Reinvent stock footage... not the wheel!
Reinvent Stock Footage... not the Wheel!
What is Stock Footage?
Stock film, stock video, or b-roll is usually a video clip that is less than a minute long, created to reflect a generic idea. The footage can be used in an endless range of types of video production. From business and commercial to lifestyle and leisure. Basically, if you can dream it up, someone has shot stock footage of it.
Working With Stock Footage
Working with stock can be a tricky game.
There’s lots of bad stock out there, which has given it a bad reputation over the years. But if you know where to look, there are some great creators shooting stock footage that doesn’t look… “stocky”. With production costs falling, talented producers and DPs can get a hold of high-quality cameras, great lighting setups, and talented actors and models to create content that is really cinematic and striking. And the effect? Stock footage has become an integral part of any filmmaker’s toolbox.
Why use stock?
Stock can help you:
Save time
Save money
Get the shots you just can’t figure out how to get
How can I use it?
Stock can be a great way to get your message out to your audience on a smaller budget than a full-scale commercial. All we need from you is your script, visual references, and a brief, and we’ll piece together the rest. With unlimited access to our library of premium, striking, and cinematic stock footage we can create imagery that communicates your message with clarity and energy.
Stock is quick
Creating a video with stock can take your production time from multiple weeks of conceptualising, shooting, and editing down to a matter of days, with only pre-production and postproduction to worry about, turning around stock footage videos can be something of ease.
Conclusion
Stock is a quick and easy way (especially during Lockdown) to get a high-quality video out to your audience. There are vast libraries of really great stock that our editing team can use to create engaging content suited to your requirements.
Here to Help!
If you have a message that you'd like to get out to the world or you'd like us to help develop an idea, please get in touch on 020 7293 0877, visit our contact page or email hello@habituamedia.com
Repurposing content during Covid-19
Repurposing Content during COVID-19
Coming up with new content every week for your social media channels can be challenging.
While screen time is up, and more people are spending more time on social media than ever before it’s important to have a strong social presence right now.
Throughout this blog, I'll run you through some of the ways we've been repurposing our content!
Turning videos into blogs
Let’s say you’ve already shot a branded explainer video, a great way to repurpose that is to convert the video into a blog post, by transcribing the video using a tool like Rev you can reach audiences who might not usually watch your videos on social channels and much prefer the written word. You can also add your transcription as subtitles to your video and increase its SEO!
Create a podcast with existing content.
Podcasts are gaining more popularity across a wider range of age groups. I often find I work well with a podcast playing in the background. Interviews, conferences, roundtable discussions and more long-form video can easily be converted into audio with a free tool called Audacity.
Video cut downs
Following suit from turning a long-form video into podcasts, cutting down any videos that are longer than a minute down to the minute mark or even 30 seconds. Check out each social platform's average watch time below (thanks to Hubspot) to get an idea of how long your videos should be!
1 Minute
30 Seconds
45 Seconds
YouTube
2 Minutes
Stories
Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook offer a story function that disappears after 24 hours where you can offer bite-size 10-second chunks of content to your audience, this is a great place to post behind the scenes photos of your team as well as unseen photos and video that normally may not have made the cut.
New videos from old content
With content production being at a slower pace at the moment, our editors are working with old raw footage to re-edit and merge videos to create new storylines and convey different messages. This can be used to create new brand videos, commercials and short-form content for social!
Looking for inspiration on what type of content can be produced by repurposing content? Check out this video we created for True. by repurposing old footage, partner content, stock footage and text animation to help them tell their story.
Our team is available to work with you to create any content. We can use your old videos and other visual content to help get your social media in top shape during COVID-19! Get in touch with us!
How to make the most of your video content
How to Make the Most of Your Video Content
Whether it’s for social media, your website or your sales funnel, video has undeniably become a powerful tool. Just like 80% of businesses who used video for marketing purposes last year (Wochit, 2018), you have probably invested time and energy into this content format for your business. In the words of Enterprise Marketer video blogger Jeff Julian - the way we consume content is moving more and more toward video, motion graphics and audio. Video has moved its way up the marketing agenda. Good video requires investment. As budgets for video increase, companies are looking to secure a good ROI. In this blog, we will answer the question of ‘how to maximise your video content investment’?
Having A Strategy Is Crucial:
Just like other content forms, your video content needs to be built and distributed through a strategic plan. Understanding where and how you can use video will be crucial in relation to production and distribution. Are you creating videos for the sake of videos? If so, then you need to step back and ask a few questions. The big question usually revolves around the why! What will be the purpose of your videos? Once you start unravelling this, you can move onto a few other questions that will inform your strategy and help you maximise your video investment.
What is the objective of your videos?
Who is your audience?
Do you have brand guidelines in place?
What formats will you need?
Where will you be using and distributing your videos?
From product videos to vlogs, there are endless types and formats to think about for your business. Take a look at the chart below which shows the different types of videos businesses have invested in.
Be Smart With Production:
Video is a versatile format. Working with a smart video production company can ensure that you get a good return from your investment. When planned correctly, your video team can capture additional content which could help support the main video. Examples cases include using the additional content as social media cut downs or recording different messaging so you can A/B test your content to name a couple.
At Habitual Media we pride ourselves on being enterprising. That means we are always looking for ways to maximise the value of content for our clients. As a creative partner, we sit, think and build value into our video approach.
Using & Maximising Your Videos:
Are you just sharing videos on social media? If so, there is so much more you can be doing to maximise your video investment. Knowing where you can use video will help inform your strategy and increase engagement with your audience.
Establishing A Home For Your Videos
Before moving onto all the fantastic distribution channels for your video content, it’s best to first establish a home base. Sites like Youtube and Vimeo let you store videos online, for free! We would recommend using Vimeo - you can view our channel here. Vimeo is great for quality, flexibility and its ease of use.
Looking to rack views and reach a wider audience with your videos? We would recommend using Youtube as your home-base. Youtube is the 2nd largest search engines on the web (more on this in the next section), meaning your videos will inevitably get more organic reach simply by being on the platform.
Include Video On Your Site:
It is well known that video is one of the most engaging content forms. Video combines auditory and visual sense, which catch our attention like nothing else. According to Forbes, the average user spends 88% more time on a website with video. It’s a no brainer - video increases user engagement and time spent on your website. This is because viewers retain information better when viewed in a video, compared to say a blog. We would recommend having an explainer video on your homepage to engage users as soon as they hit your website. Remember to adequately compress your videos before putting them on your site, ideally to under 5mb so it doesn’t affect your page load speed.
Your Videos On Social Media:
Social media is the natural channel for distribution for your videos. That being said, there are many different formats you can explore. As mentioned in the previous section, you will want to be smart with your video production. That includes creating appropriate social cuts when shooting your videos. A good production company can easily create 15-30 second cuts which will sit nicely on your social channel’s main feed.
If you have any Behind The Scenes content, you can utilise that in your stories. In addition to adding content onto your feed, be sure to take advantage of video banners. Facebook gives you the option to upload a cover video, which could be an opportunity to grab the audience's attention. You can chop and remix videos you already have, with bright colours, white space and written messaging. As long as your video is between 20-90 seconds, and have minimum dimensions of 820x312 pixels, then you should be good to go.
Call To Actions:
Having a high-quality, engaging video is great...but what actions do you want the viewer to take? Often forgotten, but highly effective CTA’s can maximise your content investment by driving actions and conversions from your viewers. Creating CTA’s at the end of your video will give it more purpose and guide the viewers along the journey. Common CTA’s include: “visit our website”, “sign up for our email newsletter”, “request a free demo”. Did you know that viewers are 95% more likely to remember a call to action after watching a video, compared to 10% when reading it in text format. Be sure to take advantage of this!
Tag Your Videos For SEO:
We mentioned earlier that Youtube is the second biggest search engine. Correctly tagging your videos when uploading will boost your SEO. Yes, you heard that right. Adding relevant titles, tags and descriptions to the metadata of your video is an easy way to maximise the value of your videos by increasing your brand visibility. Helping your videos be associated with the right target keywords could get them indexed to rank for relevant searched. If you want to go one step further, create a transcript to accompany your video and add these when uploading.
Sharing Your Videos:
Distribution is an important part of getting maximum return from your video investment. You have spent some money on your production, now you want people to actually see it. Believe it or not, video views don’t magically come around, you have to make an effort. The first thing you can do is sharing within your network and also asking them to share - this is a surefire way to get organic views on your video. You can also do outreach to relevant people, especially those that might find value in your video and ask them to watch it. If they like it and find value, they will then be inclined to share it, creating a potential snowball effect. You can also reach out to relevant influencers who are more likely to have a larger audience, compared to Bill, the marketing guy down the hallway
Whilst most of those methods just require pure effort, you can look to put your videos in front of a wider audience through paid advertisements. Setting up ads on social media have never been easier, in fact you can ‘boost’ a video on your Facebook page through the click of a button.
Like what you have read? Shoot us an email and grab coffee with the team to talk about anything video. Click here for more information.
Top 5 videography trends of 2019
Top 5 Videography Trends of 2019
The dominance of video as the ‘King of Content’ makes it a compelling time to be in the video production industry. Emerging technologies are disrupting the way we create, consume and share content. We have seen a huge increase in the adoption and use of video by businesses and consumers alike, and we couldn’t be more excited. Today we are highlighting our top 5 videography trends to be on the lookout for in 2019. Our insights into these trends will cover Vertical Videos, Accessibility and more. We hope this provides value and you will be back for more!
Videography Trend 1: Vertical Video
How many times have you “checked” your social media today? If you haven’t noticed, vertical videos are now a thing. The meteoric rise of social media, coupled with the mobile phone revolution has led to increasing demand for videos optimised for mobile. The 9:16 might seem weird at first, but holds many overlooked benefits, mainly...users don’t have to flip their phone. Other benefits of vertical video include, capturing the viewers attention through filling the entire screen, and providing one point of focus per frame.
MediaBrix found that vertical videos have a 90% higher completion rate compared to horizontal videos. Popular platforms like Instagram are capitalising on this trend by releasing ‘vertical first’ features like IGTV. Video is adapting to this new landscape (no pun intended) and brands who engage with a mobile-driven audiences are listening.
Here 5 examples of brands using vertical video. Featuring National Geographic, PureGym and more.
Videography Trend 2: Accessible Videos
According to the World Health Organisation 5% of the world have disabling hearing loss. Accessibility is an important issue as we move towards making the internet and it’s amazing content equally accessible to users of all abilities. When it comes to video accessibility, closed captions are at the forefront. Did you know that 41% of videos are incomprehensible without sound? Captions help with concentration, clarification and comprehension.
Captions are great for watching videos on mute - Digiday state that 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Most importantly, captions are giving people with hearing disabilities the power to understand videos and participate in the conversation! Accessibility is something we at Habitual Media care about. We recently partnered with Uber and Lingoing to produce a content campaign series of videos, pictures & GIFs for deaf and hard of hearing drivers.
For more information on creating accessible videos, have a look at Sitepoint’s 8 Steps to Creating Accessible Video
Videography Trend 3: Long Form Content
There is a perception that modern audiences have short attention spans. This has been bucked by the recent rise of companies using long-form videos. A study by Wochit reported that longer videos received 74% more views, and 79% more shares compared to short videos. Long-form videos are usually considered to be over 25 minutes in length and provide many strategic benefits. Long-form content encourages storytelling, giving you a better opportunity to emotionally connect with your audience. It is also a great way to educate your audience, helping you engage customers at different points in their journey - whether it is product reviews, demos or in-person interviews.
Whilst long-form video content requires considerably more production juice, we believe it is worth it. In the age of ‘content saturation’,a well produced long-form video can help you connect on a deeper level. A great example of this is Youtube streetwear sensations PAQ. Since launching in 2017, they have racked up nearly 50 million views and over 550,000 subscribers. Their super engaged audience has led to PAQ being able to work with the biggest brands in streetwear, producing new forms of collaborative content with the likes of Nike, Adidas and ASOS.
Have a look at these 5 great examples of brands using long-form video.
Videography Trend 4: Live Videos
Live-streaming has opened up the field for brands and advertisers to connect with their audiences in a completely new way - live and direct! Modern day audiences expect more authenticity and experience-first content and live video does exactly this. The launch of Live-Streaming on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and most recently LinkedIn allows viewers to comment and interact in real time. In fact, viewers spend 8x longer with live video compared to on-demand content. Live Video is authentic, cheap and credible to viewers, allowing companies to easily build an online community. We have listed 3 benefits of live streaming below:
Authentic - People who work for the company can be a literal voice of the company and convey their thoughts and opinions in a legitimate and naturalistic way.
Economical- Live broadcasting removes the need to do and pre-production. Live video is shared from the personal platform so is a cheap way to self promote.
Compelling- Perhaps the most important feature of live videos is that they are maintaining viewer’s attention, on average, 3x longer that pre-recorded videos. Potentially due to a novelty element of live videos, however in a world where people’s time span doesn’t last long enough to brush your teeth it’s crucial for brands to capitalise on this prolonged attention.
Download London Filmed's PDF guide on how businesses can use live video to their advantage.
Videography Trend 5: Virtual Reality & 360 Video
VR and 360 are the future of video. Immersive video experiences will change the way we work, learn and play. Whilst the technology is not 100% there yet, experts predict that VR will gain mainstream adoption within the next 5 years. That being said, what can be done with this technology today is already impressive. VR and 360 give viewers the ability to interact with and control their visual experience.
Allowing users control of the experience can build a sense of trust, since they can examine the finer details. Other innovative benefits include, creating stronger emotional reactions from viewers. Facebook found that 48% of people who watch charity content in VR are likely to donate. This is due to VR’s ability to transport users and place them in someone else’s shoes, creating stronger empathy.
Econsultancy highlight 6 brands using VR technology.