Great videos start with great stories and video is the perfect medium for storytelling in our modern
world.
Many people carry around a device in their pocket where they can watch videos all the time and video
is both visual and audio so it's a great way to give your story to an audience.
Now figuring out what story you want to tell with video is a whole nother story.
Sometimes you might already have that story in mind and you know that it would make the perfect video.
And for me this came about last year when I was thinking about making a short documentary and I had
a friend who was unfortunately diagnosed with a class or Lou Gehrig's disease in his mid 20s and he
was a professional award winning photographer and he basically couldn't use his hands to change the
settings on his camera anymore.
But after a couple of years he figured out a way to still take photos from his wheelchair and this whole
story was just so inspiring to me that I knew it would make a great documentary.
Now you may not have that perfect story to tell right now.
But as filmmakers we're always on the lookout for a great story.
Even when I was shooting the Anthony Carver documentary I'm always on the look out for inspiration for
my next video.
If you're struggling to find a story shoot something you're passionate about.
You should always be really excited about what you're shooting.
So if you start by shooting your passion you may be able to evolve and develop a story or something
out of that.
I for example really like hockey so I shoot a lot of hockey video sometimes I just take my camera out
there and before and after games I get out there and I shoot and really because I'm passionate about
it the story will sort of find me sorry advice to you to get started with finding your story is to get
out there and shoot your passions.
It's a great place to start looking for inspiration and hopefully it will spark your next idea.
So if you have an idea subject or the type of it you will make or even if you're still a little lost
and trying to figure out what you want to do You should really just go online and see what else is out
there going to youtube going to Instagram search companies that you know you like well they're similar
to your own company and just start grabbing inspiration from those things see how they made them look
at each shot individually and think of oh they went in and they shot this watch on the shot this close
up and so analyze how it was made so you can go and use your own style or use your own techniques to
make a video better than that one you know be better than the the videos of grabbing inspiration from
or you know use similar tricks.
I know for myself when I first started with Major Lazer I had shot of some events but never at that
level and so I went out and saw what other big acts were doing seeing how people covered their events.
Were they doing behind the scenes shots with is doing just really cool fast editing all these different
things and over time I developed my own style I developed the my way of approaching it and it's really
it's been a great learning experience for me.
And each is different each approach is different but I'm always looking out there and seeing what other
people are doing to know.
Oh my gosh you know these guys for this video and I got 500 million views.
OK well people obviously like that so they like something that they're doing they're all going to try
doing something similar.
But again my subject matter is different.
I'm a different filmmaker so it's going to be my own style.
When you're coming up with your video idea you've got to think about how engaging your video will be
and with engagement comes down to a couple of things.
But one is the length of your video.
There's no perfect length for a video.
I always say that your video should be as long as it takes to tell your story.
For some stories this might be two hours for some stories it's 10 hours it's a full season of TV shows.
For some it's a 30 second clip on Instagram.
There's no perfect length for your video but remember that we do live in a world where people's attention
spans are getting shorter and shorter and shorter.
So trimming the fat and keeping it short will make it more engaging.
Aside from the length of your video engagement comes across with how you make your videos as well including
what types of shots you have a video with one long shot of someone talking at the camera isn't going
to be as engaging as that same video with multiple shots or multiple people telling that same story
also adding things like music graphics or titles can make your videos more engaging.
Here's a checklist to help come up with your next video to think about what you're passionate about.
Research the videos that you're drawn to that you can gain inspiration from better video ideas off your
friends family because getting a second opinion can help you develop your idea.
Use a tool like Google Trends to see what's currently trending or just hop over to YouTube to see what
the trending videos of the day are.
Think of things that make your video stand out among the rest.
Use these tips to start thinking about your next video topic.