5 Biggest Newbie Video Mistakes Freelancers Make
If you are a freelancer you most likely have your own website where you showcase your wares. Whether it is a service you offer, a showcase of your talents, or an actual product, video is a great way to engage your clients.
Video allows you to get more personal, it allows you to speak to us one-on-one, and is known to hold the viewer’s attention a bit longer than a page full of text. And because of the few barriers to entry, today producing your own video is easier and cheaper than ever. So, you already have a camera and maybe you’ve started making videos…but are they good videos?
Here are five of the biggest mistakes newbies make with their videos and how to correct these missteps.
1. Not Knowing Your Focus
Truly the most important part of any video is the story. Do you have a focus? What is it? Don’t feel like you have to tell us everything in one video. Each video you produce should have one clear-cut message. If you can’t decide, then break it down and make several different videos, each with its own focus.
2. Not Using an External Mic
Perhaps more important than good-looking video, is good-sounding video. Without sound, a video is a lifeless bit of moving pictures. Audio brings us in, it makes us feel as if we are there. And nothing says, amateurish video, like bad sound.
If you are doing interviews, or just speaking into the camera yourself, please use an external clip microphone and not the internal mic on the camera. When you just use the camera’s mic, you are left with all the ambient sound of the room, whereas with a clip-on mic, you get cleaner sound directly from your subject.
3. Not Using a Tripod
Want your video to remind us of dad’s home movies? Then don’t use a tripod. Intentional movement is one thing, but overly shaky video screams unprofessional and distracts the viewer from what you are trying to convey.
Invest in a video tripod (one that can hold the weight of your video camera). If you don’t have one yet, put your video camera on something sturdy and horizontal like a bookshelf, or the ground (obviously not good for interviews), or, if you must, hold it as still as you can.
4. Using Too Much Camera Movement
So even if you have a tripod, you might still be ‘camera move’ happy. Use pans, tilts, and zooms sparingly. Our eyes don’t see real life this way, so you should mostly avoid it. You should use action within your shots (moving subjects) to create movement, not the camera itself.
5. Not Shooting for ‘the Edit’
To make life easier for yourself, only press that red record button when your shot is locked down, focused, and composed. Often times, amateur videographers start rolling and then check their focus and start re-jiggering their shot.
Even though, 99% are now shooting digitally, and therefore not ‘wasting film’ like the olden days, it is still a waste of your time and memory space. Even more importantly, when it comes time to edit, all of your shots are solid and will be useable. You won’t spend hours sifting through shaky, out-of-focus clips and can get right down to the business of being creative.
Starting with a Solid Foundation
There are tons of tips and tricks that go into producing good videos. But when you start with a solid foundation and avoid these top mistakes, you will be on your way to creating solid videos that match the rest of the content you put out there.
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Kokhanchikov.
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Thank for the quick and useful info! Any recommendations for editing software?
Thanks SF! As far as editing software, it depends on your platform.
For Mac:
iMovie (free software) or Final Cut Express or Pro (Express is much cheaper than Pro and can be fine depending on your needs).
For PC:
Moviemaker (free software) or Adobe Premiere.
This is exactly why I love creating screencast tutorials. There’s even a need for a camera.
The external microphone is a must. I hate so much when I can hear all kinds of sounds in the room and even outside the room of the video. Whoever has any plans of making any kind of video, please, please use external mic.
So true Designely…despite what many think, good audio is just as important (or more so) than the video. And there are many affordable mic options out there now. You can get an Audio Technica wired lav/clip mic for $20. It’s not amazing quality…but much better than using camera mic. And the quality is great for many freelancer’s needs.
Editing software: iMovie or Final Cut Pro for Mac and Vegas or Premiere for Windows.
I agree with the mistakes. I’d say, not knowing your genre is a mistake, too. Look at similar videos and learn what you can. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
Also, the only two transitions to use are a cut (mostly) and an occasional cross-dissolve.
Paul
Hi Paul-
Thanks for the comment. Great point about transitions. I often tell my clients to drop the ‘cheesy’ wipes…the ’80s are long gone.
Plus, people should be mindful of too many dissolves. Keep your subject matter and pacing in mind. Too many dissolves is often not a good thing either.
Because you’re a freelancer, don’t forget to claim the cost of any equipment as a business expense.
I’m sure that will stop you from being so frugal and encourage you to invest in some better equipment too.
I’ve just started getting into shooting video as part of a content driven side project where I’m doing a video presentation, using a service to transcribe the audio into text, then ripping the audio and putting it into a podcast. It’s all templated up for speed too. So I’m targeting all three forms of media consumption.
However, I did check with my accountant before splashing out on this stuff. They said there could be some restrictions on how much I could claim on expenses for this sort of equipment, but it was okay, because I didn’t spend too much.
How come you didn’t mention the importance of good lighting?
Hi Josh-
Thanks for your comment! There are many more things I could mention, including lighting, but for this short round-up, I had to choose some of the biggest mistakes. I do mention lighting here in this Tips Video: http://youtu.be/Xr5tHm040C4
Hey Lisa,
Its great that you have another video that talks about lighting but for this article since you mentioned “And nothing says, amateurish video, like bad sound.” The same goes for bad light. Everyone runs out to their local electronics store to buy a good, and what they consider expensive lol, camera. Those who don’t do video for a living rarely think about sound and lighting which sort of go hand in hand when making a quality video. If either one is bad it says amateur I guess that is why I didn’t understand how it wasn’t a top five or combined with the bad audio i.e. “Bad sound and lighting”. Even in that video linked you have good audio and lighting with your good camera between the examples of using a web cam, which still shows you thought about where your light source was in the webcam parts.
Maybe this could have been a two post article where there are “Top 5 technical mistakes” and then “Top 5 content mistakes” where you address the stuff like knowing your focus for what you want to say etc.
Just thinking out loud =o)
Lots of people tend to save on an external microphone, but it’s really a must. Using the “internal” microphone provides such a low quality.
Lovely post, I really liked it.