Sending out a Company Christmas Video for your Clients
Shooting a video at Christmas is a great way to stand out and send an alternative greeting to your customers and contacts. It also allows you to have some fun and communicate the personality of your company. If you are considering doing this, here are some thoughts that may help you…..
1/ Idea:
When brainstorming ideas you need to consider the following:
Who can be in the video (how many of you are there, who is available, who wants to be in it?!)
Where can you shoot it?
How long do you have to shoot it?
Are you shooting it yourself or do you have the budget to bring in a video company?
Do you want to do something music based – there are so many great music songs that you can utilize and there is no easier way than to create some Christmas spirit in your audience than with a good Christmas tune!
How are you sharing it with people?
All these answers will help you come up with an appropriate idea. It’s no good with wanting to create a scene from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ if there are only 3 of you available and you have to shoot it in an hour in your office!
See some examples of some great company Christmas videos here to inspire you:
2/ Planning:
Once you have your idea, you must plan to ensure the shoot is as easy and time efficient as possible. If you are pulling people out of their work to do the shoot you need to take up as little time as possible from them, otherwise you won’t be popular – so good preparation is the key!
Consider if you need props or accessories – even some tinsel, santa hats or bauble decorations can add some sparkle to the team singing a christmas song – but it all needs gathering!
3/ Shooting:
If you are shooting a music based piece with people singing along to a tune or actually singing themselves, the best way to shoot it to film the audio of the singing first and then play this back through speakers, getting the staff to mime to this, to get the same timing and then edit together the visuals of the miming with the audio of the singing. This allows for the audio to be seamless, otherwise you will have jumps as you edit between people.
If your piece requires movement or scenes to be acted out then make sure you have the ability to control your location setting, so that you don’t have random people cutting across and spoiling your shot when you are in the middle of it! Also be aware of any background noise that may spoil the audio of what you are filming.
If you are using a video professional to film it for you they will take care of all of this.
4/ Editing:
Whether you are editing it yourself or a video professional is cutting it together for you, know what you want to end piece to look like. Consider whether an post production effects would work and add impact i.e. snow or added glitz or graphics.
You may want to add music in the edit, if you have’t incorporated it in the filming.
5/ Sharing it:
How are you going to get people to see you video?
The obvious place is to put it on your website for the whole of the Christmas period.
It is also a good idea to send it out to all your clients and prospects as your video greeting. This can be done on the email (linking to YouTube, Vimeo or wherever your video is hosted).
Alternatively if you want to stand out and have some budget to really be memorable, send them a DVD or a USB stick with the video on.
Obviously use social media platforms to share and promote your video too.
Happy Christmas Video Making!….
See below some Christmas videos we like….
http://vimeo.com/54777184
