I gave this presentation at the Iowa School Public Relations Association Fall Conference. The topic was Mobile Video Tips & Tools.

1. How to MAKE
GREAT VIDEOs
Chris Snider | Drake University

2. Chris Snider
Assistant Professor in Drake University School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
I teach classes in social media, web design, multimedia and visual communication.

3. 2016 is the year of video
• Facebook and Snapchat each serve up 8 billion+ video
views per day.
• Twitter says video views grew by 220X from the end of
2014 to the end of 2015.
• 4 times as many consumers would rather watch a video
about a product than read about it.
• 1 in 4 consumers actually lose interest in a company if it
doesn’t have video.
Source: animoto.com Feb. 2015

4. Video and your business
• Multiple case studies show a large increase in click-
throughs for emails that include video versus those that
don't.
• Viewers spend much more time on your site because
of video. Cars.com saw an increase from 30 seconds
to almost 6 minutes of the average time spent on their
site after it revamped its video strategy.
• Video gets the decision-maker to take action.
65% of executives have visited a vendor's website
after watching a video.
Source: branddrivendigital.com

5. The problem is… most people don’t
know how to make quality video.
But you can do it with only a smartphone.

6. https://youtu.be/KWaK1Yy5_EM
“Snowbird” by Sean Baker

7. https://youtu.be/gyOogqIqgmc
FiLMiC Pro Contest Reel

8. How to make great videos…

9. 1. Shoot in shots
• Don’t shoot in one continuous movement or hold
one shot for too long
• Shoot a series of unique shots and put them
together to tell the story
• This is a terrible video (with millions of views):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

10. Move, point, shoot, stop.
Move, point, shoot, stop.
Move, point, shoot, stop.
• Frame your shot, then press record until it gets boring.
• Then stop and move on to the next one.
• Shoot more than you think you’ll need (you don’t have
to use it all)

11. https://youtu.be/vcq8GFVvDvI

12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo8HR711y2w

13. 2. Camera movement…
• Pan - move the camera horizontally
• Tilt - move the camera vertically
• Zoom - move toward/away from to subject
• Follow shot - follows the action
• Always begin and end stable

14. … avoid camera movement
• Any sort of camera movement is advanced
technique
• Hold the camera still and let the movement happen
inside your composed shot
• Most great TV/movies are a series of still shots
Example: Shower scene from Psycho:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atjhOhH-V3E

15. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2x74fi

16. 3. COMPOSE
YOUR SHOTS
• Take charge and
properly set up the
shot.
• Pay attention to
backgrounds.
• Don’t be afraid to
rearrange the furniture
(in non-documentary
situations).

17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=232&v=OVnRcIXEqaU

18. RULE OF THIRDS
Source: http://ecvphoto.weebly.com/the-art-of-composition.html

19. FRAMING
Source: http://ecvphoto.weebly.com/the-art-of-composition.html

20. LEADING LINES
Source: http://ecvphoto.weebly.com/the-art-of-composition.html

21. FOREGROUND/BACKGROUND
Image by Georgie Pauwels. Used with Creative Commons Attribution.

22. 4. Shoot
wide,
medium
and cLose
For close-up
shots, look
for hands
and faces

23. https://youtu.be/LsYOKWXi4iA

24. Let’s SHOOT
• Shoot shots for a video called “Lost on Campus”
• Storyboard how you would do this
• 3 close-up shots (faces, hands, feet)
• 3 medium shots
• 3 wide shots (focus on composition)
• 5-10 seconds each / everyone shoots
• Bring back and we will edit on your phone

25. EDIT IN
SPLICE on iPhone
VIDEOSHOP on ANDROID

27. A BETTER VIDEO APP: FILMICPRO
• $9.99 in the app store
• Professional video tools such as smooth zooming,
lock focus, lock exposure, sound levels.

28. IPHONE EDITING: IMOVIE
• $4.99
• Includes many of the same features as the desktop version

29. ANDROID EDITING: KINEMASTER
• $5/month
• Includes many of the same features as the desktop version

30. SIMPLE VIDEO EDITING: CLIPS
• Quickly turn multiple clips into once movie
• NO LONGER AVAILABLE - but watch Google Photos
App for these features soon

31. 5. Shoot in sequences
• Think in terms of scenes
• For each scene, follow the action, shoot wide,
medium and close-up
• Reconstruct the event so it appears to happen in
real time. Look for things that repeat (so you can
shoot more than once). Or have your subject
repeat them (if possible)

32. Showing continuity
• One shot should follow another in a logical, or
sequential pattern, creating the illusion of one
continuous action.
• The most common way to show continuity is to cut
on the action so the audience pays more attention
to the action rather than to the cut.
• Another is to cut on the look, when the character
looks at something and then there is a cut to show
what they're looking.

33. Let’s BRAINSTORM
• What are seven different shots you could use to
show someone making eggs?
• Think wide, medium and close-up.
• How would you put that together into one
sequence?

34. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaiJIaQAvUI

35. STORYBOARDING
• It’s important to think through all of your shots
ahead of time.
• Easiest way is to storyboard what you will shoot.

36. LET’s TRY IT
• Storyboard someone brushing their teeth
• 12+ shots
• Wide, medium, close-up

38. 6. shoot when you see the
whites of their eyes
• Half of our communication is through our eyes.
• Miss the eyes and you miss half the message.
• http://vimeo.com/24147165 (1:10 mark)

39. 7. Capture emotion and motion
• Emotion come through loud and clear on video
• That explains the double rainbow guy
• Viewers also respond to motion (ever watch a
school board meeting on TV?)
• That explains cat videos

40. 8. Tell a story
• Every video will be better if it tells a story.
• A story should have four elements
• A hero
• A beginning (where we meet the hero)
• A middle
• An end

42. Hold part of the story back
• Don’t give away the story too early
• You want to intrigue the viewer and keep them
around
• Your shots should raise questions, not necessarily
answer them

44. Let’s BRAINSTORM
• Choose a topic: the not-so-great outdoors
OR trouble at birthday party
OR first-date disaster
• Who is your hero?
• What happens in beginning, middle, end?

45. LET’S TRY IT
• Shoot a story with a hero, a beginning, a middle
and an end
• Make it so you can edit down to 15 seconds
• Topic ideas: lost keys, watch out for that pencil,
dead cell phone battery
Focus on: Storytelling, whites of eyes, emotion/motion

47. 9. Zoom with your feet,
not with your lens
• Shoot at your camera’s widest setting, and get
close to the action
• 10x zoom = 10x shakiness

48. 10. Let your subject enter
and exit the frame
• This will represent passage in time and make it
easier to transition to another shot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoUH7O-XjAs

49. • Tip: A subject who exits frame right should enter
the next shot frame left. Otherwise, it appears they
turned around and are walking in the other
direction.

50. 11. you’re only as good as your audio
• A video that is difficult to hear will turn off viewers.
• Avoid locations with bad acoustics.
• Avoid distracting background noises (busy areas,
heavy machinery, lawnmowers, etc.)
• Use an external microphone for quality audio.

51. INTERVIEW: What we need
• Tripod (Amazon Basics)
• Tripod adaptor (Shoulderpod)
• Better microphone (VideoMic
Me, iRig Pro + lav mic or stick
mic)
• Light

52. https://vimeo.com/64729691
Shooting an interview…

53. LET’s TRY IT
• Interview a classmate for 30 seconds
• Where did they work in high school?
• Listen to audio.
• Repeat.

54. 12. avoid vertical video*
*Unless on Snapchat, Meerkat or Periscope, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA

55. 13. use the 5-shot method
• Extreme close-up of action detail
• Close-up of face of person doing action
• Medium shot - face and action together
• Over-the-shoulder view of the action (point of view
of person doing action)
• One more different angle (be creative)

56. https://www.facebook.com/insidetrip/posts/775762839171102

57. LET’s TRY IT
• Interview a classmate for 30 seconds
• Shoot 5 shots of B-roll using 5-shot method
• Use…
• A tripod for still video
• A microphone for quality audio
• A well-framed shot
• Edit together into a story

59. Editing tips
• Cuts should be seamless, so that one shot transitions
to the next naturally without without distracting from what
the viewer is watching.
• Matching action from one shot to the next creates the
illusion of one continuous motion.
• Cut on motion. Motion distracts the eye from noticing
editing cuts and is the most common way of achieving
the much sought after match cut. So, when cutting from
one image to another, always try to do it when the
subject is in motion.
Sources: http://www.videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/10-rules-for-video-editors http://cuvideoedit.com/rules-of-editing.php

60. Editing tips
• The types of shots (wides, mediums, close-ups)
should be varied, to create a dynamic sequence.
• The pacing of the shots should also be varied to
create different moods.
• The length of the shot is determined by the
amount of information it contains. Once this
information is conveyed, it's no longer necessary to
linger on the shot.

61. Avoid jump cuts
• A jump cut occurs when you have two consecutive
shots with dramatic differences. These differences
can be based on movement, screen position, etc.
• Jumps create a disconnect for the audience, it
makes the cut very obvious and makes them take
notice. Cutting to B-Roll can cover up jump cuts.

62. Common cutting patterns
• Conventional – begins with the wide shot and then
cuts to the medium shot, and finally the close-up,
working closer towards the character.
• Reveal – begins with a close-up shot, then cuts to a
wider, revealing more information about the scene.
• Matching Action – cutting on movement makes for
slick, dynamic cuts

64. Creative videos: Quik
• Free
• Quickly make videos, add text and music

65. MOTION GRAPHICS: LEGEND
• $1.99
• Add animated text to your videos and photos

66. PHOTOS TO VIDEO: STORYO
• Free
• Turn your photos into a video slideshow

67. EXPLAINEr VIDS: SPARK VIDEO
• Free
• Combine text, icons, photos, voiceover

68. MORE VIDEO APPS TO TRY
• Cinamaker - Film with multiple cameras
• 1 second everyday - very short videos over time
• Hyperlapse - timelapse video while you move
• Nutshell - creative storytelling app
• Videon - video shooting and editing tools
• Action Movie FX - Hollywood effects for your movies

69. QUESTIONS?
Follow Chris:
@chrissnider
chrissniderdesign.com
tinyletter.com/chrissnider