Video content is more powerful than ever before as part of a PR strategy, but in order to produce something that will engage audiences and encourage them to share, it’s important to be across video production trends.
At Shout! we’ve looked at recent online video production, corporate video production and other video production services in order to compile the following list of 5 things that we think will continue to be popular in 2014.
1) Case study videos
Case studies were seen as a bit naff for a while: Cheesy talking heads and overly long explanations of why a particular organisation or brand was the best in their industry seemed a bit retro, and not in a good way. But recently there’s been a big boost in appetite for case study videos that look slick and use contemporary filming techniques. Handheld cameras, slider shots and complex graphics have all been used really successfully in case studies that we’ve made lately.
2) Timelapse
I’m a total sucker for a timelapse, I think they look cool and classy and are a great way of telling a story using pictures alone. And it seems I’m not the only one… Recently our video production clients have been making more timelapse enquiries than any others. And if that’s not enough, we’ve also noticed that there’s an even fresher trend emerging for hyperlapse now – where the timelapse camera moves slightly during the filming to give a whole new lapse effect.
Take a look at an example of a timelapse video we did for one of our clients, Skoda, below.
3) B-roll
We’ve been banging on about B-roll for years now, but as newsrooms face cuts and local TV launches around the country, we would say that B-roll is more likely to be used now than it ever has been before, and if recent enquiries are anything to go by our clients feel the same. If you follow Shout!’s golden rules of B-roll, you can’t go wrong.
4) Stop motion
We can thank Vine for this trend as stop motion has seen a huge resurgence since the mobile video production app gained popularity. Whether you use it in all or part of your video stop motion is a great way to get creative. But be warned – it does take time, so if you want to feature it in your next corporate video, bear in mind that it will bump up the filming costs.
5) Less is more
It doesn’t matter whether you’re making a viral, a vodcast, a case study or even a B-roll: shorter is definitely better. As our appetite for video consumption increases, our attention span decreases, so the only way to really guarantee that viewers stick around till the end of your video is to make it as brief as possible. If you’re briefing a video production company, ask them how you can go about conveying all your key messages while keeping the length of the video to a minimum, and look for creative ways of telling your story and keeping viewers hooked.
Want to learn more about the power of video? Sign up to our free video workshop on 27 March that analyses key trends and stats and how to optimise video for your next campaign.
