Framing, Leading Lines & Geometry for Your Promotional Video

When shooting your next promotional video, consider how you frame and use lines for your shot. When we frame and use lines for our business video, we are directing the viewer to a given subject and drawing the attention of the eye. This produces a more professional and intentional video for your audience. So for you next, consider adopting these cinematic techniques.

Leading lines

When lines are directed towards the subject, our eyes intuit that they are who we should be paying attention to. It is pleasing to the eye to see leading lines, as our eyes naturally follow symmetry. This is why the top Hollywood movies use the leading lines technique often. So for your next promotional video, consider how you use lines as part of your composition.

Framing Your Shot

There are many ways to frame a shot. This is often best done by having an object be in the foreground, which frames what the main shot is featuring. As you can see in this photo, the CN Tower and cityscape is framed by the three on the right. This other shot is framed by the part of the building being in the foreground.

Rule of Thirds

Rule of a Thirds is a popular photography and cinema convention, which splits the image into nine equal parts. The belief is that my setting the main feature of the image in one of the the four intersections, that it leads to a more pleasing composition. Most beginners will shoot a given subject in the centre, which certainly can be a delightful picture. However, Rule of Thirds, for me at least, is a technique I often implement when shooting my subject in my promotional videos. I also try and incorporate leading lines and framing.

For your next promotional video, consider using symmetry, leading lines, framing and geometry when shooting. Your viewer will intuit a more pleasing shot, and it will keep the focus on the subject when they are speaking.

4 Must-Have Motion Graphics to Enhance and Energize Your Promotional Video

Motion graphics are an essential way to emphasize and animate what the speaker is saying in your promotional video. It allows your professional video to stand apart and get noticed by your audience, much more than a video without graphics.

Here are my top four motion graphic strategies/ plugins I use to get the best results for my promotional videos:

4 Must-Have Graphics for Your Promotional Video:

1. Trendy Motion Pack

The Trendy Motion pack works with Adobe’s Premiere NLE and After Effects, respectively. The motion pack uses Atom in After Effects, which allows you to customize your graphics in a more refined manner. The pack is on version 3 and comes with a host of trendy and stylish graphics. You can pick up the package here.

2. Ezra Cohen’s Tour Visuals

Another motion graphic pack I use is by Ezra Cohen ‘Tour Visuals’. His graphics are more retro, which compliments the other graphics I have in my motion graphic arsenal. Cohen has a training I purchased, which explains how he applies his tour visuals to video. I value this pack, as it allows me to work with the building blocks of graphic design in a way that I can build complex sequences with just a few of his graphics assets.

3. Red Giant Universe

Red Giant has been a leader in the motion graphic game for some time. Their visuals are a cornerstone of my graphics workflow. As they write this, they just came out with their latest point release, Universe 3.2!

HUD Component is a powerful graphics plugin as part of the Red Giant Universe suit. It can unlock futuristic graphics for your video, saving you time and energy building these assets yourself.

4. Peter Mckinnon’s Title Pack

Many people will know of the popular YouTuber Peter McKinnon. He has a popular title graphics pack that you can use to enhance your videos. What I like about these titles is they add energy and excitements to videos. Plus, they are easy to use. Drop them on the timeline, customize to your liking, and you’re ready to go!

Motion graphics are essential for engaging and professional promotional videos. Consider these plugins and strategies for your next promotional video.

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Why Your Promotional Video Can Benefit From Quality Sound

Getting Quality Sound for Your Promotional Video

George Lucas once said: "The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie." So neglecting capturing quality audio can be detrimental to your promotional video.

It's not as though I've always followed this lesson. I have had to learn the hard way when capturing audio for my videos. Maybe it was a fan that was left on, wind hitting the microphone or noise from traffic. However, since learning about what it takes to get quality sound, I've devoted more time and attention to ensuring my videos have better overall audio.

Some keys to getting quality sound are the following:

1. Invest in a Good Microphone

I recently purchased a Deity S-Mic 2 shotgun microphone. This microphone has received great reviews, and it's at a much lower price point than other shotgun microphones in its category. I'd suggest if you're looking for your first microphone to consider this microphone or if you are shooting on your cellphone, find a microphone that can plug straight into the phone. There are many options for these types of microphones (everywhere from $40-$100). A simple upgrade over your built-in camera microphone or your cellphone microphone will go a long way it creating professional audio your audience expects.

2. Control Your Environment

I often see people who are newer to shooting video neglect consider the various sounds in their environment. It takes awareness to continue to monitor the environment to ensure there are no distracting sounds. One might think: "I'll fix it in post" or "it's not that bad". However, any audio engineer or experienced videographer will tell you that fixing bad audio, is no simple matter.

3. Ensure the Microphone Is as Close to the Subject as Possible

Aiming the microphone at the subject's chest (should you be using a shotgun microphone) and placing the microphone as close to the subject's mouth is critical. Aiming the mic at the subject's chest will often give you a more fuller sound. Often people think that having a microphone on their camera, which may be about 6 feet away, will be fine enough to capture audio. However, this will entail that more background audio will be capture (which you often don't want), and the sound will not be as crisp as it would be, should you place it near the subject's mouth.

4. Monitor Your Microphone Levels to Ensure Your Audio Is Not 'Clipping'

Ensure that your audio is not 'clipping,' a term which means when your sound is surpassing its available range, leading to distortion, which is often very hard, if not impossible, to recover in post. By monitoring your audio (via headphone), so that it's neither too low nor too high, you'll ensure that you're capturing great audio. People often recommended keeping the levels between -12 and -6. It's better to have a lower sound that does not clip than having audio, which is clipping and distorted.

Conclusion

Consider upping your audio game by investing in a better microphone and following the tips covered in this article. Quality audio will help your subject's voice be much crisper and listenable, which will give you that more professional sound your audience expects.

Why Your Promotional Video Can Benefit From Three-Point Lighting

Why Does Lighting Matter, Particularly Three-Point Lighting?

Proper lighting in video is essential to help the subject stand out and differentiate themselves from the background. A quality soft light helps compliment the subject's skin, but also makes the talent' pop.' Pop in terms of differentiating themselves from the background, creating the sharpness and definition we expect from a higher-end interview or talking-head promotional video. Accentuating the subject from the background is often best achieved through a technique called 'three-point lighting.'

Three-Point Lighting

Three-point lighting is one of the oldest and widely adopted lighting techniques used in shooting video. The method consists of three lights – a key light, fill light and backlight.

Key Light

The Key light is the central light. It is usually the strongest and has the most significant influence on the look of the scene. It is placed to one side of the subject so that one side is lit and the other side has some shadow.

Fill Light

The fill light is the secondary light. It is placed on the opposite side of the key light. The light 'fills' the shadows created by the key. The fill is often softer than the key light. This can be achieved through the distance of the light or by simply turning down the light's brightness.

Back Light

The backlight is placed behind the subject. It fills the rear of the talent's head. Its purpose is to help define and highlights the subject from the background.

Soften Your Key Light by 'Damping' It With a Sheet or Paper

When lighting your subject, too strong of a light can blow out the highlights of your subject's face, which essentially means that the detail in the highlights will become lost. The camera can only capture so many ranges of light, so by damping the brightness of the light, with a sheet or paper, you allow the skin colour of the subject to more lightly exposed, retaining the details in the highlights. A 'softer' light is more flattering to the skin and avoids unattractive shadows that can be cast on the face by too bright of a light.

Conclusion

Consider lighting next time you shoot your next promotional video. Lighting will help your subject 'pop', complimenting their skin and giving you that more professional look and feel your audience expects.

Why Story Is the Most Important Part When Creating a Promotional Video

Shooting a video with a coherent story delivers a great response from the audience. Inherent in every story is the human condition: the longing, the emotion, that which captivates us and captures our yearning for meaning and purpose. Aesthetic value matters, in terms of how the video is shot. However, if we neglect the story, we'll end up with just a bunch of beautiful shots, but leave the audience feeling empty, confused or worse bored.

Connecting With Story Takes Foresight and a Deeper Consideration

When shooting video, I will admit that I'm often more focused on getting the shot, the right lighting, or implementing any other popular shooting technique. This is likely the case, for as a videographer, my primary role is to get the shot. Yet thinking like a producer, is what every promotional video needs. Shooting for the story takes foresight and more in-depth consideration. It takes planning. So I've been pushing myself not to miss the essential aspect, that is, shooting for the story.

Shooting for the story is often neglected because it is the most difficult and, in some respects, the most personal aspects of any video. The story strikes at the heart, not like any other aspect of videography. When done right, the story is the thread that follows a logical and coherent structure; great stories capture the human mind and heart.

Connect With Universal Archetypical Story

A great story is rooted in our DNA. It's the formula of how we understand and program our knowledge. Here I am thinking of the work of Joesph Campbell, as well as the psychologist Carl Yong and Jordan Peterson. There's a reason why stories have been passed down through centuries and are the primary way we as humans pass on essential information to the next generations.

From a psychological perspective, archetypical stories exist in our subconscious. They are most pronounced in dreams and perennial cultural stories. Therefore when telling better stories, think about those classic, universal, often mythic stories - ones which have captured us for centuries. As long as it communicates to the heart and mind, I think one is safe.

What Attracts Viewers

There's a reason why when the next Marvel movie comes out, people attend the theatre in droves. They want to see the latest superhero conquer the forces of wrongdoing or evil. More straightforward, but equally profound stories exist in every day. We just have to look for them. Sometimes the most honest stories are the ones that leave the most profound impact.

Lead With Emotion

It is no secret that we as human beings are driven largely by emotion. Sure we’re rational as well, but what I once read: customers need to hear the facts and figures up front and then once they’ve decide to buy your product, they form an emotional bond with a given product or service. So sure, you need to present your the statistics of your company or the given problem you are solving, but emotional led content is where you will hook your audience.

Think Like a Marketer When Designing An Engaging Story

In the book, Expert Secrets, the author Russell Brunson describes how through story, we should communicate not just an improvement, in terms of better, but rather an opportunity. The opportunity we offer should be about a status increase. What status increases does Brunson recommend we communicate? He talks about status increases we as humans almost all universally desire, increase in:

• intelligence
• power
• looks
• wealth
• health
• and style

So when creating your next promotional video, think stories that offer an opportunity for customers in terms of a status increase.

Conclusion

We are all attracted to stories. It's how we learn and code knowledge. So when selling to your audience online, communicating your brand's story, considering universal and classical themes. In terms of marketing, offer a story that provides an opportunity for a status increase.

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Why Blackmagic 6K Can Deliver Cinematic Quality for Your Business

I recently purchased the Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema 6K Camera. What this camera allows, is for me to produce true cinematic quality for my clients and personal projects, be it for promotional or instructional commercials, high-end interviews or film features.

6K 12-Bit Raw: Cinematic Goodness

The Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema 6K Camera can shoot in 6K 12-Bit Raw. What does this mean? Well, for short, it means an overall better image. Mainly, shooting in 6K allows me to deliver a more pixel sharp image, as well as for the ability to ‘punch in’ or zoom in to the image if needed in post. Raw allows me to colour correct and grade with much more freedom, including adjusting aspects such as colour temperature, Exposure and ISO in post.

4K Deliverable: Increasing the Longevity & Sharpness of Your Video

Most clients now desire a 4K deliverable in 2020. Social Media sites such as YouTube are allowing the ability to upload to 4K and higher. New TVs are also now 4K and higher. So when I can deliver 4K footage for my clients, it’s providing for them the current standards needed in 2020 and moving forward into the decade. Furthermore, it allows for the future-proofing of archival footage, substantially increasing the longevity of the video delivered.

What Is 12-Bit?

A 12-bit space is essentially the degree of colour able to be included in the captured footage. Most DSLRs shoot in 8-bit, which means you’re gaining more colour when shooting 12-bit video with a cinema camera. When colour correcting/ grading 8-bit footage, a process that occurs when editing footage in post, colours I have found can quickly degrade. This is especially the case when shooting on the Sony A7RII. Specific colours get too pulled apart, i.e. many colour artifacts are introduced, meaning the image does not look great. The reason for this, is that there is only so much you can push colours, in terms of colour correcting, in an 8-bit colour space. However, a 12-bit is a significant step above what I used to with my DSLR. I can pretty much adjust an image to any individual style or design I want, which allows for greater creative freedom.

Shooting Raw Gives You the Best Image

The fact that I can shoot in Raw, as well as a 12-bit colour space, means I have a lot more room to push the image and colours in post. Raw is essentially the same as what you find if you were shooting a Raw image vs a JPG in photography. All the details are captured in the Raw image, as Blackmagic creates a ‘sidecar file’ which can be read and adjusted in post. It essentially allows for more flexibility to play with, as the video is closest to its original capture. In other words, as the image is less compressed, it allows for greater flexibility in grading and editing of the footage. For more details on what Blackmagic Raw (BRAW) is, see the following video by Blackmagic:

One Minor Downside of Shooting in 6K Raw

Yes, it’s impressive that you can shoot in such a high resolution, but the file sizes and the ability for your computer to process the video can be a bit more challenging. It certainly takes more planning to have an efficient workflow to grade and edit the footage. I’m currently working on ways to improve my video workflow, as when you have much larger file sizes, and your computer needs to process these larger files, it can take more time. I’m confident with my current testing and workflow that my editing will become much more efficient, so I can spend less time editing and more time shooting or enjoying the efforts of my labour.

Conclusion

6K 12-Bit Raw is a game gamer in terms of the cinematic quality I can deliver for clients. This means more professionally, and higher-end promotional commercials and films can be produced using my camera. Indeed it’s an exciting time to an independent filmmaker in 2020!

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