New Trends in Mobile Filmmaking

Mobile Filmmaking that sounds terrible, right? Those of us who are filmmakers might cringe at the thought of making a film, show, or commercial with an iPhone right? I’ll be truthful I do. We all think we’re Martin Scorsese and take our filmmaking almost religiously. That being said mobile filming is getting better and better with more quality results. If you can’t afford it or you're in a situation where you can’t always be lugging around a professional camera and gear then maybe you might want to consider going the mobile filmmaker route.

Moment

Moment is a company that produces some really high-quality products. I bought one of their lenses and it’s made of real metal and glass and not plastic like so many other options on the market. It did a great job and I was happy with the results. I purchased a 60mm lens and when placed on the iPhone’s zoom lens it worked well. When put on the wide lens of the iPhone there was a slight vignette around the edges. Again it worked well on the 2.5x zoom lens on the iPhone.

I also purchased the mini boom mic that attaches to the iPhone and I thought it did a nice job picking up my voice while recording a video. Moment sells several different lenses and I would definitely purchase another one if and when I advance my mobile gear. They have a 14mm fish-eye lens, an 18mm wide lens, a 58mm telephoto, and an anamorphic lens. Moment also sells many other types of gear such as gimbals, cages, phone mounts, and more.

There is some interesting advancement in mobile cinematography reported by the “CineD” website. In the article, they are testing and exploring the options of attaching a full-sized anamorphic cinema lens to an iPhone 15 Pro. What!? Cool huh? The question on their minds is, with new advances in cage designs and technology aiding you, how good would your footage look recorded with an iPhone Pro but with the attachment of a professional lens? The results of the test looked quite good. The iPhone doesn’t have a professional-grade sensor so you can only go so far with the quality. But if you are shooting for commercial purposes, you might get by with an iPhone, the new attachment technology, and a series of pro lenses. Obviously in this advancement in mobile technology don’t forget about the importance of having good audio lighting and movement. The other elements of filmmaking will come into play and must be well represented whether you are shooting with a RED cinema camera or the one currently in your pocket. The future of mobile filmmaking is here and seems to be only getting better which is to be truthful kind of exciting. Don’t tell Scorses I said that.

Read the article here and learn more about the advances in mobile filming. https://www.cined.com/iphone-15-pro-anamorphic-experiment-what-makes-a-cinema-camera-by-michael-cioni-strada/

Three Keys to Social Media Marketing

Woman with phone and coffee

Social Media is a 20+ year phenomenon that will be around for a while. I remember when the web was just a series of sites for organizations that provided information or sell something. Nowadays, social media has taken over the web in various forms, and people can spend hours chatting, commenting, liking, and scrolling through ads, posts, videos, memes, articles, tutorials, and much more. The juggernauts of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube are here to stay, and many others are finding ways to give themselves longevity. As of this writing, social media has also become a powerful tool for digital marketing.

Marketing was confined to television, newspapers, magazines, and billboards. Now, great and small companies advertise to fantastic success through social media, with ads going straight to their patrons’ phones. What are some keys to growing your business awareness on social sites?

Create Customer Personas.

What is a customer persona, and how can it help you? A customer person represents a group of similar fictional people with characteristics and demographics that define the target audience you want to reach. What they help you do is focus your content creation on the people that you are reaching and that you are hoping to reach with your product or service. If your product is a new brand of dog food, you don’t want to market it to people who don’t have dogs.

These personas are visual to help you remember who you are reaching and their interest. Consider these things to add to your persona: name, age, location, household, and education. If you want to go further, you can add a photo that looks like your persona. Next, ask yourself what are your person’s goals. What is your person online for? What do they want to achieve? What interest does your persona have that your company or service will fulfill? What is the pain that your product or service will solve for them?

Planning and Publishing

Use your personas to plan your marketing strategy to reach your customers. It’s essential to make a consistent presence on social media. This will make you stand out and keep your content fresh before potential customers. Then, use scheduling tools to keep your posts on track so that they are consistent and come out when your audience is on their devices. Don’t have a post come out at 3 a.m. when no one will see it. Some social media scheduling tools are Social Champ, Buffer, Hootsuite, AgoraPulse, and many more. Don’t dismiss the joint Facebook and Instagram MetaBusiness Suite.

Woman with smart phone.

S.M.A.R.T

Ensure your planning goals are S.M.A.R.T. This acronym is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. These are so important to follow. Your social media marketing goals need to be specific. If your goal is unclear, you will reach in every direction and never accomplish anything. Your goals need to be measurable. If you can’t measure the goal, how will you know if you achieved it or even if it is achievable? We all want to make significant, lofty goals, but make sure your goals are attainable and you can complete them with your budget and resources. Your goal needs to be relevant. A relevant goal must align with your larger vision or overall business plan. A time-bound goal must have an end in sight with a specific date to finish.

There is much to learn about these keys and digital marketing, and I will continue to share them in future posts. I hope you can use these to help you with your social media marketing objectives.

5 Steps to Filming Announcement Videos

A current trend in churches is to have an announcement video. This is a video that is short but gives the relevant information that is needed to be known by the congregation and social media followers. This video highlights all the pertinent points of interest that are happening at the church. There is no right or wrong way to do announcement videos but I do have my preferences and points of advice.

5 Steps to Filming Announcment Videos

1. Choose Exciting Talent.

2. Choose a Good Background

3. Write Engaging Script

4. Camera Placement and Lighting

5. Fun and Creative Editing

Choose Engaging Talent.

Choosing talent may not be up to you as the videographer. However if you have the power to wield, make sure you put some thought into your talent that will be on screen. The person you choose doesn’t have to be Leonardo DiCaprio or Meryl Streep, but they should have some presence on screen. A bright personality, a strong clear voice and charming smile are keys. Annoucncments should be memoralble and hopefully enjoyable. The right talent on the video is a key component to the final product.

Choose a Good Background

Choosing the right background may seem silly to most, after all who cares right? But a good background can brighten, enhance and helps tell the story of the message being conveyed. A plain white wall is ok, but it subtly brings the production value down. If your messages are about things happening in the Autumn and your background is bright summer looking colors, the wrong message is being sent out.

I remember one video I shot with my talent and the announcement had several Fall related materials in them and this video would be showing during the month of November. We were filming at the church and I wanted to find a suitable background. I remember there being some Autumn decor in the children’s room so we filmed down there and rearranged the decor to look just right for our video. Finding the right location is key.

Write an Engaging Script

Your script doesn’t have to be long, but it shouldn’t just consist of the bare minimum information either. Your script should be poppy, and engaging with the audience to help them remember the vital information being presented. Remember that, the announcements should be presented not just read off a sheet. Your script should draw people in and even give them some details or more to the point some heart on why the congregation should join in the upcoming events.

Camera Placement and Lighting

Primarlily and traditionally the camera should be placed right in front of the talent. That being siad you don’t have to have a head to toe shot of the talent. A waist up shot or a head and shoulders shots are good too. You can vary them to keep the contnet interesting and keep the audience engaged. If you really want to be creative you can shoot it like a documentary and show the talent in a three quarter view looiking off camera.

Lighting is also very important. You arn’t shootig a Hollywood blockbuster here, but the talent should be easy to see and there should be no weird shadows. Make sure the background is also well lit, just be sure it’s not more dominant than the main subject.

Fun and Creative Editing

Technology continues to bring us wondrous advances in filmmaking to improve how we view movies.

Ridley Scott

I could share all about working with Final Cut Pro and I do love Final Cut, make no mistakes about that; but in this post I’m not going to talk about it. Sometimes it is ok and even necessary to cheat and use…Canva. Yes I said it. There are a ton of customizable templates that are quick and simple to use to help you make your announcement video. If you’re a serious editor and you're offended by this, sorry, but when it comes time to crank out a quality video monthly then I go to Canva to fill in the blanks.

I hope this post helps you think about making your churches announcement videos and gives you a few tips and pieces of advice to take your videos from forgettable to memorable and yes even enjoyable.