What’s the difference?
Our producers often get a request to do some videoing. It’s an interesting word. It refers to capturing some footage, using a camera to grab a defined timeframe of reality on a memory card.
Videoing is often meant just to have and distribute a captured version of a certain reality. A lecture, a product demonstration, or an on-camera statement.
So when we say we make videos, what do we mean? It means we use the full spectrum of film language, to use every second wisely. The brains of most human beings are influenced, if not seriously wired, by cinema and television content. Whether we like to be wired or not, we are used to the combination of wide angles and close ups, 2 to 5 second sequences, narration and overlay footage, background music, overlay titles. Even if we don’t consciously analyse these building blocks, our brains are simply trained to understand stories told in that vernacular.
The big difference between videoing and making a video is the amount of craftsmanship and skills that go into the end result. Everyone can do some videoing. Find a record button, direct a lens towards the subject and hit the button.
Making a good video requires a deep knowledge about story-telling, visual language, design, script-writing, interviewing, light, lenses, cameras, sound, editing techniques, motion graphics, audio post-production, journalism, marketing, and requires good people skills to guide customers through this entire process in a pleasant way. Making a video requires analytical skills to understand a client’s purpose, mission and key messages and to convert them into film language.
What does your business need?
When it’s about capturing a reality for internal use all you need might be some videoing. Half a day of filming, raw footage on a drive, and there you go. You can now show the demonstration of this great new product to prospects around the world on your YouTube channel.
When you have built a great website to attract visitors, and you want to use their 1 minute attention span to capture their full interest…Then a well crafted marketing video, using the full spectrum of film language, is your best chance to maintain their attention. Raw footage, or a cheap video that comes across as unprofessional, might work against your brand and influence the perception of quality in regards to your own service or product.
Before you make any decisions on the use of video, it is worth inspecting what your business really needs. Sometimes it will be a bit of videoing, a quick and clean captured slice of reality that shows what you want to show. Sometimes you will be better of investing in some resources, so every second of your audience’s attention is used in the most effective way, combining all these wonderful layers and building blocks that film and cinema have given us.
Whatever the direction of your next video project is, feel free to drop me a line to talk a bit more about the large variety of formats and solutions that are used by businesses around the world.
Kris Borgraeve
Latest posts by Kris Borgraeve (see all)
- Video Strategies to Grow Your Business - 01/04/2017
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