The best brand videos tell an engaging story. They immerse consumers into a world where brand messaging, tone, and personality come to life. While great brand videos seem effortless, there is a lot that goes into achieving these mini masterpieces.

7 Tips to Epic, Authentic Videos

1. Create a Mood Board

A mood board is like a visual checklist, allowing you and your team to pull inspiration from the Internet, magazine clippings, or other sources, and organize it by art direction, typography, b-roll footage, etc. At BOLTGROUP, we share these mood boards both internally and externally for buy-in on the general look and feel of the video we’re creating.

2. Storyboard Your Video

Storyboards translate ideas from your mood board into a linear narrative. They make it easier to define video length, identify needed shots, and map out scene transitions. We share this with the production team in advance to help them determine the best time and day to shoot, and how many people will be needed to execute the video. This too is presented to the client so that any adjustments / additions are finalized beforehand.

3. Hire the Right Talent

The talent you hire for your videos should appear authentic and relatable to the general audience. Most people are quick to go to Ford’s model / talent website and select models from the fashion category, which is fine if you’re filming a beauty products video. However, if you’re shooting a hospital video, choose from Ford’s lifestyle section, or use actual hospital staff. A good example of using real people is the Publix Careers Series.

4. Two (or Three) Cameras are Better Than One

Whether you’re shooting a presentation or a documentary, have multiple cameras shooting at the same time. The secondary camera acts as support, capturing multiple angles and detailed shots that can later be spliced into your main footage as b-roll. B-roll is supplemental footage inserted as a cutaway to help breathe life and texture to your narrative. For example, Nowness‘ interview with Aliona Doletskaya uses b-roll to engage viewers and to give a glimpse of the Muscovite’s world and passions. Use this to your advantage when filming interviews and webinars.

5. Add Music

Music is a way to add depth and pace to your video. Laying in music is like wearing fragrance: it should complement, not overpower, the person’s chemistry. When we were producing FOX’s “A Day in the Life of” videos, we wanted to convey energy and how much the clinicians accomplish in one day. We also took into consideration the personality of the clinician and how that would “sound.”

There’s so many royalty-free sites, like PremiumBeat, where you can select audio by genre, mood, etc.  When choosing background music for your video, a good tip is to look at the beats per minute (BPM). For videos that are low energy, 70-90 BPM is ideal, while videos that are vibrant work better with 100 BPM or higher.

6. Incorporate Branded Graphics

This is where you make sure your video’s look is cohesive with your visual brand identity. All title cards and captions should use your established typography and color palette. A good example is the video we recently produced for Little Burros’ Burro Buddy. The look was inspired by Little Burros packaging. This helps not only with brand recognition, but also keeps everything looking consistent.

7. Now Edit!