Cheap Corporate Video
Top 3 Ways to Make a cheap corporate video production
Although all corporate video productions do need some form of editing there are ways to make the overall project cheaper by not having to use actors or your own office staff. Video production companies in Gauteng make great use of these techniques to produce high quality videos.
You will also be able to save on the video recording or animation creation part. These cost saving can help your corporate video production become a reality without breaking the bank.
The Methods.
White board
In the past the term ‘whiteboard’ meant actually using a white board to create hand drawn pictures and text which played back at high speed would create an amazing captivating video which could be used for the corporate video project. But now through video editing programs whiteboard templates can be used to create a similar effect which , although not as impressive as the hand drawn version, are cheaper and faster to produce. There are also different packages with different characters to add originality to the project.
Typography
Although this type of video has been over used by many it is still a very effective and affordable way of making a video. The use of typography or simply put, words that appear on the screen and move around, combined with music and voice over can still provide a punchy and directed marketing video. Sometimes just choosing the right music can make a plain typography video be a huge hit.
Photo slides
This approach makes use of already existing photographs that you may have of your business. It is important that your photos be of high quality to start with or the slide show may not be that great. The enhanced video software available now can easily put your photographs into a fancy looking animation slide show which can transform your photographs into a cool corporate video. Having a professional photographer take pictures of your company will certainly improve the video but keep in mind that this will increase the cost of making the video.
You can also do a combination of these with a typography intro leading to a photo slide show or photos being combined into a white board explainer video. Although these are great ways of saving on the video production, it is still advisable that you make use of professional video production companies to make the video as the software used to create these videos is not as simple to use as standard video editing software.
The video production companies in Johannesburg who can provide you with these services often offer an array of options to make the video unique and clearly what your company or brand stands for.
As opposed to doing the white background, head and shoulders video on your smart phone, this type of video does require the professionals. It is certainly not for the faint hearted as the learning curve for the software is pretty steep.
Why sound matters in video
There has been for quite a while, such an obsession with video image that much of the focus has gone to video formats, the number of pixels, the bit rate and so on but when it comes to sound quality, there seems to have been little to no buzz at all. This is strange because really, most people will forgive bad image but will not likely forgive bad sound.
The poor quality sound disturbs many of us more than the poor image.
Somehow the importance of sound quality has somehow slipped passed the cries for better video technology.
What is even stranger is that the pace of sound technology has actually kept up and in many cases surpassed video technology yet it seems to be the last thing on many video producers minds.
The obsession has mostly been about, story line, lighting, composition, camera angles, effects, etc When it comes to sound, many believe that as long as the sound was recorded that’s fine.
This, in a way, is a sign of how far the audio technology has come, that small video production companies and videographers, consider that just about any sound will do because it all sounds pretty good.
This is true in a way but what often happens is that because of the lack of understanding of audio quality, some problems can show up. The first problems begin with the camera its self.
Most DSLR cameras either have a built microphone or mic input socket. Firstly the sound from the microphone is considered way below acceptable in industry standards .
The audio input is often less than acceptable for professional audio. The sound modules used in a lot of DSLR cameras are in many cases lower specification than cheap Mp3 players and when the audio is used in a professional sound editing suite shows up as hissy or noisy sound with heavily compressed audio which is pretty much unusable for broadcast.
When recorded sound is played through an analogue sound system the compressed audio can appear good enough but when put through the broadcast audio processing equipment the audio very quickly falls apart and becomes unusable. That is because when the broadcast equipment attempts to make the sound louder and brighter it places a lot of stress on the audio data which basically “rips it apart”
If you are not involved with broadcast you might say well that doesn’t affect me. This is the same thinking as “You don’t need broadcast video quality for home video use”. As many people know , the TV sets at home have become better spec than broadcasters. This means that audio quality for video is as important if not more important than video quality.
The temptation for some video production in Johannesburg is to plug a microphone directly into the DSLR camera and begin recording. This should really not be the choice of professional video production companies. If we shouldn’t use the audio from the on-board module in the camera then why is it there?
This question has been asked about so many cameras and the answer is simple.
The audio is there as a timing reference for syncing the external audio to the camera audio.
Apart from the use of a physical clapper board and other synchronization tools, having the original recorded audio available as a reference for post production, is very useful and important.
Without having it the final edit can be very slow and difficult. So the audio recorded on the DSLR is not the right option, what is?
The correct solution is the same as it has been for film and movie makers from the beginning of film its self.
Use an external audio device such as a zoom recorder. One of the original choices for audio recording for film in the days of analog was a Nagra reel to reel audio recorder. This was like the zoom of its time.
These days there are many options for corporate video production Johannesburg companies and videographers including digital Nagra. The options are not all cheap and that might cause the temptation to use the on-board audio.
Short cuts can result in lower than acceptable video. The audio is the same.Video production houses use a variety of additional pieces of gear for video shoots which can not be found on a DSLR, Professional sound recording being one of them. Video film production is actually a combined art or skill set of sound engineering and videography or cinematography.
These professional skills should never be separated because we almost never watch a video or film without sound. Sound is of highest importance if the video production is to be considered a professional one.
Knowing exactly how professional sound works such as distortion, balanced and unbalanced sound, dynamic vs compressed sound etc can make a huge difference in the final video product.