User engagement with video is 4 times as effective as other content. The right content can tell your story, engage with a new audience or give former followers a reason to return.

Online Video is challenging to plan, produce and publish. I believe it's worth all the effort, pain and suffering. The best way to make it pay off is to manage your expectations and plan all your moves.

Live Broadcasting to the Planet

The pros create success on a budget by breaking down video projects into three phases.

Pre-production

Pre-production sets the stage for identifying the challenges, eliminating problems and making everything run smoothly. Everything from scouting locations (backgrounds) to scripting, casting, research, and location logistics.

Plan to use plenty of light. Seek natural light and face it. Better yet, set your scene with the light source to one side. You can always fill in with a lamp on the opposite side. 

Raise the camera to place it at eye height. If you’re shooting more than 2 feet from the camera, Add a microphone to your setup. Check the background. Photobombers are everywhere. Dogs are the worst kind. Place your talent closer to the camera, away from the background. If you are shooting a group, avoid the police lineup effect. 

Production

Shoot, shoot, shoot. Digital storage is cheap. Returning to the location to capture something you missed is expensive. Plan ahead. Do you have WIFI? Do you have clamps? How about Gaffer’s Tape? I travel with a detachable webcam, an iPhone and an iPad. I have various tripods, selfie sticks and camera mounts. All of it fits into my trusty Timbuk2 ™ messenger bag. You don’t have the luxury of a do-over.

Post-production

If you planned the pre-production and worked with a script during production, congratulations! You just saved a bunch of time, trouble and heartache. Whenever possible, "Edit in the camera". If your filming required a bunch of takes, you now have to watch each one. If you flubbed the opening or closing, You'll need to trim. If you didn't capture the audio properly , you have to boost the gain and filter out the background noise. As ace Cinematographer Michael Minock drilled into me, “Editing is never finished, it is simply abandoned.”  

Go put on a show

Go have fun. Delete the stuff that didn't work until you have something you like. By fun I mean make people laugh. We need more of that.