I just knew it was going to be boring.
Most videos about buildings are boring, and I wanted to do anything and everything to avoid this common pitfall.
One of our first video projects was on a newly designed building. A college received funds to revamp their nursing program, and they got all sorts of new designs, equipment and tools around their nursing building.
It was a neat story, and I was grateful for the opportunity.
But I was concerned from the get go. Most videos about buildings of any kind are boring. The footage is primarily shots of walls, logos and the building itself, and that’s not exciting. 💤 Unfortunately, those kinds of videos are boring, and the watch time on any platform (YouTube, Facebook, X/Twitter, etc.) is subpar. People lose interest right away, and they won’t stick around to see any call to action at the end.
There is, of course, a solution, and it takes no additional time, energy or money. I promise.
Instead of getting straight, plain-old footage of walls, we added a little movement in the camera. For example, we wanted to show the new logo on the walls. Instead of getting a shot of just the logo, we positioned the camera at an angle from the logo, recorded one side of the room and moved (panned) slowly toward logo. ✨
Another example …
We wanted to get a shot of the outside of the building. Easy, sure, but not visually interesting. So, we started the shot from above the building — like of the sky — and angled the camera back down (tilt) to show the building’s entrance. PLUS, we waited until someone was walking into the building. We wanted to see them actually walking into the building, not just the building by itself.
These simple camera maneuvers make any footage way more visually interesting and exciting. I see way too many marketing videos that are, well, lacking energy and passion. The shots are dull, and there’s reason no watch the entire video from start to finish. 😥
I understand time may be short, and you really want to finish the video, regardless of what it looks like. After all, the thing has taken much longer to complete than anticipated. I get it. Yet, if we took your effort one step further, then your results will be significantly better. 💯
I listed out all sorts of easy camera tricks in my Video Marketing Guide. It’s 100 percent free, and it will means be worth your time. Otherwise, your results won’t change.
