Following up on last week’s post, my friend (and storytelling/marketing expert) Andy Goodman sent me this spot and the message “Get a tissue before you watch.”  It’s powerful, emotional and beautifully done.

It’s also a brilliant model for creating intrigue.  The film pulls viewers in by getting us to play two different guessing games as we watch.

The first game is “What am I seeing?” We’re shown a face that intrigues us, but we don’t know who it is.  We wonder, trying to make sense of each headline as the video gives us more clues– and then, finally tells us who we’re looking at.

The second game is “What is the whole piece telling me?”  By drawing us into game 1, the filmmakers intrigue us enough to play game 2. Now the succession of faces, identities and unrealized futures ignite our imaginations and raise another question: what do the faces have in common?  Why are the filmmakers asking me to imagine this?

At the end, the video answers our questions.  But by raising questions instead of telling us everything up front, we’ve been intrigued from the very start.  To really understand the power of intrigue, think how much weaker this piece would be if it presented it’s final message in the first frame:  “The Anti-Defamation League says we should hate less.”  Duh.

But by brilliantly intriguing us, by making our brains work and feel real emotion, the filmmakers have involved us in a video we won’t easily forget.

Steve Stockman

Intrigue is the currency of modern entertainment.  It’s the art of making people want to find out more.

Skillful storytellers don’t get you to turn page after page by telling you what happens next.  They intrigue you– they get you to turn the page by making you wonder what happens next.  That act of wondering– of needing to know– is what makes you stay with the story.

And so it is with all video.  Intrigue keeps you tuned in.  A commercial or sales video can’t just tell you about the product.  If I open my video about, say, my really cool book with a 2 minute explanation of why you should buy it, you’ll be gone in 10 seconds.  But if I show you tips you can actually use right now to shoot better video, you’ll be intrigued enough to stick around.  And you’ll come to your own conclusions about the book’s worth.

In this Anchor Brewing Company video (from a series we created and produced with our partners at Redtail Media), the whole “plot” is intrigue– you have no idea what the characters are doing until the very end.  That intrigue keeps you wondering…and learning about Anchor Small Beer.

How can you raise questions and add intrigue to your next video?

Want a great way to teach people video at your school or workplace?  Download a free copy of my Video Bootcamp for Teachers and Trainers!  Did I mention it was free?

Steve Stockman

This was the first “all-music” video that I’ve done for Pie Academy– “How to Make a Crostata”.  I usually just blab away – do this, do that – but it was fun, for a change, to tell the story visually, minus the blab.

I really want my videos to not suck so any helpful tips are appreciated.  Just remember that even though I’m 6’5″ I still cry easily.

–Ken Haedrich, Dean of The Pie Academy

The video looks really great.  Nicely edited. It made me hungry. To really critique it, though, I have to know who your target audience is.  It’s hard to tell, which I guess (don’t cry!) is a critique in itself.

In describing your video, you talk about YOUR needs, rather than an audience’s. Do you see it as an exercise (like this one)?  If so– awesome!  You’re the target audience, you liked it, case closed.

But if it’s for others to watch–Pie Academy visitors, maybe– knowing your target audience might cause you to do the video a little differently.  To show you what I mean, let’s look at possible target audiences and how different versions of the video might satisfy each:

Crostata Makers:  If you were targeting fans of the crostata, people who want to make one right now, you might add back narration, so they can follow along.  You might slow down on the complicated stuff, and  refer us to the recipe so we can read as we go.

People interested in learning advanced techniques:  For this version of the video, you might pick one thing– rolling out crust, say, and focus on it in a short intensive.  The video might only be 45 seconds long and called something like How to Roll out a Crostata Crust  (can you tell I got an “A” in titling in college?)

Total Pie Newbies:  In this version, you might explain what a crostata is and why they should love it.  Then focus on one or two key crostata techniques that apply to all pies.  A video for this target audience might also pitch other videos to help build audience for Pie Academy.

Three approaches to the same material (and there could be many more), but all come from the way you choose your target audience.  Your shooting, editing– and web posting– decisions are a little different for each.  By aiming at a clear target, you’ll know how well you’ve succeeded.

Steve Stockman

Video Boot Camp Guide for Teachers and Trainers. Download Free!

It’s the end of the school year.  Which means end of the year projects– shot on video.  And hours of misery for viewers.  If only there was a way to make student video better.  Hmmmmm….

Wait– I’ve got it!  How about this free 5 hour lesson plan to help your students do better video?  Teachers and trainers have been downloading it in droves, and why not?  It’s free!  Nothing to buy, no email address to leave.

If you’re a teacher or trainer, or know one, check it out.  And if you HAVE used the Video Boot Camp lesson guide in your classroom how’d you do?

Click this link to download the Video Bootcamp PDF.

And please feel free to share the link– or download and email directly to your favorite teacher!

Steve Stockman

I am starting a video to show on my son’s bar mitzvah. The video will play at a brunch with approximately 200 people, but I worry that the main audience– the ones who will love the video and will be truly entertained– are only the closer family members.

So who is my audience? I can do a beautiful video of my son’s life that can be entertaining, inspiring and loved by 20 people, but how do I make it entertaining for 200 guests? Do I make two videos, one for each audience?

–Isaac

Great question, Isaac.  And one that comes up at weddings, graduation parties, and first communions, since all gatherings today seem to have a mandatory video moment.  Not a bad thing when the video is fun.  An opportunity to duck over to the bar when it’s not.

You’re right to be sensitive to the target audience. “Who is this video for?” is the very first question you should always consider.  The answer here is easy, since you never want to do a video 90% of the people in the room watching will hate.  Unless you’re hiring a lot of extra bartenders,  the whole crowd is your target audience.

This sounds counter-intuitive, but the key to general acceptance is being very specific about the stories you tell.  While only the most fiercely devoted great aunt will tolerate interminable soft-focus montages of baby picture after baby picture after baby picture, everyone in the room loves a great story.

If you tell a specific story about your son’s special relationship with his Grandma who taught him to make chocolate chip cookies, we’ll all relate to it because we had a grandma too.  If you show video of him telling the camera where babies come from on the eve of his sister’s birth when he was 5, we’ll all find it funny or touching because it will remind us of our kids.  If you have that video of him nursing a baby hummingbird with his mom when he was 8, we’ll all get choked up when it flies away because we tried to help an animal once too.

These specific stories make us feel something from our own lives, our own experiences. That makes them as entertaining as any TV show or movie.  If you don’t have video from back in the day, you can interview your daughter about the Thanksgiving the dog stole the turkey and your son chased him down the street to get it back.  Use more interviews, plus the photos and videos you do have, to support the tale.  Great stories = great video, every time.

My final advice:  keep it short.  You may think you need a 10 minute video.  You don’t.  Even four minutes may be too long.  You can always post the extended version on YouTube– with even more baby pictures– for the 20 relatives who want more.

Steve Stockman

I’m a chef working on tour with major artists in the rock ‘n’ roll industry in Europe. Every day we get off a tour bus after an average of 6 hours sleep, unload the truck, build a kitchen inside a stadium, cook breakfast, lunch, dinner and after-show food for 200-odd crew and artists alike, break down and clean kitchen, push it back on the truck and drag our tired, adrenalized and ragged selves back to a coffin-sized bunk and sleep while the tour rolls into the next venue.

I’m sure you can see the potential of a no-holds-barred rock’n’roll food documentary. It’s insane, it’s brutal, its fun, it’s emotionally charged, it’s cooking with gas.

Any tips about working in tight fluorescent hallways inside stadiums and arenas? I’m taking a GoPro, with remote, a shotgun mike, tripod, lights and a reflector etc. spare batteries, sd cards, hard drives, and either a Canon xa10, xf100,xf105, or a Panasonic ac-90

Attached is a short produced by a good friend who will be helping me with the time-lapse aspects of my own footage.

–Chris

Wow!  Sounds like a great subject!  Your passion and energy really come through.  The time-lapses (below) are beautiful.

But I’m worried—

In all that passionate description, you haven’t told me what your doc is about.  Or more precisely, who your doc is about.

In film, equipment and lighting decisions come after story decisions.  Why?  Because nobody likes to spend time or money acquiring and lugging around equipment that’s wrong for the job.  How do we know the right equipment?  We develop as precise an idea as possible about the story first.

To know your story in a documentary, you have to know very specifically who the story is about. A doc about “a bunch of people” cooking on the road is unfocused. Shooting everyone is like shooting no one.  You end up with an amorphous mess with no compelling characters. You have no story.  Without story, your doc will feel like a time-lapse—pretty, full of motion, and ultimately meaningless without context.  It may be beautiful, but it won’t draw us in.

The key to a great doc is specific characters with a strong need or want and a difficult journey.  Who is the lead character in your story?  What are they desperately trying to do, at which they very well may not succeed?

Do you need GoPros and timelapses?  What’s the best way to light?  Tell me the story first. Once we know who’s doing what, building an equipment list is easy.

Steve Stockman

The only way to get people to notice your hair is to push your change to the extreme.  Shave it off or dye it neon pink, and people will start to see it. (And even then, no guarantees.  I’ve shaved my beard and had people look at me quizzically and ask “Have you lost weight?”)

Thus the “Haircut Principle” for video– small changes don’t get noticed.  Move just a little closer and your shot looks the same.  But go from a huge wide shot to putting your lens right up against a character’s nose and the viewer may…just may… be aware of a tiny change in meaning. (Which makes sense if you think about.  You’ve been planning and analyzing.  The audience just clicked in to see if anything good was on.)

The things that feel big to us may not even register with the audience. To be sure they do, make them bigger.  Anything worth doing is worth doing in the extreme. For example:

In this music video, director Andre Chocron and his team could have used a shot or two of high speed photography to create a lovely slow-motion effect.  But you wouldn’t have noticed because lots of people do that.  So they went extreme.  They shot the whole video in one single 18 second take at 300 frames per second.  When they slowed the footage down, it was 3:34– the length of their entire song.  And it created a look you’re a lot more likely to notice than a friend’s haircut.

Steve Stockman

Hey Steve,

Do you have any insights on marketing for production services?

I am struggling with approaching people saying “Hey this is what we do, we are awesome at it, let’s work together.”  I don’t want to push things on people, I want people to come to us for what we do, what we can offer and how we do it.

We have been very lucky in our first year that we haven’t have to do ANY marketing, but we are at a point where we should be bringing in more sales!

Jesse

The dream of any artist is to be recognized for her brilliance, sought after by all, and hired only by a select few with the millions of dollars and requisite good taste that are her due.  The truth, however, is that all artists who want to make a living over time have to work hard for it.  Every single one.

At the same time, most artists don’t like to be pushy. A dilemma, to be sure.  But instead of thinking of marketing as foisting yourself on unwitting victims, think of it as helping people who need what you do.  Now it doesn’t seem as bad, right?

If you’ve been supporting yourself for a year as a video producer (congratulations, btw, a major accomplishment!) I assume you’ve assembled a great portfolio that anyone interested in your work will be excited about.  If you haven’t, you must.

Once you have a killer reel, the simplest way to market your video production business is this: identify your best customers, then try to find more people just like them.

Here’s the step-by-step.  Start up a blank screen and let’s do some brainstorming:

1)  Think about all your favorite customers– the ones you love, and who love you.  Who are cream of the crop?  Make as detailed a list as you can about everything you know about them:  What businesses are they in? What are they like as people? What did they love about you?  Age/sex/geographic location?  Their business or way of looking at the world?

2)  What do they have in common?  Mark all their themes and commonalities so that you have a clear description of who they are– your “ideal customer profile.”  Now you can recognize a great customer when you see one.  And you might have some clues about how to attract them.

3) Once you have an “ideal customer profile” what message or story will excite them– will make them recognize you as a potential partner of value?

4)  Put your skills to work.  Do a kickass video about yourself as seen through that filter.  Your reel might be enough, but why not create a custom 2 minute piece that will make your ideal customer salivate to work with you? It’s easier to pass around, and it’s all about your potential customer’s needs instead of your other customers’ video.

5)  Get the video to them.  In what ways– using your many marketing and web skills and brainstorming and hiring help if you need it–  might you get as many as possible of your ideal types to watch your video?  Be creative. (And don’t forget to just ask your ideal customers to help pass the video around!)

By getting the exact right message to the exact right people in a way that demonstrates your skills, you should be able to attract more of them.

Do you have a question about video?  Of course you do.  I think you should ask it.

Steve Stockman

That was my message at Gate 3.0 a couple of weeks ago, and they’ve posted the video of that talk online (in fact they’ve posted all 16 hours of the conference on line, but my part was only 15 minutes.) Gate stands for “Global Alliance for Transformation of Entertainment” and yes, it is as new-agey as it sounds. But it was a great time, with a great group of people.  My talk tended toward the un-new-agey on a topic I hope you’ll enjoy.  Take a look:

Steve Stockman

I have to shoot three 90 minute lectures. The topic is actually interesting but very, very, targeted. My plan is to shoot the whole lecture in one shot with a lavalier and one camera.  I’ll get all of their powerpoint graphics to
edit in.  Then in post, I’ll edit the crap out of it.

I’m curious what suggestions you have when it comes to shooting long lectures.

–Tom

I’m having trouble staying awake just imagining these videos, and I’m someone who voluntarily goes to 90 minute lectures from time to time.  My advice: cut them down to the hottest 90 seconds, then use the video to promote the book or audio podcast series to it’s highly specialized audience.

My anticipated boredom has nothing to do with the topic, and almost nothing to with the speaker (who I’m sure is dynamic.)  But there’s a reason you don’t see more 90 minute lectures on YouTube.  It’s almost impossible to pay attention– even if you try.

In a lecture hall, your eyes are free to scan the room, the hot guy/girl across the room, the powerpoint slides, the kind of pens in the lecturer’s pocket protector, or whatever.  On screen, you can only watch what the camera points to.  A brain evolved for scanning the plains for food or danger feels stuffed into a little box, watching a professor at a lectern for four and half hours.  Try as you might, your brain will scream for more visual input.  Your eyes will leave the screen.  Your attention will wander.  Our brains crave visual input, and a single camera lecture is the very definition of static.

But you asked for advice on how to do it, and for that let’s go to the exception that proves the rule: Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” (below).  Here are some tips from this video that might help you make a great lecture video:

1)  Great lectures start with great writing.  This one is beautifully written– repeatedly raising important questions.  You need to stay tuned to learn the answers.

2)  Great lectures require a great lecturer.  Pausch was an exceptional speaker– charismatic, credible and likeable.

3)  Add action and information for the viewer.  Shooting multi-camera shows us the lecture hall. all the action and motion Pausch puts into his performance, and his graphics.  Which helps us stay tuned.

4)  Make it emotional.   This is a video about life and death.  It’s filled with humor, warmth and, yes, tragedy.  What emotions can your lecturer explore (hint for dry topics: humor counts as an emotion.)

If you find yourself distracted and slightly claustrophobic even when watching video of this brilliant lecture, I rest my case.  Note that it sold a gazillion copies when it was transcribed and released as a book.

Do you have a burning video question?  Of course you do.  And I have a blog to write. It will help both of us if you ask your question now!

Steve Stockman