Latest / The Starfish Storytellers / Season 3, Episode 6: Immerse Your Audience with Video Storytelling w/ Mike Connell

Transcript

Season 3, Episode 6: Immerse Your Audience with Video Storytelling w/ Mike Connell · The Starfish Storytellers

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Starfish Storytellers, the podcast that makes a difference one story
• 0:04
  at a time by bringing storytelling to life.
• 0:26
  You know I have always been fascinated with moving pictures from when I was a kid.
• 0:32
  I loved watching TV, I loved going to movies and you know I just loved that idea of telling
• 0:39
  stories with video or film.
• 0:42
  Back then you know my dad had a Kodak 8mm camera and it had this obnoxious set of spotlights
• 0:54
  that you'd use when you were in the house.
• 0:56
  They had like blinds you know they were so powerful you know but you had to have the
• 1:01
  light to get the pictures you know that's what you learn and that's still the truth
• 1:04
  today you need lighting to get a good picture.
• 1:08
  But I used to take my dad's camera when he was at home and I'd film just crazy stuff
• 1:14
  around the house, the TV, the floor, the furniture.
• 1:17
  When it came time for home movies on a certain day he'd go and find his film all used up
• 1:23
  so he wouldn't be happy with me.
• 1:26
  So on my 10th birthday we decided that the money that I got from you know family for
• 1:32
  my birthday we'd buy a movie camera so I bought myself a super 8 movie camera at Sears
• 1:37
  and Roebuck in Quincy Square back when I was 10 years old.
• 1:43
  So I loved it.
• 1:44
  I immediately started using it to take films with my friends and brothers out in the backyard.
• 1:51
  We'd do disappearing acts, we'd do jumping up on the top of the garage you know from
• 1:57
  one place to another.
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  It was a lot of fun.
• 2:00
  My mom used to say they were the funniest films she watched but that's what moms will
• 2:04
  say you know.
• 2:06
  But as I went along I discovered that sports was a great thing to film so I would bring
• 2:11
  the camera to Celtics Games.
• 2:15
  My oldest brother Tim got restless so he used to drive us into the games and we'd go into
• 2:21
  Celtics Games and I'd film and I have a lot of great old footage at least I thought it
• 2:26
  was great at the time when I see it today.
• 2:30
  You have this tendency to just shoot a couple seconds and a couple seconds when you know
• 2:35
  you need a little bit more to capture it right.
• 2:40
  So I still have a lot of those today.
• 2:41
  I digitize them and you know I take some of my old movies and put them up on my YouTube
• 2:47
  channel just to have a place to store them in the digital world.
• 2:54
  But that had set me off to what I knew I wanted to do.
• 2:57
  I wanted to be a filmmaker and a storyteller with film.
• 3:03
  When I went to school, middle school and high school, they didn't have much as far as media
• 3:09
  or an AV like they do today.
• 3:10
  The kids can learn today.
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  In middle school they had these old black and white cameras with half inch black and
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  white recording tape and I did a couple films when I was in junior high and when I got to
• 3:26
  the professional world I went back there and seen if those tapes were still available
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  but they were long gone.
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  But in high school there was nothing really.
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  So I had to wait until I went to college.
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  I went to Emerson College in Boston to learn film and television production and my hopes
• 3:45
  were I was going to be Steven Spielberg's follow up.
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  I was going to be just like him because I loved his movies.
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  But reality set in after graduation I had to get a job.
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  There was school loans to pay back.
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  So I took the first job offer I got which was at an insurance company, American Mutual
• 4:09
  Insurance Companies out of Wakefield, Massachusetts.
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  For a whopping $14,000 a year I had my first job and it was exciting.
• 4:20
  I didn't know anything about corporate television.
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  I didn't even know it existed but I got there and they kind of gave me free reign to learn
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  because they didn't really ever have somebody that was trained in it to do it.
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  And so it was a great learning experience.
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  Professional development was something they believed in so they let me take courses and
• 4:44
  read magazines on the trade.
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  So I tried to learn as much as I could and do as much as I could.
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  It was fun.
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  I had my own studio and cameras and things to start.
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  So one thing that I really had to hone was script writing because all these training
• 5:08
  films needed to have scripts written for them.
• 5:13
  So I learned to target the audience, identify them, analyze them and know what would make
• 5:18
  them tick and set objectives for the videos so that they do certain things after watching
• 5:23
  the videos.
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  And they were very pleased with the results people were learning from them and everything
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  was on videotape.
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  So we'd have to send, I forget there was like 25, 27 offices around the country, we'd
• 5:35
  send videotapes out.
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  So we had to develop a distribution network and being the smart guy I was, I said Betamax
• 5:43
  is the way to go.
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  We went to Betamax tape and everyone else in the world went to VHS but we went to Betamax
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  tape and it worked.
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  We'd send out the tapes every month.
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  We'd send out videos to the field and then we'd gather feedback as to what was working
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  and what wasn't.
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  So it was a teaching tool that I learned to use and tell stories and tried to be creative
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  with not just making blah, bland corporate videos, trying to make stuff more fun.
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  We'd do role plays, hire actors and that kind of thing.
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  So it was fun.
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  And the best part of that world was traveling.
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  I was a young guy and I got to travel all around the country and a bunch of countries
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  around the world and when you travel out of the country you got to know the laws, especially
• 6:37
  custom laws.
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  I learned about what you could do to bring equipment in but we were in Spain, we did
• 6:45
  a day trip to Morocco.
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  And Morocco, they never responded to my request for what kind of documentation they wanted.
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  So we just took the chance and went over on the hydrofoil boat.
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  I had never been on a hydrofoil boat and I was all set to shoot out the window and the
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  rocket Gibraltar we'd see in the distance and I'd get film of that but those boats go
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  fast.
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  And a minute in I turned blue, I turned green, I turned all kinds of colors and I just kind
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  of staggered back to my seat.
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  Never got the rocket Gibraltar but when we got to Morocco they told me get off first
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  with your equipment and then we'll get everybody else out.
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  Well I got off the boat and two gentlemen in uniforms grabbed me before anyone even
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  knew what hit and I was gone and I was in a building by myself and I had this guy with
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  one eyebrow black, one eyebrow white, he's yelling at me in Arabic and all I could see
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  was midnight train in my head of I'm going to be in Moroccan prison the rest of my life.
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  And I didn't know what to do but a few minutes later the Spanish tour guide that was with
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  us came in and they chatted and then they were all laughing and they told me I couldn't
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  bring the equipment in.
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  I was free to go but they were going to confiscate the video equipment for the day and they let
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  me use my still camera and I could take pictures so at least we got something.
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  I learned that you really do have to have the right documentation when you travel.
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  So you know when I started my company in 1988 KC Visuals Unlimited and that's what I've
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  been doing ever since.
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  I've been telling stories with video for companies you know helping them but the messaging is
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  key the story you tell.
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  You want it to attract that audience that you need to speak to and help them solve a
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  problem and then call them to action say hey you want more you want me to help you click
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  that button below you know.
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  So that's really by story you know is using video to help tell a story help call to action
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  the people that you're talking to.
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  Hello my name is Leanna Henry and welcome to the Starfish Storytellers.
• 9:34
  I'm the CEO of the Black Dog Group a Marcom and project management firm headquartered
• 9:39
  on the east coast of the US in quaint colonial Bedford, Massachusetts.
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  I'm your host and passionate about storytelling.
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  I'm actually on a mission to raise up the next generation of storytellers.
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  We've named ourselves the Starfish Storytellers after the Starfish Story.
• 9:54
  The moral of the Starfish Story is based on the power of one.
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  No matter how big the challenge each action we take makes a difference and has an impact
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  one step one starfish or one story at a time.
• 10:06
  Every episode we welcome a new storyteller who will share their story meant to inspire
• 10:10
  and connect with you.
• 10:12
  Then we'll break it down and offer tips for any listeners who are ready to tell their
• 10:15
  own stories.
• 10:17
  So thanks for tuning in now let's get started.
• 10:20
  Today's episode is about video storytelling immersing your audience into your content
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  visually and with me is Mike Kanell.
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  Mike is the president and owner of Casey visuals unlimited a video production and video marketing
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  company that's been telling stories through video since 1988.
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  He shot videos for such organizations as Tufts School of dental medicine, World Unity Incorporated,
• 10:45
  Lincoln Technical Institute and Pega Healthcare among others.
• 10:49
  He's worked for such companies as WHDH TV and Avid Technology in various broadcast roles.
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  Lucky for our listeners he's also the author of the book on powerful video marketing crushing
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  it with promos that convert which we'll dig into today.
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  So I'm super excited that you've joined us thank you for being here.
• 11:09
  Oh I'm excited to be here Leigh Ann or I really appreciate the opportunity.
• 11:14
  So you know in your story you told a lot about who you are was there anything else you wanted
• 11:21
  to add about yourself as an introduction to our listeners?
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  Well I think I'm a pretty easy going person and I like to make it easy for people to work
• 11:33
  with me you know it's it's hard to tell what makes a person move and tick and do what you
• 11:40
  need them to do for a video so you just got to kind of let them show you who they are
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  and then as you you know you get an idea you see what works better with you know recording
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  video because not everyone is comfortable in front of a camera in fact the majority of
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  people aren't.
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  Well I appreciate you sharing your story with us I thought the the story about Morocco was
• 12:05
  really interesting that it doesn't even occur to me that you know you really do have to
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  check with customs before you show up with equipment you know I do a lot of event management
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  marketing management and sometimes we have to rent equipment and I had an experience
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  where in one city I could just rent the equipment it was no problem I just went I picked up the
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  cameras you know we set it up it's fine the AV people were fine now I have an event coming
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  up where in a different city and I've had conversations with equipment places and now
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  there's all this talk about we want to own the AV we want to own the AV at the event
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  and I'm trying to like juggle like okay but we need the equipment so you know how are
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  we going to negotiate this so it's like it's just very interesting about you really have
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  to think about how am I going to get the equipment where I need it to be.
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  There are companies that just rent equipment yeah like I use rule here in the Boston area
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  and they're awesome whatever you need you rent it from them they have it ready for you
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  it's a great working condition and then you just return it when you're done yeah that's
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  the traditional way anyway so yeah yeah yeah.
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  So you know we're going to talk today about visual storytelling and storytelling through
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  videos so you know telling and listening to stories is part of our human DNA it's how
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  we you know connect with each other it's how we connect it's how we come together it's
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  how we relate and so we bring bringing storytelling into marketing connects an audience and customers
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  you've talked a lot about that already it's a great way to get their attention I mean
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  we live in an era of screens so having video is key and it's very powerful so videos immerse
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  your audience in your content it makes them feel like they're part of your journey and
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  it's a I'm finding too it's a huge credibility tool as well you know what are your thoughts
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  on that.
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  Well yeah you know people want to know who they potentially might work with and you know
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  if you live in another town and place or another location in the country whatever it might be
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  and all they have is your current spot and it's on email they're not really getting to
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  see you but if they can see you on video you know either through your social media or your
• 14:32
  website or whatever and they can see you personally people can make judgments sometimes not always
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  correct but they can get a feel for you and and see if they like you you know I mean that
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  people want to work with somebody they like and trust that's a special.
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  And that's probably a key to getting to that trust is do I like you are you are you like
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  me or do we share values like I think that you can kind of pick some of that up in video
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  right.
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  You know they can tell if you're sincere and you know of course there's actors that
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  can make you feel sincere but most people are in the business well they're not actors
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  they're themselves for their business purposes so you know you can get a good pretty good
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  feel for somebody and how they come across on video you know it won't be a hundred percent
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  but you know you can get a pretty good feel for people through what you see in their social
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  media and web presence you know so.
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  Yeah yeah for sure for sure.
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  So you've been doing this a while.
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  A few years.
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  32 years of video production expertise and that's amazing.
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  And obviously in your book which we have right here you know you've talked a lot about the
• 15:45
  evolution of the video industry and sort of your experience sort of walking through that.
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  So you talked about how your video world changed over time.
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  So can you tell us I know you've talked a lot about it already but maybe maybe other
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  moments or milestones on your journey as a producer.
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  Can you tell us a little bit more about that.
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  I know I read in your book about when you went from analog to digital you know the pandemic
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  years with all of that user generated content.
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  And you know storytelling has been out there forever but it just feels like corporately
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  it's becoming this even more mainstream discipline.
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  So I was just curious like you know what was what were some of your key moments in milestones.
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  Well you know the the industry really changed in the late 80s early 90s went from the analog
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  to the digital world.
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  When I traveled in the 80s you know with the equipment I would when I would I went to the
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  airport I'd have 20 25 crates of equipment and and peripherals to take over you know
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  to wherever we were going.
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  So the equipment was obnoxious you know it really was.
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  That's why it was so hard to get through customs unnoticed.
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  You know today you could take a pretty decent sized professional camera put it in your luggage
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  and nobody's going to know the difference you know what I mean and you know when you're
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  traveling into other countries if you just have one camera bag they're going to think
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  you're a tourist with their camera equipment in most circumstances you won't have issues
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  but you still want to be sure you have the proper documentation for sure.
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  But the whole analog to digital thing really the major difference was in the editing side
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  of things you had so much more flexibility in the editing side than you did on tape.
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  Making changes on videotape was always cumbersome because it wasn't something you could just
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  snip out a piece of tape and then tape the things together if you needed to remove something
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  you had a blank spot.
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  So you had to make a decision well do I start over and redo it?
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  Do I go to a second generation down a video which would reduce the quality of video and
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  so changes like that were expensive for clients so you would really try to make it known to
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  them ahead of time.
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  Look as we go through the process of making decisions on your final product you really
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  have to be sure you know because we'll show them as we're building it say we're up to
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  this point are we good here?
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  You want changes make it now you know and so but occasionally something would happen
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  and they'd just say we have to remove that well it's a lot more work a lot more time
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  and expense so but in digital was oh no problem slide them over on the timeline and you're
• 18:53
  done and so those kind of things were major difference and also you know just being able
• 19:00
  to you know click on a clip and scrub through it and see where you know things were and
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  making your decisions you know video you had to you know fast forward it was time consuming
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  all I guess it really boiled down to time you know you save a lot more time in the editing
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  process in piecing together your story so but you know equipment wise you know everything
• 19:24
  went from tape to disc you know I'm amazed what you could take a little SD card that's
• 19:30
  a terabyte of video.
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  You look at it and say look at that that's an amazing technological feat that that much
• 19:39
  video could fit on just a little square inch card you know it truly is you know kids today
• 19:45
  you know grow up that's just what it is they don't know any better they don't know any
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  different in the early days of you know Don linear editing the storage was cumbersome
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  you had these big huge enormous drives avid used to sell 9 gigabyte drives that was like
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  whoa 9 gigabyte holy cow you know but they were these enormous blocks and you buy these
• 20:10
  towers you could put four of them in it you have four 9 gigabyte drives and an editing
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  system like that you avid sold this package when they first started out $80,000 for the
• 20:24
  computer and the four drives on the tower you know and the connecting cables and but
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  all that's really changed now you know you can pick up editing for $20 you know you can
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  pick up editing software and it can do a lot of amazing things.
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  So the capabilities that are in the editing system used to be like you'd see effects in
• 20:48
  a movie like Terminator I always remember the Terminator movie they had the effect where
• 20:56
  the robot would melt down all those metal would melt down and you'd say whoa that's
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  amazing well that became a normal effect a year or two later in the editing software
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  you could do that kind of stuff you know so I mean digitally it's just dots and ones
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  and zeros you know that they're piecing together to create an image and that's where AI is today
• 21:18
  you know now you can tell AI what you want it'll create images.
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  Yep yep yeah yeah.
• 21:28
  You know as you know companies are creating their own DIY videos and on their own footage
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  and these videos sometimes are captured with cell phone cameras which are quite advanced
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  today.
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  In your book you have an entire chapter dedicated to tips and tricks for DIY videos and you
• 21:50
  talk about framing and lighting and audio all critical make or break steps because you
• 21:57
  can't edit out a bad recording.
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  When it comes to B2B video storytelling what is the most important thing that should be
• 22:06
  considered first when companies are resorting to DIY?
• 22:11
  Well you know I mean if they've at least got the point down with you know they're using
• 22:16
  the camera properly doing proper lighting and framing and using a microphone and all
• 22:21
  that then you know that's great they have that down you know the book helps you with
• 22:26
  that pretty easy simple adjustments that you can make to make your videos look better but
• 22:32
  really it comes down to the messaging.
• 22:37
  You know people need to be sure that they have that correct targeted message for their
• 22:44
  audience so knowing your audience is the first step.
• 22:48
  You really need to know who you want to talk to you know what is it that you do for them?
• 22:55
  You know what are their problems that you solve and so now you need to develop a story
• 23:02
  that will bring that out.
• 23:04
  You know if you have a medication that helps somebody with back problems or foot problems
• 23:13
  or whatever it might be how great is it to have somebody that you could talk to that
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  you solve that problem for.
• 23:20
  You get a testimonial that this is my problem I had and you helped me solve this and it's
• 23:29
  turned my life around I don't have to live with that pain anymore you know all that kind
• 23:34
  of stuff you know you say wow that's awesome I need that.
• 23:38
  Well bring it in that humanity.
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  You know and you say here the first few seconds of your video are critical to catching your
• 23:45
  audience's attention and the rest of the video needs to be on point to maintain their attention.
• 23:51
  Right that first few seconds is critical why should they you know talk to you so if you
• 23:57
  are just somebody with you know a foot problem you know are you tired of walking around in
• 24:03
  pain with your feet because nobody's been able to help you.
• 24:07
  Are you tired of you know just sitting in agony because when you walk it hurts too much.
• 24:14
  Well guess what there's a way around that there's new procedures that you may not know
• 24:19
  about but we do and we can help you with that you know and so I did that for a foot surgeon
• 24:26
  and we recorded a surgery and you know how simple it was you know it was a day surgery
• 24:31
  you know and so while you're talking about something that visual reinforcement really
• 24:39
  helps tell the story you know so that's where you know when you you can talk to the camera
• 24:45
  all by yourself and it's okay you know people might believe you but if you can back that
• 24:51
  up showing the processes you're talking about it really helps make that story real in their
• 24:57
  mind they see visually what you're talking about.
• 25:01
  So B-roll that's a key is having that footage that reinforces your story and you know it's
• 25:09
  not always easy to come up with visuals for what you're talking about but there are ways
• 25:14
  and there's lots of resources out there that can help you do it.
• 25:18
  Yeah I when we started video production you know I mean I had been a marketer corporate
• 25:25
  marketer for many years and obviously we had a creative agency that handled all of that
• 25:29
  but when we started doing it B-roll is key to being able to make it more interesting
• 25:37
  because you can only have talking head for so long.
• 25:41
  And the other thing we discovered is all of the stock video that you can grab from different
• 25:48
  sites like from Adobe or we like to use story blocks but it just it just it enhances the
• 25:56
  story it gives you something else to see and it and it sort of affirms what it is you're
• 26:02
  saying so it it just backs it up again it's just it's that credibility piece.
• 26:08
  And it's a tool for not just for marketing but for teaching to you know when you see
• 26:13
  how to videos they're showing you how that's awesome you know what I'm not a great guy
• 26:17
  for reading directions on you know piecing together things you know that you buy and
• 26:22
  but if there's a video you can just watch somebody do it oh I could plug that there
• 26:26
  yeah that's you know that's great.
• 26:28
  Yeah tutorials are key.
• 26:29
  Well and you think about it like a lot of even software companies a lot of their customer
• 26:35
  success sort of arm is tied to how to videos all tutorials all instructional videos.
• 26:47
  I started using an AI software their first release they have no videos to tutorials so
• 26:55
  you just got this massive software and you're looking at it like where do I do where do I
• 27:00
  start.
• 27:01
  The version two supposedly coming out this week will have tutorials but having those
• 27:06
  video tutorials is like like almost mandatory really especially now especially today.
• 27:13
  I mean if you don't have tutorials you're you're behind.
• 27:16
  Oh yeah you're just you're not you're not up to speed.
• 27:19
  Right it's mandatory now you've got to have that visual training to go along with your
• 27:25
  products so that people can just see you know a happy customer is one who's not frustrated
• 27:31
  trying to put something together or use something because they don't know how and there's nothing
• 27:35
  there to help them they just got to figure it out well they won't be your happy customer
• 27:39
  long there'll be somebody else's happy customer who does it right.
• 27:43
  Right who could show them how to do it right.
• 27:48
  As a video marketer you talk about the importance of developing a series of videos so you talked
• 27:52
  about it in the book and you have on your own YouTube you have you're very organized
• 27:58
  with all of your projects and and you have some of them look like they have series you
• 28:03
  know as a marketer myself we always push consistent content creation using video and content kits
• 28:11
  filling content repositories and and so we try to remind our prospects and clients that
• 28:18
  marketing and the content creation that's involved is a marathon not a sprint it takes
• 28:25
  time and having having lots of video and having sort of content kits with video lots of video
• 28:33
  in it is is critical across social media because it's where you use your brand to develop relationships
• 28:40
  like we just talked about that credibility so I noticed on your YouTube channel you have
• 28:45
  client videos you have your own marketing series do you think that a video series is
• 28:50
  important or key to developing good B2B storytelling why or why not and what is the value of a
• 28:58
  video series and is that something that when you're working with clients do you tend to
• 29:03
  recommend that for them.
• 29:05
  Yes you know a one-time marketing video might work for a short term but it's going to disappear
• 29:11
  into the abyss as you know the internet goes on you know Facebook and Instagram and everybody
• 29:18
  they want current they want stuff that's new that you know that show interest you know
• 29:26
  with people every day they want new stuff if you have a following you know you could
• 29:31
  have a library available for people to go to you know to look back at what you've done
• 29:37
  and what you know what stories you told but currently you want to you want to just keep
• 29:42
  telling them a story so you have a video you have a follow-up video and a follow-up to
• 29:47
  that so you could stretch a story out you know people like short videos you know if
• 29:53
  you put out a minute video today and you can put out another minute video either tomorrow
• 29:58
  or the next day make it consistent so they know when to expect it but you know you've
• 30:04
  got their attention and they like you they say well that that was a great video I'm
• 30:07
  waiting for tomorrow's I want to know what the next step is what you know what we do
• 30:11
  and so for long-form storytelling in a short way that's you know what you can do you know
• 30:17
  is to keep people with short content that keeps their interest and you know keeps them
• 30:22
  coming back.
• 30:24
  YouTube is a great place to them place your long-form content people say well I'd like
• 30:28
  to know more about that right now well go to YouTube I have a channel here that has
• 30:34
  all the stories you want that you could sit down and watch an hour video and you know
• 30:39
  so long-form content is great for people who are truly interested you know somebody's
• 30:45
  not gonna sit and watch an hour or your first video and say yeah I'm gonna watch you know
• 30:50
  Alana for an hour right now I don't know you but you know they'll lose their attention
• 30:54
  after a little while and you know.
• 30:56
  What types of video would you say lend themselves to an hour like would it be like an instructional
• 31:07
  video?
• 31:08
  Instructional motivational inspirational stories you know think TED Talk like yeah exactly
• 31:15
  something about a topic that they're interested that you are an expert or you know you have
• 31:21
  an expert with you in your discussion those kind of things you know people will tune in
• 31:26
  if that's a topic that they're very interested in and a lot of that you know it's usually
• 31:32
  something in their work field and they're you know are challenging their personal life
• 31:37
  that they're looking for help with.
• 31:39
  Health and wellness is a great field for video you know you can sometimes it drives me nuts
• 31:45
  I'll get these emails from people that says do you know what vegetable you should eat it
• 31:51
  will cause this problem well what is it and then they make you watch an hour video to
• 31:56
  find out what it is and it's like come on just tell me.
• 32:00
  Yeah yeah very salesy.
• 32:04
  I'll look at I'll click on the video and say nah it's not that important.
• 32:09
  Yeah I don't want to know that bad.
• 32:12
  When I when I when I got my master's degree one of the one of the classes I took talked
• 32:18
  about sort of that it's how important it is to get to the point and that we've been reduced
• 32:24
  to the attention span of a goldfish which is about seven seconds.
• 32:29
  And so you talked about it when we just talked about in your book it's like in those first
• 32:33
  few seconds you got to hook them.
• 32:37
  Yeah hook writing is a money making science right now there are copywriters that just
• 32:43
  know that field they can they can help you with that creating the hooks but it really
• 32:49
  just should be something to grab their attention and say what you know.
• 32:54
  Have you ever seen this you know sometimes it shocked them you know oh my god wow you
• 32:59
  know.
• 33:00
  Yeah that's why like you know some of the most popular videos are dog and cat videos
• 33:04
  because they're so cute and funny right off the bat you know you take a look at it oh
• 33:08
  look at that dog's doing that you know I'm gonna watch more.
• 33:11
  Guilty is charged.
• 33:13
  I am I'm guilty.
• 33:14
  Every night I lay down with my Instagram and I watch cat videos.
• 33:18
  I've looked.
• 33:19
  They're funny they're cute.
• 33:21
  They're adorable and you know and it's like why not laugh right before you go to sleep.
• 33:26
  Exactly.
• 33:27
  It's a positive thing.
• 33:29
  So I noticed that you're quite the sports fan which you kind of have to be if you live
• 33:34
  near Boston.
• 33:36
  And on your LinkedIn you list yourself as a Boston Celtics fan you know you got number
• 33:41
  18.
• 33:42
  Woohoo.
• 33:43
  That's right.
• 33:44
  And so on your website you offer sports videography as a service and so I was wondering as it
• 33:51
  relates to storytelling is shooting sports different than some of the other B2B work
• 33:57
  that you're doing and do you get the opportunity when you're capturing video of games or athletes
• 34:03
  because I'm guessing it's probably two different things like games or one thing right probably
• 34:07
  action packed where you might get an opportunity to tell a story of an athlete.
• 34:11
  But do you get an opportunity to tell those stories like do you get to tell stories in
• 34:16
  those types of videos.
• 34:17
  Well most of the video that I do for sports is game coverage.
• 34:21
  Which in a way is a storytelling teaching tool for the coaches.
• 34:25
  They can look at this story is not too good for you Joe you didn't do the right thing
• 34:29
  here you were out of position and you know but they use it for teaching mostly.
• 34:35
  But you could tell a story with highlights you know and little interviews with players
• 34:40
  a lot of you know athletes that are at the elite level need those kind of reels because
• 34:47
  the coaches that they're looking to a type they want to see who the kid is who he is
• 34:51
  you know talk to him listen to him and then see him perform.
• 34:55
  So you blend it with music and visuals you know showing this kids you know a huge career
• 35:01
  at such a such school legendary you know and so you create a story with a highlight video
• 35:07
  for them.
• 35:08
  So that's one aspect that yeah you do you know tell a story.
• 35:13
  I've been for the past out of four or five years shooting the sideline camera for the
• 35:20
  New England free Jacks who are professional rugby team that plays in Quincy so it's very
• 35:25
  handy and convenient for me to go do that.
• 35:28
  But the camera I work is more the storytelling of the event like the cameras that are covering
• 35:35
  the game you know which is the most of what they show on TV but I'll shoot the crowd reaction
• 35:40
  shots the interviews with the players coaches and fans that they bring you know to the sideline
• 35:46
  reporter and then we'll get the player of the game you know how did you do it you know
• 35:51
  at the end of the game.
• 35:52
  So that's the story telling side of that you know and I love you know they change crews
• 36:00
  for the playoffs there's a playoff game two weeks I'm like trying to find the person
• 36:04
  like let me and I love doing this.
• 36:08
  Fun that sounds fun.
• 36:12
  So one thing I found when producing video especially customer testimonials for one of
• 36:17
  my clients is that scripting is pretty important and you mentioned it earlier I've dealt with
• 36:24
  some folks who are naturals in front of the camera they have a few bullets they're able
• 36:28
  to carry that message seamlessly others not so much.
• 36:33
  I had a situation where we were shooting promo videos for an event and our subject was a sales
• 36:37
  manager she was great she was confident in a trade show booth she was confident with
• 36:43
  the pitch in front of one on one but in front of the camera she just kept stumbling a lot
• 36:49
  over the message and I don't think she rehearsed and I don't know what she was using for scripting
• 36:55
  because we had to do multiple takes and then we had to record the video twice and it's
• 37:00
  hard I can appreciate that like we do our own videos for our own marketing purposes
• 37:05
  and I mean I've got so much outtake of like I messed it up.
• 37:11
  What advice do you have when it comes to scripting and I think I saw on your website that that
• 37:17
  is a service that you offer.
• 37:20
  Is that something that your clients have you do for them often?
• 37:25
  Most people want control of their messaging I'll help them you know just as part of the
• 37:29
  process with their scripting I'll take a look at it and offer them suggestions and things
• 37:35
  to do I'll give them a little outline they should work by you know as far as and it really
• 37:40
  does depend on what the purpose of the video is to begin with but you know preparation
• 37:47
  is really the most important part you know that person sounds like they didn't prepare
• 37:53
  you know and it shows when they get in front of the camera.
• 37:58
  There are things you could do for people who are prepared but still awkward in front of
• 38:02
  the camera to try to help them and often that is the interview technique to just have them
• 38:07
  talk to you say don't worry about the camera it's over here just talk to me and we'll get
• 38:12
  through this together you know just make it a conversation and that will help a lot of
• 38:17
  people that some people they're just so nervous it's you know you can't you can't get them
• 38:22
  through it without looking that way but most people though once you get into a discussion
• 38:27
  and they kind of forget about the camera you just you know get them to relax and you'll
• 38:32
  get that message you know it might take some editing to pull it out but if you can get
• 38:36
  them to at least be comfortable you can get there you know so but the real beginning
• 38:42
  key is the preparation have those bullet points if not scripted information that they can
• 38:47
  read off a teleprompter and people who aren't used to a teleprompter might struggle at first
• 38:53
  but if you get them to read it multiple times they'll end up feeling more comfortable as
• 38:57
  you go along so I have a teleprompter that I use that people are very happy when you
• 39:04
  have it for them and you know they get through it a lot quicker than they thought they would
• 39:08
  but you know for the rest you just got to kind of get them relaxed that's the most
• 39:15
  important part yeah because if they're tense and nervous they're thinking more about how
• 39:20
  they look and how they feel and not you know just delivering the message so I would imagine
• 39:25
  I mean it's it's key to getting comfortable with the message and I would and I know for
• 39:29
  me like we we were putting together a explainer about our company for an event that we have
• 39:37
  coming up and a presentation that we're doing and like I I wrote the script I wrote the
• 39:44
  script for me I wrote the script for my partner like we were we were working on it and I needed
• 39:49
  to just read it a number of times and I read it before I went but then when I got there
• 39:55
  I needed to just keep reading it and then I needed to walk around in circles and like
• 39:59
  say it out loud so that I could just get comfortable doing it so practice makes better maybe not
• 40:05
  perfect but practice makes better and you know it's some people it boils down to you
• 40:12
  know they either have an ego or they don't have the time or whatever it might be I it
• 40:18
  was some some years back but I shot a testimonial with an executive at a company in Burlington
• 40:27
  and I was hired by a company from India they will get this guy in Burlington to do a testimonial
• 40:34
  for them you know for their for their company so we went to the office we set up at a conference
• 40:40
  room and this guy you know very busy that came in and I sat down I said do you want
• 40:45
  to practice do you have some bullet points you brought and he's like no I know this stuff
• 40:50
  by heart I don't need to worry about it well once the camera was wrong he couldn't do it
• 40:55
  he just kept freezing up and stuttering and he got so angry flustered he just stormed out
• 41:00
  and left and so there the guy from India sitting there like we didn't get our testimonial
• 41:07
  and you know it was like well that boiled down to this guy didn't prepare he kind of
• 41:13
  blew you off really is what he did to you know and then when it comes down to talking
• 41:19
  to the camera it's a whole different game 100% 100% so in your book you have an entire
• 41:30
  chapter let me find it you have an entire chapter that guides those who are new to video production
• 41:42
  and you talk about equipment and budgeting and rehearsals which we just talked about
• 41:46
  to Biggie and shooting locations among other things for somebody who's just getting started
• 41:52
  though what would you say is the most important thing that they should do first since video
• 41:59
  production takes a lot of time I'm not sure that folks understand the amount of time it
• 42:04
  takes can you give our listeners a ballpark of how long it can take to create a quality
• 42:10
  video from start to finish well on your own and with no knowledge it's going to be a difficult
• 42:19
  task I would recommend it was really if it's an important video and you don't have that
• 42:25
  knowledge is you know consult get somebody to come in and help you with the process but
• 42:31
  if it's still something your boss says no we don't have the money you got to do it yourself
• 42:34
  and then well there are lots of tutorials online YouTube that you can watch and learn
• 42:42
  but it starts with I call it the four B's that you want to make sure that your video
• 42:47
  includes the four B's which is better pictures plus better sound plus better messaging will
• 42:56
  equal better results so you want to cover those but you want your pictures to look good
• 43:01
  and that includes with lighting and framing and backgrounds and what have you if you could
• 43:08
  conquer that one first great your pictures will look good sound make sure you use the
• 43:12
  microphones you know that'll solve that problem pretty quickly if you have microphones you
• 43:18
  can just clip on or put in front of the person to talk whatever it might be so the sound
• 43:23
  is good it's not a challenge for people to hear what you're saying and then the messaging
• 43:28
  is really important you want to make sure that you've identified your audience you've
• 43:34
  analyzed them who they are you know what they do what makes them tick you know so that you
• 43:38
  can deliver a message that they'll listen to you know and grab their attention you know
• 43:44
  solve a problem or two for them right tell a story that resonates with them right you
• 43:49
  know and then the final key is call them to action tell them to you know contact you click
• 43:56
  that button below for more information or pick up the phone and call me at this number
• 44:00
  or yeah you know I mean the commercial days that was you know one eight hundred they do
• 44:06
  it in the jingle so that you'd remember that phone number and call yeah yeah yeah yeah so
• 44:15
  lots of things for people who are getting started to think about because it does it's
• 44:20
  a ton of work and you know sometimes it just it just comes out better when you get some
• 44:27
  help so okay well that's all the time we have for today and I want to thank you again for
• 44:34
  being our guest and sharing your story with us and I just again I I love talking shop
• 44:42
  especially with somebody who's a pro because I'm also picking your brain while we're sitting
• 44:48
  here sure so so I just thank you again for being here I just want to say thank you I
• 44:54
  just want to say I appreciate this opportunity and you know I love talking about my business
• 45:00
  and your business and the business of marketing you know it's fun and to our listeners whether
• 45:06
  you hear us locally from the BTV studios in Bedford Massachusetts or across the globe
• 45:11
  on such podcast channels as Spotify Apple Podcasts or Amazon Prime thanks for listening
• 45:17
  we hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time happy storytelling