I was doing a hard drive clean up recently and stumbled upon some old projects from the very beginning of my video making days.
I actually love looking back at old work to see how much I’ve grown, but it was also an eye opener to things I wish I had known from the start!
You don’t need expensive equipment to create good videos. All you need is a strong message and some knowledge about how to use the gear you have creatively.
The best way to become better at making videos is to create more videos! But, to help you speed up your learning journey here are four mistakes I made in my first videos and how you can avoid them!
1. I kept my distance with the camera
Instead of getting amongst the action I often stayed in the corner and tried to film everything from the same angle. I was worried about getting in the way or annoying people if I got to close.
But I think we would both agree that the best videos take the viewer into the action!
There is a point where you can be too close and obnoxious, but I’ve found that people are more than happy to give you the space and freedom while you’re wielding a camera, and are often excited to help wherever they can if you just ask them.
People love seeing the world from angles they generally can’t see with their own eyes.
We love watching slo-mo and time-lapse clips because we physically can’t view the world that way. Playing with clip speed in your videos makes them more visually appealing and gives your production quality a step up.
Think about the different angles of a scene you can capture – try getting down low, or reaching up high to give your audience a different perspective.
I love using extreme close ups in slow motion for a lot of my filming because you’re able to take in more details of the action.
You don’t need fancy tools to achieve more creative shots, even with your phone – all you need is to ask yourself how you can find a different way of looking at the world through the lens.
2. I didn’t respect the importance of audio recording
“You can hear it, it’ll be right.”
Wrong!
When it comes to video, audio is king. Your audience will likely forgive average footage, but they won’t stick around to listen to bad audio.
Having good audio gives your videos a more professional finish.
Microphones are becoming more affordable all the time, but we all have a basic audio recorder in our pockets at almost every second of the day… that’s right, you can record audio straight into your phone and sync it to your video source later.
Proximity is the most important part of recording good audio. For the ladies who carry their phone in their bra (because seriously, why do they make women’s clothes without pockets?!) it is also a great place to put your phone for audio recording.
The front pocket of men’s shirts is an ideal, inconspicuous location for your phone audio recorder as well.
Alternatively, if the shot is only your head and shoulders you can have your phone recorder out of shot on a table, stool, stack of books, or anything you can come up with to keep the proximity.
A little tip for iPhone users, you can enhance the quality of your audio recording by going to:
Settings > Voice Memos > Audio Quality > and changing this to ‘Lossless’
If you are creating lots of videos, check out these audio devices I recommend when you’re first starting out:
- The RODE SmartLav (Amazon); a lavalier microphone for your smart phone.
- 6m SmartLav Extension Cable (Amazon); an extension cable for the RODE SmartLav so you can position your phone further away.
- The RODE Wireless GO (Amazon); a wireless microphone system you can use with your camera or with your smart phone with an additional adapter.
- RODE Wireless GO iPhone Adapter (Amazon)
For more tips about recording better audio for smart phone videos, check out this post.
3. I didn’t use music to drive the story
Music creates the feel of the video.
This one took me a while to really figure out. I would just find an okay royalty free music track, slap it on underneath my video as the final step in the edit and hit the export button with no real thought about how it affected the feel of the video…
Music affects the feel of the video the most!
The type of music we choose to listen to has a very strong affect on our mood; the music we choose to underlay our video with has a very strong affect on how our audience feels while watching it.
This doesn’t mean you need to pay a lot of money for your music tracks, there are a lot of great free music resources out there. It is worth investing some time in finding the right track to suit the feel of your video or your brand.
It is also a good idea to choose the music before you begin your edit, and allow the music to drive the way the video comes to life. When I started creating my videos this way I felt like I was able to connect with the edit more, and it was almost like the edit fell into place itself!
4. My videos were too long
Take as long as you need to get your message across, and not a moment more.
We are conditioned to want everything now.
You only have a few seconds to grab the attention of your audience, and as soon as they become disengaged, they’ll be scrolling right on.
Long videos are awesome if your content is valuable and engaging, but a mistake I made in the beginning was making my videos long for the sake of being long.
We can have a giggle at the quote by Mark Twain, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Until we are the ones sitting down to write that short letter…
It may take more time to plan and edit a concise video, but it could make a huge difference to your viewership and audience retention.
When you’re creating your next video have a little brainstorm about;
- how you can change up your camera angles and take the viewer into the scene
- what techniques you can use to boost the quality of you audio
- what music will help create the feeling you’re trying to evoke in your audience
- how you can get your message across as concisely as possible
These four ideas took me years to get right! I hope these tips help you fast track your video journey, and I can’t wait to see what you create.
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