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Brand Awareness or Sales? Setting a Goal For Your Video Production Project

Before you spend any money hiring a video production team or videographer, you want to make sure you have a clear goal for your campaign. The two most common goals we see are for brand awareness or sales, but which is the best fit for you?

Far too often do we get inquiries about creating a video that’s intended to do both. A video that attracts users, educates them, walks them through a product and convinces them to make a purchase. That would be an amazing video, except it’s usually impossible. Videos that drive traffic and are primarily intended to build brand awareness are best as short, catchy videos that appeal to emotions. Videos that educate prospects and drive sales are usually longer and full of information. Marketers are increasingly trying to do too much with a single video asset and as a result are wasting their money on ineffective video content.

The truth is that businesses require both brand awareness and sales. This is why we recommend video campaigns to our clients, producing multiple videos with different goals at the same time.

Measuring Brand Awareness and Your Sales Process

Brand awareness can be measured for both digital and traditional methods of marketing. For online marketing, brand awareness usually can be measure with metrics such as: website traffic, clicks, followers, social media engagement or reach.  Traditional marketing methods relies more on surveys and studies but incorporating discount codes, URL identifiers or QR codes can also be ways to measure brand awareness.

Your organization already measures sales and revenue, but it can be helpful to identify other metrics that contribute to sales. If your sales process requires customers to submit a form, add to cart, call a representative then these are metrics that you should also track. Some conversion points that you may want to consider include online signups, form submissions, downloads, phone calls, meetings, in-store foot traffic, add-to-carts. For each of these you want to measure the totals and successes to find a conversion or success rate.

Create a Strategy

When you evaluate the conversion rates for every part of your sales process, try to find any ‘low hanging fruit.’ Any numbers that are low based on their historical performance are good places to start. If you have a profitable sales process, then you also want to look at introducing more brand awareness into the strategy as well. Here are some common issues you might encounter:

  • Website traffic doesn’t convert. If your website doesn’t convert viewers, then you need to find a better way to educate them on the value you provide. Provided that you have enough website traffic, you can accomplish this with an explainer video, product video or customer testimonial. All great ‘sales / conversion’ boosters. A quick aside, this occasionally appears as a brand awareness issue. If your website doesn’t convert, then you need to make sure you’re hitting the right audience with the right messaging.
  • Not enough traffic or leads. This is a straight up brand awareness issue through-and-through. You want to make sure you’re communicating your value well enough on your website, but if you’re not getting any website visitors or foot traffic then you want to focus on building brand awareness.
  • Leads don’t answer emails. If your leads aren’t booking appointments or accepting your emails or calls, then you need to do a better job of convincing them that you can help them. This could be an explainer video, a brand video, customer testimonial or case study. It would be a great idea to incorporate this as part of your outreach as well as on your website.
  • Low proposal conversion rate. If you have a low conversion rate you will need to dig a bit deeper into the heart of the problem. On the one hand, if you’re not communicating your value to your prospects then you should focus on clarifying your messaging around that topic with a case study, explainer, or brand video. On the other hand, if you’re sending to proposals to leads who aren’t your target audience then you will want to revisit your brand awareness strategy. If you have some team members who sell better than others, then streamlining this process with video or video training could also help to address your low conversion rate.
  • High than average success ratios. If you’re seeing success with all your conversion points/success ratios, then congratulations! You can focus on driving more traffic and let your funnel do the work

Produce Your Campaign

Once you’ve gone through this process you should have a much better idea of how to move forward. When you contact a video production company, you can give them a clear goal. Often, when you’ve identified the areas, you want to focus on, the concept or script for your video campaign comes naturally.

Still Not Sure? We can help

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We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

The Secret to Increasing Conversion Rates Through Video Production

Customer testimonial videos are a must have for marketers and business owners. These videos hold the potential to establish credibility, build trust, and drive conversions. For high-ticket products and services, consider hiring a video production company or professional videographer to create a high-quality and effective testimonial video. If you sell at a lower price point, user-generated content can often work as well. In this article, we will explore the benefits of customer testimonial videos, from the perspective of a video production company, while providing valuable insights for marketers and business owners on how to create impactful testimonials.

Length: Less than 1-minute or up to 3 minutes for a compilation of multiple testimonials. Location: Website, Social Media, Sales Presentations.

Benefits of a Customer Testimonial Video:

Customer testimonial videos can help businesses leverage the power of video production by increasing credibility, generating trust, and improving conversion rates.

These videos establish credibility by demonstrating that real people have had positive experiences with your product or service. When a potential customer is considering your business, it increases their perceived likelihood that you can help solve their problem. Often this can be the tipping point that convinces them to hire you.

Trust is a crucial element in the customer journey. A well-crafted video testimonial can build trust by showcasing genuine customer experiences. When potential customers see past customers who have vouched for your business, it helps them believe that you can solve their problems as well. A major benefit of producing a testimonial video over a written testimonial is that prospective customers are more likely to personally relate to the interviewee. This makes them more likely to trust them and you by extension.

Customer testimonials also have the power to influence purchasing decisions. When a prospective customer is evaluating your business on your website, or if they’ve received the video as part of your sales information. The increased trust and credibility reduce skepticism in your prospect. This is almost guaranteed to increase your conversion rates. 

Video Production Tips for Creating a Customer Testimonial Video:

Here are some tips from our video production team on how to create an effective customer testimonial video:

  1. Select the Right Customers:

You may have noticed that this is a common theme when creating videos. Not only do you want to identify customers who have had positive experiences and are willing to share their stories, but you also want to find individuals who represent your target audience. This is because their testimonials will resonate most with potential buyers.

  1. Focus on the Journey and Outcome:

Encourage your customers to share their journey and highlight the specific benefits they achieved as a result of your help. Pay attention to including measurable results and personal anecdotes. Numbers can be very convincing while people connect personally with emotions and stories.

  1. Include Relevant Information:

When making video testimonials, ask your customer to provide information about themselves or their businesses. This helps potential customers relate to the testimonial and understand how your product may fit their specific needs.

  1. Prioritize Authenticity:

Ensure that your testimonials come across as genuine. To do this, you want to avoid scripted interviews. Authentic testimonials that showcase real emotions and experiences are much more relatable. Typically, this is best shot using an interview or documentary style of shooting. A video production company can be invaluable in eliciting this type of story and connection from your subject.

Customer testimonials are a valuable asset for website or sales process. The benefits of effective testimonials cannot be underestimated. By following the guidelines outlined in this article, you can harness the power of customer testimonials to attract new customers, foster loyalty, and drive growth.

Interested In Producing Your Own Testimonial Videos?

Contact Us

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

The Best Videos for Brand Awareness Campaigns

Branded stories have emerged as a powerful tool for marketing professionals and business owners to create brand awareness. Branded stories are general stories intended to educate your audience about your brand’s values. For small and medium-sized businesses these are generally more personal stories or occasionally include some event capture but for larger brands these can be scripted or documentary-style short videos. Branded stories are probably the widest genre of marketing video. Branded stories are often more useful in B2C organizations where sales are made on a one-to-many basis, but still make an appearance in B2B businesses from time to time.

These videos are best used at the top of the funnel, where you want to educate your intended audience about your brand. As an added benefit, we like to chop these up and create video ads to maximize brand awareness.   

Length 1-2 minutes. Dimensions: 16:9. Location: Social Media,  Website, Email Newsletters, YouTube.

Benefits of a Branded Story:

The main benefit of these videos is that they’re effective in building brand awareness. These videos can help customers understand what your business does and what you stand for. By using brand videos instead of static or written content, you can position your brand in the minds of your customers without having to explicitly state your values (which can often come off as forced or inauthentic).

Branded stories tend to have high engagement rates. At a base level, video is much more engaging than static content and is more likely to drive engagement. In comparison to other types of videos, branded stories still tend to have higher engagement rates and this is because, when done well, branded stories elicit emotional responses from viewers and when people connect with a story they’re more likely to engage with it.

Branded stories also have a much stronger ROI than other forms of advertising. Branded stories can easily be cut into video campaigns that drive awareness over a couple of months. Although brand awareness and brand positioning are difficult to measure, viewership is easily tracked and can serve as a proxy. Campaigns that use branded stories are easily repurposed and tracked, and therefore far more likely to show a higher return on investment than other marketing campaigns.

How To Make an Effective Branded Story Video:

As with any video project, you want to start by identifying your ideal audience for the video. Think about what types of values you share with them, and what they think is important in brands they support. Identify the values and emotions that you want to portray so that you can build a strong connection with them.

Decide where the best place is to reach this audience. It could be on Instagram or YouTube, or maybe you want to run ads and drive traffic to a landing page where they can watch the video. Whatever you decide on, it’s important to make sure that you have tracking implemented at each step of the viewer’s journey.

Next, we start looking at the story we want to tell. There are so many types of stories that can be used here. For larger corporations, personal stories work best and we recommend looking at the stories of individuals within your organization, stakeholders or community initiatives that you run. For B2C businesses, scripted stories, events, or interviews with customers all work well.

We actually recommend that you don’t talk about the features of your product/service at all! Focus on creating a compelling story that portrays the values we identified earlier. For example, if you want to position your brand as an adventure product, then tell a story that creates a feeling of adventure. By showing your brand in a video, you align your brand with the feeling of adventure.

For production, it’s becoming more common to use some user-generated content but for higher end brands we still recommend sticking to high-production quality when possible.

Sample Branded Story Video:

Interested In Producing Your Own Case Study?

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We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

A Strong Case for Case Study Videos

Case studies in marketing are becoming increasingly popular as marketers are looking for new ways to showcase their products and services. A case study video tells the story of a specific use case from a customer or client and highlights the benefits they have received. These videos are often used by B2B or service providers. Case Studies are ideal for the middle of your marketing funnel, as they help educate your prospective customers on why they should do business with you.

Length: 2- 10 minutes. Dimensions: 16:9. Location: Website, Email Welcome Flows, Presentation Decks. 

Benefits of a Case Study Video:

Case study videos have very strong value propositions. When your prospects watch these videos, they get a clear idea of exactly how your business offers value to their life. Especially for services or b2b offerings, case studies can make your offering much more tangible to your audience.

Incorporating a narrative can be much more relatable than reading sales copy on a webpage or brochure. By incorporating a story (the story of ‘how your customers have benefited from the use your product/service’), you’re building a connection with your audience and ensuring that your prospect keeps your offer in mind for longer.

The strongest benefit to a case study video is that it builds trust and credibility. This works in two ways- one, when a customer advocates for your business it creates social proof and acts as a testimonial. And two, if your client is a well-known brand, then you can borrow some of their brand attributes by positioning your business as a partner.

How To Make an Effective Case Study Video:

Start by identifying your ideal audience for the video and what are some of their major pain points that you address. Make sure you select a customer who is fits into this demographic and has had a great experience working with you. This is not always going to be your typical customer. For example, if 90% of your sales are D2C but you want to grow your enterprise customer base, then make sure to pick an Enterprise partner to be featured in your case study.

Define the story that you are going to tell. You want to make sure that you are showcasing the problems that they encountered before working with you. These should be the major pain points of your target audience. You want the video subject to share their experience with you and really emphasize how their life has changed since working with your business. Your goal is to portray both the ‘before’ and ‘after’ states of your customer and position your product/service as the cause for the transition.

Note: It helps to talk with your customer advocate beforehand, to make sure any experiences they had that are atypical are avoided in the recording.

Sample Case Study Video:

Interested In Producing Your Own Case Study?

Contact Us

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

VIDEO: Create a Video Marketing Campaign

Ever wondered how to create a video marketing campaign? Video has become so common in today’s marketing that every business should be considering new ways to implement it. We produce video marketing campaigns all the time and wanted to provide a resource for you to learn how to do the same. Whether you’re producing the video in-house or hiring a videographer/video production company to help out, this video should help you get yours started!

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

Pick Your Marketing Goal

The very first thing you want to do is decide what your goal is going to be for this video. What is the meaningful objective that you want to reach? Because if you don’t have one of these, then there’s no way that you’re going to be able to measure the results of this campaign. And there’s no way that you’re going to know whether or not you’re spending your money effectively or if you’re just pouring it down the drain. Whatever it is you want to have a measure of what you’re currently at and a goal of what you want to get to. 

Identify Your Audience

So then you’re going to decide who your audience is. If it’s your existing customer base, you probably know them pretty well but if it’s a new set of customers, then you’re going to have to spend some time learning about them and learning why they’re going to come to you. You’re going to want to think a little bit deeper than just demographics. You know where they live, what their likes are, and what they’re looking for, but you also want to think on a deeper level and think about what they’re going to receive from you and why is it that they’re going to come back to you?

You want to think a little bit more about internal motivators. For example, someone who is hiring a resume writing service. Sure, they’re getting a resume, but what they’re actually trying to buy is, success or a feeling of productivity.

When you can think of that layer deeper, then you’re going to have a much better understanding of the messages that you’re going to have. 

Choose Your Platforms

The next step before we quite get to the message is you’re going to decide on your platform because we already know now what your goals are and who your audience is. You want to think about where is the best place to reach them. If you’re looking at a younger audience and you want to, reach them with something that’s a bit more fun and casual, then you’re probably not going to be running this campaign on LinkedIn. And likewise, if you’re trying to reach a more professional, older audience, then you’re not going to be running tick-tock ads and you’re not going to be trying to promote videos on Snapchat. You want to make sure that your platform aligns with the people you’re going after and the goal that you have identified. 

Create Your Message

And then from there, you can start to think about more of your message. So what is the one takeaway that’s going to be part of this video? For longer videos, you can occasionally have secondary messages. But you always want to have one main core focus of the video, and it’s probably going to be a call to action. For example: come to our website, come in on Tuesdays, buy these shoes for 30% off, come in for Black Friday, etc.

You want to have one main message that’s going to carry through this whole campaign and it’s going to point people towards that initial goal that you identified there.

Get Creative With a Concept

You know your messages, you know who you’re trying to target, you know where you’re going to target them and you know what you want them to do. And this is where you can get a little bit more creative and come up with a concept, like what are some you know, what are some creative ways that I can communicate the value that they’re going to get from me? Remember those deeper levels of value that they’re going to receive? How can you communicate to them in a way that’s going to catch their interest?

Depending on who your audience is, it’s going to be, totally different. You’re going to want to spend some time and really make sure that you have a good creative concept for that.

Plan the Release

Your next step is going to be planning your rollout. And remember, we still haven’t produced any video yet. We’re only just in the planning stages. You’re gonna think about where you’re going to share the videos and when. How often are you going to swap them between each other? If you’re running video ads, maybe you want to have several videos that are retargeting customers at the same time. Maybe if it’s social media, you’re going to have them run consecutively depending on what your concept is. You might have a story that’s built across several portions and maybe you want to roll those out at specific periods of time.

Produce Your Video

Once you’ve kind of decided on that, then you can go into production and you can hire a videographer or a video production company if you have the budget. We have a video if you’re still not sure on who to choose, but you should be able to find one of either that kind of fits within your price range. But it might also be the case that, it makes more sense for you to shoot yourself or you’re going to ask your customers to send user-generated content. Or maybe it’s going to be that you’re going to have your employees take the video for you depending on your rollout, your budget, and your platforms. It might make sense for you to just shoot this yourself.

Roll Out Your Video Marketing Campaign

And then once you have your video all produced and you finally have gone through this fun process of seeing it come to life, you can go from there and start to roll it out. If you’re running YouTube ads, you’re going to be working with your Google ad manager. If you’re running it on social media, you could probably have a planner. Maybe you’re using Hootsuite, Later, or Sprout, there are lots of different planners available.

If you’re going to be hosting a video on your website, you can share it on YouTube or Vimeo. If you want to get a bit more reach and get some, search engine optimization out of it, then it might be better to use YouTube. But if you want to host a higher quality video, then it makes more sense to host it yourself and use it or on vimeo

Track Your Results

If you’re anything like me, you keep your eyes on it as you’re running the campaign. But if not, you want to kind of come back and double-check and see the results. You want to track your analytics and make sure that your videos are reaching the right people and that your videos are getting the results that you wanted.

Remember we started with a goal right off the start, and it’s only now that you can kind of look back and see that we spent X amount of money and X amount of time in creating this video and our conversion rate only went up Y percent. Maybe you found out that certain videos had a much higher impact or that people who clicked on certain videos stayed on your website way longer. This is really important information for future campaigns. You can use this information to continuously improve and continuously iterate.

And you can continuously repeat this process, keep creating video campaigns and keep rolling them out.

VIDEO: Top 8 Brand Video Ideas

Branded videos can be a great asset for many businesses. They can be used to create brand awareness, to assist with re-branding campaigns, increase leads or improve conversions depending on how they’re used. 

Since we’re a video production company that specializes in branded content, we often get asked about what types of videos can be used to create brand awareness. We put this list together to help you think of different video concepts that can help your brand expand its’ reach. 

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

1. Brand Video

What is it? If your goal is to increase brand awareness or to establish your brand, then a brand video is a great way to do so. A brand video helps to create a personal connection with your viewers and educate them on the what and why behind your business. These types of videos focus more on the values of your business rather than the specific products or services. If you’re an outdoors brand, then you might want to show off an appreciation for nature, or if you’re in the health industry you can convey a sense of dedication and perseverance. This can be a very open category but these videos will always try to align a brand with certain values in the eye of their audience.  

How do I use it? The audience for this video will be everyone who falls into your ideal target market so it’ll be a bit more generic than other videos. You want the video to serve as an introduction to your brand for new viewers and to build a connection with customers who are already familiar with you. Typically, we try to keep these videos under 2 minutes long and recommend hosting them on your website, social media channels and google my business.

What are the Benefits? Increase brand awareness, improve brand reputation, increase consideration, leads and sales.

2. Founders Story

What is it? Take your audience from customers to advocates with a founder’s story video. These videos dive more into the journey of the owner or founder of an organization and provide context for your goals and mission statement. The goal of this video is to tell the viewer why your organization was created and what motivates you.

How do I use it?  A founder’s story will occasionally serve as a brand video and this can be really effective for some businesses (especially for small businesses), but there are times when you want to keep these separate. 

If you’re a company seeking investment or funding, you’ll likely want a brand video targeted towards your customers and a separate founder’s video to appeal to investors. For larger organizations, we often want to hire talent to create an emotional connection that resounds with the audience. In these cases, a founder’s video can go a step further to create a more personal connection with the people behind the brand and enhance your brand video.

The length of these videos can be longer than a brand video as the viewers typically are already familiar with your business. The actual length will vary based on how compelling your founder story is, but usually, they’re still between 2-5 minutes. We recommend hosting these videos on your website, social media channels, Kickstarter, and investment decks (when appropriate).

What are the Benefits? Increase brand reputation, increase consideration, leads, sales, and advocacy.

3. Product Commercial

What is it? When you want to highlight a product or service to your audience, a commercial can still be very effective. Product commercials introduce a new product or service, highlight some of the main features of at least the main features that appeal to the target audience of the video. These videos are more effective when they’re visually appealing, eye-catching and short. 

How do I use it? When starting to develop your commercial you want to consider your marketing strategy. Introducing a new product to an existing audience (Product Development), new product to a new audience (Diversification), existing product to new audience (Market Development) or existing product to an existing audience (Market Penetration) will all require different approaches. Knowing your strategy here can help guide your creative process.

You will want these videos to be high quality and under a minute, and usually under 15 seconds (or at least have a 15s cut available) if you’re going to run non-skippable ads on YouTube. Although these videos are short, it can take a lot of consideration to include all of the features in such a short timeframe.

What are the benefits? Increase leads, sales, product awareness.

4. Explainer Video

What is it? An explainer video is a mix of a brand video and a product demo. It highlights the features of your product or service for prospective customers. Usually, it stops short of explaining ‘how to use’ the product or service but gives the audience an idea of what to expect from your business.

How do I use it? These videos are typically up-beat, snappy, and short. It’ll give your audience an introduction to your business or product. The goal of these videos is to entice them to spend more time on your website or convince them to research your product/service in more detail. These videos are effective on your website, social media, or paid advertising.

What are the Benefits? Increase brand awareness, increase consideration, convert leads and sales

5. Explainer Video

What is it? Product demonstrations show how to use your product or service. If you have a complicated product or platform that users will have to navigate, it can help to give them added support and cut down on your customer support costs. Some products will show a physical demonstration but for products that aren’t tangible, the product/service can be effectively demonstrated with a screen record or basic animations.

How do I use it? You want to write a script that is extremely easy to understand. These videos can be quite long, although if you have a complicated product, you may want to consider breaking it down into different videos for each chapter. Often, customers will watch several videos before making a purchase decision and each one of these videos can be used indirectly in your sales funnel. Another option is to create a ‘Product Care’ video, this can help continue the relationship with your customers after they’ve made a purchase. Alternatively, if you have a very simple product you could even use a demonstration as a creative product ad.

What are the Benefits? Convert leads, increase sales, reduce customer support costs, increase retention rate.

6. Customer Testimonial

What is it? A testimonial video is a great way to add social proof to your business. These videos feature a customer or user of your product who talks about how great their experience was with your business. The format is fairly similar to a review. Usually, this is an interview-style video with some additional shots of the customer using the product laid over top. It’s important that these testimonials cover the ‘sticking points’ that prospective customers have so you can bring them closer to converting.

How do I use it? Often, we’ll see this video placed directly on the product or service page. This placement can be effective because customers will see the testimonial as they’re in the consideration stage for your product. If you’re just interviewing one customer, these videos can be as short as 30 seconds but it’s common to show multiple customers and run around 3 minutes or so.

What are the benefits? Increase brand awareness, build trust, convert leads to sales.

7. Showcase Video

What is it? A showcase video is similar to testimonial videos, but instead of asking a customer to give a review of their experience you want to showcase how they use your product. The benefit of this video is that you can borrow some ‘brand equity’ from your customers and appeal to a similar audience while giving them an idea of how they could implement your product themselves.

How do I use it? This video can be used on the product or service page of your website or it could also be effective on social media or paid advertising. This type of video is becoming more popular with larger corporations or businesses that have less of an ‘approachable’ face. By showcasing how their small business partners use their product they can effectively let their customers act as the face of their business.

What are the Benefits? Increase Brand Awareness, build authority & trust, increase leads, convert leads to sales.

8. Branded Documentary

What is it? Many brands are starting to fund short documentaries about causes that align with their values. The subject matter varies extensively, but as marketing tools, they can be very effective since the audience is choosing to watch the video. Consumers are getting better and better at tuning out advertising on all platforms so creating content that people want to watch can be a great way to expose your brand to people. 

How do I use it? You may want to create a landing page for this video and share clips on social media where you send people to your website. The goal here is to get as many eyeballs on this type of content so you’ll likely want to share on YouTube or Vimeo as well.

What are the Benefits? Increase Brand Awareness, Builds Authority

Summary

That’s it! We hope you picked up some ideas on how to spread your brand through video. The most amazing thing about video is that within each of these categories are hundreds of possibilities for each business. If you’ve picked a type of video to create but you’re stuck for ideas, try combining multiple concepts from this list and see what you can come up with!

VIDEO: Videographer vs Video Production

Do you need a video production company or a videographer for your business?  The line between videographers and video production companies can be blurry, especially since many businesses operate somewhere in the middle. 

When you’re trying to produce videos for your business, this can make it hard for you to know who to hire. It’s important for you to have a clear idea of what you want your video to accomplish before hiring anyone.

Once you have an idea of what challenges you want to address with your video, here are some things to consider when deciding who to hire. 

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations.  

What is a Videographer?

A videographer is usually a one person camera operator who also provides editing. The price for videography is typically lower than a video production company since the scale of the production is smaller. 

It used to be the case that videographers would cover events, weddings and small budget commercials with lower quality gear but now, high quality cameras are readily accessible and it’s made high production quality available at a much lower price point. 

Videographers will typically be more of a one-man-band, even though they may have an assistant or second videographer on their team. They’re usually considered to be generalists and will handle everything from composition, lighting, sound, set design, and directing. This is a pretty heavy workload for one (or even two people) so you’re usually sacrificing in every department to keep the cost low.

What is a Video Production Company?

A video production company usually consists of a larger team of specialists. You’ll typically have a producer who will assemble a team to create and execute a vision, whatever that may be.

Since they’re operating with a larger team, it’s crucial that there is a set plan and strategic/creative vision for the production. This means that more attention will be spent on pre-production. Developing a concept, script, shot list and plan for the production are all integral steps that a video production company will provide. 

On the production date, you’ll have a team assembled to execute the vision who have been assembled specifically for the project. If you’re shooting a product ad, you might have a specialist product Director of Photography (DoP) or if you’re doing interviews or studio work, a sound recordist might be brought on. The crew will be selected based on their specialization to achieve the best final video.

Cinematographers, Filmakers and Bears … Oh My!

You’ll also see a lot of freelancers who call themselves cinematographers, filmmakers, camera operators or even Directors of Photography (DoP or DP). What are these and how do you tell the difference? 

A Director of Photography and Cinematographer are both the same job and have a lot of responsibilities on a film set. They’re typically responsible for directing the look and feel of everything in front of the camera alongside the director. A camera operator is essentially a videographer but their role can be more specialized on a film set. If you see someone call themselves a DoP or Camera Op, they’re likely looking to get hired by a production company to work on a set rather than get hired directly by a business. 

When someone calls themselves a filmmaker, it’s usually used as a more general term for someone who can provide some or all of the roles on a film set.

Over the last several years, more and more freelance videographers are branding themselves as a filmmaker or a cinematographer without having the traditional experience of working as a DoP on larger sets. Although some traditionalists might dispute whether you can call yourself a DoP or Cinematographer without this experience, it’s more realistic to accept that these terms are becoming broader as the industry is evolving.

What’s the Difference?

The biggest difference between the two is that videographers will typically stick to what they can offer (their own style of filming and editing) while video production companies have larger networks and can provide a more diverse final videos (including: animations, special effects, documentary shoots, studio work, etc.).

Another big difference is the pre-production time in each project. Videographers will tend to film with less emphasis on pre-production. This can be beneficial if you’re hoping to reduce costs, but if you have a specific and targeted message that you need to convey it is crucial to have a script and shot list in advance. There’s nothing worse than having to reshoot a sequence that could have been captured on the production day. A good video production company will save you money in pre-production. 

Price is usually another difference between the two, videographers typically charge less than a video production company but this is more tied to the size of the production. A larger videographer team may even charge more than a small video production company for some projects. 

A video production company will typically produce the highest quality that they can within your budget, while videographers tend to add deliverables to fill your budget.

To boil down the difference between the two: a videographer will typically film action or activity while a video production company will design and craft what goes in front of the camera.

Important Considerations

Start by evaluating your options, these may be local companies or larger ones outside of your area if your budget allows. Look at their portfolios and pay attention to the style or the variety of videos that they’ve created. Take note of any options that stick out for you. 

We’d also recommend thinking about your message. Is there a specific story or goal that you need the video to communicate? If so, we’d recommend narrowing your options down to the video production companies you like.

If you’re hosting an event or want to capture footage that is less structured (and requires less planning) then you can narrow down the options to videographers who have more event coverage in their portfolio. This could also be a good option if you need a large bank of footage for social media at a lower price point.

Finally, we recommend that you consider the importance of an event in making your decision. If you have an executive or a celebrity coming in to be on camera, you’ll definitely want to spend the money on a production company to plan and execute the video with confidence. These occasions normally don’t have a second chance so it’s crucial to execute on the production date.

Who Do I Hire?

Overall, it’s best to look through the portfolio of your options and decide which style and level of production you want. Feel out the candidates and ask them about their workflow to get an idea of who will work best with you.

Since there isn’t a defined line between a videographer and a video production company, it’s more important to make your decision based on their experience, portfolio, workflow and ability to deliver within your budget.

VIDEO: We’re Live! Launching Our New Video Marketing Series

We’ve launched our new video series for marketers on YouTube! We want to help marketers and business owners level up their video marketing strategies. In this intro video we give a quick overview about who we are and where we are (spoiler: We’re a Victoria BC based Video Production Company) but we also have some info on what you can expect from the channel. Make sure you like, subscribe and tell your friends and coworkers!

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations.  

Video Marketing Channel Intro

Live Stream Your Event on a Budget

More and more videographers are starting to offer live streaming as a service. How do you know if you need professional live streaming or if you can do it yourself? We offer a professional live streaming service for events and ceremonies all around Victoria and Vancouver Island. We get a lot of inquiries about live streaming events and often, people don’t need or have the budget for professional videographers or broadcasting so we wanted to put this resource together to help.

We acknowledge that we live, work and create (and rent camera equipment) on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations.  

Should You Hire a Professional Live Streaming Service for Your Event?

With our live streaming service, we provide multiple cameras, audio mixing, consultation, and streaming. We offer a broadcast-quality live stream and can switch between multiple video sources efficiently while providing professional quality audio to both your in-person and online audiences. There are a lot of videographers out there who offer live streaming but aren’t capable of providing high-quality audio so it’s important to hire a team with experience in this area.

We also provide the added benefit of expertise in setting camera angles, lighting, and logistics of the event (where should people stand on stage, where to enter/exit, how should we light the stage, etc.). We also take care of all the gear logistics, setting up equipment, taking down after the event, and coordinating with any other vendors that you’ve hired for your event. 

You might be reading this and thinking that you don’t need any of these benefits, and you might not. Keep reading to help decide if you need a professional live streaming company and if not, how to live stream your event on a budget.

Do You Need a Professional Live Streaming Service?

This is an important question to ask before going further. If you don’t need a professional broadcast, then you can typically do it yourself and save a lot of money. Here are some questions to think about:

Are customers paying to watch this event? If you have a paying audience, then you will want to have a professional broadcast. No one wants to pay for a ticket and not be able to hear or see what’s going on during the event. Hiring a professional live streaming service is a way to ensure that you’re providing a high-quality service and entice your audience to pay for future events.

Do we need multiple cameras? For a lot of ceremonies, a single camera is sufficient. If you’re having a service or a speech where there is just one speaker at a podium or little on-stage movement, you might be able to set a fixed camera and leave it. If you have a speaker on stage and you want to show the stage as well as the emotion on their face, then you’ll want multiple cameras. If you have a ceremony with a speaker and recipients receiving an award then you probably want a closeup and a wide shot of the stage. If you want to show shots of the audience or have a feed of a presentation/videos during the ceremony, you’ll likely want a professional service. Having a professional broadcaster can help to manage multiple live feeds and cut between the appropriate video sources.

Do we need a camera operator? If you don’t have paying customers and you don’t need multiple cameras, you then want to think about camera movement. If your event will have a moving subject, then you’ll probably want to hire someone to operate the camera. Some events have a single stationary speaker or if you’re okay with only streaming a wide shot of your wedding, then you can probably set up a single camera and leave it to stream your event.

Are there multiple audio sources? This is one of, if not the most important aspects of a live stream and it’s also the most overlooked aspect. How are you going to mic the speaker or speakers for your event? If you have one speaker who will be speaking at a consistent volume or if you’re okay with sharing inconsistent audio with your viewers then you’re probably okay to use a single audio source and run the stream yourself. If you have multiple speakers, instruments, or music that you want to share then you’ll want an experienced team to mix the audio for your online audience.

Are you projecting audio for the in-person audience? If you want to have a subject on stage who is speaking with one mic and you want to use the same sound for in-person PA speakers and online, then you may want to consider hiring a professional sound mixer to manage the two outputs.

If you’ve read all this and think that you’re okay with a single stationary camera and a single audio source then we have some steps for you to host your own stream.

How To Live Stream Your Own Event 

Option 1: Live Stream from Your Phone (Under $100)

This is the easiest option for most people. You can live stream directly from your phone to many different apps including Facebook or YouTube. With YouTube, you’ll need a minimum number of subscribers to access the feature from mobile so we’re not going to include it here. If you have 50 subscribers on your YouTube Account you can live stream from mobile using the steps here.

To set up a live stream on Facebook, you’ll need to create an event (which can all be done on your phone). Go to the menu, select events, and you’ll see an option to create an event at the top of the screen. Make sure you select ‘Online’ for your event type and then follow the prompts to create your event name, date, and privacy settings. You’ll want to make sure that you select a Facebook Live event (and not a messenger room).

Once the event has been created and shared with your audience, select ‘Start Live Video’ from your phone and you’ll see your camera come up on the screen. Note that you won’t be live until you press the ‘Start Live Video’ button.

Your live stream will automatically use the microphone from your phone unless you have a microphone plugged into your phone. If the speaker is going to be far away from the phone or if you just want better sounding audio here are some options:

      • Plug a lavalier mic into your phone. Here is a cheap wired lav that works well if the speaker is going to be within a meter or two of the camera.
      • Set up a wireless Lav mic. Rode makes some great wireless options that can be used with your phone. Note that if you’re using the newer system that can have two mics, the only caveat is that you won’t have any control over the balance of the sources. If two people are speaking at the same time or if one person is coming out as too quiet, then you won’t be able to adjust this while you’re streaming.
      • Run a handheld mic into your camera. You can easily rent a handheld mic (or buy one with an aux output) and run a cable up to the speaker of the event. If you go this route you may need to get an xlr to aux converter so that you can plug the mic into your phone.

Aside from that, we would advise you to get a tripod for your phone and make sure that you test out your live stream beforehand to make sure that the audio and video both work properly. If you’re looking to rent, make sure you check out the vendors that we usually work with on our recommended Video Equipment Rental Houses in Victoria.

Option 2: Live Stream Using a DSLR or Mirrorless Camera ($100-$1,000)

For this step, you’re going to want to get a camera with good autofocus. Most newer cameras will suffice but both Canon and Sony are particularly well known for their constant autofocus. You will also need a laptop or computer to send out the live stream from the camera.

If you’re streaming on Facebook, use the same process described above to set up your Facebook Live event. If you’re using YouTube, you’ll need to verify your account in advance and then schedule the stream. You can do it following the steps here or there are several YouTube videos on the subject. When you are setting up your stream, make sure that you are setting it up to use a webcam. Although you’ll be using a separate camera, the following steps are going to have you set up your camera to work as if it were a webcam so you’ll need your live event to be set up to use a webcam.

When you’re setting up your camera to be used as a webcam, there are a couple of options. Some camera manufacturers have applications that allow you to plug your camera into the USB of your laptop. Newer Canon and Panasonic cameras (and likely other makes as well) for sure have this feature. If you have a cable that plugs into a micro-USB, USB-c or USB 3.0 Micro B on your camera and can plug into the USB or USB c on your laptop, then give this a try. This process will be different depending on your camera, so we recommend searching on Google ‘Using XXX Camera as a Webcam’ where XXX is your camera model.

If this doesn’t work, then you can still do this using the HDMI or Mini-HDMI port on your camera. You’ll need to buy something called a video capture card. This will allow you to plug your camera into your computer. If your laptop or computer has an extra HDMI port, you can not use this. Any HDMI ports on your computer will be HDMI output, not HDMI inputs. You’ll need to get a capture card if your camera does not have an app to use as a webcam.

Once this is set up, test a live stream or Zoom call and see if you can set your camera to be used as a webcam. This may take some troubleshooting but there are lots of YouTube videos showing you how to do this if you need.

If you’ve been able to set this up properly, your next step is to sort out the audio. You can plug a microphone directly into your camera and this will be used for the live stream. Have a look at the audio options that we recommended for the ‘live streaming using your phone’ section, as the same will work here using this camera.

From there you can go to your event on Facebook or live stream on YouTube and start the stream when you’re ready.

Go Live!

We would recommend testing out the stream a couple of times to make sure that you’re confident setting up the stream without issues. There’s always an added excitement when you know people are watching your broadcast live and it’s easy to make mistakes so it’s important to feel comfortable. 

If possible, you might also want to monitor the stream during the event to fix any issues that come up. If someone bumps the camera/phone or the mic has come unplugged, it could ruin the stream for your audience.If you feel like you want a professional team to take care of this, we’re always happy to help. You can see an example of some of our live streams here. We understand that not everyone has a budget or need for a professional streaming service and hope that this resource has made live streaming more accessible for you!

Field Notes 001: Vargas Island (Bonus: Backcountry Packing List)

We’re often reminded how lucky we are to be a part of a video production company on Vancouver Island and this project will always stand out.

Over the past summer, we took a trip into the backcountry on Vargas Island which is the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht, Ahousat, and Hesquiaht nations. We wanted to capture the experience of being on the island while showcasing the unique natural beauty of the area. Without any location scouting and a limited power supply, we had to plan our shoot with as much flexibility as possible.

The trip started with a spectacular flight over Tofino and was met with an unexpected turn of events but we were left with an unforgettable experience and some spectacular footage. 

For any adventure filmmakers, we even included our packing list at the bottom!

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

Vargas Island

Whether you’re going by water or air, Vargas Island is a beautiful 7km trip from Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The island is a photographer’s dream; sandy beaches, layered mountains, lush vegetation, and islands dotting the coast. Most of the island is now part of Vargas Island Provincial Park but there are several smaller private lots along the coast. The island even features a surf break if you’re interested in getting away from the crowds of Mackenzie or Long Beach.

Note: We were warned several times about wolves on the island, but didn’t see any ourselves. I would still recommend taking the necessary precautions and being smart about your food storage. The only surprise encounter we did have was with cell service and 5g data on our phones!

Ocean view on Vargas Island

Day 1 – Arriving in Tofino

We left Victoria at 4 am and began the journey up towards Tofino. After a quick stop in Port Alberni, we were able to get past the construction at Kennedy Hill without much of a wait. With a little extra time, we stopped at Long Beach to watch some surfers and review our shooting schedule for the day before heading to the airport.

Atleo airlines took us on an amazing flight and they even took one of the doors off so we could get better aerial shots (my first experience hanging out of a helicopter while filming and loved every minute of it). We did a couple of laps around Tofino and circled Lone Dome before making a beach landing on Vargas. We’re fortunate that our pilot mentioned that low cloud cover could prevent a pick-up on Day 3 because if we didn’t catch this we could easily have missed another shoot we had scheduled back in Victoria.

After arriving, our priority was setting up shelter and tying up our food supply before getting any shots. While filming, we prioritized the beach area closer to our camp so we could venture out further on Day 2. The skies were clear and we weren’t sure if it would stay so we took off with our drone to catch at least one golden hour. Since we were filming on private property, we were able to launch without any issues and caught some amazing footage of the island at sunset.

Helicopter shots on Vargas

Day 2 – Turn of Events

Since we did have cell service, we were able to text the helicopter pilot about the incoming weather and he recommended an early pick up at 3 pm. This caught us off guard since we still had a day and a half of shooting planned, which we now had to cram into 8 hours.

Some clouds rolled in over the morning and we used this as an opportunity to get several close-ups of various features around the property with soft lighting. Often when you’re shooting in nature, it’s easy to get caught up with the beautiful landscapes and forget about the little details that you’re experiencing. For us, it was the ocean breeze through the grass, the shell beach crunching under our feet, and waves crashing on the rocky shore that completed the experience.

Luckily, we still had enough time to venture into the forest where we found a mossy creek full of ferns and fallen trees. We decided to risk a flight under the canopy with our drones. This is a technique that a lot of people don’t think to use; drones are great for landscapes but they’re so much more versatile than that. We ended up with some unique gimbal-like shots under the canopy that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.

With our last hour, we went snorkeling and grabbed some underwater shots before heading back over to the pick-up spot. For anyone who ever wants to film a helicopter landing on a beach, I would strongly encourage you to use a cover for your camera.

Day 3 – A Blank Sheet

So unfortunately, this 3-day trip became a 2-day trip and Day 3 was spent charging batteries, cleaning out sand from everywhere and backing up our 730 GB of footage. This shoot was a really unique opportunity for us and was a great chance to put our pre-production process to the test. Had we not shot listed and scheduled our time out accordingly, we wouldn’t have been able to re-adjust or could have potentially missed some crucial shots.

Bonus Packing List

For anyone interested in backcountry filmmaking, here’s our packing list:

Camera Gear

      • Blackmagic Pocket 6k Pro
      • V Mount Batteries
      • Sigma 18-35
      • Canon 24-105
      • Rain Cover
      • DJI Mavic Air 2S
      • DJI Mavic Mini
      • GoPro Hero 7 Black
      • 500GB Samsung SSD’s
      • Various SD & Micro SD cards
      • Microfiber cloths
      • Lens Blower/Cleaner
      • Camera Brush
      • Tripod

Camping Gear

      • Tent
      • Headlamps
      • Backpacks
      • First Aid Kit
      • Rain Jackets
      • Hiking Boots
      • Sleeping Bags
      • Thermal layers
      • Sleeping Pad
      • Rope
      • Dry Bags
      • Stovetop
      • Propane
      • Pots and Pans
      • Rain jacket

Food

      • Water 
      • Water purifying tablets
      • Several Backcountry meals
      • Clif Bars
      • Pita & Hummus
      • Oatmeal
      • Flavoured Electrolyte Mix
      • Coffee
      • Trail Mix 
Contact Us
contact@surfandstonestudios.com