Image courtesy of Constance Free Church, Andover, MN.
So much about creating content deals with subjectivity. Artistry comes in all different forms and flavors, so what looks good to one person may not be as appealing to another.
When it comes to creating video content like testimonials, announcements, or interviews, however, it’s much easier to draw a clear line of what makes a video good or bad, while still leaving room for the influence of subjective creativity.
The overarching most important factor in making a good video is ensuring that the visuals tell the same story as the subject. What you see and hear should both point to the same emotion, call to action, or visceral response.
“You need to know what story you’re telling before you start to tell it,” says Adam Erickson, a filmmaker and director at South Carolina-based multisite Seacoast Church. “There certainly are instances where you may not know in advance what the final story will end up being, but the more you know the better. You need to understand the goals of the video before you walk on set so that you can consider that in every decision you make. Everything from framing to lighting can be impacted by your goal, and when done well, the way you approach those elements can only strengthen your story.”
B-Roll Should Always Reflect the Emotional Core of Your Story
Indeed, the story determines the shots, and the b-roll will align with the emotion of the story. The story determines lighting, filters, camera angles and framing, shot composition, background, movement, and so much more. Often, there’s nothing worse as a storyteller than to realize during post-production that you don’t have a certain shot that helps tell the story, and that’s why it’s so critical to try and plan or storyboard ahead of time. Having to go back later to recapture footage runs the risk of having differences in lighting or environmental conditions or continuity errors, and while those things can be small, they can be a huge distraction to the audience.
Image courtesy of Constance Free Church, Andover, MN
“People want to be bought into what you're telling them,” notes Jon Peake, the video producer at Minnesota’s Constance Free Church. “They want to pay attention to the video that you're doing. So, all that being said, when you create things that are distracting to them, you're giving them an option not to pay attention to your message, not to listen to your story. [A story needs to] have the least amount of things that could draw your attention away.”
A distraction is really anything that keeps the audience from engaging with the content, and good videos limit or eliminate those distractions.
“Intentionality of framing, lighting, location, and questions—because if you’re bought into the story, others will be too.”—Jon Peake, on the power of deliberate choices in filmmaking.
Is something in the shot brighter and better lit than the subject? That’s where the audience’s attention and focus will go, so that’s a distraction. What about some sort of movement in the background? An interview subject’s hair or jewelry brushing against a microphone. Clipping or distorted audio. Overexposed shots that cause glare on a subject’s skin. Unnecessary movement. B-roll that doesn’t align with the story. And on and on.
“If you distract the audience, you’re going to lose them,” Erickson points out. “There’s an old adage when it comes to websites that you ‘don’t want to make them think.’ The way you tell your story visually applies in the same way. Does your b-roll properly illustrate what the subject is talking about? Do your shots flow naturally so the viewer can follow the story? You need to ask yourself if the visuals are serving the story.”
Superior Audio Quality Outshines Even the Best Visuals
So much time and energy goes into thinking purely about the subject on camera, and rightly so, since that person becomes the primary focus of the content. But the best storytellers will also spend time examining the environment not just through the camera, but also through the microphone to see how it will all look and sound together as a cohesive package.
“The worst offender in bad video is bad audio,” Erickson quickly admits. “I’ll watch a video that isn’t shot great, but if the audio is blown out and distorted or too quiet, I’m gone.”
Peake echoed that sentiment. “More people are willing to watch a bad video with great audio than they are to watch a great video with bad audio,” he says.
Fortunately, some of those field errors can ultimately be corrected in postproduction, with AI tools in editing software now able to do a lot of work to clean up or improve audio quality. Likewise with lighting: there are some ways to correct color and exposure to overcome issues with the initial shot.
“The worst offender in bad video is bad audio. I’ll watch a video that isn’t shot great, but if the audio is blown out, I’m gone.”—Adam Erickson, emphasizing the critical role of sound quality.
The danger, though, is that relying purely on postproduction to fix problems in a capture is to reduce the overall window of margin available in the finished product. Making so many adjustments to mask lighting or audio issues restricts any additional creativity that can be injected into a piece.
Likewise, videographers often “cheat” on a postproduction timeline to make a single-camera capture look like a multi-camera shot by changing framing or flipping an image. While those things can work, they can also serve to magnify any imperfections in the shot when the resolution or zoom depth is changed. If an editor has to go that route, it’s best to capture in as high of resolution as possible (like 4K) then maybe do a timeline that’s still a 1080p resolution to help keep a higher level of quality.
But the easiest way to end up doing the same thing, without compromising quality? Think through it ahead of time, and use the initial interview or stand-up wisely.
Fully Understanding Your Gear Will Boost Your Creativity
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Image courtesy of Seacoast Church, Mount Pleasant, SC.
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Image courtesy of Seacoast Church, Mount Pleasant, SC.
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Image courtesy of Seacoast Church, Mount Pleasant, SC.
“Something that I have done is, especially in a single camera interview, is ask all the pertinent questions with a straight-on angle and then re-ask some of those questions while moving the camera,” Peake explains. “So it looks like you have two interview frames, like you're using a multi-cam, and then asking ancillary questions or follow-up questions on that second angle, even though you're still using only one camera, but you're just giving the illusion of two different cameras.”
“You're putting intentionality of what you're doing,” he continues. “And I think legitimately what good video dwindles down to is intentionality. Intentionality of framing, lighting, location, and questions. Because if you're bought into interviewing someone, if you're bought into the story that you're trying to tell, other people will be bought into.”
Intentionality not only reveals itself in how a story and shot is planned out ahead of time, but also in how strategically a storyteller has invested time in learning their tools. Sometimes there are terrific options for how to improve camera quality, or even how to troubleshoot a challenge, that just might be overlooked because the videographer had no idea what their equipment was capable of.
“There is a level of knowing your equipment to the ends of the earth that you know how to not just be handicapped by, but use those limitations as creative elements,” Peake says. “I mean, when you're painting on a canvas, you don't think of what the things that are going to be outside the canvas are. You think about what you can put on there.”
Erickson concurs. “The first way to overcome limitations of gear is to know your gear,” he notes. “Know where it falls apart and know what makes it shine. People are filming amazing stories with smartphones, but that’s only because they realize where the smartphone is limited. They’re lighting for those cameras and making sure that the dynamic range isn’t so broad that the image falls apart. The same applies to whatever camera or lighting you’re using. Don’t try to create scenarios where you know your gear cannot deliver. This is going to be unique for everyone’s gear set, but understanding those limitations means that you know when you need to pursue other gear or other ideas.”
“You need to know what story you’re telling before you start to tell it.”—Adam Erickson, filmmaker, on the importance of planning in video content creation.
The best storytellers use the right tools to tell the story, and they also think strategically and intentionally about how to deliver the right feelings and emotions during that story. No matter whether it’s an emotional piece about missions or an informational video about upcoming events, video content contains a clear call to action for the audience, and there must be cohesion in all elements of the story so that call can be clearly delivered without distractions.
Unfortunately, not all content hits the mark. It may feel one way in the moment of the shoot or in the editing suite, but when it goes live in a service feels completely different. In the big picture, that’s OK, because not every video is going to land exactly how it’s intended. For any storyteller or videographer, the goal of delivering “good” video is often a journey that requires constant adjusting and learning.
Erickson’s closing words of wisdom fully capture the opportunities and challenges that exist during that process.
“Don’t be afraid to fail. Failing is just an opportunity to learn how not to do it the next time.”
