Brownell Travel, located in Birmingham, Alabama, is one of the nation’s oldest travel agencies. To celebrate their 125th anniversary, Brownell Travel hosted a large gala event on January 7, 2012. Part of the evening’s festivities included the screening of an historical video, chronicling the agency’s evolution through the years. To produce the video, Brownell Travel turned to us. We took the agency’s archived materials and wove them together in a continuous layered composite of images and motion pictures.

In this Internet age, one that’s dominated by social media and user-generated content, it’s easy to find examples of individuals who have been reprimanded, fired, humiliated (or all of the above) based on what they post online. As much as the label “social media” is tossed around, the term “social policy” is not too far behind. It’s important for everyone to know what facts and information are okay to post online.

As a regular user of social media, I recognize the value it can have to SEO. Tools like Twitter and Facebook are additional spokes in the wheel that can drive additional traffic back to a website. Therefore, I like to keep my contacts updated on the projects we are working on. I might write a blurb about our recent work in our e-newsletter, or post behind-the-scenes pictures to our Facebook page.

If you find yourself working with a video production company, the contract needs to state explicitly what can/cannot be shared during the course of production. I have a clause in our contract which allows me to promote the work in various ways to help market my business. However, that particular clause deals specifically with the final, completed video. Posting pictures, videos, etc. online while the project is still in production is a separate matter and should be clarified between the video production company and the client before the job begins.

My clients do not have issues with me posting behind-the-scenes content to my various online accounts, but usually they ask me to wait until after the video is complete or after the video has been posted/exhibited/distributed. Every client-production company relationship will be different, but in the era of social media where everything is instant, policies regarding video production and social media should be addressed early so that serious problems don’t occur later.

Conducting on-camera interviews is always an important part of a corporate video or documentary film. They provide the viewer with context and help to round out the story by providing different perspectives and opinions on a particular topic. However, capturing the polished sound bites one hears in the final video is not an easy task. It takes the right kind of person, asking the right kind of questions, which helps the subject feel comfortable enough to answer while staring into a camera and bright lights.

If you find yourself conducting interviews for your next video project, here are two things to keep in mind, which should help in your next interview setting.

The most important thing is to make your subject feel comfortable. Always tell your subject is that it is okay to mess up. Remind him/her that everything he/she says will be edited. Your subject needs to know that it’s okay if he/she stumbles or loses his/her train of thought. It’s just par for the course. Those things will happen. If your subject understands that he/she will not ruin the entire video will a verbal misstep, it helps increase his/her comfort level and confidence. And that will help your subject appear more natural on camera.

However, as a follow-up to this first point, you should always make sure that the subject regains composure before continuing. This will help you when you are in the edit suite, putting your video together. For example, if the subject flubs a line and starts laughing as a result and then goes back to what he/she was saying while still chuckling, you won’t have a good point on which to edit. Your final video will have a sound bite that (for some reason inexplicable to the viewer) begins with someone laughing. Have your subject regain composure, get settled, and pause for just a moment before continuing.

Observing these two points will really help improve the quality of your interviews, because you will capture clean audio of a subject who is comfortable, natural, and confident.

A few years ago I came across this mock infomercial called “We Got That B-roll.” Anyone who works in video production, or who is familiar with the industry, will find the video humorous. It takes aim at the generic, overused, and sometimes unoriginal b-roll clips that fill up so many documentaries, commercials, and news stories. B-roll is an extremely important part of telling a story on film or video.

• It provides the viewer with context.
• It helps to explain concepts and ideas.
• It offers up visual variety.
• It holds an audience’s interest.

Despite its importance to the production, it’s amazing to me how so many people are willing to rush through the process of capturing b-roll. Shooting b-roll can’t become an afterthought. It needs to be an integral part of the shooting day. Here are a few things that need to happen to ensure that you capture great b-roll for your next project.

• Work it into the schedule. Give yourself and your production crew enough time in the day to set up, light, and shoot b-roll. The last thing you want is to rush around during the last hour of the day, trying to cross all the items off of your shot list. And that leads me into my next point…
• Create a shot list for your b-roll. Don’t wait until you get to the location to try and figure out exactly what you want to shoot for your b-roll. You will end up with a lot of footage that just won’t fit into your story. And that leads me into my final point…
• Make your b-roll relevant. Don’t just shoot the building because you think the architecture looks cool. B-roll should compliment and enhance the subject of your story. It should relate to what’s being said, either by those on camera, or the narrator.

B-roll can become a very stale and unoriginal aspect to a video, if not thought out properly. Or, it can be a visually striking element to the production and round out the story like nothing else. Its success or failure depends on how much attention to detail you give to the process during pre-production and production.

In our experience as video production professionals, we’ve learned that one of the biggest factors in budgeting for a particular job is time.

• How much time will be required to conceptualize and script a video project?
• How much time will we need in-studio or on location?
• How many shooting days will be required?
• How much time will we need to put the whole video together and deliver a final product?

Of course there are other factors to consider as well, including the cost of on-camera talent, additional crew, equipment, travel, etc. However, a video’s budget will grow exponentially when a client needs additional days for shooting, post-production, etc. The budget for a five-day shoot will look very different from a budget for a half-day shoot.

Most projects we work on require multiple camera set-ups, which require the movement of camera, lights, people, additional gear, etc. All of those set-ups mean that we can only capture a certain amount of footage per day. However, one way to increase the amount that can be shot in one day is to use a 2nd unit camera.

From a budgeting stand point, it may seem like an unnecessary expense to use two camera packages and two camera operators for one job. However, employing the use of a 2nd camera unit may actually reduce the cost of the video, because you are accomplishing more in less time.

This strategy is the most effective when there is a long, complicated shot list with several different locations and a small window of time. Rather than have one camera unit spend four days shooting everything, why not invest in a second camera unit and get all of your shots completed in two days? The first camera unit can spend time at your main location, conducting interviews with your staff and shooting b-roll of your operation, while the 2nd camera unit shoots b-roll of satellite offices, off site installs, and conducts interviews with clients. And if your video calls for an on-camera panel discussion with two or more individuals, you can use both cameras to cross-shoot the scene and omit the need to reset one camera for multiple angles. It can be a very efficient way to tackle your project.