#trending in video - April 20, 2020

Good morning everyone and welcome back to #trending in video, our place to keep you apprised of all things related to videography technology and trends in the marketplace! '

Today we’re talking about Content Trends for 2020 with our friends over at www.bizcommunity.com and the big issue they want to focus on today is “fast video.”

“Slow video is dead,” they don’t parse any words coming right out and saying it. Back in the day, according to the article written by Mann Made, brands would sit and ponder every second, every frame of video. They would “burn the midnight oil” agonizing over every detail before turning out the finished product.

The explosion of online video marketing changed that, some would argue for the better and some would argue for the worse. The big question every major brand should be asking themselves now as it relates to their video output is “How can we produce a high volume of good quality video content?”

According to a recent study, users on the internet spend almost 7 hours a week consuming video content, and over 50% (54% to be exact) want to see more video from the brands and businesses that they support on a regular basis.

With the constant cycle of the newsfeeds in today’s marketplace, along with the ever shortening attention span of the consumer, companies and brands need to produce videos, a lot of videos to stay visible and relevant.

This article lists 3 simple steps when it comes to building a strategy for your video content schedule, start with a simple content strategy, design a format you can repeat with minimum resources, and shoot and edit your video in batches.

The first is simple enough…lol…start simply. “Before anyone presses record, make sure you're clear on the intended outcome of your video series.” This is similar to our past blog posts about knowing who your target audience is for any video you shoot, edit, or put onto the internet. How do you want you audience to think? How do you want them to feel? What is the reaction you want them to have from watching your video? These are all things every brand needs to think about as it relates to their video content schedule. Is there a problem you are trying to solve? How do you want you audience to respond, not only emotionally but with actions? These are important questions to ask as well.

The second thing you need to focus on is your video format, you need to make fast video and you need a show format that is low maintenance. Your videos should require minimum scripting, which as we’ve mentioned before makes them feel more natural and less stilted. Shooting videos without scripting cuts down the time to produce and lets you get more video content out the door. Some easy pointers they provide are “Try to write a list of questions or topics that can be reused in each episode. In this way, variety is created through the different people you feature in each episode, rather than through time-consuming scriptwriting.” They also encourage filming interviews or conversations which can occur naturally, as a way to get more fast video out the door to your audience.

The third piece of advice this article provides, is to shoot and edit your video in batches. You need fast video, and you need a production machine that can produce the content that you need. The secret to this is to batch your video production tasks together. Shoot 3-5 episodes in an afternoon or morning. That way your video editing team can tackle the videos all at once. If you can schedule back to back interviews to record, that can be helpful as well. According to them, “The result is that the production can capture a full season of world-class content in just a few hours.”

Well this does it for today’s issue of #trending in video. As always I hope you’ve learned an idea or two to implement into your own video content strategy. Thanks for stopping by and chat soon!!