If you’ve watched any late night talk show, you know man on the street videos are entertaining. 

Short, quirky, honest and hilarious. 

There’s a reason that these videos do very well and it’s not because the host of the show is funny – it’s mainly because the interviewer is very skilled at asking questions.

Yes! The secret to a great man on the street video is planning & good writing. Here are 5 tips that you need to adhere to when interviewing random people on the street. 

1. Plan Your Questions: A good interviewer knows that in order to get the best responses, you need to get the interview subject to trust you. Ask a series of softball, easy breezy questions to start with and then get into the quirky ones. Don’t leave the actual questions until the last minute. You can improvise additional questions based on answers, but don’t go out on the street without a plan in your hand!

2. Ask Personal & Weird Questions: You’ll never know if you never ask. You’ve heard that before, but it’s 100% true for interviews. Ask people questions that will give them a bit of a shock, something out of the ordinary and grab their reactions. People have, in the past, shared secrets like passwords and embarrassing moments just because they’ve been asked. This also makes for a better end-video. 

3. The 3 to 12 rule: If you only need your video to feature 3 individuals, ask the same set of questions to at least 12 people. This is because you never know who will have the most interesting answers. Plenty of things can and will go wrong on your video shoot – by more than doubling your interview set you’re giving yourself breathing space and the luxury of creating the perfect final video.

4. Keep it Short: Man on the street videos need to be short. Mainly because people will stop paying attention if they’re too long. But also, the video usually has a premise and you want it to be short and powerful. 

5. Compile with Rhythm: A good video production company will have an excellent post-production team with an experienced editor. Using music, and editing responses with a specific tone in mind will give you a richer final piece. 

The art of interviewing is key when creating amazing man on the street videos. Have fun!

If you’re following the viral content across the Internet and on social media sites, you’ve definitely encountered virtual reality styled 360-degree videos. 

These are the videos where you can take your phone in hand or use your computer mouse, and get a 360 view of every scene. 

If you haven’t, you’ve at the very least been exposed to a 360-degree photograph from Google Maps. 

If you think you should make a corporate or marketing video featuring a similar style, here are a few tips to get started. 

What is a Virtual Reality video?

A basic virtual reality, or VR, video is an immersive experience that allows your audience to see a different world without having to budge an inch. They can see the space as though they’re physically there and their movements decide which view they get. In-depth VR videos with interactive capabilities can also trigger motion sensations and monitor your customer’s eye movements. 

Will my customer need Virtual Reality glasses to watch my VR content? 

While VR videos can be better experienced on VR glasses, such as the Oculus, your audience may watch VR videos on their phones, desktops or laptops. They will be able to drag the mouse or move their device to choose their preferred view. 

What should my VR video be about?

Now you’re asking the right questions, reader.  

Waterworld, the failed blockbuster starring Kevin Costner cost $366 million to make back in 1995. What we mean when we say this is: while you might have money to spend and a desire to use the latest advancements in video marketing it won’t benefit your company if the story isn’t compelling.

Great storytelling is still the centerpiece of your VR video. Just because you are able to show a 360-degree view, doesn’t mean your customer is interested. 

A great production including script, location scouting, using the right camera and the help of an experienced video crew will all be needed. 

How do I piece together the 360-degree video?

There are several editing software programs available to edit your 360-degree video. And with a full circle view comes the additional responsibility of being aware of every fragment of your video. Ensure that no unwanted camera equipment or scenes enter your video.

VR is just starting to take off. But if you are serious about getting your brand on the map with immersive video content now, then you need to start thinking about it today!

Is your brand looking to be the next Pixar of marketing videos? Do you want the Toy Story franchise to pale in comparison to your end of the year corporate animation video? Nobody said it’s impossible, but do you really need to?

Having a strong reason associated with why you’re using animating will result in the best final video. 

When is animation helpful?

Animation is best used when you want to address issues in a quirky, easy to understand and lighthearted way. But you can just as easily use it to draw emotions like empathy and to display the surreal or fantastic. Combining humor and animation is also useful when you want to add excitement to otherwise boring topics. 

Based on our video production experience, here is when you’ll benefit from using animation in your video. 

1. Larger than life FAQs – If you run a business with a unique product or service where the 6-minute-elevator pitch doesn’t do the trick – animation can bring a greater depth of understanding. 
2. Brand marketing – Geico insurance’s talking reptilian brand ambassador is an animation. If you’re aching for 90s nostalgia, the Kool-Aid jug of . . . kool-aid – also animated! Tony the Tiger telling you that sugar is grrreat for you? Also animated. Just remember, an animated character can do anything and everything you want it to do – something a real-life brand ambassador could never imagine. Use animation smartly to create a brand icon.
3. Simplify the complex – Whiteboard animation videos have become a bestselling product in and of themselves. But there are many other creative and innovative styles of videos that can simplify complex topics. 
4. Augmented reality – App based augmented reality today ranges in functionality from video games like Pokémon Go to innovations in e-commerce whereby you can virtually try on clothes or glasses without going outside. By coming up with interesting animated characters or functionalities, you can connect with your consumers in the virtual world.

Animated brand videos according to some studies have nearly 95% recall-value audience’s recollection, than a normal video. So get to the drawing board!

You’ve done it. Reached the year 2020. 

A new year means new changes in every aspect of your life and while we can’t exactly predict what the next twelve months will bring you we can give you an idea of what trends in video marketing we might see. 

Virtual Reality Videos

Virtual reality or VR videos where you can immerse yourself into a brand will increase. Several real estate companies and coworking spaces around the world use multidimensional, 360-degree video to showcase their places. Kit Kat the chocolate bar used a 360-degree video to introduce its brand new matcha flavor and with good reason. The video, which was placed on YouTube, resulted in 100% ad-recall value and a 7% increase in overall purchases. 

Augmented Reality Videos

Another trend will be augmented reality videos. AR is the method by which a video or image and sounds have been superimposed onto reality. This trend has been popularized through video games like Pokémon. While the video game world relies heavily on animated videos, there are several real world videos that may become part of augmented reality, as well. 

For example, in a promotion for a film, audience members may be able to interact with a projected video of a character. 

Long-Form Videos

If you’ve used a video production team to produce social media videos, chances are you’ve told them to keep it short. 

But this is changing. 

Brand videos that have a compelling story, breathtaking visuals and a high-end video production value are shown to perform better with actual customers. Patagonia has shown this through its rich documentary style footage of people using their products in compelling ways. 

Story and Personalization

If you’ve noticed, Facebook often customizes short animated videos, which feature photos of you and your friends for birthdays. This is done with good reason. Today’s consumer is highly sought after. Eyeballs and time spent viewing, when it comes to marketing videos, are more precious than gold. 

Building storylines that match each of your target audience’s interests ensures longer viewing times and a greater return on investment for your brand video.

Despite all the changes in technology, adding reality, depth and greater clarity to videos – the story you tell is still the most important part of your video.

Videos are the most consumed form of media on the Internet today. They impact everything about your brand from personality to trust factor. 

90% of customers say that watching a video helps them make a buying decision.

Whether you are a startup or an established brand, video content brings tremendous trust, value, and attention to your products and services. 

But what is the right video strategy that will help your brand increase loyalty and customers? 

Here are a few tips from the pros: 

1. Identify your audience: Knowing who will watch your video will give you a good idea on figuring out what types of videos will work. Visualize your ideal customer and now picture how they’d interact with their phones (since most marketing videos will be placed on social media channels). This is the very first and most crucial step of your video marketing strategy. 

2. Break down types of videos: 

• Man on the street videos
• Customer testimonial videos 
• Corporate interview videos
• Training videos 
• Explainer videos
• Event coverage videos
• Animated videos
• So many more!

Identify what your in-house video crew can accomplish and outsource the rest.  Usually, hiring a video production company will save you time, money and often result in a much more worthwhile video. 

3. Pre-Production and Role Assignment:

Once you’ve figured out what type of video to produce, it’s time to delegate. Here are the best processes to follow for your video production. 

• Script writing – your entire video is guided by the script. The more detailed your script the easier your video production. 

• Location scouting – will you need to shoot video outside? It’s best to send a team to scout the ideal locations based on the script. 

• Lights and Sound – Rent or buy the right types of lights and microphones to shoot your video. It helps if you have professional production crew members to actually manage this part of your shoot.

• Post Production – Music, editing and flourishes all get added in post-production. Hire a video production company who is experienced in editing or use someone internally to put together your video.

4. Upload Your Video

Congrats, you’ve made a marketing video. But it’s not over until you upload it onto social media channels and your own website for viewing. Once it’s been uploaded, keep track of video analytics and the impact your final product has on your consumers. If something doesn’t seem to work, take note and work on it next time you have a video to create. 

Size, length and all the important aspects to consider for Instagram Stories

If history books are still printed in the future, a special chapter will be saved for Instagram Stories. Instagram stories (or IG stories, as the cool kids are calling them these days) are videos, photos, and visual content that are posted for 24 hours on a profile and are erased after a day’s worth of time has passed. 

This might sound like a short period of time when it comes to content that may have taken days to produce. But don’t fear! Instagram also offers the option to save your stories to your profile via the Highlights feature.

According to recent figures, Instagram Stories receive 500 million daily viewers.

How long can Instagram Stories be?

While your story is posted for 24 hours, a photo that you upload or visual content (like a poll) lasts for 7 seconds on your InstaStory. 

Your Instagram Story video length must be 15 seconds or less. 

But, Instagram allows you to post an unlimited number of stories every day. So, if you have a 30 second or 60-second video, you can upload it to your Instagram Story and the app will automatically chop it up for you into 15-second pieces, for a nearly seamless viewing experience.

If you want to be special and wow your audience, it pays to shoot a high-resolution video and have an editor fill it with music, effects, and spectacle. Highly influential users of Instagram (or influencers) know that the power of the platform lies in Instagram Stories and not on the traditional timeline. So, they go out of their way to create slightly longer videos featuring music, natural sounds, and beautiful edits.

What is the best aspect ratio for an Instagram Story video?

Your Instagram Story dimensions should have a ratio of 9:16 and so your video resolution should be 1080 pixels wide by 1920 pixels tall. This ensures that the user sees the video on their entire screen without any cropping or unappealing blank spaces.

IGTV vs. Instagram Stories

Now some of you are thinking well if IGTV exists then why do I need to upload onto Instagram Story? If you visit IGTV you will notice that a lot of the videos are indeed short but the longer ones have a much more professional video production effect to them. 

IGTV has also grown with users- with some numbers claiming a growth of 300-1000% in 2019. While IGTV videos allow you to upload complete videos that are 60 minutes in length, the viewership does ultimately vary. 

So definitely try to upload longer videos on IGTV, but also test out the same content on your InstaStory and see what delivers better results for you. If you’re looking to make an impact, use Insta Stories instead!

Corporate videos are needed for everything now. Whether you want to make a marketing video for social media or add a video to your PowerPoint presentation – video is the need of the hour.

Most marketers agree and so do audiences: Video works!

But when should you utilize your in-house video production team and when do you need to outsource the project to a capable video production company? 

Here are some great ways to know when it’s OK to seek outside assistance.

• Multiple Location Shoots:
  • You can film a CEO interview at his desk. Get a basic lighting setup, the right microphone and you’ll likely create a reasonably presentable video. But if you have to shoot multiple C-level team members or employees from around the country, globe or even a different part of town, you should consider hiring a video production crew. 
  • At Snippies, we specialize in multiple location shoots. Our video crew is in every major city around the globe and has access to rural areas in most as well. If you need video featuring man on street videos or just someone to visit your different offices with a fast turnaround, then you already know who to call. 
  • Multiple locations increase your travel fees, overtime, overhead, and the need for more equipment. So it makes a lot more sense to outsource videos that need to be shot on location or multiple locations.

• Multiple Videos Needed:
  • Sometimes your internal video production team is capable but has too many requests to fulfill. Also, if all of a sudden, your team gets requests to create animated videos, sizzle reels, training videos – all at the same time – they will not have enough bandwidth to cover every video. And even if they try, it will result in poor quality output. 
  • Snippies is a professional video production company based in New York City with producers, editors, animators, voice over artists with years of professional experience. We have in the past and continue to be reliable video production partners for Fortune 100 companies. 

Your internal video team is a great asset. But when you need complicated, professional and high-quality videos that will drive results, it’s probably a good idea to give us a call and we can help take it from there!

The new Mac Pro is finally available. But should you really buy it?

The answer to that question depends on your immediate needs. The Mac Pro comes with a whole lot of features that are helpful for high-end production usage. 

But, being Mac there are always very expensive add-on options available. To a first-time buyer or a corporate video team, these bells and whistles may seem tempting – but do you really need the full capacity 1.5 TB memory? The cheese grater, as it’s being dubbed due to its updated design, runs on Intel Xeon processors and has 28 cores. 

This machine is highly customizable and the lower end will run around $6,000 while the high-end version can even reach up to $20,000. 

If you are editing 4K video, using After Effects and Adobe Premiere, you will probably require a Mac Pro configuration that will run you around $8000. But anything beyond that and you will quickly start seeing diminished returns for your investment.

The makers of the Mac Pro know their audience and they have segregated their products accordingly. If you are a full-time video editor or audio editor, then you’ll obviously be lured by the back-to-basics design and the bragging rights that your boss let you have the brand new Mac Pro installed on your desk. But this machine is meant for heavy-duty editing of 4K video and beyond. It supports speedier render rates and is all about maximum performance.

If you edit the occasional marketing video or are just dabbling as a first time podcaster, your needs will be matched with any other Apple or PC product. 

The folks at Apple have spent their sweet time upgrading this machine – and with good reason. They had not innovated in the professional realm of hardware in quite some time and the Mac Pro is definitely an upgrade from the iMac Pro. 

Also, any upgrade you get on the Mac Pro is not a simple plug and play. So, it will pay off for you to do some in-depth studying before configuring your own. 

Before you shell out the big bucks for the Mac Pro, check other Mac, PC or customizable editing machines to see if you can get away with spending less and getting equal editing power.

Because at the end of it all, it’s not about the 4K or the Mac Pro – your audience craves a good story.

Making a marketing video is easy! Or is it?

If you’ve ever attempted to make a marketing video on your own or are given the daunting task of producing a video for a corporate entity, you already know that it’s not an easy gig. While your CEO has told you repeatedly that making videos is as easy as picking up an iPhone and opening the camera you know that it takes a lot more than just that.

Below you can find 3 tips that will still help you get more video done with a lot less:

1. Make a Pre-Production Checklist

Plan your video shoot. The better you are at planning your video shoot during the pre-production stage, the easier it gets. A good producer (that’s what you are now!) knows that a pre-production checklist will make every video you create simpler time and time again. Once you acknowledge all the elements, human resources, and extra preparations required for your shoot, you’ll be able to reuse them the next time around.

2. Outsource or Get Help

You may be the captain of the ship, but you don’t have to be the chef, navigator and concierge. Get some help! Whether it’s a professional video production company or Karen from accounting, don’t try to do everything on your own. Even Steven Spielberg needs a team of a few thousand people to make a movie. Why shouldn’t you get some extra hands on deck?

Figure out the essentials that you can take care of and outsource everything else.

3. Write a Script

A well-written script gets your message across clearly. On the day of your planned shoot, many things can and will go wrong. And when you finally have the full video in front of you during post-production, a script will save the day. A script organizes your ideas into something coherent. It’s like visualization, but with words. Try it!

By planning, getting the right video crew together, and writing a solid script you’ll be able to do a lot more with your final product.

Action!

Once upon a time, you sat at your desk and read this blog post. You knew you loved this sentence, but where will this article go next? Will it enlighten you on your journey towards making excellent videos? Or will it wax poetic about the art of storytelling? Read on, that’s the only way to find out!

Audio, Visual & Kinetic

No two people are created the same. But all people learn information through seeing, hearing, or feeling and touching. A story evokes emotions that help audiences connect instantly with the message. 

A message of being kind to others can be boldly printed on a wall. Showing a video of a child selflessly sharing a piece of cake with someone in need turns the message into a story – one that will remain etched in the viewer’s mind for a while to come. 

A story does not have to be long, especially not in your marketing video – but it has to be the primary focus of your video. 

Scientifically speaking – a story is a great way to deliver factual information to a majority of your audience. Whether you’re trying to produce a corporate video or optimize your video content, you need to tell a good story!

How to Tell a Good Story

Telling a good story is not always easy. But a great story always has the same elements. Here are five aspects to incorporate into every corporate video or marketing video you make:

• Great Characters – If you’re making customer testimonials, try to get some lively, expressive individuals for your video. They will add a lot more value to the final piece. If you are trying to depict a product or service, then make them the stars of your video.

• Setting – Visually appealing backgrounds or locations add a lot of “oomph” to your video. Even though we produce man on the street videos from worldwide locations on a weekly basis, we still love seeing the wide variety of places covered in every video. A great setting adds a sense of relevance while also providing excitement.

• Plot – You need a clear beginning, middle and end. Writing a script as part of your pre-production process will assist you in creating a good story arc. 

• Conflict – There has to be a problem. If everything is hunky-dory, then there’s no wow factor. Something must be amiss!

• Resolution – Every great problem requires an even better solution. Show the audience how the conflict has been defeated – they will feel like they’ve been a part of the victory.

And just like that, you’ve learned how to master the art of storytelling for your next video.