Video- Part Two

This is part two of video basics, where we are discussing some ways to incorporate video into your communications strategy. In part one we got the 30,000 foot view of video production, today we are going to start with some practical tasks to get you on your way to using video.

I was recently at the Seattle Museum of Flight to help with a prestigious award celebration event. A local news station was brought in to handle all the video production. This wasn’t a super hard event, three cameras for IMAG and a laptop feed for one video playback. Every former Museum of Flight chairman was present, along with a host of other current and former Boeing top executives and some various other large corporate CEO’s. During the event, most of the camera shots were out of focus and the shading was rough and different on almost every shot. If I had seen this event on TV, I would have been joking with my family that some video director was never going to be able to find a job again. Yet, much to my surprise... I didn’t hear one complaint the entire night, and no one got fired. In fact, that same production team will be back to help support their annual gala in a few months. What I want to point out about this experience, your audience matters. My best guess as to why there were no complaints about this event, most the audience was older than 60, and a good percent was in the 75+ category. This generation was there to see a good friend honored and to celebrate, they simply did not care about what was happening on screen.

Know your target audience

I hope you already have a target in mind with all your communications, do you know the demographic you are trying to reach with each service? Don’t lose sight of that target audience when adding video content to services. Video is not a one-size-fits-all medium, it is going to take intentional thought to hit your audience appropriately. Watch commercials, yep I said it, spend a week intentionally paying attention to all advertisements you see. Ask yourself what the target audience for the ad might be. Get on Facebook or Twitter and pay attention to the Youtube or Vimeo videos ( or lack thereof) that your congregation members post and tweet, this will tell you a lot about the style that is connecting with your community. Learn all about the TV shows that your church members enjoy, do they watch Modern Family? The Office? NCIS L.A? These shows all have very different style techniques and senses of humor. Spending the time to research what video already reaches your audience will help you save time, energy and a lot of awkward moments when it comes to adding video elements to your services.

When figuring out the style of your crowd, always remember that your personal style may not match with the majority of your audience. Don’t be scared if you find this rings true, I am not usually creating content in my own preferred style when I’m creating for church. It may be a challenge at first but you can overcome your own style to create for your crowd. Put together a dream team to help you come up with ideas and storyboards, get others involved and ask for help from your team if you are unsure about a certain idea.