*Note: there are some minor visual imperfections. This is just a draft, so it’s okay.
Today I spent my three hours working solely on the video. Unedited, all of the footage was about 16 minutes long. The first draft of this video is about two minutes long. I try to keep all promotional YouTube videos between a minute and two minutes, with 2:30 as the absolute maximum. Attention spans are short, and videos must be only a minute or two if the entire message is to get across without losing the viewer.
In this post I aim to explain why the clips were organized in the way they were.
- First shot – “She was new..” with Colby/Wendy closeup b-roll:
- Colby is answering “How and when did you meet Wendy?” as the viewer sees a close up of Colby and Wendy doing homework together
- Colby’s dialogue serves as context for the viewer. Considering the video is about their close relationship, it’s important to know straight away how they met.
- The close-up of Colby and Wendy is also context—everything that Colby and Wendy will say later directly to the camera will be about their relationship, so we seem them interacting in the title sequence.
- Second shot – Colby talking to the camera, with caption
- While I’m not thrilled about the caption style overlapping with the watermark, the caption is important because it relays basic information about Colby, again, providing context in the beginning of the video.
- Third shot – Wendy talking to the camera, with caption
- Again, we have the use of the caption to relay information about the Little, Wendy.
- Wendy speaks about what she enjoys doing with Colby. This creates a nice narrative: first we find out how they met, then we find out what they do together.
- Fourth shot – “She’s gotten the chance..” with a distant b-roll show of Colby and Wendy at the table
- I chose this b-roll because Colby is talking about “a close-knit group of friends” making Wendy feel more comfortable. The footage shows Colby and Wendy at a table with three other girls, and Wendy even passes a pen to her friend across the table.
- This also continues the narratively nicely: how they met, what they do, how it affects them
- Fifth shot – Wendy talking to camera
- Following Colby’s shot of saying how she thinks BBBS has affected Wendy, we get to hear Wendy say first hand how BBBS has made an impact: “it makes me happier” she says.
- She then goes on to tell a story about how she saw a field hockey game of Colby’s and then got to hang out with her family. You can see on Wendy’s face how happy a memory this was; it reinforces that BBBS makes her “happier”
- Sixth shot – Colby talking to camera
- Colby continues talking about how being a part of BBBS has helped Wendy academically. This is essentially the message BBBSCM is trying to send—that there are tangible benefits to joining BBBS.
- It was absolutely essential that I included the piece of Colby saying that Wendy wants to go to College of the Holy Cross. Since many of the kids we work with don’t see college in their future, we want to show them how big of an impact BBBS can have.
- Seventh shot – mid (distance) b-roll of Wendy focusing intently on writing, with Colby’s help
- This shot is shown as we hear Colby talking about effort Wendy can do to achieve her dreams. This shot is a nice visual representation of such “effort”.
- Ending shots (Colby talking to camera / Wendy talking to camera / Colby again)
- These shots broaden the scope of the video and have Colby and Wendy answer the question, “Would you recommend BBBS to others? What would you say to someone who was thinking about becoming a Big or Little?”
- Both Colby and Wendy tell, from their unique perspectives, why being a part of BBBS is worthwhile.
- In the end, our narrative is as follows: how they met, what they do, how it affects them, and how it could affect others.
In the end, we have to reconsider the message we decided upon in the first place: BBBSCM can change lives. I have to ask myself if this video is addressing this message. Considering the content I have from Colby and Wendy, I think I have successfully pieced together a video, two minutes in length, that sees multiple reasons why BBBSCM is more than just “friendship” and can be potentially life changing—Wendy wants to go to college, she’s doing better academically, she’s speaking English better, she’s more confident, and she’s happier. I’d say this video has done its job! Not too bad for a first draft.
These are the things I will be fixing:
- some rocky jump cuts need to be smoothed by either a transition (overlap/fade effect) or a change in zoom.
- some audio and visual imperfections need to be resolved by a careful video re-export
I'M A MKTG INTERN! 