DavidKocol

David Kocol
DavidKocol.com
414-265-6783 dkocol@usa.net
I do Videography
Video Coaching
Entrepreneurial Assistance
My Target Market
Speakers, Actors and Comedians
Small Business (similar needs)
I help integrate Video with Marketing and Social Media Strategies

The Message
Traits
Good Message
Examples of both
Checklist
Questions to Answer
USP
Call To Action
Business Impact
Defining Your Market
Demographic Example
Robert Grede Plug
Decisions
Approach Ideas
Review

• Can use to tell people what you do
• Can spotlight a Product or Service
• It answers “So what do you do?”

• short
• memorable
• introduction to something
• easy to understand
• uses plain language

A good 30 second message will:
· Grab ’m and sell ’m
· Inspire questions
· Get action

“Hi. I’m Steve Smith of Highly Technical Storage.
We sell enterprise-grade electronic televaulting solutions to ISPS, SSPs, and ASPs.
With our service, you can retrieve your mission-critical data from our clustered secure data farm over an IP connection. “

“Hi. I’m Steve Smith of Highly Technical Storage.
If you were to permanently lose your most critical business information, how long could your business survive?
If you answered, “Not long,” please ask me how we can help you protect your company ’s financial health by storing your data in a safe and secure location.”

·
Purpose or Essence of what you do
(Business Impact)
· Be Jargon-free
· Clearly define your Audience
**Multiple Audiences need multiple videos**
· Address Problem/Need
· Benefits/Consequences
· Uniqueness / USP
· Call-to-action

Audience - Who is your audience?
Solving their problem or Filling a Need -
How does your product / service solve their problem or need?
Benefit, How will your audience benefit?
Consequences, What are the consequences of inaction?

What is your Unique Selling Proposition?
What differentiates you from the competition?
How are you uniquely qualified to deliver the product or service?
How are you unique?
What are your advantages?

What do you want the viewer to do after watching your 30 second video? What action?
Are you looking for sales prospects?
information?
referrals?
an appointment? a business partner? an investor?
a new sales channel?

Will your message help companies solve problems?
Will your message help companies gain a benefit?
Will your message help companies prevent a loss?
Will your message reduce the number of lawsuits?
Will your message improve communications processes?
Will your message help companies find new customers?

Your target market should be defined using demographic and psychographic characteristics.
Demographics include statistical traits of human population, such as age, gender, race, religion, or income.
Psychographics include lifestyle and personality differences. People within the same demographic group can exhibit very different psychographic profiles.

Two English Men, born in 1948. Who?
Would your message be the same to both of them?

Terms such as jet setter, gay, and straight are all lifestyle descriptions. Marketers try to match lifestyle and personality when creating brand image.
Marlboro cigarettes appeal primarily to men [demographic] who envision themselves independent “cowboy” personalities [psychographic].
Virginia Slims appeal principally to sophisticated women.
Define your target in terms of both demographic and psychographic characteristics when developing your promotions.

Individual or Business centered?
What is the Desired Result ?
Who is the audience?
What is the message?
• USP Unique Selling Proposition
• Your Uniqueness (What makes you stand out)
• Features or Key Points Spotlighted
• Benefit to be gained
• Threat to be countered
• Core Value(s) shared
• Problem to be solved
• History (how you got to where you are)
• FAQ Questions you commonly get asked

How? Ways to create an emotional response so viewers take action on your message)
Think Commercials
Enjoyment (humor, fun, escape, entertainment)
Helpful (useful, educational, problem-solving)
In the know (1st to know, inside scoop)
Surprise (shock value, unexpected, unique perspective)
Fear (warning, investigative, being prepared)
Trust (safety, reliability, honesty, integrity)
Understanding (belonging, empathy, crusade)
Conflict (debate, discussion, point/counterpoint)

Narrative is a story-telling approach.
This type works well for dramatic productions. It requires a detailed storyboard which could include a screenplay-format script which needs to be rehearsed. This style requires the most planning and detailed production. However, the narrative affords the most control over content
(emotional hooks) and it is the most involving to the audience.

Documentary is a style which uses interviews or answers questions which allows the story to tell itself. This type can be very effective at motivating people, Documentaries are "guided" in pre-production, but essentially "written" in post-production. Post-production for this type can be time-consuming, unless it is well planned.

Expository is the type of production which uses a voicedover narration.
While this approach offers great control, is considered the easiest to write and produce and can be very effective, it is considered the least involving and motivating to the audience.

Who
What
When
Where
Why
How

Will it Work on Video?
• Will your video have strong visual elements?
• Will your video have strong audio elements?
• Is it something a busy person would want to see?
• Will it provide value to the viewer?
• Will your video be watched by enough people to be worth the effort?
If the answer to any of the above is no, think of another solution:
An email, a Web page, an infographic, a PDF, etc.
The place to be!

Audience
The most important element in a video more important than camerawork, editing, resources, story, or anything else is your audience
.
Who is your audience?
Don't say "the public"—you need to be specific about who you want to watch your video.

Planning Your Video
Now that you’ve decided to make a video, you need to focus your ideas into a video plan.
Just like with any other project, the planning and scheduling phase of production is crucial to the success and timeliness of your video.
Remember—if your content isn’t good, no one will look at it, no matter how hard you worked.
The place to be!

A storyboard is a powerful document that contains all the visual, audio and time components of your video. You can use pictures to describe the visual element, like this: to be!

Storyboards capture these three elements for every scene of your video:
Visual:Description—A quick, rough sketch—no need to be an artist!
Time—The length of this particular image, in seconds.
Audio—Narration/Music/SFX Narration (people speaking), Music
(background sound) or Sound Effect (SFX)—doors opening, car horns, birds calling, etc.
Storyboards can also skip the pictures and just describe the visual elements: be!

Compose Your Video Shots
Wide Shot/Long Shot Shows the entire person, object or building

Medium Shot
Shows the subject from the waist up or shows half of an object or building.
Great for interviews, as the subject fills the screen.
Close–Up One element, such as a face, fills the screen, making the video more interesting and personal

Establishing Shot Usually an exterior shot of a building. It gives your audience a sense of location by highlighting the surrounding environment.
The place to be!

Use a Tripod
Tripods help you avoid shaky video. If you don't have a tripod, look for the natural tripods around you—a desk/table, rocks, low walls— to help steady your shot.
USE A TRIPOD!
Keep it Steady
Avoid panning (swiveling the camera from left to right) or moving the camera while filming. Instead, move physically closer to your subject to get the angles you want.

Remember the Rule of Thirds
Divide your image into nine equal parts with two equally–spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines.
Place your subject at the four intersections (see the circled areas below), for a professional–looking video.

Lighting
Indirect Lighting Diffused light, like being outside on a cloudy day or the lighting in your office.
Indirect lighting illuminates the area around your subject, but may not be strong enough to light your subject
.

Single–Source Lighting If you don’t have lighting equipment, the sun on a sunny day is the best single-source lighting.

Two–Point Lighting Setup You can use one light and the sun to brighten your subject’s face and remove shadows
.
ea

Three–Point Lighting Setup
Professionals use a three–point lighting system:
•Key Light— main source of light (if outside your key light is the sun).
•Fill Light— lights the shadows or dark spaces.
•Back Light—This light behind your subject provides separation between your subject and the background.
If you over-light it will create a silhouette effect—a very bright light in the background while your subject’s features are dark and covered with shadow.

Lighting Tips
•When outdoors, shoot either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Noon light will create harsh shadows on your subject.
•Never film someone with their back to the sun—you won’t be able to see them through the shadows.
•Never use sunlight through venetian blinds—you’ll be able to see the shadow bars on your subject’s face.

Lighting Tips
•Use reflectors (mirrored or reflective sheets) to bounce light to an area that needs brightening, such as the side of someone’s face.
Cheap reflectors include: poster boards, easels or even car sun reflectors.
•Avoid overly bright or dark spaces.
•Be sure to use the “white balance” feature to get the best results from your available light and to create realistic skin tones. There should be white balance information in your camera's manual.
•White backgrounds are the easiest for lighting.

Assume All Material is Copyrighted
Nearly all the material on the Web is covered by intellectual property laws. If you produce content in your personal time, you automatically own the rights to it.
If you produce content at work, your employer likely owns it.
Videos, blog posts, and music (especially music videos) are all examples of works automatically protected by copyright. They don’t need to say
“copyright” or have a “©” mark next to it, either–once it’s created, it’s copyrighted.
People must choose to actively relinquish their copyright for you to use their work, and the vast majority of people don’t do this or don’t know how.

Federal Government Works Likely Copyright Free
Any form of recorded or documented work created by federal employee, as part of that person's official duties is, according to Section 105 of the
Copyright Act , a United States Government Work (USGW).
This means that all media created by federal employees are the property of the federal government and have no copyright restrictions within the
United States.
Anyone in the U.S. may:
• Reproduce the work in print or digital form
• Create derivative works (use portions of the original in another work)
• Perform the work publicly
• Display the work
• Distribute copies or digitally transfer the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.

You can use a photograph, a song or a video clip if you contact the owner and have them send you permission, by letter or email, to use their work.
They might want $$$$.
Work labeled public domain (generally usable in the country it was created). See if the author included a Creative Commons or another attribution license indicating the item is free to use.
IMPORTANT: Licenses are complex, and not all Creative Commons, or other attribution licenses, are created equal. This means that a certain type of “CC” or other attribution logo might let you use an image or video, but you will need to give attribution or credit, usually in the credits or in the description.
To ensure you don’t mistakenly use protected intellectual property from other websites, check with the sources who created that original material.

Remember:
•Inspect the copyright status of each and every file to ensure the author has given you free use
•If the file’s license asks you to give them credit or not to alter their product, follow those instructions
•Copy the URL of each file you find online so you can go back to it if needed
•Only music that gives you the right to attribution can be used in almost all situations without contacting the owner

Free Video Footage/B-roll
More people are uploading videos with licenses allowing use of footage by adding an attribution at the end.
Some examples are: Public Domain, Open Source, and Community Video licenses.
The Creative Commons Attribution License is the most common symbol that denotes a work is free and OK for use.
A few places to look for free stock footage online are:
•YouTube —To search for Creative Commons or another type of attribution license, sign-in to YouTube, go to youtube.com/editor , click the “CC” icon and then search for videos.
•Wikimedia Commons —Images, sounds videos
•National Archives Community Video —Lots of footage, including old commercials and government videos
•35mm Stock Footage (also from the National Archives)

Free Sources - Video
• Wikimedia Commons —Images, sounds videos
• Google Images —Pictures you can use in your videos
• Creative Commons Search Page —Choose from a variety of sites
• Flickr Creative Commons
• www.sxc.hu
—Free stock images
Music & Audio
Find free soundtracks, speeches or even sound effects. It's helpful to know the type of music you're looking for first.
• National Archives Community Audio
• Audiofarm —Lots of music by genre
• Wikimedia Commons —Images, sounds, videos
• Incomptech —More music by genre
• Observatory Online —Free music, hosted by the National Archives
• Creative Commons —A list of free music sites
• Garageband —The free music editor on Macs is preloaded with audio snippets and loops. You can also create your own.
• Opsound —Sounds and music under "Creative Commons ShareAlike license"
• CCMixster —A Creative Commons collection
Free Sound Effects
Look for realistic sounds, such as footsteps, to add drama to your piece.
• Freesound.org
—Collaborative database of Creative Commons–licensed sounds. Freesound does not have songs.
• http://davidkocol.com/downloads/

Free Photos & Images
Use images that illustrate a point or an emotion.
• Wikimedia Commons —Images, sounds videos
• Google Images —Pictures you can use in your videos
• Creative Commons Search Page —Choose from a variety of sites
• Flickr Creative Commons
• www.sxc.hu
—Free stock images

David Kocol
DavidKocol.com
414-265-6783 dkocol@usa.net
I do Videography
Video Coaching
Entrepreneurial Assistance
My Target Market
Speakers, Actors and Comedians
Small Business (similar needs)
I help integrate Video with Marketing and Social Media Strategies