The most significant change that I've seen since starting my video production business in Columbus, Ohio, is the amount of video that's expected by the end of production. Video used to be a one-shot deal, you would do a film shoot, a video was produced and then handed off to the client, and that was it.
Clients want much more for their money, and when you begin a film shoot, you are expected to capture enough footage to create multiple videos throughout the year. A film shoot that lasts a day is jam-packed with filming to record footage you may never use, but you have to think about it for the future. So we've had to adapt our business accordingly.
The acceleration of social media has effected video production companies also. Filming an event, for example, you need to be thinking about the short snackable pieces of content that you might be putting out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
As a side note, when we produce our podcast, In Focus, we are simultaneously pushing that recording session out as a live stream to LinkedIn, which is very new, Facebook, and YouTube. So by that definition, it just shows this sort of desire to be on every platform wherever your audience is.
In the past, I can remember people saying to me, "Create a 15-minute video summary of my event for me"! The first video I ever made was 22-minutes long and had 39 versions, total. Ten years ago, there was no efficient way to deliver versions online, and so every single release was burnt onto a DVD and handed over to the client for review. Anyone who's burnt video to DVD knows that it's probably more like 130 DVDs because they would corrupt halfway through copying.
I think because of the modern way that we deliver video versions through tools like frame.io, it allows us to deliver more content, efficiently. Today, most people want things that are 90-seconds to two and a half minutes in length, and more prevalent is the rise of 30-second video with text on the screen for social media. When I make a video, I'm thinking, "Okay, this is a corporate video, but what else could they use it for?" "They may want to use their video for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, for their website, broadcast TV, there are so many different platforms out there, and you have to accommodate for all of them. If you make a three-minute video for Facebook that might be great, but what do you do for Instagram? If you're going to use the Instagram stories platform, then you've got to rethink the format of the video because it is a vertical, not horizontal platform.
Content has to be reusable in different places, and we, as video creators, have a responsibility to produce videos that transition well across different platforms.
By Michael Lunt | Mike is the owner of Parasol Media, a video production company in Columbus, OH. He has spent over a decade assisting small businesses with realizing their creative vision for video content. From social media videos to broadcast commercials, Mike's industry experience has placed him all over the world to create content that moves.