When social media was just rolling out all over the globe, creators were experimenting happily, and there were no set golden rules or trends to abide by.
This isn’t the case anymore as more established brands and creators now have a stronghold over audiences and often set trends for others to follow.
That’s why a little bit of planning can go a long way.
Planning every aspect of a video shoot before uploading it can make sure it gets maximum reach.
So how to plan a video shoot for your social media video to take the quality to the next level? Let us explore.
Brainstorming for innovative ideas
The first step towards a successful social media video is ideation. You need to generate ideas for your video that can enhance your brand image while highlighting your product. Your idea must be based on insight, doing so will narrow down the ideas while giving you a clear direction. When you are brainstorming you would want to concentrate on the idea and not the final output. Visualizing the final output while brainstorming can hamper the process.
It’s easier than it sounds, once you get in the habit of coming up with ideas you will constantly want to improve your social media presence so keep brainstorming.
Tell a story
Taking the idea directly to the shoot is probably the most terrible ‘idea’. You must give your idea of the structure of a story. You need to write your story down in form of a script. You need to visualize and write down everything from a J-cut to a B-roll. It is a different experience when you write for social media videos since there are multiple formats and versions of the same video with several aspect ratios and duration. Storytelling for your brand using vertical video differs from the traditional video formats.
Be sure to check the maximum duration along with specifications allowed by a video format on social media to save you from taking unnecessary shots. It not only saves you from the effort of editing the extra footage but saves a lot of production money. The script tells the story from start to end and this forms the guiding path to creating a social media video.
Practice your camera settings
It’s important to check your camera settings before venturing out to save yourself from extreme uncertainties. Checking that the camera settings are working properly is a must before your social media video shoot. Here are a few camera settings you can check before heading over to the shoot-
Aperture- Testing out the aperture will ensure that the opening of the camera lens is working fine. Aperture is the opening through which light passes on to the camera’s sensor similar to the pupil of the human eye. Every camera lens has a different aperture value depending on the f/number. You will also have checked the lens and camera just by testing the aperture.
FPS- The FPS or frames per second setting of your camera will test out the shutter. FPS determines the rate at which you shoot your videos. It might be a good idea to test out the FPS of the video that you’re about to shoot to check and to be sure whether you want to go with the said treatment or not. The most common FPS on social media is 30 FPS.
Create a film shot list
A film shot list is a detailed shot of everything that the camera is going to capture. A professional film shot list would usually be detailed and precise while containing the type of shot and shot size. It forms the blueprint of a video and is an extremely important tool to have a disciplined day while shooting.
When you create a film shot list for your social media video it need not have minute details like that of a feature film. In case you do plan on going all in, it can contain camera movements, audio, action, shot type, and the equipment required in that particular shot.
Check your camera bag
There is a list of equipment that would be necessary for you to plan a video shoot. This equipment will make sure that your final output is of professional grade.
LED lights- Your social media videos need to look vibrant and the subject in your video must be well lit. Without lights, your social media video would appear dull. You need to make sure you always carry LED lights to your social media video shoot. You need not purchase huge LED lights, mini LED and ring light would be an affordable option for smaller businesses and brands.
To be well equipped for your social media video shoot you can also carry reflectors and diffusers. As the name suggests, reflectors are used to reflect the light from the source whereas diffusers have a translucent surface to soften harsh lights. You can learn a few simple video lighting techniques and implement them easily on your social media video.
Audio Equipment- When we are planning for a social media video we often neglect one of the most important parts and that is clear audio. Our job is to create an audio-visual experience for the audience while marketing ourselves in the best way possible. A crisp and clear audio will earn you brownie points in form of added engagement. There is a couple of equipment that you need to record a high-quality sound output.
Microphones will help you achieve professional-quality sound but which one is best suited for your video type? If you’re planning to make a presence on YouTube you will need the best mics for YouTube. If you want your microphone to be hidden in the video to make it appear more spontaneous and less technical approach you can blindly go for a wireless lavalier microphone. Lapel microphones are extremely useful in the case of fiction videos, interview videos, and videos where the person is directly addressing the audience. If you choose to go for a podcast treatment you can go for a condenser microphone.
Tripod- A tripod makes sure that your video is stable and fixed at a point. If you’ve been creating videos regularly you probably have one of these. However, there are different types of tripod-based on your requirement some are heavier whereas some are ultra-portable. The tripod also allows you to shoot from multiple eye levels, you need to adjust the tripod according to the height of the speaker.
Gimbal- If you’re planning for an adventurous shoot for your social media video then you must be aware of shaky camera movements that come along with it. To avoid such shaky movements and to get smooth footage while having the ability to move around you must use a gimbal. Apart from having a lot of fancy features, primarily a gimbal compensates for sudden movements made by the cameraperson.
Takeaway
Now that you’re fully equipped with the knowledge to make sure to plan your social media video shoots accordingly. Once you implement the plan you will notice a change in quality in your video output.
