When looking to produce a video, many businesses find themselves concerned about the cost. But they needn’t be. Whether you’re just starting out with video marketing, or looking to step up your content to the next level; there are several things you can do to ensure you make the most of your budget.
Here are our essential tips for saving money on video production:
Plan thoroughly for the shoot day
The most obvious point is to be organised. If everyone knows exactly what they’re doing and when, this will ensure you make the most of your time with the production crew. Of course – that’s easier said than done! In advance of a filming day, it’s always optimal to have the following locked in place with your video production partners:
A shooting schedule. Essentially a timeline for the shooting day ensuring that everyone knows where they'll need to be and how long they'll have to get what they need. There are a number of factors to consider when mapping the day out like this. How much time do you want to allocate to filming interviews compared to capturing B-roll, for example? Of course, it's common for things to change on the day itself. Maybe a confident interviewee will get through the questions quicker than expected, or maybe unforeseen weather conditions will slow down the production. Whatever happens though, a schedule is always welcome to help everybody to get back on track.
A list of interview questions. If you're shooting interviews, it's often good to have a set of questions prepared that are in line with your video's goals and key messages. In some cases, you may want to save time by briefing your interviewees in advance so that they can prepare and refine their answers in time for the shoot itself. Be wary though: it's not always ideal for interviewees to be anchored to a specific script. For some people, this can end up adding extra pressure; or lead to an over-rehearsed "robotic" delivery.
If you have a specific vision in mind for your video, a shot list developed in collaboration with the video producers can be a great tool for ensuring time and resources are used as efficiently as possible. It's not always easy to plan out a video shot-by-shot – especially for more unscripted, documentary-style content. In any case, a recce – whereby the production team can look around the filming locations in advance can really help to acquaint the crew so they can get the best shots and set-ups on the big day.
Keep things simple to save your video marketing budget
A benefit of having a plan in place is that you can develop an efficient process that makes the most out of the time and resources that you have. Here are a few decisions you might want to think through when it comes to keeping the filming day as smooth and simple as you can:
How many locations will you be filming at? For the sake of efficiency, it's often wise to keep filming locations to a minimum. This helps because any time spent travelling from place to place is lost time in your schedule – especially if the crew has a lot of equipment to lug around. If your project does call for many locations, try to map out the most efficient route so that you can factor it into your shooting schedule.
Think about the style of your video as well. For example: using a two camera set-up to capture interviews looks great in the final cut, but will lengthen the prep time. A green screen can be sensible time-saving option if you're producing a large volume of videos in one session. The background can be easily manipulated in post-production for a range of looks, which can also come in handy for repurposing future video content.
Tie video production in with your other marketing efforts
Events such as trade shows or roadshows are a great opportunity to film industry experts and/or client testimonials. If you've already invested in a stand, speakers or hospitality, hire a film crew too. A video documenting the event can be a powerful marketing tool on its own; and other footage recorded on the day (interviews with experts, or event highlights, for example) can make for ideal standalone clips for social media.
As we talked about in an earlier blog, the work we’ve done filming events for companies such as Kerv and Apteco has shown us how powerful content like this can be. Does your business have a big recent success story to share? Don't just showcase it in an event or a newsletter. Take the opportunity to immortalise it with video, and expand its reach to a potentially global audience.
You may have noticed that planning is a recurring theme throughout this post. If there's one thing you can do to get the most of your video marketing budget, it's to be organised! Decide from the outset what you want the video to achieve. Then, once you're well-prepared, you'll be free to reap the rewards.
If you're interested in working with us on a video for your business, or if you'd just like to chat about the expertise that we can offer – please don't hesitate to get in touch.