Video Production Strategies: Time Saving Tips and Tricks

If you are like me, you use video as a marketing tool for your design studio. Building a video series for your brand or business is no small task. It takes someone with the technical know-how for video production and expert knowledge of the industry you are in to build an effective marketing presence through online video. Most of the time this role is given to a single person at a startup or a small team in a well-established brand. Most find it difficult to keep a weekly schedule of videos required to keep an engaged audience. But fear not budding Steven Spielberg in the making!  Here are some tips to integrate into your routine to help you create content at a faster pace.

Plan your release schedule:

You wouldn’t start a business without a plan, so don’t plan your videos about your business without one either. Make a list of 100 topics you could make videos on, then break them into smaller categories. For instance, I’m a VR designer, so it would make sense to do a month of building level layouts as a series then move on to the next subject once completed. Depending on how your release schedule looks like, you may break these video subjects by either a day, week, month or quarter. I tend to release two videos on the same subject during the week and a live stream while I work on larger projects so my audience can follow along or ask questions in real time.

Live stream when you don’t have time:

Sometimes life gets in the way and you might not have had the time to prepare a video for the week. If you can’t find the 3-4 hours to make a great video, you can always live stream instead.

This way, you can keep your release schedule and have a conversation with your audience at the same time. Be sure to let your followers know ahead of time so they can tune in. Have a list of topics you want to talk about ahead of time. It’s best to have 3-4 topics you can dive into with your audience that fit within a larger theme.

Film several weeks at once:

This may be the golden tip of time-savers for producing online video content. Film as many videos as you can at once, as setting up your camera, audio equipment and lights are time-consuming. By filming several videos all at once you can save yourself the hassle of doing the setup and breakdown for each shoot. Just be sure to change your clothes between filming each video so it appears that you filmed them week-to-week instead of all at once.

Side Note: I once filmed two months worth of videos right before I went on a diet. When I had to shoot the next series there was a visible difference in my weight. I received several Twitter messages about my “unhealthy weight loss” and health concerns over losing the weight so fast. If you are planning major changes to your appearance, it might be helpful to let your community know so you don’t end up with the same issue I did.    

Repurpose your content to other platforms:

You spent all that time on making your content, why would you just let your finished product sit in one place? If you are doing great audible content you might repurpose that audio from video into a podcast. If your thing is more “on the fly” use products like restream.io to broadcast to multiple video platforms at the same time. (It also consolidates your chat into one stream from multiple sources for easy back and forth.) These methods can help you make a widespread content net to reach more potential new viewers which you can convert into new fans.   

Cross-pollination helps your reach:

One of the goals of putting out videos is to build an audience you can later utilize. When you “cross-pollinate” you are essentially giving another video creator access to your audience and in return, they give you access to their audience. This is done by either making collaboration content or to guest appear on each other’s channels of influence. When you look for other channels to cross-pollinate with, it’s best to seek audiences that are similar to your own. As an example, if your content is about Flash animation, it wouldn’t make sense to cross-pollinate with a channel about interior decorating. You should take in audience size, quality and subject matter into account when you are looking into collaborations. This way, you can find channels that are similar to your own.  

With these time-saving methods, you can stockpile your marketing video content faster so you can focus on things that really matter. Go forth and build that audience!  

More about Eugene, a VR evangelist and visual designer immersed in pushing the boundaries of where tech and design collide. When he is not in the lab creating his next T-shirt design or VR film, he hosts the VR talk show Glitched.

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