Nowadays, to introduce your company background or your company projects, it’s a smart choice for you to bring the message through videos. But what should you take care of during the shooting? What can you do to make your company video look more professional?
The video team would do most of the part, but they might need your little help in producing a better quality video too.
1. Preparing the content
Making sure the message you want to bring out in your video. You might need to arrange different spokespersons, to express different aspects of the content. The 5W1H is a good tool for you to brainstorm content. But, as it is a video, we might need to take care of the length of the script. We usually keep the script short, simple, and straight to the point to avoid draggy videos. As nowadays the audience is selective, they can choose their own media. So, we would need to do our best to grab their attention and make sure they watch our video to the end.
But how should we make sure the script is not too long? How do we measure the length of the script? In the video industry, we estimate the length of the script by the number of words. The formula is = 3 words = 1 second. This means that most of the interviewee is able to read 3 words in 1 second. Let’s say you have a 100 words script, means you would have to take 100 words to divide by 3 words, means they would approximately need 33 seconds to finish reading the script. However, this is only the estimation measurement for us, the exact length of the video depends on the fluency and the speed of the interviewee’s expression.
2. Prepare the script for the interviewees
It’s good to prepare the script and have all the interviewees to get familiar with the content. Of course, it would be better if they can memorise it. This is because the majority of the interviewees might get nervous or forget what they should say in front of the camera. If they can memorise the script and talk fluently, it will help the filming process to go smoother, and hence videographers will work more efficiently. You may also request the videographers to prepare a teleprompter for your interviewee, a machine that projects the script for the interviewees in front of the camera. In this way, the interviewee can just present the script easily while looking into the camera, just like how the TV news presenters work. Of course, they might quote you additionally.
3. Attire
In a corporate video, we will include interviews. The appearance of the interviewee is very important as it reflects directly the image of the company. Therefore, the interviewee must look clean and tidy. Remember to iron your shirt as it would be very obvious in front of the camera. Not only that, the other staff would also need to dress up tidy. If possible, have them all to wear the company uniform. This is because to make the corporate video look more interesting, we would be taking shots of other staff working in the office as B-roll of the video, which is the additional shots to be played when the interviewee is talking.
4. Environment
Same as the point stated above, the appearance of the office will directly reflect your company professionalism. Therefore, keeping your office environment clean and tidy is an advisable step. If possible, keep as much space as possible in the corridor because the video crews would need to move the lighting equipment here and there in the office. By keeping it spacious would help them work better, and also prevent them from colliding and scratching the desk or other objects.
5. Noise
During an interview shoot, a quiet environment is needed to ensure the high quality of audio. It is advisable to prepare a quiet room, such as a meeting room. If possible, prepare a room which is far from the lift. This is because the lift would produce a ring sound when it arrives on the floor, and it affects the recorded audio quality, and also distracts the interviewee from presenting their contents. In addition, you may stick a signboard with “Filming in progress” on the door to prevent other staff from entering the room. Besides, you might need to coordinate with the office management to ensure there is no renovation near your shooting area because the sound could be recorded into the footage too. You might need to ask them to hold their work for 10 – 20 minutes during the interview shoot.
6. Language
As Malaysia is a multi-language and ethnic country, different interviewees might have different mother-languages of themselves. In this context, we might need to consider the choice of the language from the perspective of the audience. Who would be watching the videos? What language would they be familiar with? Which language is the most appropriate one to be used? There would be cases if the interviewee couldn’t speak the language needed, then you may request the video team to include subtitles in your videos.
What if the interviewee is a foreigner and it speaks foreign language like France? Japanese? In this case, you would need a translator for the interview. The translator would be the mediator to exchange information between the interviewer (video producer), and also the audience. The videographers would mic up both interviewee and the translator. In the editing process, we would show the interviewee’s visual as he is answering the question. At the same time, we will overlap the translator voice on the interviewee’s voice, by keeping the interviewee’s voice much softer than the translator’s voice.
And the most important thing in this aspect is the subtitles. The video team would need to insert subtitles throughout the video. But, as language is not their main profession, they might charge additionally on you to get the professional translation/proofread services. Also, if you would like to ensure the subtitles content is aligned with the objective of the corporate video, it is advisable to provide subtitles for the video team.
In a nutshell, the above steps would help you to have smoother and more efficient filming progress. You don’t want your colleagues to spend too much time filming. Therefore, getting ready before the filming would help you and your colleagues to save more time and be able to get back to their work faster. I hope these tips help!
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