The Long (and short) of it...Video that is!

I started my career in video from the tender age of 6 all I ever wanted to do was to find a way to make those moving pictures on the big screen.

And I’ve been fascinated by them ever since.

From a career in corporate video and eventually agency side. It formed a large part of my life. 26 years to be exact.

Recently I went through period of personal growth. And I released just how much the video and story side of me is wrapped up in my childhood. I felt like I needed to somehow say goodbye to that part of me.

So I ignored it and it mad me sad. Creating video is the part of me that lets me connect to the child in me. I get so much joy from the process.?

But I put that part of to sleep and the need to create them again is stronger in me than ever before.

Let's face it what adult doesn't want to get paid to create and play.

Strangely, a large part of the population funnily enough.

Video is and can be terrifying for a lot of people. It’s a very vulnerable process.?

Record myself and then publicly post it to potentially millions of people. Not on your nelly mate!

But now is the PERFECT time to start.

"Over 500 million (half a BILLION) people are watching video on Facebook every day. 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds. Over 2/3 of online shoppers who played a video in 2014 watched to at least 80% completion. 74% of B2C marketers and 92% of B2B marketers use video in their marketing effort" - Lunio?

As I was scouring the pages of LinkedIn at the weekend something interesting caught my eye!

This post from Lindsey Gamble

Short form video content is now coming to a LinkedIn feed near you. This is about to change the video game forever! This about how you consume contnet in the feed. Short video is a perfect compliment to LinkedIn.

Like peas and carrots, cheese and crackers or those little mints after a meal!

There has literally been no better time to pick up a camera than now.

Here are a few tips to get you started

FEAR the GEAR

People think they need to spend a fortune on equipment and gear. This is your brains way of blocking you from getting it done. Oh if I ONLY had that newer, better camera, better lens, video light (insert gear here) my video would be 1000% better.

Errrr, wrong!

I pretty much guarantee you have a smartphone, that has everything you need to get started. The biggest (and cheapest investment) you can make is in a decent quality mic.

Bad quality audio is unforgivable. Head to Rode.com for a selection. And no they didn't pay me to say that (but guys if you're listening).

The next stage is fear of…

• Lighting
• Sound
• Pre production
• Scripts
• Formats

Editing and a million and one other things that still live in the depths of my brain.

Take it one step at a time and get the content on your camera first.

Get in the zone - a quick blast on the calm app or a small box breathing exercise (breath in count t 4, hod your breath count to 4 and release over the count of 4). Helps you get focused.

Practice, Practice, Practice - Your first video will suck, your second will suck slightly less. Keep going!

Create a Script - the reason for this. Your brain cannot do two things at once (sorry multitasking IS a myth). But scripting out exactly what you’re going to say (in your natural language) you can concentrate on the performance aspect of the video.?

It's not so much WHAT you’re saying as HOW you’re saying it.

Slow Down - We tend to speed up when nervous. Slow it down just a notch and concentrate on your breathing.

Stay Hydrated - keeps the old throat lubricated.

Keep it lose like a goose - a lot of video is non verbal (ie body language) restrictive clothing can cause our performance to become restricted as well.

Next comes

ATTENTION AND RETENTION

ATTENTION

How do we get eyeballs interacting with our content?in the first place?

Copy Hooks?

The hook - don’t think about just the hook with your video think about the copy that’s enticing people to look as well! This is bigger picture thinking.

The copy is JUST as important as the content in the video.

Thumbnails?

I’ll say it time and again, thumbnails are one of the easiest?ways to grab?attention, they don't?take long to make (knock one up in canva, for most content in the feed I recommend?vertical video so 1080x1920 for LinkedIn). Try and use faces and supporting text, then when you're?ready upload them through?desktop.

Here are some ideas to get your started.

https://www.canva.com/youtube-thumbnails/templates/

The video hook?

Those first 3 seconds are crucial to making sure your viewer WANTS to see what’s coming next.

How do we do that? Create a little curiosity.

Curiosity moves you from an ADULT STATE (where we know everything) to a CHILD STATE (where we know nothing) back to an ADULT STATE (where we know everything).?

The longer we can keep our audience in the curiosity zone the better, but we also need payoff. Just initially throwing up more conundrums for them with no payoffs is a recipe for disaster.

So an example hook could be these are my top three tips for video and we could show them on screen as supporting text, The first one could be the words use a good hook and the other two could be blurred out. This would create enough tension and intrigue to entice the viewer to continue watching.

RETENTION

Okay now you've got your audience watching how do we KEEP them watching till the end? Hmmmm.

Show don’t tell?

Curiosity

Yep this one again, little hints of curiosity and pay offs down the line keep our audience invested.

Story?

Where are you taking them? What’s the pay off, how do you want your audience to change once they have watched the content??

Is is part of a series? How does one episode lead onto the next?

Emotion

Make your audience feel something, whats the genre? Is it a comedy, romance or horror (what feeling do you want to convey in the content). In the internet genre mashups work really well as well.

Are you trying to entertain, educate or inform? Why not try edutainment? Educate people and share knowledge but do it in an entertain way (my secret sauce).

Humour is great and can help humanise your brand even more. It levels the playing field and gets people feeling young again.

Editing

All of these things above are controlled in the edit. It's time to learn or let someone else who’s skill set it is to handle this stuff. Learning to edit will enable you to to understand how story is constructed at the back end so that when you come to shoot the story is already fully formed.

It sounds counterintuitive but I would encourage anyone that wants to create good video content to understand how editing works. It will make you a better creator. It’s exactly how I learnt. I started as an editor then moved up to a camera op, then director and producer.

Think about how all of these things help support the story you're trying to tell. Think of them all as distinct ingredients and you have to get the balance right between them all to create the perfect cake.

If you want to learn I recommend diving into Capcut

Or if you're feeling really lazy give Opusclip a whirl. Whilst not having the nuance of a human editor (yet) it's great for repurposing long form contnet into a ton of short form.

SHORT FORM/ LONG FROM STRATEGY

Now that short from video content is about to become a thing. Let’s look at how we can leverage that into a cohesive strategy.?

1. The Teaser Trailer Approach (Short-Form to Long-Form): Picture your short-form videos as captivating movie trailers. Use them to tease the main themes or juicy insights from your long-form content. It's like giving your audience a sneak peek of a blockbuster movie, luring them to watch the full feature.
2. Repurpose, Repurpose, Repurpose: Imagine your long-form video is a hit single. Now, remix it! Extract key highlights, intriguing questions, or powerful statements and turn them into short, standalone clips.
3. Hook em??: Your short video needs a heroic level hook. Ask a provocative question, present a shocking fact, or start with a mid-action moment. Make your audience want to hit that 'play' button faster than they can say video killed the radio star.
4. Lights, Camera, Engagement!: Use the power of storytelling. Even in a short video, tell a mini-story that hooks your audience. Create intrigue and curiosity to drive them to the long form content. Think of it as creating a mini-episode of a TV show that leaves viewers craving the next episode (your long-form content).
5. The Call-to-Action Climax: At the end of your short video, include a compelling call-to-action. It's like the cliffhanger at the end of a TV episode, guiding viewers to the next part of the story. Encourage them to check out your long-form content for the full experience. ??
6. Make It Share-Worthy: Design your videos (both short and long-form) to be so interesting, so insightful, or so entertaining that people can't help but share them. And make sure they are CHOCK loaded with value (like this Newsletter).

Create a video mapping matrix through Chat GPT to take some of the strain off. I'll be showing you how to do that with a post next week. So keep your peepers peeled!

That's all for now kids, but hot damn if I'm not excited for the future of short form video on here!