DIY Marketer's Handbook: How to successfully produce news-worthy videos

One of the strategies that we employ on behalf of our clients is creating news-like video segments that we place with local and ethnic TV stations. If the segment is interesting and well-produced, many will gladly take it and insert it into their news programming. When this happens—it’s a Win-Win for everyone. The station gets a good news segment without having to produce it and our clients gain valuable exposure.

Though video production is not a stand-alone service we offer, we often take on the producer’s role because video production budgets can run really high and many of our small business clients cannot afford to pay $4-5K for a video. We hire quality camera, editing and voice-over talent, which when hired individually can often end up costing well under $500.

In addition to being pitched to local news, these videos can be featured on your company’s website and leveraged across social media—adding an air of respectability and credibility to your brand.

So if you are going to be producing such a video yourself (btw, we are always happy to recommend freelancers to hire for this), here are some suggestions to have your first video turn out great:

Planning

• Have a plan and a loose scenario for a finished product.
• Always start planning with the question: What is the video about? Keep this in mind throughout the production process and communicate to the production team so that the resulting product relates the message you’d intended. (Hint: If during this phase you say that your video is about how widget X you produce is revolutionizing the way people can do Y—you won’t end up with 2 minutes of yourself talking about yourself.)
• If producing a video for news or social media broadcast, keep in mind that a typical segment should be under 3 minutes, while individual sound bites should stay within 13 seconds.

Pre-production

• To assure a great end product, prevention is the best medicine:
• Draft a loose scenario for the segment beforehand and share with the videographer/production team. This will assure that all important elements get filmed.
• For those who’ll be quoted on camera, share your vision for the segment and ask in advance the questions that may be asked on camera.
• If filming a small event, be sure that a separate sound recording is made alongside video for potential use in editing.  
• Make sure you create sufficient B-roll footage (low-intensity footage that may be used alongside scripted voiceover) by “staging” action.  

Speaking on camera

• Prepare and rehearse succinct and brief statements.
• Pause between sentences and avoid long “speeches” that only make sense as a whole.
• Pay attention to intonation—avoid significant pitch fluctuations.
• Remember that the video editor will be “cutting” interviews for time as well as to tie various segments of the finished piece together.

It’s always a good idea to take photographs alongside and send to local publications along with a press release or even a pre-written story (you’ll be surprised at how many publications will jump at the chance to use a ready-to-print material—providing that it’s interesting and well-written. Here are a few tips for taking good event photos: 

• When photographing events, be sure to have “in-action” shots, not just staged group shots.
• Select best photographs and be sure to immediately create captions and record subjects’ names.
• We suggest creating a centralized and easily shared repository for photographs (any photo sharing platform will do) so that you can provide photographs to go along with the story instantly.

Good luck!