforms. In this scenario, we were focused on women ages 25-45. Powerful, hardworking, dynamic, fun people that mostly live in metropolitan areas and need flexibility in what they wear. It's helpful to get as specific as possible with your target audience because that will definitely help your creative direction later on. The next question that we have in our strategy document is about defining our values. Again, this will help determine the type of copy that is used and the type of visuals that you have in your video. In this example, we're focused on community empowerment, inclusivity, and comfortability. I'm going to want to make sure that all of those things are reflected in the video. Another question that I have on the strategy document is, how do you want to be perceived by your audience? Luxury or mass? This is a question that I really love because I think it helps narrow down the type of visuals that you'll want to produce. In this case, we were targeting the luxury market. Finally, choosing the platforms where you want your video to live. In this example, we were focused on YouTube, which is best for longer form informational videos. Considering that we needed to make a how-to video for wearing the bra, YouTube is a great choice. We also wanted to host the video on her website so that customers could go on there and learn more about the brand and of course, Instagram and Facebook because that's how she's going to market the product and attract new customers. I have created a version of this strategy sheet for you to use. I encourage you to go through, think about what types of goals your company has right now and why they want to create videos, and fill out the sheet.
4. Concepting & Pulling Inspiration: Now that you have a strategy and some goals in place, you can begin concepting the visuals of how this video will come to life. Concepting includes using visual ideas to pull together a mood of how that video will be portrayed. This can include any ideas that you have on lighting, props, and other types of visuals. It's helpful to use websites such as Vimeo and YouTube to pull real examples of videos that have the visual style that you like. The best way to start concepting is pulling visuals for a mood board. I'm going to walk you through an example of this and the mood board that I created for the gatherer, I'll shoot. I like to start with Pinterest because you can pull together a lot of inspiration, and then from there, you can pick the top images that you like the most to build out the mood board. As you can see here from the Pinterest board, we have a ton of organic, earthy images, very tonal and muted. Some black and white images, use of shadows and delicate flowers. All images that fit very cohesively together. With these images, I went ahead and selected a few that I liked the most and put them together in a mood board. To help you create your mood board, I actually created a mood board template in Adobe Illustrator. Once you select your images, you can essentially just drop all of the images into the template and that will help you set your mood board. Here you can see the mood board that I created for the gatherer I'll shoot. We have images of lots of women, very inclusive feeling. There's a lot of shadow play and lights and textures, very earthy inorganic tones. The props are delicate flowers and it just very soft and subtle. When you look at the mood board, it should create a specific feeling and every image should be cohesive with the one next to it. Something to help get you started is thinking about including in your mood board, 3-4 images that represent the types of models, 3-4 images that represent the types of space that you want to shoot in and 3-4 images that represent the lighting and ambiance. Once you check off all those boxes, you should be able to put them together into a cohesive board, and that will serve as the mood board for your video. At the bottom of the mood board, I like to always write specific descriptive words that describe what is happening in that mood board. I feel that it just helps bring it all together. You can see I added some words down here and I definitely encourage you to do the same. For this lesson, I have created the mood board template for you. I encourage you to go through Pinterest, start selecting images that you're attracted to for the concept of this video, and then narrow them down and insert them into the mood board template.
5. Writing Out The Script: Now that we have a clear strategy and visual mood board in place, we can begin writing the scripts, one of my personal favorite parts. Because we're writing this for a marketing video, you don't need to write a whole movie scene, it's just going to be very short and sweet, concise copy, less is definitely more. Now I'm going to walk you through an example of how a script is written and we will use the gatherall video that we produced in this project. I created a template for the scripts and as you can see, I have our full script here for the gatherall video broken out into scenes and a column on the footage needed. So let's break down this process. We're going to start off with writing out all the things that we want to get in this video. When you're writing, make sure that you're writing in the tone of voice of the target audience that you're looking to attract. This is where the strategy she comes in handy. You'll want to make sure that the words that you're using and the copy is something that's very appealing to that target. Next, we will go through breaking this out by section and scene. So you want to make sure that your video has a super engaging hook or intro to capture your audience's attention right off the bat. Then you can go into the body of the video that might include a bit more of the information of what you're trying to promote, and then finally, you have a closing and a call to action where you actually ask your audience to do something, purchase something, learn more, get them a little bit more engaged, and then in the last column, you can see we have the footage that's needed. This is super important because you want to make sure that the footage you get on shoot goes perfectly with the copy that you're going to have in your scripts. Here you can have everything all together in one place. I could save this template for you in the class resources so that you can fill your script out here and if you have a long video or a shorter video, you can definitely add additional scenes or remove scenes as needed, but I encourage you to use this to write out your script. Once your script is done, it's super-important to record the entire thing and see how long it takes for that copy to be completed or spoken. This will help you so that whichever video platform you're using, you make sure that your video is long enough or short enough to fit that platform. Of course, if you are doing a video for YouTube that's a little bit longer, you'll want to make sure that the copy is enough to fill in that time that you need. You can use the script template sheet that I created for you. I encourage you to go through and write your scripts for the project that you're working on.
6. Finding the Space & Equipment: Now that we have our strategy, mood board, and scripts, we can get into production planning. There's a lot of elements to production planning but for this lesson, we're going to start with finding the space that you'll shoot in and the right equipment. Regardless of your experience in production, I'm going to share with you my personal tips on how to get this done. There are many things to consider when finding the perfect shooting space, and you have a lot of different options. You can shoot in a studio, which likely comes with a lot of the equipment you'll need or you can shoot on a location. Shooting on location can be anywhere such as a rented apartment building or in a local park. These are typically a little bit more difficult because they obviously don't have equipment and you have to bring your own. However, if you are shooting in a studio and you want to create a certain type of look, you will essentially have to build that yourself because they basically just have a backdrop for you to work with, and it's a blank canvas to create anything you need. That's great, but keep in mind that there will be extra cost to building specific sets if you need something that is very very niche. Some things to consider as well are the availability dates, what equipment they have available. If they can block out sound or lighting, that's super important for video. I'm going to show you a couple of examples, there is a website that I love to use called peerspace.com. This is a site that hosts tons of different spaces that you can rent to shoot in. They have all different kinds of spaces from traditional studio spaces, such as this one I'm showing you here. As you can see from this set, they have a backdrop and lots of different lighting equipment that can be used, however, if you want to build your own set, you're going to have to do that on your own, and alternatively, we have a location like this one that is a beautiful apartment building. This might be the set that you want to work with, but they don't have any of the equipment that you'll need, so in this case you'd have to bring your own equipment but not build the set. Again there's no perfect solution, it's just pros and cons of each of these options to consider. You can see all these details on peerspace site, including the rate per hour and down below you can see the type of lighting. For example, this space only has natural light. If you're working with a video, it's a little bit tricky to depend on natural light. If the weather isn't good that day then your video is going to have trouble, so I always prefer to bring my own equipment, have lighting available. Another really important detail that's often overlooked with video is that, if you are recording sound onset, you need to be in a place that's completely silent, if not, every little sound will get picked up by the video and it will distract from your video. As you can see, this space is not sound proof and it only has natural light, it's probably not the best option. I like to select the space that I'm shooting in first because as I mentioned, a lot of studio spaces have equipment available on site. Once you select your space, you can see what they have available and then essentially just supplement any other additional equipment that's needed. This part of the process is very highly specialized, of course you will need to work with your videographer or lighting expert on your team to understand exactly the type of equipment that you need to get, definitely don't recommend doing that on your own, leave that to the experts. Once you consult with them, you can supplement any other equipment that's needed and add it to your rentals from a local equipment rental studio. If you work with a very large team, you likely have lots of experts to tap into for this set, but if you work with a smaller team, it's no problem at all. Most local studios for rental equipment have experts on site that can definitely help you figure out what you need. Now that we've covered how to find the right space and source the right equipment, I'm going to ask you to go ahead and use the peerspace site to find three options for your shoes that fit the aesthetic you're looking for and begins to plan out your equipment. Once you have those locations selected, you will go ahead and add them into your production planning document.
7. Sourcing Models & Props: Sourcing models and finding the right props is one of my favorite parts of this whole process. Essentially, your models and props and how they interact with them, we'll bring the video to life. You might work with a larger team that has a casting director that sources models, or you may work with a smaller team and be doing this yourself. Regardless, if you are having any take in the production process, you will want to have a hand in the models that are selected so that you can achieve the look that you're going for. There are a few different options you can use when sourcing models, such as working with a modeling agency, using a talent sourcing sites such as swiped past, or just searching through Instagram. I'll walk you through each of those options. The first option is working with a modeling agency such as IMG Models, is just an example. This is a very large agency. Typically when you work with an agency, it's because you have a larger budget, their job is to essentially understand your creative vision and proposed models that are available for your timeline and fit within your budget. Do keep in mind that they do charge agency fees, so if you are working with a smaller budget, I don't recommend using this option, but it is there for you if you have a larger budget to work with. The second route and one that I most often take is working with a site like Swipecast. Swipecast is a website that I use to source models for the gather all shoot. It's an awesome talent sourcing website where you can browse all different talent. Here you see all the listings for different models; makeup artist, casting directors, etc. For the sake of this lesson, we are going to focus on the models. If you go over to the drop-down menu under the talent, you can search by female models, male models, etc. Other types of talent are there for you to search, and you can view tons of models on their site. Alternatively, you can create a job in the job section and have models applied to your shoot. For the gather all shoot, you can see here all four models that I hired for this job, and I actually listed the job through Swipecast and vetted the models through here. I communicated directly with them on this site and book them through this site as well. You can also see additional information for them here, such as their Instagram. Instagram is also another amazing way to source models. One tool that I like to use when sourcing models through Instagram is finding one model that I like, and then using the drop-down to see their suggested friends. You can find additional models from there to help get your ideas flowing. Ksenia is a model that we worked with for the gatherer I'll shoot. She's absolutely amazing. If I scroll on the bottom button here on her Instagram, I can see a ton of her other friends that are also models and have similar aesthetic as she does. Then essentially with this option, it's just a little bit more legwork because you need to go through each of the pages of all these models, reach out to them directly on Instagram, and negotiate with them through there, and it's just a little bit more tedious, but it's an option that is also available to you. Now, we're going to go into sourcing props for your shoot. Props can be literally anything. It can be at your cell phone, it can be a chair that's in your house, or it can be something a little bit more specialized that you need to find at a local prop rental studio. If you are working with a larger budget, you will likely have a prop stylist onset. The prop stylist is responsible for sourcing the props and also styling them on the actual day of the shoot. However, if you are working with a smaller team, you may be responsible for sourcing the props yourself, which honestly is a lot of fun, and you'll style them on the shoot yourself as well. Essentially with this process, you will figure out what are the types of objects that you need in the shoot to bring it to life, and then where can you get those options? For less expensive items, they can likely be ordered on Amazon or found at a local store by you, or if you need something a little bit more specific, you can work with a local prop rental studio. In New York City and for the gather all shoot, I utilized a studio called Prop Haus, which hosts tons of different prop rentals. As you can see here, they have tons of highly specialized items that are really fun to play with that you likely wouldn't find at a local store, and you basically just go through the site and find what you need, and then you can rent it for the day. For the gather all shoot, I knew that I needed very specific props to bring that warm, earthy texture and feeling to life. I listed out some ideas on the video production sheet for the types of props that I wanted to include, such as different backdrops and also fun props like wooden artisanal chairs, baskets, newspapers, stacked books, and then of course, the delicate flowers that would be used for the shadows and also as props in the video shoot. I include pictures of exactly what I want those props to look like, so that when we're sourcing the props, I know exactly what I'm looking for. Of course, the flowers we got from a local flower shop, the morning of the shoot, and then the more specific items like the chairs we did rent from a local studios that we didn't have to purchase those more expensive items. I'm going to ask you to go ahead and think about the props that you need in your shoot to bring it to life, and add pictures of what you want them to look like in your video production sheet.
8. Planning for Post Production: Now that we have our creative and production plans in place, we're going to begin to talk about post-production. It might seem weird to talk about post-production before the video is even produced. However, this is a very important step. Knowing the exact specs for how the video will be edited, will help your videographer in the way that they shoot the video and the angles that they use. I have a sheet saved for you with all the specs of every video platform to help get you started on this. This includes Instagram posts and stories, Facebook, your website, YouTube, Vimeo, Snapchat, and TikTok. They all have different specs and requirements for the size of their video, so you'll want to know this before the video is actually made. Having your video edited for multiple platforms, will not only allow you to make the most of your investment in the creation of this video, but it also allows your customers to have the same experience across multiple touchpoints. Now, I'm going to show you all the different size specs that we created for the gather all video. On my screen, you can see we have the one-by-one folder which contains sizes for Instagram posts and Facebook posts. We have the 9 by 16 for Instagram stories and we have the 16 by 9 for web. If we click through to these folders, you can see the one-by-one is the perfect square that fits into the Instagram post or Facebook post. Our next folder has the 9 by 16, which has the same exact footage, the same copy, just sized for Instagram stories, TikTok, and Reels. Finally, in the last folder, you can see the 16 by 9 version, which is perfectly fitted for the company's website. This one has a very wide frame, which is perfect for a homepage campaign video. Having it sized already makes the process much easier when it's time for this campaign to launch. To make this process easier for you, I have sourced Sprout Socials video specs, cheat sheet, and save that in the class resources. This cheat sheet has all the size specifications for every single video platform that you will want to use. From Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Start thinking about which platforms are priority from the strategy document that we created in the first lesson and save those specs. Once you save all the specs that you need, you basically have all the details for your videographer to know exactly what they're going to be creating on shoot day. Go ahead and highlight those and then save all those details in the video production planning document.
9. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for coming with me on this journey into the world of video production. You now have your production plans in place from your project and you can upload them in the Projects Gallery, I cannot wait to see them. As marketers, it is so important to know how to create videos. You now have the skills to do so. I can't wait to see what you create. I will see you next time.
Brooke Milo, Founder, NGNG Agency
