FIVE MINUTES TO FAME: 5 steps to making a video in under 5 minutes

Published on 18 June 2020

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The good news? You do not need several years at film school and thousands of dollars of high-tech equipment to product engaging content for your business.  

SmartHub Business Manager Elize Hattin and professional filmmaker Wes Alan from Tap Edit Go talk us through the five-step how-to process for making a video in just five minutes.  

CONTENT OVER QUALITY

Wes Alan offers businesses the tools and tricks he has learned over many years as a filmmaker, using the power of the simple smartphone to create high quality video content for social media. 

He believes quality filmmaking is not about having DSLR cameras and expensive camera equipment; it’s all about content.

“I get excuses all the time from business owners, start-ups and entrepreneurs for not creating video content for their business. 

“The first excuse is they don't have the equipment. They don't have that big, bulky camera, they don't have a DSLR, they do not have the audio gear. They think they need to fork out $10,000." 

“You don't need to go out and spend so much money. Your smartphone is powerful enough,” he claims. 

Wes says the other common excuse he hears from businesses reluctant to shoot their own videos is they lack the skills to make it look professional. 

"You do not need to spend four years in film school to know how to make a good quality video. You can do it pretty easily these days. You can get good quality content, just by learning a few techniques,” he reassures. 

The final excuse is not having the time. 

Wes says while content heavy videos like tutorial or training videos might take more time, daily content for social media should take less than five minutes.  

WHY VIDEO?

If we want our businesses to grow, we need marketing. So why is video a good idea in a business marketing strategy? Wes encourages businesses to try to put themselves as a customer. 

“You are the business owner. You think ‘other people’ are something completely different. But you have to remember they are individuals and the majority of them like you. 

“They like who you are, they like everything else. You have to put yourself in their shoes, and everybody out there currently loves watching videos,” he advises. 

Wes encourages business owners to think first before pulling out their phones too quickly to capture every moment. He recommends a five-step, storytelling approach to filmmaking. 

STEP 1:  Think about the story you want to tell and who the audience is

Wes believes people do not understand they are not making this video for themselves at all. 

“It's for the audience. You need to know who your audience is in fine detail, where they are, what they like, what they dislike. 

“My target market is 45 to 55 year-old women, running their first business or running their husband's business. It helps me form the language I use when I talk and who I should talk to. It helps with knowing who I should be engaging with and who I should be thinking about every time I make a video. 

"Think about your audience. Put yourselves in their shoes, you should be making videos for them,” he encourages. 

STEP 2: Find a moment people will engage with

This is the step Wes says people find most frustrating; thinking what they do is unengaging, business as usual and of little interest to others. 

“Your business and your daily activities might be boring to you, but to everybody else and your viewer, they become highly engaged with that information. 

“I conducted a course with Zoos Victoria and one of the zoologists put his hand up, saying his job was boring. When prompted, he said he collected food for animals. 

“I likened that to being a personal chef for the lions, rhinos, elephants and giraffes. Even though he’d been doing this job daily for ten years, I find it the most engaging information ever,” Wes admits. 

Wes explains it is those behind the scenes moments when you get to glance into something, that excites and engages our audiences. 

“Even the moments you have in everyday business, what happens in the functionality of your business, you're going to work, you go grab a cup of coffee, people will actually think that's a really engaging moment,” he says. 

Wes says there is a technique to telling a proper story. As a start, he advises it is vital to capture enough content for your video to be engaging. 

While people want something sharp, short and sweet, he says there is no ‘one size fits all’ formula for ideal video length. 

“Have you ever started watching a Facebook video, and thought this is so engaging, I've got somewhere to go, can you hurry up and finish…or maybe I'll take my phone with me? 

 

“Or there's a meeting about to start, I'll have to watch this later." That is a highly engaging video. It's not about the length of a video. It's about how engaging it is. 

“Filmmaking is about breaking all the rules and bending the limits. Seeing what you can do and seeing how engaged your audience can be in the process,” Wes argues. 

STEP 3: Shoot 

This step involves coming up with a story telling. Wes suggests shooting approx. fifteen small, short, sweet videos to get a really engaging story going. 

But how do we tell that story? What kind of shots do we need? Do I just go get my phone out and start shooting randomly? 

Wes recommends three story telling capturing techniques. 

“The first one is, where are we? You need to give me a short video about where we are. 

“The second shot is, what are we doing? It could be a guided tour through a venue like the Smart Hub. It could be a shot of us walking through the door. We're actually entering the building, it's more like an action. 

“The final shot is very important, and it's how do you feel about this? Where? What? How? How do you feel about this? It is a reaction shot. You need to show emotion. Are you happy about it? Are you excited? Are you upset? Are you angry? Are you sad? What is going on? And you need to show that in a little video,” Wes outlines. 

STEP 4: Edit

According to Wes, there is a structure to making a professional video and how to edit correctly. 

This can be done easily on a smartphone; no need to import footage across from your phone all the way to your computer or having to find hard drive space. It all happens on your phone. 

“Once you have shot your visually engaging stories, editing all is about pulling all the stories together and presenting it in a nice way with music, themes and branding. 

Wes explains a free app called Quik by GoPro has an algorithm which takes footage captured, identifies the best content and compiles it into a video, complete with editable themes and music. 

“GoPro realised people record hours of GoPro footage…it was just so long and so boring. So they built an app with an algorithm to find the best moments in that hour-long footage and turn it into a video.

“Quik will find good music, a great template and will put everything together in under 10 seconds,” Wes demonstrates. 

STEP 5: Where? 

The final fifth step in the process is where are you going to publish your video? Wes explains there's different platforms that like different things, such as vertical videos versus horizontal videos, square videos, videos with a certain duration.

“The best thing about Quik is you can change this around even if you shot your entire video horizontally, which I always recommend people doing, it can still make you a vertical video if you needed to put it on a platform that only takes in vertical video formats.

While Quik by GoPro is perfect for short, montage videos for social media, Wes says more instructional or informative videos will require a range of editing apps. 

“Quik by GoPro has an algorithm that isn't really thinking about your needs. It's thinking what's the best thing that we can just throw together? How can we make this simple and easy?"

“If you need something more there's a range of different apps out there that help you control the audio, the structure of where the cuts are. iPhone users can try iMovie and android users could try KineMaster,” Wes recommends. 

WHAT MAKES GOOD CONTENT?

The biggest question Wes is frequently asked is, "What is good content and how do I make it? 

He responds there is one universal answer for every single business. 

“It's not engagement. It's not length of video. It's not education. It's nothing like that. 

“It's actually passion. Your passion is the biggest content giver of all time. 

“If you're passionate about what you're talking about, if you're passionate about your business, if your passion comes across in the video, people are going to engage. 

“Good content comes through passion and nothing else,” Wes advocates. 

YOUR FACE IS YOUR BRAND

Wes encourages business owners not to let themselves be held back by their fear of putting themselves out there. He says while many might feel uncomfortable being visible as the face of the business, if they don’t, customers won’t engage with them. 

“People won't recognise you and they won't engage with you, especially when it comes to your videos. 

“People will connect with other people and with other emotions and how you feel. So you need to show that to people.

“When you're doing something you believe in, then you can overcome the challenges of feeling self-conscious or unconfident. 

“You never know how you're going to go until you give it a go,” he urges. 

FEAR FACTOR

When it comes to social media, people worry they might say something wrong; that one person is going to start trolling them or become aggressive.  

Although this can happen, Wes questions why would we worry about that one person? He says there are essentially three types of personalities online. 

“The first type is people who are going to love you, usually people that have already bought from you, people that already like you. 

“Next to the people who love you is the people that are on the fence, the people that are like, "Oh, I kind of like him. I haven't really done my homework. I haven't really invested my time into it. They're pretty good." 

“Then the third one is the people who are going to hate you. But the people that are going to hate you are always going to hate you,” Wes clarifies. 

He says as business owners, we spend so much time trying to focus on that one person that hates us, and trying to convince them to like us, we lose sight of the bigger picture. 

“No matter what, they might just be an aggressive person. You must focus on the people that love you. As a business owner, the people that love you are the ones that are probably going to buy from you again. 

“The people on the fence are the easiest to convert to like you and buy from you. 

“Don't worry about the people that are going to hate you, just put stuff out there for the people that are going to like you and only worry about them,” Wes assures. 

Elize agrees, saying polarising your audience in some way can be good for business. 

“If you're not capturing anyone's attention, then you're vanilla, pedestrian and so bland that everyone's just scrolling past."

“At least they're talking about you, which is better than you being so bland that no one notices, which is a big problem in business,” Elize cautions. 

She continues that as a business community, we can forget our businesses become like a person with a personality. 

Whatever personality you adopt and whatever relationship that personality has with your clients or your customers, Elize says businesses must own that. 

“We don't like people who are uncertain about their own brand, or their own stance or their own personality. Think about the personality and the brand of your business and own it, and then go and test different things, confidently,” she urges. 

Wes concurs, saying people love seeing people stuffing up and making mistakes. 

“It makes you look human, so don't worry about if you say something embarrassing, if you stuff up or do something wrong, just get out there. 

“This is the best thing about social media, is it's not out there for very long. You can try things out and if people don't like it, you never do it again,” he inspires. 

Learn more about using Quik here or watch Wes in action during his recent HubLive session.  

Wes Alan is the founder of Tap Edit Go and Turbo Traction Lab Alumni. He teaches businesses how to create high quality marketing videos only using a smartphone.

Next month Wes will deliver a live three-day online workshop starting 1 July. Learn how to plan, shoot and edit your own professional content using only your smartphone! Book at tapeditgo.com/live

Wes is also Turbo Traction Lab alumni; a hands-on program designed to build a modern business in 80 days, delivered with a ‘lab’ mindset. An initiative of the Australian Government, in conjunction with Capital[b] Pty Ltd and Rockhampton Regional Council, Turbo-Traction Lab is a program delivered by the SmartHub.

The SmartHub encourages entrepreneurs and business owners to adopt technology and modern based business practice to make the entire business journey more profitable, more enjoyable, more effective and more efficient.

Being part of the SmartHub gives local business owners opportunities to meet with and learn from mentors, to help them learn the discipline required to succeed in business. 

The SmartHub is currently offering free membership at the moment (usually $50 a month or more depending on level of membership). If you’d like to learn more about becoming part of the SmartHub, contact us via the following channels:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmartHubRockhampton/ 

Email: smarthub@rrc.qld.gov.au 

Phone: 07 4936 8444

 

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