One of the challenges to making this video was finding a place and time to shoot the video of me talking.
We don't have a dedicated studio and our office is pretty noisy during the day, so I ended up getting to work really early to setup and record before anyone else came in.
I ended up shooting three different mornings to get it right.
First Take...
- I was wearing a shirt that wasn't very flattering to my skin tone
- The dark background didn't give the video the lightness we wanted
- I was rather droll.. no hand/body movements and monotone talking
Second Take
- Better background light
- Better movement and voice work
- Still not quite the attire we were looking for (more biz casual and no hat)
- Not enough headroom.. kind of awkward cropping
Third Time's a Charm
MUCH BETTER!
- Better movements and voice
- Better lighting
- I got a haircut!
- Sharp shirt
This was my first time on camera instead of just being behind it. This was the second challenge. You can see a thread on Wistia's Community where they gave a lot of feedback and helped me improve this video greatly. Getting good, honest feedback from is invaluable!
Storyboard
I storyboarded the whole video before shooting. You can admire my mad drawing skills below.
I don't always stick with a storyboard religiously. Things don't always work out like you image.
Below is a more detailed board for the shots of the actual mobile pos device.
This video has been performing really well. I think it's thanks to a variety of things.
- The video is about something that can really benefit retailers (it's the most powerful mobile pos platform out there today)
- The script focuses on how this can benefit the customer
- The combination of a friendly, professional face, product shots, and explainer animations
This was a blast to produce and am planning to produce more like it.
If you have any questions about how I made any of this or just want to say hi, contact me here or find me on Twitter or Instagram.