Videos are a powerful form of communication but keep in mind, that creating a high quality video is not cheap.
It takes time and money.
A 2 to 3 minute video could take you over 20 hours and could cost thousands of dollars to create in equipment alone.
Sure you can just hit record on your phone (and phones offer great quality video these days) but that's not the end of the process.
Video design is similar to other design mentioned throughout this site.
Have a reason for everything you put into a video.
Be mindful of the quality and quantity of content.
Be purposeful in everything you do.
Decide on your them/style of a video (or video series) and be consistent.
A look at the use of videos on a website
Kirk's recommendations for shooting a video
1-3 minutes is my recommended length for a short video
3-5 minutes is my recommended length for a long video
Use a tripod
Upload the video on YouTube or Vimeo and embed it on your page using responsive design
Consider your goal for the video before shooting it
Consider your audience (do you have to explain the video)
Have good sound
Be legal (don't steal other people's music, logo's, trademarked stuff...)
Generally shooting outside in public spaces does not require special permits
Be creative
Watch other videos, get an idea of what you like and don't like
Watch shows & movies, look at how they were made, camera angles, sound effects, etc.
Transitions: cuts & cross-fades are the 2 most commonly used
Develop a theme/style if it's a series of videos
If you have a lot of text, it's good to use more transitions; use one type a few times in a row, then on to the next one
Color for your text should be consistent throughout the videos
Size for your text should be mostly consistent throughout the videos
Audio quality, background noise, and music (if you have any) quality should be consistent throughout the videos
Basically, don't abruptly change things during a video or from one video to the next unless you do it on purpose
Have a reason for everything you do
Plan to spend a lot of time on creating the video (you can hit the record button on your phone and publish it, but it won't look the same as if you edit it)
Equipment that Kirk uses with approximate purchase price (mostly 4K)
Item
Cost
iPhone 12 Pro Max 512GB
$1,400
GoPro Hero 9
$400
DJI Mavic Air (drone) fly more combo
$800
Nikon Z6 (Mirrorless) with prime lens
$2,750
Apple MacBook Pro (Quad Core i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD)
$2,500
4TB USB-C external hard drive
$120
4K TCL (TV/display)
$280
Manfrotto MAMVH500AM MVH500A Fluid Drag Video Head with MVT502AM Tripod and Carry Bag
$350
GVM automatic slider
$400
DSLR Mini Ball Head w/ Quick Release Plate as Manfrotto 484RC2
$20
Tascam US - 16x08 USB audio interface
$320
Tascam US - 2x2 USB audio interface
$180
MXL 990 Condensor Microphone with shock mount
$100
Apple Final Cut Pro (video editor) and Logic Pro (audio editor) bundle
YouTube embedded video with responsive design using videotitle and videoWrapper classes for styling
How to mic a large drumset (multi-cam and sound sample) (watch this video)
Self hosted video using videotitle2 and videoWrapper2 classes for styling
Self hosting may be a little scary because you use the bandwidth from your server to dish out content (i.e. the movie).
This short video is 20MB and is in 4K.
20MB is very small for a movie.
If you have a lot of people watching at once, it could affect your server.
For that reason, I usually rely on YouTube to deal with videos.
People ask me about self-hosting videos though, so here's one where I do just that.
YouTube offers closed captioning by default and you can even upload your own closed captioning file for each video.
To meet accessibility standards, you should offer closed captioning.
The "video_webvtt_file.m4v" video below has styling that makes it responsive, and a video_webvtt_file.vtt file (WebVTT) for closed captioning.
Notice how the closed captioning timing is set and how it doesn't necessarily relate to what's on the screen (although it should).
You may need to turn on closed captioning to see it.
For Chrome, use the 3 dots.
For Safari, it's called "Subtitles" and is a bubble looking thing.
Movie with subtitles
Movie that starts and ends at a certain time, with options to watch other times
Video Content
For accessibility reasons, captions should be included with videos on the web. YouTube auto-generates captions, which can work but should be verified/edited by a human.
Supporting text options
captions
open captions, also called burned in captions, are part of the video and cannot be turned off
closed captions can be turned on or off
this is a sidecar file with a .vtt which is a Web Video Text Tracks Format (WebVTT)
subtitles
these are used to show phrases spoken in another language
these are common with movies, not web pages
transcripts
this is caption text on the side, above or below the video
this is generally just HTML content
timed transcripts
this is caption text on the side, above or below the video that highlights where you're at in the video while it's playing
this is a sidecar file with a .srt which is a SRT (SubRip file format)
Supporting text requirements
captions should be between 3-7 seconds in duration
captions should be 1-3 lines at a time
open (burned in) captions should be 32 characters or less and in a large sans serif font
Lawsuits: not sure if you should caption your videos, just ask one of these places that got sued either because their content wasn't "accessible" or because their attempt at accessibility was lacking
Netflix
MIT
Harvard
Miami University
Penn State
UC Berkeley
Apple has offered a very good screen reader as part of their operating system for many years now and Google added a "Live Captions" in an accessibility setting in their Chrome browser back in 2020 but I wouldn't rely on those options for websites with videos when you can proactively create captions on your own
Video Request Guideline
Here is a list of questions (a ) that I have used in the past when people started inundating me with doing videos
Video/film Project Name:
Who
Who is the target audience?
Who will be involved...
Creating the script:
Arranging the talent:
Filming:
Recording/mixing audio:
Editing footage:
Approving final product:
What
What is the goal of the video (what message are we trying to convey)?
What style do we want (TV-show, music video, commercial, documentary, interview...)?
What do we hope to achieve?
When
When does the filming need to occur?
When does the finished product need to be ready?
How much time do we plan to spend on the project?
Timeline of project from beginning to end (estimate for a typical 2-3 minute video).
Film (1.5 hours)
Import footage (1 hour)
Record audio (4 hours)
Edit audio (4 hours)
Edit footage (4 hours)
Review finished product (1 hour)
Final revisions (2 hours)
Final review of finished product (1 hour)
Publish final product (2 hours)
How long should the finished product be? (2-3 minutes)
Where
Where will the film be shot?
Where will the final product be shown (web, TV (what size), projector, in person...)?
Why
Why are we trying to convey this message?
Why are we using this method of communication (and not some other)?
How
Equipment needed...
Recording Hardware
Camera(s)
Sound recording
batteries
Editing hardware
Laptop
Lots of hard drive space
Large 2nd monitor
Editing software
How much to charge?
Prices can be tricky. I did many videos for free, but then started charging as requests went up (hello, economics). Actually, it was my pastor that said he wouldn't let me do any more videos for the church unless they paid me. Then he said "figure out your rate and let me know what it is". That is not such an easy thing to do. I take the money that I make from doing videos (it's just a hobby for me) and buy more or better equipment to do more videos.
