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The Efficiency of Automated Video Editing through Spiro · The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business

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Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
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Video editing, you know, you're looking at $50 to $100
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an hour paying an editor.
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And, you know, you go out and film a house and it could take you
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20, 20 minutes, 30 minutes to edit it and render it.
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And then upload it.
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And so we thought there had to be a better way
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Welcome to the Spiro podcast.
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Managing your real estate photography and videography business
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with your hosts, Todd Kivimaki
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and Craig Magrum.
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Hi, and welcome to the Spiro podcast,
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Managing your real estate photography and videography Business.
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Spiro is a software platform designed to help you
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not only manage your day to day real estate media business,
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but really to help you scale it and grow it as well.
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I'm Craig Magrum, host of the podcast.
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Thanks for joining us again this week.
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Whether you're watching on YouTube or listening on one of the many
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audio podcast platforms that's out there.
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We love hearing back from you, so thanks for your comments, the likes, the shares.
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We just really, really appreciate that from from each of you
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if you're a first time listener.
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Welcome. Glad to have you.
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This podcast is all about the business of real estate,
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visual marketing, So photos, video tours, drone media, anything having to do
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with serving our realtor clients, with our visual marketing services.
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Talking about the business side of it is what this is all about.
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So welcome to it.
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We hope it's a benefit and a value add to your business.
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All right.
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So normally we would have our co-host and Spiro, owner and founder.
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I will said flounder.
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He's not a fish people.
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But Todd would normally be on the podcast.
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He's on vacation getting some much needed R&R.
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So this week, not a unfamiliar face to the
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the watchers of the podcast or an unfamiliar voice,
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but it's our Director of training and production, Ryan Lieurance.
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Ryan, welcome to the podcast.
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Glad to have you back.
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Yeah, thank you. Craig Excited to be here.
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And yeah, this is I think third or fourth.
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Do I get am I the, the, the most guest or the guest you've had on here.
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- The most? - I think.
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- I think you are actually - I'm, I'm going to ask Todd for a bump of pay then so.
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All right. Right.
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We'll give
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you a, we'll give you a social media badge you can put on your profile.
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And you know, I don't know
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you guys maybe
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give me some street cred with my kids, but now I'm super happy to be here.
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I'm very excited to talk about this topic today.
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It is near and dear to our hearts here at Wow,
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and I think it's going to change the game out there for for some
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people want to get into the video world for their real estate media.
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So I'm excited.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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So normally we would give some updates on what's happening with Spiro,
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you know, updates to come what just launched.
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Todd normally handles that.
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So we're going to we're going to gloss over that this week.
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But the topic that Ryan is talking about, you've heard Todd
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and I discussed this in the past, and that's the topic of the merge fleet.
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So some of you might be hearing this for the first time
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and say, well, what in the world is the merge fleet?
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Well, it's a video editing service,
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an automated logic based video editor
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that can take in your video
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clips of of a house or a listing that you shoot
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and do a beautiful beautiful job on editing that video
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in the matter of what Ryan, 15 20 minutes, something like that.
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Yep, right around there. 15, 20 minutes.
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It's amazing.
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So we want to dive a little bit more into it.
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Okay. What is the merge fleet? How does it work?
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You know, what's the ins and outs, What are the benefits of it?
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Maybe what are some of the things that you might have to get used to with it?
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And Ryan is going to walk us all through that.
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So it's it's kind of a well, I don't think I've ever heard of anything like this
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anywhere else in terms of video editing, but the reason we're talking about it.
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Yes, obviously, it's it's, you know, advertising what the service is,
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but the impact that it can have on your business in terms of efficiency
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and service
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that you can provide to your your clients, your realtor clients is huge.
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So we wanted to talk a little bit more in depth about it
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and how it could potentially benefit your business.
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So, Ryan, let's let's go ahead.
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We gave a broad overview of, okay, what is the merged fleet, but
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can you kind of explain a little bit more in depth
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just a technical explanation of what is the Spiro Merge fleet?
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Absolutely.
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But first, I want to touch on the why.
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So why did why did we even create this?
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Because when we tell our contractors that we hire here at Wow,
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that a human doesn't touch their videos or like
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they're kind of blown away
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and it's the well, they can't be that good then, right?
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Like what?
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Software edits videos automatically.
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But so the why behind it was
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I mean we were shooting over 12,000 tours here at Wow a year.
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And not all of those are videos but a lot of them were.
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And it was a big cost and it was a big time
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crunch where we couldn't necessarily always guarantee a video.
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Next day we are video turnaround times were two, three days sometimes
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and you know, video editors are not cheap.
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You know, you can get
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you can get pretty decent photo editing for pretty, pretty cheap.
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But video editing, you know, you're looking at $50 to $100
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an hour paying an editor.
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And, you know, you go out and film a house and it could take you
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20, 20 minutes, 30 minutes to edit it and render it.
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And then upload it.
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And so we thought there had to be a better way
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because a lot of our overhead was going in to editing here at Wow.
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And so what we did is we put our brains together
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and really thought about, well, what, what shots are we using in a house
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and is there some way we can, you know, we can write a, a script
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that's just going to edit these and and splice them together.
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And we did.
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We came up with some logic for it, and we have some very creative shots
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we'll get into.
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You know, it's not cookie cutter.
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Not every video looks the same.
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It's it's it's very unique and it still get
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when I first showed my wife, she was like, there's no way that a system
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or a computer
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edited this like this is this is too good like someone had to have done it.
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And so so what the the merge fleet is, is it's it's an automated system where
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and now you have to follow some some rules but once you know the general
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you know overview of of of kind of what shot does what and how it's edited
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the sky's the limit so it'll take your clips and depending on
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how you know our specific formula how you shoot these different clips
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it'll it'll put them together,
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it'll put a title on the front, it'll put music to it.
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And I believe we could even put branding on it and, and then it will spit
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out a great just a very, very cool, cinematic walk through video of the house.
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So in a nutshell, that's what it is.
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You, I mean, you input the clips and you get an awesome video on the back end.
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so increasing your efficiency incredibly because now you don't
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have to wait 2 to 3 days to get a an edited video back to your client.
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But also yeah, cutting down on the cost the overhead of of that expensive
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editing that you'd normally would have to pay for.
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That's incredible.
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That's incredible. It is. It really is.
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So. Okay, so let's go ahead and dive into
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to some of the nuts and bolts of this then, because we've
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we've kind of shared this explanation somewhat in in past episodes.
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But people might be wondering how does automatic video editing even work?
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So, you know, you talked about you
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you input the clips and you get a finished video back.
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So let's start at the very basic Ryan, what kind of equipment
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is needed to to film
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walk through video tours for the system to edit.
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- Is there anything special? - And that's the great thing is
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is anything that will record video will work.
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Okay.
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And at Wow we started on our, our mirrorless cameras,
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we a lot of our our contractors use the Sony Alpha series.
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It could be that a63 64 or the A7 series but really any mirrorless or
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DSLR camera anything that'll record video, but that's how we started.
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We started with kind of a bigger camera on a bigger gimbal.
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Well, this year our initiative was is to get each one of our Wow contractors
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filming on iPhones, create your you're one of them.
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You're out there filming on the iPhone and it has been a world of difference.
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But again, the beautiful thing is is you can use a DSLR camera, you can use
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mirrorless, you can use an iPhone, anything that records video
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and, you know, just depends on what your what you're doing with your business.
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You know, we again we made the switch to iPhone and we recommend that
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it's lighter equipment.
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You know we put our iPhone on on top of the DJI
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Osmo six Gimbal and it gives us great, great quality. So
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that's really it.
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The equipment is pretty minimal.
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But and we do have we're going to share this on in
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the description is a link to the the iPhone settings that we recommend
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because that is one of the pitfalls is there's there's lots of different
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iPhone models out there and the settings are all different.
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I have an iPhone 14, Craig, you have an iPhone 15.
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And even our settings weren't the same on each of each camera.
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So you do have to contend with that.
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But once you get the basic settings on the native camera set
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and then we use an app that works with the DJI.
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Osmo six, it's called the MIMO app we write.
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That's how you have to buy, how it connects to the gimbal, to the camera
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on the phone, and you can automatically record and whatnot.
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But so you have to download this app, but the equipment is minimal
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and there are some settings you do have to set.
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We do have to set it to 60 frames per second,
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whether you're shooting on 1080p or 2k or whatever it has to be 60
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because and we'll talk about this
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a little more detail, but there will the clips will be slowed down.
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So you don't want that jittery motion.
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You know, if you slow down 30 frames per second and you render it
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out, you know, at 30, it's not going to look good.
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So so yeah, there there are some specific settings we have to set now.
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We put it, we'll put a link to that to help you guys out.
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But you know, the equipment is minimal, which is great.
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That that's key to again, keeping costs down is really what it's all about.
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I'm glad you specified the 60 frames a second because that was going
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to be one of my questions for you was, okay, so what settings in the camera,
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you know, everybody asks about, you know, format, is it,
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you know, H264, H265, Apple PRORES So things like that.
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Does any of that matter besides the frame rate or aperture or anything like that?
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Yeah, frame rate is big.
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And then beyond that,
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you know, like, like we said, there's a lot of models out there of iPhones.
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And one more thing I do want to know.
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It's best that you use a pro camera model iPhone
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that will give you the wide angle, you know, with the three lenses, that's
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really going to give you the options, you know, so you're not so zoomed in
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or, you know, you just have that wide angle
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where you can zoom in to do a segue or a zoom shot.
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So that's what we recommend for our our contractors here.
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Wow. Is the pro series.
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I think they started that iPhone 12.
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I believe is the lowest model of iPhone.
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Obviously, the newer you know, the newer, the better.
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You know, the technology just gets better.
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I mean, you love you love your iPhone 15 Craig. - I do.
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I do.
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I love it, especially on on,
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you know, nice sunny days or blue sky days.
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The the intensity, the blue, it's it's not so much
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that it's fake, but man, is it just a gorgeous blue.
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I love shooting on those days.
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Shooting video on those days.
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Yeah.
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And the biggest difference for us switching from the Sony mirrorless cameras
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to the iPhones is is I mean, the color just pops just just that much more
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The contrast is much better and you're going to get a complaint.
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We've gotten tons of complaints.
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Shooting on our mirrorless
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cameras of the realtors is I can't see through the windows right.
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And that is a difference.
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Now, you're not going to see through every window.
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You know, lighting situations are vastly different in every room.
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But for the most part, we can see through a lot of our windows on the iPhone.
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And that's a game changer.
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So yeah, we'll
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put a link to those those various settings for you in the description.
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But let's let's go ahead and dive in then to.
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Okay.
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So I'm inputting shots into this merge fleet system.
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Can I just put any type of shot I want in or are there different types of shots
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that that we should be using?
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Look, let's talk through the types of shots that that we use
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for the merge fleet.
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Yeah.
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I mean technically, yes, you can put any type of shot you want through.
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You can do whatever you want that
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the output might not be what you expected though, of what the example was.
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So we do have to follow closely some some guidelines on
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how to get the proper tour at the end.
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And it really boils down to one thing, Craig, and that's shot length.
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Okay. I like this key.
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There's two types of shots and the the,
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the merge fleet will determine the length and it will say it's just logic.
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If it's this long, we'll edit it this way.
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If it's this long, we'll edit it this way.
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And there's two types of shots, and the magic number is 12.
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In our world here in the merge fleet, if you shoot it,
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if you take a clip that's over 12 seconds, it will edit it a certain way.
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And if you do a clip that's under 12 seconds, it will edit it a certain way.
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And we're going to briefly, just briefly talk about those two types of shots.
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But if you want to have a more in-depth kind of training course,
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Spiro offers an online it's free a training course to get you up to speed.
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It's Todd and I talking about this,
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the shots in depth and then going and doing it.
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We do we do a demo and then I do a full live shoot of a house and we taped it.
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So it's great resources.
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We'll put the links in the description
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and below and below you got on the screen. Yep.
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And so we're going to just briefly skim
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over those those those two types of shots here.
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Okay.
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For more in depth, definitely go to the to the training and check it out.
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So, Well, let's let's go ahead and talk about those two shots.
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- If that's alright. - Yeah, absolutely.
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So the first shot we call a walking shot here at Wow.
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You can call it whatever you want.
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That's the one That's more than 12 seconds.
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Okay.
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So in general, what is the merge fleet going to do with the
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the shot that's over 12 seconds.
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It's going to speed ramp it. Okay.
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And that's why we use it with walking shots.
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So we use it to walk from room to room.
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Okay.
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Let's say I'm walking
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from the family room into the kitchen and it has to be over 12 seconds.
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And what it's going to do is it's going to it's
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going to cut off a little bit at the front and back.
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And that's just kind of standard. What the merge fleet does.
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Just so you know,
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when you first start out, you might be a little wobbly
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and when you and you might be a little wobbly.
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So we're going to cut out a little bit at the front back.
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But then in between, we're going to speed ramp.
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Okay. Okay.
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So it'll get you from point A to point B quickly, because we used to have
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these long walking shots in the house and they were just so boring.
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And so everything's quick now, right?
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And so it'll get you from point A to point B with the speed ramp.
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And of course, there's a very specific type
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what you have to frame in order for it to look, look good,
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you know, and we give tips and tricks on all that in the training.
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So again, go check out the training.
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But but 12 or more than 12 seconds is going to give you a speed ramp
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look of a shot.
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And we use it for our walking shots to get from one room to the next.
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Okay, excellent.
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So there's that that buffer of of editing space
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at the beginning of the clip, in the end of the clip.
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And then you've got your then main clip speed ramped.
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But then at the end it slows back down to give you
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that that final frame that people get to look at, correct?
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Yes, and that's why the framing at the end is so important.
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We say for those walking shots or the speed ramp shots, you're
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you're you're good beautiful frame is going to have to be at the end
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because think about it. What's the purpose of the shot?
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We're taking you from one room to the next.
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We're introducing a new room.
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So your beautiful frame has to be, you know, the room
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nice and wide and framed up nice.
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But that's what you kind of want to land on.
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And of course, we're
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going to push into the room for 2 seconds because it's going to cut 2 seconds off.
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So, you know, we want to make sure we see the room
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and then push into it for a little bit longer.
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perfect.
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All right.
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So there's your walking shots, longer than 12 second
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clips that you're inputting into the merge fleet.
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And then that merge fleet, that automatic editing that AI
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do, we call it AI, is it AI or is it just logic based?
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Everything's AI so let’s call it. Right.
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Right. Okay. Sounds good.
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Well will then edit that clip in a certain way based on the length of that shot.
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Okay, perfect. Got that.
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All right,
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so what's the second type of shot that we're inputting into the merge fleet?
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So the second type of shot here at Wow we call signature shots.
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Again, you guys can call them whatever you want.
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We call them signature shots.
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And what this shot does is it's it's a it's not getting it from room to room,
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but it's a reveal of that room or a feature in that room.
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And so what if the walking shot speeds up speed ramps?
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This shot is going to cut it
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and slow it down and it's going to slow it down by 50%.
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And that's why, Craig, it's so important to shoot at 60 frames
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because now you're taking a clip and you're reducing the speed by 50%.
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So so we want it to be nice and smooth, which is why we have to
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shoot in 60 frames.
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But this is less than 12 seconds.
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This is a less than 12 second shot
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at Wow
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we teach to aim around ten just in case we don't want to encroach on that 12
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because if you accidentally try to do a signature shot
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but it's over 12, guess what it's going to do?
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It's going to speed ramp it
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because I mean, the merge fleet it just looks at clip length.
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It doesn't care what your intentions were.
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It looks at clip length so.
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So that's why at Wow we aim for about 10 seconds and so these slow it down.
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So what do these shots look like?
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These shots we've designed to mimic
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apparatuses or you know, on movie
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sets that give you those those cool dreamy cinematic shots.
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So an aparatus, right?
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It's like a slider, you know, a jib shot, a rail shot,
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or push and pull, an arc shot where you arc around something.
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You know, these are these are big devices usually see on
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on movie sets.
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And we're mimicking these with our our small little gimbal,
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you know, $150 DJO Osmo six.
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Right.
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We're mimicking these beautiful shots that you see on movies.
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So we call them our signature shots.
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And like I said, there's a push and pull like a rail shot,
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a slider shot that you reveal,
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a jib shot where you can go up or down an arc shot
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and then we don't use it tons, but it's called a static shot
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where the action happens in the background
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and you just kind of lock off and watch the action happen in the background.
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So those are our five signature shots, ten or less.
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Now, the framing on these, if the framing on the walking shot
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has to be at the very end, the framing is a little different
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and we go in depth again, check out the training,
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but the framing on these shots have to be in the middle of your clip.
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So let's say I wanted to do a slider of my my beautiful face here.
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I would start off of my face, slide into it.
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That's my middle clip and then keep going.
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So signature shots is is your beautiful frame is going to be
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in the middle of that that ten second clip.
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Okay, Ryan.
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So two shots, I mean, yes, you're.
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You're your signature shots.
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Yeah, there's some variation in there, but really just two shots.
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That's all we have to worry about.
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Signature and Walking shots.
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Yeah, almost.
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There's one more shot, but it's it's very easy.
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We call it our title shot. Okay.
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And so what the title shot is and how the merge fleet logic works is it
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says if it's the first clip of the video, it's it's going to cut it this way.
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I'm about to describe
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and it's going to put
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a title and address on there so you can see the title of the or
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the address of the House.
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So what the title shot is, it's very easy.
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That number, that magic number 12 comes out again.
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It's it all it is is a reveal of the front of the house.
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And here's how our our merge fleet is going to cut it.
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It's going to take the first 2 seconds off and to trim that off
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and then it's going to take the next six, 6 seconds at regular speed.
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And during that time is when the merge fleet
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will put our title on the screen, the address title for the House.
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So a lot of times what we teach our contractors at Wow to do
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is just stand nice and wide with the house framed up in the center of the frame
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and just walk towards the house.
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And that way it shows the house, the front exterior,
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and then it puts the title on there and it's always work for us.
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But again, there's some freedom within our system.
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You can do a 12 second arc shot, you can do a 12 second slider shot.
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I've done that.
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I've walked, I've locked my my frame on the front of the house.
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And I walked down the sidewalk
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to show the front of the house and it's going to put a title on there.
21:31
But again, you're trying to achieve that.
21:32
That magic number of 12.
21:35
But just know the title shot will cut 2 seconds off,
21:38
take the next 6 seconds at regular speed, put a title on there.
21:42
So so you can I mean, you can use a drone shot for this.
21:44
You can use a ground shot for this.
21:46
And that's the great thing about our system is it doesn't matter.
21:49
It'll cut it accordingly to our logic.
21:52
So three types of shots, you get your title shot you have.
21:56
What we are referring to is our walking shot
21:58
or the 12 or more that speed ramps it.
22:00
And then we have our signature shots that we refer to as our signature shots.
22:04
But that's really just a less than 12 and it'll slow it down.
22:08
So really, it's kind of a beautiful thing from a.
22:12
We call ourselves vidtographer, cause from a vidtographer standpoint,
22:16
I've got basically like this tool set of lengths of clips and types of shots
22:23
that I can pull from and mix and match to create.
22:27
Like you said at the beginning of the episode, really a different video
22:32
every time.
22:32
It's not cookie cutter because one house is going to have different types of shots,
22:36
you know, whether it's the jib shots or reveals or, you know, pan up or down.
22:41
Every house has its own characteristics and selling features that we're trying
22:45
to capture in this video tour that we're doing. Right.
22:48
So it makes it easier to know.
22:51
Okay, I know I have these lengths of clips.
22:53
I need to shoot and I have these styles of shots to take.
22:57
Now I can mix and match and again, have a beautifully
23:01
edited video that's done in 15 to 20 minutes.
23:06
And it's it's
23:07
creative, but it's creative with rules, which gives you some structure.
23:12
And I love shooting it this way.
23:14
It just it makes it easy.
23:16
Yeah, we call it a paint by numbers Mona Lisa.
23:18
Yeah, you're get, you're going to get a beautiful product,
23:21
but it's going to be it's going to be pretty much cookie cutter, which
23:25
if you're out there filming five houses in a day, you want that.
23:28
You want that paint by numbers.
23:30
Mona Lisa But yeah kinda go off of what you were saying.
23:33
Craig Here's how we teach our our contractors in a nutshell,
23:38
kind of the basic thinking is you walk into a room with a walking shot,
23:42
which will speed ramp you in there, and then you take as many
23:45
signature shots as that room needs to tell the story of that room.
23:48
It could be one, it could be five, it could be ten.
23:52
And that's the beautiful thing about how our system cuts is because
23:56
in our signature shots, they cut it down in the middle of the clip.
24:01
We're not talking very long clips here.
24:03
So you can have four, five, six, seven signature shots in one room.
24:08
But but
24:08
so back to that kind of in a nutshell, what's the plan?
24:12
You walk into a room
24:13
as many signature shots
24:14
as you need within that room, and then you walk out of that room to the next
24:18
and then you rinse, wash, repeat, and, you know, the product.
24:22
It really speaks for itself.
24:23
We're going to we're going to post an example of one of the houses we shot,
24:26
and you can just see how I shot that house,
24:29
the example house that we're going to post and I use that exact same logic.
24:32
I walked into a room,
24:34
covered it with signature shots, walked out of that room.
24:36
Awesome.
24:38
Awesome. Well,
24:40
even in light of having, say, this kind of structure
24:43
to how we shoot video for a listing, putting it into this merge fleet,
24:49
there's still always going to be some issues that that we face
24:52
as as the videographer shooting this listing
24:55
trying to get it right for you know for the merge fleet.
24:59
So let's walk through what what are some of the common issues
25:01
or challenges that we might face as a videographer utilizing the merge fleet.
25:07
Yeah, and we definitely will.
25:08
You got to know this system and how it works.
25:10
So here's
25:10
some of the common things that we've seen now before I go into those though, know
25:14
that the beautiful thing about if you're a Spiro member,
25:18
you can actually put a
25:20
you can put a sample merge fleet though we’ll watermark it,
25:23
but you can actually put it through to see
25:27
if you're making any of these mistakes and then fix them for the real deal
25:30
so you can practice on your own house or a friend's house
25:33
and you can put the sample once through before
25:36
you go live so that you can practice to make sure you have it down.
25:39
So that's another great feature about Spiro and the Merge fleet.
25:42
All right.
25:43
And it's not going to charge.
25:44
It's not going to charge you for those samples
25:46
for the sample practice ones that will not charge you.
25:49
Yeah, it'll put watermarks on it but no, it won't charge you.
25:52
Yeah. Okay,
25:53
So the first problem that a lot of our contractors face
25:55
when trying to use the merge fleet is on their signature shots.
25:58
They don't have enough movement.
26:00
Okay, So whether you're doing a slider shot, whether you want
26:03
a rail shot, which is push and pull, whether you do a jib shot,
26:07
they may only move the camera lens two or three feet
26:11
when in reality you have to move it a little bit
26:14
more than that four or five feet, you know, especially on a jib shot.
26:18
People think that they can only move it a couple of feet.
26:20
I mean, I'm getting into a full squat
26:23
and then I'm raising the gimbal above my head at the very end of the shot.
26:27
So I'm moving the lens, actually about five feet.
26:30
And why is that important?
26:31
Because remember how the merge fleet is going to cut.
26:34
It's going to cut the front and the back off is going to get to at two
26:38
and a half seconds off that right away.
26:40
And then it's only
26:41
going to go to the middle of the clip and take either a second or a second
26:44
and a half.
26:45
It alternates and then slows that down by 50%.
26:48
So the final product is either a two second
26:51
clip or
26:51
a three second clip, because you double
26:54
one second, you get to double one and a half, you get three.
26:57
So it's slowing down at clip.
27:00
Even So, if you don't have enough movement in your signature shot,
27:03
it looks like it's going nowhere.
27:05
It looks like it's pretty much a static shot
27:07
and that's a problem that we're trying to combat right now.
27:09
We're training on our contractors is, hey, if you're going to do a slider
27:13
instead of doing a slider three feet with your, you know, moving the lens,
27:17
actually three feet, move it five feet.
27:20
And and what that will do is that'll create a little more movement
27:23
when it slows it down, you know, and and I always say
27:27
that timing is the hardest to get your speed and your timing.
27:30
And the only way you're going to get
27:31
that is to practice and then watch what the merge fleet does.
27:34
And again, that's why it's so nice that we offer test once test
27:38
merge fleets are merges so that you can actually see your
27:42
speed like, oh I got to speed up or oh, I got to move the lens a little bit more
27:46
so, so it is nice but yeah, that's, that's the first mistake
27:50
is people don't move the camera enough during a signature shot.
27:55
Got it.
27:55
All right.
27:56
So what is the the then the next challenge
28:00
or issue facing videographers.
28:03
Yeah.
28:03
The next one is whether or not we lock our frame.
28:07
Okay.
28:08
And why is this important?
28:09
Well, this is important.
28:10
And most gimbals, whether you're using the gimbal for your iPhone
28:14
or whether you're using the gimbal for your DSLR and mirrorless
28:17
camera, your gimbal is is more than likely.
28:21
If it's a good gimbal, it's going to have a locking feature on it
28:23
where that means it basically locks the motors.
28:25
So no matter what you do with your wrist and spin it, it'll lock your frame.
28:29
Okay.
28:30
So why is this important for the merge fleet?
28:32
Well, I always our our contractors, when you teach them all these signature
28:36
shots, they get all like they have all these nice toys to play with. And
28:41
what they end up doing is they don't lock their frame
28:44
and they end up doing like two or three of them combined.
28:48
So they do like a push slider jib shot and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
28:52
Like your your, your frames moving all over.
28:55
You got way too much different type of movement in here.
28:58
We our philosophy is keep it simple and let a slider shot be a slider shot.
29:03
And so while you're sliding, though, you don't want your frame to change
29:07
because think about it on a movie set,
29:08
rarely as you're sliding are you also panning Now, sometimes
29:12
that is the actual movement, but most of the time
29:15
the dynamic movement comes from you locking your frame
29:18
with that one perspective and sliding through the shot.
29:22
So we always say, especially for signature shots,
29:26
get your middle beautiful frame, lock it, and then you can go off your frame
29:31
and move on to it and then and then away from it.
29:34
So we do recommend locking your frame so that if it doesn't matter,
29:39
the only signature shot, I should say you don't want to lock is an arc
29:43
because you're actually turning around an object or a room.
29:47
You're arcing, you know, it's almost like that drone shot, the drone
29:50
shot where you're kind of doing a half moon around whatever you lock onto.
29:54
So but all the other shots, you want to lock a slider,
29:57
a jib shot and push your A pull shot.
30:00
You want to lock your frame.
30:02
I will say this about the arc shots, Ryan, I love the feature
30:06
built into the DJI drones where you can pick your point of interest
30:10
and then just have the drone, you know, circle around that.
30:13
Now to have that with the iPhone and the Osmo six where you can do
30:16
the same thing is highlight your your target.
30:19
POI Yeah.
30:20
And then just move the gimbal and it just, it turns it for
30:23
you and keeps that center and makes four bits and arc shots so much easier.
30:28
- It's that it's a beautiful thing - that's a benefit from using the iPhone
30:31
and the Osmo Gimbal together as Craig said, there's a feature on there
30:35
where you can you can lock on an object and the camera will follow it.
30:39
So for arcs, it makes it I mean, it makes it so easy.
30:42
Yeah, it
30:42
always keep whatever you're trying to, to film in the middle of your frame.
30:46
yeah, dummy me, I'll just, I'll be transparent here.
30:48
When I was using the Sony with, with my RS3 mini gimbal,
30:53
I had the worst time trying to get good arc shots
30:57
and keep that just perfectly setting you know that that object perfectly set
31:01
when we when we switched to that I started on my little square around it
31:04
like, Oh, this is beautiful.
31:08
We just thought you just got that much better, Craig.
31:09
You're right, Right.
31:12
Don't tell anyone.
31:13
No. Now, Craig is an amazing with a videographer.
31:17
we got people that are better than me on our staff.
31:20
I learned from the rest of our
31:22
our contractors watching their shoots, like, Oh, that was a great idea.
31:26
So anyway, okay, let's get back into it.
31:28
So locking versus so we've got not enough movement on
31:32
on our lens movement locking versus not locking your shots.
31:37
What's what's another challenge facing facing us as we use the merge fleet.
31:41
Yeah another challenge
31:42
that I'm seeing some years users do and even some of our contractors is
31:46
and this is a detrimental it's more of a style choice but
31:50
I think it's important that most shots remain.
31:54
Your verticals remain vertical, meaning you're not tilting at all.
31:58
Some people wouldn't even for walking shots
32:00
for for some signature shots, they tilt their their lens down a little bit.
32:04
And really what that probably means is they're using a mode on their gimbal.
32:09
That's probably where it can it can look any which way.
32:12
I think it's a pan tilt follow is most
32:16
most of the modes on those where where it'll pan and it'll tilt.
32:20
We teach our contractors to for 90% of your shots
32:25
you're going to put it only on pan follow meaning it won't look up and down,
32:29
meaning it'll keep your verticals vertical.
32:33
And again, that's just a style preference,
32:34
but I think it looks so much more professional in a video.
32:38
When you walk into a house and you do a signature
32:41
shot, you know, all of the verticals are nice and vertical.
32:44
Sometimes it is necessary to necessary to tilt your camera,
32:48
especially on an arc shot, like let's say you're looking up at a chandelier
32:51
and you're looking around it.
32:52
Obviously, you have to tilt up at it and look or if I'm doing
32:55
like a pull shot of a countertop,
32:58
obviously I have to tilt down and do that pull shot of that countertop.
33:02
But walking shots, slider shots,
33:06
jib, push, pulls, we teach our contractors to put it on only pan follow
33:11
meaning you can only look right or left and you can't look up and down.
33:15
You can't tilt
33:16
and it keeps all the verticals vertical.
33:19
And again, it's a style preference for Wow.
33:20
We think it just looks like much more professional.
33:23
But but you have to decide how your style is for your videos.
33:27
let me jump in real quick because something I've seen, you know,
33:30
worries from professional photographers in our industry,
33:34
you know, looking at agents and realtors, starting
33:37
to do more of their own, say, iPhone photography.
33:40
And now more are starting to actually
33:42
shoot their own videos using the iPhone like what we're doing.
33:46
They worry, hey, if I use an iPhone and I walk into the shoot,
33:49
the realtor is going to think, Well, I can do that.
33:51
I've got the same phone.
33:53
But what you just said about the tilt is just like the photos
33:56
a lot of realtors take for themselves.
33:58
They walk into a room in their cameras, all tilted and wonky and, well,
34:02
I've got the same cameras.
34:04
It's the camera that makes it's not the camera that makes the shot.
34:07
It's the professionalism and knowing what types of shots and how to frame
34:11
how to properly frame a room that makes you the professional
34:14
and makes you still valuable to their business
34:18
in producing good visuals
34:20
and good marketing to help them sell that home, but also to build their brand.
34:25
The realtors that are trying to still do this on their own,
34:28
they're engaging in non-revenue producing activities, meaning
34:32
they're not out doing the sales and the prospecting that
34:35
they should be doing as a realtor in trying to build their business.
34:38
They're trying to be media creator when they're non media creators.
34:43
They think that just because they have maybe, maybe they have the same equipment
34:47
that we might be using, that their product is going to be just as good as is yours.
34:51
As a professional. That's a fallacy.
34:54
So don't worry about that.
34:56
Show your value in the types of shots that you produce
35:00
versus them walking in with an iPhone 14
35:03
or 15 tilted down, you know, all wonky.
35:07
Maybe they're even using a gimbal, but they're still there.
35:10
There's a difference.
35:11
There's a difference in professional video and amateur video.
35:15
Yeah.
35:16
And Craig, you kind of led me into my last kind of concern
35:20
with using commercially with an iPhone.
35:22
And it really doesn't have to do anything with the merge.
35:25
It it's what will the stigma be of me using an iPhone and I will tell you that
35:30
is that is dead that five years ago maybe you walk in with an iPhone of like
35:35
what what are you doing?
35:36
Is this a mom Like what is mom and pop like. Who did I hired
35:41
and I'm going to tell you right now that is that stigma is dead.
35:45
In fact, a lot of our competition are using iPhones now, too,
35:51
you know, And we knew we had to switch because the quality.
35:54
So we have not heard one single thing,
35:58
a negative thing about us using the iPhone.
36:01
And again, I'm not saying that the DSLR cameras, the mirrorless cameras are bad.
36:05
You know,
36:05
there's actually a lot of good ones out there
36:07
that you can also use in the merge fleet which is great.
36:10
But if you're if you're worried about use an iPhone do not at all.
36:14
yeah I've not lost one client watching me
36:17
film with the iPhone two to them saying, Oh, well, I can do that.
36:22
Don't worry about that. Yeah. All right.
36:26
Awesome.
36:27
Okay, so we've gone through what is the merge fleet?
36:30
The why of the merge fleet, the three types of shots that we use
36:35
to input into this automated video editing system that Spiro offers.
36:40
We've covered the common issues
36:42
facing videographers that might be using the merge fleet and how to get around
36:47
those, how to how to avoid those those challenges and issues.
36:51
So what happens then after the shoot, Ryan?
36:54
so, even after the shoot, it's just as easy as as filming the house.
36:58
You know, we've thought of everything with the merge fleet,
37:00
so first thing you want to do is you want to organize your media.
37:03
So, you know, we teach our contractors to to pull the media onto their computer,
37:08
you know, for, for iPhone.
37:09
That's always a big question. How do I get the media off?
37:12
It's in our training document we use for those of you that are
37:14
that are watching, we we as a really nice you can get this on Amazon
37:19
but it's a card reader that has multiple different connectors
37:23
and you can put it into your iPhone with the lightning or the
37:26
now that new usb-c and then plug it directly into your computer,
37:29
you get the files off that way.
37:31
But there's there's tons of information
37:32
on Google out there of how to get your files off.
37:34
But so you get your files on your computer, you organize your files.
37:38
If you do shoot the house out of order or or maybe like, oh,
37:41
I think this shot would go better before here.
37:43
And again, we we use some third party software.
37:46
We use either Adobe Bridge,
37:49
which sometimes has problems though.
37:52
And. Craig Yeah, now you've experienced this
37:55
seeing that the iPhone video icons which is a little thumbnails
37:59
you know the thumb thumbnails.
38:00
Yeah which can be a pain but we found another software
38:04
called XnView it's a free software it's it's
38:07
just basically an image viewer where you can rearrange it.
38:11
So you rearrange all your clips,
38:13
you rename them and then upload them to the merge fleet
38:17
and then you know, you're going to put your title in and everything.
38:20
You're going to pick some music, uploaded your music.
38:23
And like Craig and I said at the very beginning, ten, 20,
38:28
25 minutes later, you're going to get a final product, your, your edited video.
38:34
But it is very easy to, you know, like I said, the steps are import your media.
38:40
organize it, upload it to the the merge fleet and then click the button
38:44
and it'll spit out a beautiful, beautiful video.
38:47
Perfect. Perfect.
38:49
All right.
38:50
So there's kind of the more in-depth look at the mechanics of the
38:54
the merge fully offered to you through Spiro as Ryan mentioned you can
38:59
you can test this out again we'll have a links to in the description to
39:06
get into the merge fleet training
39:08
so you can kind of walk through this in practice and get an idea of again,
39:12
the types of shots that you need to be taking.
39:17
Now if if somebody wants to start using the merge fleet.
39:20
Ryan, what what is the cost for that?
39:23
Because we've talked about the business side of this.
39:25
How does this benefit the business that you're running and doing?
39:29
Real estate, visual marketing,
39:31
what's what's the cost of of merge fleet video editing?
39:34
so on its own, it's
39:35
$15 if you're just getting a video.
39:38
However, the great thing about it is
39:40
if you have if you put in an order through Spiro,
39:43
which is video, so it comes with the property website,
39:47
the delivery page it is only $10 at that point.
39:52
And so you're saving a little bit there
39:54
if if it's in order through Spiro.
39:57
But either way, it's going to be a lot
39:59
cheaper and a lot quicker.
40:03
I mean, we've now gone to to next business Day turnaround with video,
40:08
which very few companies are doing that Very few.
40:11
So so not only is it cost effective,
40:14
but it is it is very quick turnaround, which is going to,
40:19
you know, ultimate bottom line is going to create
40:21
happy clients that are going to keep coming back.
40:24
good deal. Good deal.
40:26
Our guest this week is Director of Training and Production at Wow Video Tours
40:30
Ryan Lieurance walking us through with the through the Spiro Merge fleet.
40:36
Ryan, thank you so much for taking time
40:38
and just explaining some of the mechanics of this
40:40
so so people can understand it a little bit better.
40:43
Yeah, it's been my pleasure.
40:44
You know, I've seen this since the inception,
40:46
so this is, this is just really cool because I knew what it was like
40:50
to to, to film before this.
40:52
You know, it's almost like, you know, the days of the the,
40:57
you know, the dial up Internet and that.
40:58
But now we have something even better.
41:00
You know, like I remember
41:01
back in my day, I used to hand edit videos, you know, like,
41:05
why would you do that anymore?
41:06
So it is really cool to see the progression of this
41:09
and how much it's going to help, you know, real estate media companies out there.
41:13
That's what I'm most excited about,
41:15
is for people that never even thought they could do video before.
41:18
Now it's an option, you know, So.
41:21
So that's what I'm most excited about.
41:23
You know, it has benefits, business benefits, not only for us.
41:27
You know, as Ryan mentioned,
41:28
we we created this out of necessity for our business because we were shooting
41:32
12,000 listings a year with a majority of those having video.
41:37
And so just,
41:38
you know, the logistics of having to edit that many videos forced us to really
41:43
to create the system.
41:44
But for the boutique photographer
41:47
that, you know, maybe you're a one person show,
41:51
the beauty of this is that it frees up more time for
41:54
you also to to shoot more or to serve your clients better.
41:59
You meet with them more.
42:00
It just it frees up more of your time, making you more effective at your business
42:04
as well.
42:04
Now, there's going to be those that Ryan, let's be honest.
42:09
There's those that just enjoy editing their own videos or want more,
42:15
you know, maybe a little bit more flexibility.
42:17
So this isn't necessarily going to be for everybody out there,
42:20
but it's one heck of a tool for those that really want to grow their business.
42:24
Yeah, Yeah.
42:25
I mean, I was an edit.
42:26
I like the editing.
42:27
That's how I felt.
42:28
Like I got better as a videographer.
42:30
But after the 200th video I edited, I was
42:34
I was fine giving this off to a
42:37
to a computer to do it, you know, so.
42:40
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
42:41
Sometimes it is nice to edit,
42:42
but like I said, it's an amazing system and let it do the work.
42:46
yeah, there you go.
42:47
If you have more questions
42:49
about the merge fleet, you want to learn a little bit more of.
42:52
Again, check out the links in the description
42:55
of of this episode.
42:58
But you can also email us hello@spiro.media
43:01
and we'll will answer you there as well.
43:05
And kind of piggybacking onto that email address,
43:07
if you have an idea for a business topic
43:10
that you want covered on the Spiro podcast, drop us a line again.
43:13
hello@spiro.media
43:15
And if one of us here at Spiro or Wow Video don't know
43:20
we'll invite a guest on to help cover that and get you the information
43:23
that you need on running a successful real estate media business.
43:26
So Ryan, again, thank you so much.
43:29
I always have fun talking with you and learning from you.
43:32
Just appreciate all you do for for our company.
43:34
Absolutely. Craig, It's my pleasure.
43:36
It's always great to be on here.
43:38
You know, hopefully I didn't I didn't lose any followers.
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for you guys.
43:41
No, you're fine.
43:43
You're fine already.
43:45
Well, that's going to wrap up another week.
43:47
Thanks to all of you that again, have watched on either YouTube
43:50
or listen to the audio podcast.
43:51
We just we hope and pray that it's been a, you know, a blessing and a value
43:55
add to your business, helps you grow and be successful and keep
43:59
helping to continue to enjoy what you do, because we can burn out, right?
44:04
We can put in some long, hard hours as owners of our businesses, you know,
44:09
shoot, shooting a ton of of homes, doing a ton of editing,
44:13
it can turn into production and you kind of lose that spark of joy.
44:17
And we want you to keep that spark of joy
44:19
for for the company that you've really poured into,
44:22
poured your life into, and just to keep enjoying it.
44:25
So make sure you pause, slow down this week,
44:28
take a breath and just be thankful for the blessings in your life.
44:32
Thanks again for watching. We'll be back next week and
44:35
take a breath.
44:36
Have a great week.
44:37
Thank you for joining us for the Spiro podcast, managing
44:40
your real estate photography and videography business.
44:44
This is a production of Spiro.
44:45
Go and wow video tours.
44:47
You can find out more about Spiro
44:49
is real estate, media, business management software at our Web site.
44:53
spiro.media.