Swanson Russell

Video can provide interesting and new content for your website. Whether it’s an interview with the president of your company, a customer testimonial or a demonstration of a new product, web video can assist in expressing your company’s energy and character. Take advantage of your next event, trade show, or annual meeting to create video content for your website. Here are 5 tips to keep in mind while shooting video.

1. Tell a story – Video content that tells a story will be more attention grabbing to your viewers than a straight interview. When shooting a video it is best to get a variety of different types of environmental shots: wide, medium, and close up. An interview or testimonial can explain how the product works or the ideas behind a trade show. Editing these clips together with B-roll (extra footage) will tell an interesting story and will be exciting for the viewer to watch.
2. Framing your shots – Stay away from placing your subject in the middle of the frame. Framing your subject off to one side will help you capture more of the environment and atmosphere of the shot. Make sure you pay attention to what is behind your focal points head. You don’t want deer antlers or a tree growing out of his/her head.
3. Use Rule of Thirds - Divide the frame into a tic-tac-toe pattern. When framing a person, you want their eyes on the top line and the center of their head on the left or the right line, facing inward. Don’t worry if this may cut off the top of the subject’s head, it will provide the proper balance and make your video look professional. 
4. Shoot B-roll - B-roll is secondary footage clips that you edit into your video to make the story more interesting. For instance, if you’re filming a trade show, you might take shots of the equipment, the booth graphics, and the people visiting your booth. When the time comes to edit together your final interview, you can mix in this footage to add variety.
5. Lighting. The best light source comes from behind the camera. Don’t shoot your subject in front of a window or with the sun behind him, unless you want your subject to appear in silhouette. If it seems dark move your subject into an area with more natural light.

Shooting video is a great opportunity to create new content for your site or blog that showcases your company’s products, people and personality. I would love to see what you come up with. Share with us your latest video. Paste a you-tube or vimeo link in the comments section below.