Things to watch out for when making your web video.

[99giants]

Companies are now simplifying their websites, getting rid of flash sites and heavy text and replacing them with video.

But what are the risks of having a video on your site?

It is true that video is much more engaging and can hold a viewers attention for longer but is the message sent out really what you want your customers to think of you?

I run a small video production company 99 Giants and we specialise in video for websites. I have seen some great videos that really help to sell a product or service but unfortunately quite a few things can go wrong with putting videos on your website which could lead to a negative impact. Here are a few:

1. There is not enough bandwidth to run your video in real-time or close to real-time.
2. The video is impressionable and robotic and the viewer finds them annoying.
3. Poor quality filming, Lighting, composition, content, sound.
4. Poor acting, E.g A CEO presenting his own company
5. Distracting and useless motion graphics that have no purpose
6. Videos that are too Long
7. Poor keying from Blue screen giving terrible spill
8. Bad controls, (Skin). E.g No pause button or timeline control.

Kind Regards,

Christy Lindsay

 

[Robert Wheeler]

I second this list. It points out many of the key faults with inferior corporate video. I would also like to add:

9, Bad edits and cuts - particularly strange wipes with funny shapes or wavey lines them.
10, Loud, obtrusive, techno style stock music.

 

[99giants]

9, Bad edits and cuts - particularly strange wipes with funny shapes or wavey lines them.

Yes, quite right. I think as a very general rule a video should be 90% straight cuts, 8% fades and 2% flashes. Stay away from all other wipes and transitions, they always look cheap.

 

[Robert Wheeler]

When I watch most corporate video I often get the impression it is either the product of newly qualified media students, who do not actually have much idea about what production standards should be, or wider knowledge of marketing of business, or old school TV production staff who are looking for an independent form of income prior to their retirement. As a result most of these things look amateurish or cliched to me.

I had a look at the adverts at 99 Giants and I think they are pretty sharp, (although I have not reviewed the corporate stuff yet). Do you think it is just a matter of time before the corporate world "gets" what good video standards are about?

So often I see people jumping for the gimmicks such a wipes and effects. I guess that is because it gives them something to justify the budget for. A while ago I was in a meeting with a potential client for a job and he asked me to break down the cost. He looks at the material expenses and good not understand why the labour costs were in his eyes "so high". I told him it was because we provide an excellent level of production, and that requires a lot of work, and that work is of a high standard, and that it has a value that is more than the material expenses. And actually I pointed out that when you broke down the number of hours we would spend on shooting and post-production, it was really really good value, less than he would pay most of his lower wage staff per hour. He just could not figure that out. He could not understand the concept of the production be tailored and require care and craft and reflection. Yet in one corner of that very office he had a pile of old scrap metal modern art by some Billy Pretentious-Pants, which he proudly told us cost about 20 times what we were quoting him for our job.

 

[99giants]

Do you think it is just a matter of time before the corporate world "gets" what good video standards are about?

Thanks for looking at my site, I had a look at yours too, Its pretty tight.

Yes, I think quality will very quickly become a a very big issue but its virgin territory at the moment. Eventually the cowboys will sink to the bottom, leaving the quality producers on top.

There will always be a market for cheaper style corporate videos but companies that want to be taken seriously will go for high quality videos and will appreciate that there is a minimum cost for that.

The problem at the moment is no one, knows how to find us. The market is awash with "Out of Can" video production companies trying to make a quick buck.

This is why I joined this forum, I'm trying to raise my online profile and as you probably already know its a difficult task.

Cheers

Christy

 

[Robert Wheeler]

I like you Christy. You talk sense

Like you, we found the corporate market quite hard going. At one point we decided to focus our efforts into a commercial release which has brought us considerable attention and built on our credibility as quality producers.

At the moment we are in the process of updating our corporate site, part of our overall business plan. We are moving forward, and we are gaining prominence, but it does take time. I believe in the inevitability of gradualness, so I sincerely hope that it is companies like yours and ours which do come to the top in the long term.

Some of these companies offer really shonky videos at ridiculously low prices. Some over shonky videos at ridiculously high prices too. Hopefully one day soon on of these businesses that buy these things will get a client that says "that thing looks really cheap!" and they will realise that standards do exist!