Today's blog comes to you from special guest contributor Payton Gessel, Senior Video Editor & Motion Graphics Designer here at Kreber.
Imagine the scene: An auteur director barks orders through a megaphone from a tall chair. The production assistant ordered the wrong coffee and the director slams it to the ground. Everyone on set turns to watch the 27th take of an actor, covered in ping pong balls, yelling at a green cube. Truth be told, this scene probably won’t even make the final cut.
While many people associate these common film and prestige TV tropes with all forms of video production, things are often quite different outside of Hollywood. We might use the same equipment and slang terms as our tinseltown brethren, but at Kreber our videos are tailored to serve a different purpose and our process is more flexible and decidedly less dramatic.
Although we often hire professional talent, the products are the real stars of Kreber’s videos. Product video development, though, is not without its own challenges and typically requires more organizational and technical knowledge than a high-level brand awareness campaign—and many companies find the task daunting. When planning your next project, keep the following tips in mind to help your product video shoot go off without a hitch.
Identify Your Product Video Needs
Video is a major portion of most product-focused marketing strategies. The first thing to do when planning a product video is to determine the overarching goals that the video should accomplish. If video is just one of your tools in a larger product launch roadmap, consider which aspects of this product are easier to demonstrate with video than in other media. Are you targeting enthusiasts who geek out about your product details? Or potential new consumers who will require additional education and demonstration?
Like most creative media, product videos have to balance form and function. On one end of the spectrum is a product launch video. These are typically flashy, stylized, and attempt to wow the viewer with the best product features. They also depict ideal outcomes that the product can help the consumer achieve.
The other end of the spectrum is the product demo video, which takes complicated usage instructions and distills them into a step-by-step process.
Most videos are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, and too much of both ends can cause your budget to skyrocket. This means it’s important to identify and prioritize the essential elements of your video before you’re on set.
Plan Your Shoot Day
Scheduling a video shoot involves significant planning and logistics. A frequent challenge is to know how many shoot days you need for your video project. There isn’t an exact science to this, but here are a few variables to consider:
- Does your video include food, water, or delicate objects?
- Are there many shots that involve the talent completing difficult actions?
- Are you shooting outdoors and are dependent on good weather for the entire shoot day?
- Divide the number of unique shots by the length of your shoot day. How many shots would you need to capture per hour to stay on schedule?
The answers to questions like these may also help you determine the crew you want on set. Are you hauling heavy equipment to an outdoor location shoot? Hire a grip to get it moved fast. Do you sell food or products for cooking food? You’ll want to have a dedicated food stylist on hand. Using talent to showcase your products? Consider hair and makeup needs. Assembling your dream team will help distribute the workload in a way that will help get the job done efficiently.
Fix It In…Pre?
The phrase “we’ll fix it in post” is ubiquitous enough in video production that it’s often used as a punchline. While there are many elements in a video project that are quick and easy to fix in the editing process, over-reliance can cause problems down the pipeline. Consider the following:
Image courtesy of Vienna Pitts
The image above is a reference to Henry Cavill’s infamous appearance in the 2017 Justice League movie. The movie needed reshoots of several scenes and Cavill had grown a mustache for a role in another movie. Since he was not allowed to shave his mustache for the reshoots, a team of CGI artists had to remove his mustache in post-production. While they made a valiant effort, it was an exercise in futility that many fans instantly recognized.
While I've never removed a mustache in post, I have removed logos from clothing, replaced outdated product labels, and once even hid proof of a celebrity’s hair extensions. It's a fun challenge for me to solve these types of problems, but the cost can quickly add up. Some of these are unavoidable, so the goal of “fix it in pre” is to find the ones that are avoidable and knock them out before they become a problem.
A common culprit is the quality of a brand’s physical products. Many of our videos include prototypes and mockups, which is typical in the industry. Poor assembly can add hours of retouching, and may even derail the entire project. We once made a video about installing a kitchen appliance, but one prototype shipped to us with a key part assembled upside down. Our team thankfully caught this ahead of time and fixed it, but if we hadn’t, it would have brought the whole production to a halt.
Want to tap into our product video expertise? We’re adept at turning obstacles into opportunities, and our crew is experienced with keeping shoots efficient, on time, and on budget. Get in touch—we’d love to work with you to bring your next project to life.
If you’d like to know more about our approach to product videos shoots, reach out! We’d love to tell you more.
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