Turning A Good Video Into A Great One

How to Make Your Video Professional Enough to Sell

Main Points (is saying TL;DR too millenial?)

Creating a great video can be done in six easy steps, all of which will help transform videos from good to great, ensuring they resonate and stand out in competitive markets.

Start with a Strong Concept - It needs to be a story worth telling.
video storytelling
Practice Practice Practice - Most of what you learn, you'll learn by doing.
storytelling through video
Learn Lighting - The one most important difference you'll make.
video story telling
Get Decent Equipment - Not necessarily best, but better than worst.
visual storytelling
Good Sound or No Sound - It's not a deal breaker...until it is.
visual storytelling
Edit to Elevate - Editing is its own art form, but there are basics you can learn today. production work

Six steps to making a great video

Creating a standout video isn't just about pointing a camera and recording; it's about crafting an experience that resonates with your audience on a deeper level. This involves careful planning, attention to detail, and a thorough understanding of your audience's needs and preferences. Yes, in a world that has TikTok, you can get away with pointing your camera at something, filming it raw, and uploading it as-is. However, in the world of professional video production, the ability to elevate your video from good to great is essential for standing out among the competition.

Top Dallas production companies understand this and employ a variety of techniques and strategies to ensure their videos not only capture attention but also leave a lasting impression. Here’s how to make your videos shine, using insights that many of the leading video production companies in Dallas follow to create compelling, high-quality content that engages and inspires viewers.

Start with a Strong Concept

Every great video starts with a compelling concept. It’s not enough to just have an idea; it needs to be a story worth telling. Whether you’re a production company in Dallas or a solo freelance videographer, the foundation of your video should be built on a clear, engaging narrative.

What message are you trying to convey?

The message of your video is the cornerstone of your entire project. It defines what you want your audience to take away after watching. This message should be clear and concise, serving as the guiding star for all creative decisions. Whether you're working on a promotional piece for a Dallas production company or a heartfelt narrative as a freelance videographer, the clarity of your message will significantly impact how effectively your video communicates. Spend time refining this core idea, ensuring it aligns with your overall goals and resonates with your target audience. This focus will help maintain consistency and coherence throughout the video, making your story more compelling and easier to understand.

Who is your target audience?

Understanding your target audience is crucial for crafting a video that truly resonates. Different demographics have varying preferences, interests, and viewing habits. For example, a corporate video for a production house in Dallas will differ significantly from a vibrant, fast-paced piece aimed at a younger audience on social media. Conduct thorough research to identify your audience's characteristics, such as age, gender, location, and interests. This knowledge allows you to tailor your content, style, and delivery to meet their expectations and engage them effectively. By speaking directly to your target audience, you increase the likelihood of your message being received and appreciated, enhancing the overall impact of your video.

What emotion do you want to evoke?

Emotions play a pivotal role in how viewers connect with a video. Deciding what emotions you want to evoke will influence various elements of your production, from scriptwriting and acting to music and lighting. If you're aiming to create a sense of excitement and urgency, your approach will be vastly different than if you want to inspire empathy or nostalgia. For a production company in Dallas, this might mean using vibrant visuals and upbeat music to convey energy, or soft lighting and heartfelt dialogue to evoke tenderness. Carefully crafting your video's emotional tone ensures that your audience not only understands your message but also feels a strong connection to it. This emotional engagement is what transforms a good video into a great one, leaving a lasting impression on viewers.

In a bustling market like Dallas video production, your concept can set you apart. Take the time to brainstorm and flesh out your ideas. Write a detailed script or storyboard to ensure your story flows logically. This preparation is crucial, as a well-thought-out concept is the backbone of any successful video.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Experience is the best teacher. The more you shoot, edit, and produce, the better you’ll get. This is a mantra followed by the best videographers in Dallas. Each project is an opportunity to refine your skills and discover new techniques.

Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Try different camera angles, lighting setups, and editing styles. Watch tutorials, attend workshops, and seek feedback from peers and clients. Dallas production companies often host events and workshops, providing a great opportunity to learn and network.

Remember, every video you make is a step towards mastering your craft.

Learn Lighting

Lighting can make or break your video. Proper lighting sets the mood, highlights your subject, and adds a professional touch. In video production, especially in a production house in Dallas, mastering lighting is essential.

Start with the basics of three-point lighting. We're bound to make a post specifically unpacking this more, but the basics are:

KEY LIGHT - your main source of illumination. A rule of thumb is that the camera, the subject, and the key light should make an equilateral triangle. For interviews and action footage, this should be bright, soft, and warm by default. Of course, visual stylizations take precedent.
FILL LIGHT - softens shadows and well, fills in the darker shadows cast by the key light. The key light will divide your subject into a light side and a dark side. The fill light shines softly and dimly onto the dark side to illuminate its contours and keep it from falling off into total blackness.

BACKLIGHT - adds depth by separating the subject from the background. You'll put this behind your subject such that it creates a kind of halo or sharp light around their silhouette. This further sculpts their form and really creates a sense of foreground/background.

They call it "three-point lighting" because the lights make a triangle around the subject. Natural light can make a powerful key light, especially for social media video creation. Golden hour (shortly after sunrise or before sunset) provides beautiful, soft lighting that can enhance your video’s aesthetic.

Get Decent Equipment

While you don’t need the most expensive gear, having decent equipment is crucial. Investing in a good quality camera, tripod, and microphone can significantly improve your production quality. Many videographers in Dallas, TX, started with basic gear and gradually upgraded as they honed their skills.

A good camera doesn’t have to break the bank. Even modern smartphones can capture high-quality footage. However, if you’re serious about video production in Dallas, consider investing in a DSLR or mirrorless camera. A sturdy tripod ensures stable shots, and a quality microphone will vastly improve your audio, which is often more important than the visuals.

As it turns out, the best way to find the right equipment these days is to explain to ChatGPT what kind of video you're looking to create, tell it what your budget is, and have it find you the best equipment available to help you accomplish your goal with the budget you've got. Make sure to have it scrape the internet for user reviews for each product you're considering buying, to make sure you get the most bang for your buck.

Good Sound or No Sound

One of the things they teach you in your first year of film school is that people will walk out of a theater for bad sound long before they walk out for bad picture. Sound quality is vital. Poor audio can turn viewers away, no matter how stunning your visuals are. All the best Dallas video production companies know that investing in a good microphone and learning the basics of sound recording can make a huge difference.

Position your microphone close to the subject to capture clear audio and minimize background noise. The best audio quality you're going to get from an interview is by using a lavalier mic (the kind that clips onto people). There are a few pros and cons:

Con: you have to keep it hidden

Get ready to be up close and personal with the subject, as using a lav usually means clipping or taping it to their clothes as close to their mouth as possible while remaining hidden. The number of times I've asked people to thread wires through their shirts is unreal. If you (or your subjects) had a strong sense of personal space, equipping a lavalier could throw off the vibe of the whole set.

Con: you have to keep it untouched

In addition to the hassle of hiding it, you have to make sure nothing bumps or scrapes against it. The smallest movement on the part of the subject can cause the loudest interference in the audio, rendering it unusable.

Pro: it's the best audio

At the end of the day, if you and the subject don't mind being all up in each other's business, and the subject doesn't move too much, it's the clearest, most hassle free audio that will require the least roomtone cancellation in post.

The second best sound you're going to get is using a boom mic (the "boom" is actually the arm, or pole, used to position the mic in front of the subject). It's still going to sound great if you can do it right, but it has its own pros and cons:

Pro: the mic is stationary

Usually, people put boom mics on a mic stand with an arm. Its easy enough to set up, and the sound is excellent. It's more poles and equipment to lug around, sure, but it gives the subject freedom to move around without scratching or revealing a tiny mic attached to their person.

Con: the mic is stationary

Just like how movement can be an issue with lav mics, movement can be an issue with boom mics. Namely, that shotgun mic has to be pointed directly at their mouth for best sound. And because of the nature of the mic's anatomy, any deviation from that axis will lower the volume of whatever it picks up. Think of the pickup range like a narrow flashlight, where the brighter the beam, the better the sound. Most editing software can normalize the audio pretty easily, but it's still an added step, so it's an added consideration.

Pro / Con: you can get a boom operator

A solve to that issue is to hire a boom operator. They can adjust the mic to make sure it's always aimed where it needs to be. In addition to paying an extra crew member, you'll want to get them their own monitor so they can make sure they never get the mic in the shot. Additionally, since they'll be holding the mic, you have to take human fatigue into consideration when doing longer shoots.

Once you've made sure you have quality audio, consider adding background music or sound effects to enhance your video. This can be used to strategically cover sound issues you can't otherwise fix, while simultaneously adding dynamism and movement to the video (more on that later). Be mindful of copyright issues, though! There are many royalty-free music resources available that can add a professional touch.

If capturing good sound isn’t possible, consider using captions or visual cues to convey your message. This can be particularly effective for social media video creation, where viewers often watch without sound. You may have to restructure the video's vision around the soundlessness, but it's worth it in the long run if creating an alternate, soundless version means saving people from having to listen to bad audio.

Edit to Elevate

They say every movie you watch is the culmination of three separate movies: the one that was written, the one that was filmed, and the one that was edited. Things happen on set that the writers could never have predicted, that can often cause changes in dialogue, or even plot direction. Whether it's unforeseen production hurdles that needed to be overcome, improvisational moments they just couldn't not keep, or realizations that cast members have mid-filming that demand narrative pivots, the fact remains that what is filmed rarely matches what was written. And then even more decisions need to be made in the edit - it's not just choosing between multiple takes; sometimes they completely rearrange the chronology of events, remove whole scenes, or commission last-minute shoots they call "pick-ups" when the editors realize the film needed something no one wrote or shot. This will happen on your film shoots. It just will.

Editing is where your footage comes to life.

It’s an art form that can turn raw clips into a polished, cohesive video. Good editing keeps viewers engaged and elevates the overall quality of your production. The truth is, everything you do before the editing stage is like mining raw ore. Editing is where it's processed into gold.

Just like we already covered in the "Practice Practice Practice" section of this blog post, no amount of classes, tutorials, or "how-to" videos will substitute good ol' practice. If you've never edited before, pick up a free copy of CapCut for desktop. Use it until you find yourself wanting to do things it can't do. Then you'll upgrade to Premiere Pro if you're an Adobe fan Final Cut Pro if you're an Apple fan, or DaVinci Resolve if you like using the best stuff on the market (no you're biased).

Dallas production companies often utilize advanced editing techniques, but even basic skills can make a big difference. Experiment with color correction, transitions, and effects, but don’t overdo it. Aim for a clean, professional look that enhances your story. They say good editing is beautiful, while great editing is invisible. If people are aware of the fact that the work was edited by an editor, the only thing you'll have been successful at is taking the audience's focus off the subject and putting it on you. Editing should be a clear window through which they can see the story you're looking to tell, not a stained glass artwork they have to peer through to see the action.

In Conclusion...

Turning a good video into a great one is about attention to detail and a commitment to continuous improvement. By starting with a strong concept, practicing regularly, mastering lighting, investing in decent equipment, prioritizing sound, and refining your editing skills, you can create videos that stand out in the competitive landscape of Dallas video production. Whether you’re part of a large production house in Dallas or an independent videographer, these tips will help you elevate your craft and produce videos that resonate with your audience.