Month: July 2010

Improving Your Videos

Video is here to stay, Catherine Baum, production coordinator for Double R Productions, told a NonProfit 2.0 audience recently.

So what can you do to make your video better?

Catherine along with Claudio Guglielmelli, production manager for Double R, shared many tips, starting with breaking the shoot into three parts: pre-production, production and post-production.

“There needs to be lots of planning before you even go to shoot,” Claudio said.

The planning should include deciding on your concept, what questions you will ask and what shots you need. “A script really helps with your editing,” Catherine said.

Photo from Double R Productions

When it comes to the shoot, Claudio said –

1)      Hold each shot for at least 10 seconds (your hand will get steadier)

2)      Shoot a variety of shoots, including ones that will help move your story along

3)      Use a tripod or a table to steady the camera

4)      Keep a shot list so that when you go into the editing room you will know what you have.

If at all possible, they recommended having a field producer for the shoot. “This person keeps everything organized,” Catherine said.

Editing is the consuming part of the process. They both emphasized not putting everything you shot in the final video. “Shorter is better,” Catherine said.

Editing software choices include Adobe Premier, Final Cut Pro and iMovie.

Are you ready for the big screen?

Video Conveys Message, What Does Yours Say?

Have you thought about sharing a message from your CEO, a sample of your latest project, client testimonials or interviews with field experts?

You can do that with video and post it to your website, which is then 53 times more likely to come up on the first page of a Google search according to a report by Forrester.

Catherine Baum, production coordinator with Double R Productions in Washington, D.C., also noted, “Video has impact. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.”

 “A lot of people can do it, but it’s about doing it right,” she shared recently at the NonProfit 2.0 Unconference. “Video is a window of your world.”

So what makes good video? Claudio Guglielmelli, production manager for Double R Productions, critiqued three levels of video.

Claudio shoots video for a client.

The first was using a flip-cam, which has grown in popularity, in part, because of its ease of use. Its downsides include a grainy look, no lighting and no camera mic. “What message are you sending?” Claudio asked.

A better level is using a double R cam, which requires some studio lights and delivers professional quality. The best level is a professional shoot with a professional actor and the addition of music, graphics and a customized opening and ending.

He challenged video users who say, “It’s just for the web,” noting that most people do their homework from the web.

“What is the first impression you want to make?” he asked.

(July 11 Post: Read some tips to improve your videography.)

When Disaster Strikes, Are You Listening?

The American Red Cross listens in the social media space. It has teams of people ready to be deployed when disaster strikes.

Wendy Harman talks about listening at NonProfit 2.0.

Its Social Media Manager Wendy Harman has conducted training so that staff knows how to be a subject matter expert. She’s even developed a social media handbook (and has said we can use it!).

Most of her social media posts are intended to make the organization’s mission more known. “We like to have fun nerdiness with our posts,” she told the NonProfit 2.0 audience recently.

But, of course, there is a serious side to her job. And that’s getting the word out about disaster efforts. At 4:53 p.m. on Jan. 12, Wendy and the Red Cross “put into practice everything we did before.”

That included Facebook updates and interviewing a subject matter expert on Haiti in front of a world map with a flip cam so they could post the video interview.

At the start of a crisis, the Red Cross may have limited information. “Even if we don’t know anything,” Wendy said, “we acknowledge that something is going on.”

Ironically, Wendy said that on Jan. 11, she was feeling frustrated about social media. “We weren’t moving the needle on people taking action.”

All that changed after the earthquake struck. By 9:38 p.m. on Jan. 12 the Red Cross had set up text mobile giving through the State Department. By the next morning, 3 million people had made donations via their phones.

“We just had to tweet about it one time,” Wendy said. The White House also tweeted once about the mobile giving option.

“The rest was the American public,” Wendy said. “We were seeing an unprecedented mobile giving phenomenon.”

From then on it was about keeping the information churning and the public information push in the social world, she said.

In the aftermath, Wendy said the biggest lesson learned was that social media wasn’t “just fun and games anymore.”

“We really can do something here,” she said.

She learned about a group trapped under a supermarket. “They could hear the rescue workers, but the workers couldn’t hear them. But they were tweeting,” Wendy said.

Despite efforts, the group later perished.

What will change for the Red Cross, Wendy said, is that “we’re going to let the public come in and tell us where we need to mobilize. In the past we relied heavily on disaster teams.”

Wendy said in the future, for her, social media is going to be about tearing down the wall and “being really informed, really becoming  a facilitator.”

It’s her goal, and it’s a worthy one.