Unleashing the Power of Visual Storytelling

We all see how video content has overrun everything else on the internet. Every website on planet Earth runs videos somewhere, and all the social media apps imaginable have short or long form video content front and center. This presents unique and creative opportunities for businesses and non-profits. You see, most of these video platforms are free. Posting a video on YouTube does not cost you anything, and you can link that video all over your socials and website. There are paid options we recommend, but the baseline service is usually free. We here at Acclaim want to go through some important points in video marketing, as some of you might not even know where to begin when working with a marketing firm that can offer video production.

Visual storytelling is unmatched. We can read articles all day long about a person who overcame a hardship, but to watch a video where you hear the pain in their voice, the tears in their eyes, and the expression of their face contains so much information and drama that it feels like the most human medium. Confect.io has a great article breaking down the statistics of video versus still ads. Video ads receive an incredible 612% more likes and comments than still ads. The only downside is the production cost of a video advertisement versus a photo advertisement, as video tends to be much more expensive.

Cleveland is a great city to film in. There are tons of monuments and parks, art and museums, and a multitude of places that are visually pleasing to film. We have often filmed in the heart of the city with the buildings behind our subject or used the city as a B-roll. We have a modest office right on Euclid Avenue where we have filmed multiple interviews and podcasts. One of the most popular styles of video is a straightforward interview where our clients have talked about their company, their successes, and their futures. Depending on what the client has in mind, and the end goals we have set, we usually focus on the human aspect of video production.

We prefer authentic voices in videos, but we also create voiceovers for clients who might be shy or who have a specific vision for their video. We also have multiple times a month where we pack up a small studio’s worth of lights, cameras, and film on-site at a facility or center. If we want to show off machines running in the background what better way than to have the subject speaking in front of those machines?

Some more of the more entertaining videos we have made are comedic short-form vertical videos where people will tell us their favorite Starbucks order, or their favorite music they are listening to lately. Adding in graphics and sound effects to mimic that new-age style of kids editing on their phones is a blast, and if done right can be incredibly engaging.

Everyone has a busy schedule, and it is important to stay on the same page, especially with a video project. Acclaim has taken multiple approaches to this, from bi-weekly Zoom calls to seeing what happens depending on our client’s schedules. There have been times where “planning” is not even an option, but we keep communication open and try to film everything as best we can within the restraints we might face.

The pre-production phase is less dependent on clients’ availability and more reliant on them reading a script or looking over a shot list. Acclaim will make storyboards and scripts in advance so when we get to the day of the shoot we can maneuver around interruptions more efficiently. Let us be fair, things happen, emergencies come up, and life is never smooth sailing one hundred percent of the time.

We work with clients to create new logos and animations, or we obtain their branded intros/outros and match everything in the video to a branded guideline. We will make sure to keep the style of your company front and center with whatever video project we create, your vision is our vision. Sometimes we find ourselves in a position where our client might not have any preference or idea and leaves the creative endeavors to our videographer and video editor. Trust us, they love flexing their creativity.

We have a small warehouse worth of camera equipment, from gimbals to sliders to drones, we will have every angle you can imagine. Most of our video is shot one of two Sony FX3s with a wall of lights, and a bag full of boom and lavalier mics. We usually get there an hour to a half hour early to scope out the environment and set up our equipment. Cinematography is also important to us; our videographers often walk paths and briefly practice holding the gimbal with the camera and lifting or pushing pulling the camera into specific shots.

High quality footage is important, but cinematography cannot suffer because of overindulgence on the specs of a video. A well sectioned shot with movement and consistent subject in 1080p will always look better than a static shot from a tripod on a subject in ultra 4k HD while the subject is moving. Acclaim prides itself on cool shots more than anything else, it is honestly what can turn a video from great to awesome.

In the editing room we have an incredibly powerful computer, honestly one that can run any video game you can imagine on ultra-high graphics. It has a twelve core Ryzen 9 processor with an Nvidia 3070 graphics card. Any animations, motion graphics, or intense edits are like warm butter for this monster of a computer. We edit in Premiere Pro from Adobe, but our editors are fluent in almost any editing program on the market. We believe utilizing all tools can be a powerful boon when you are working in a creative field.

Our philosophy in the post-production process is to make sure you are involved. We offer multiple revisions to a video, so far the record is sixteen, and we will sit with you and talk through each scene individually. This helps us gauge where your concerns are at, and it also helps you grasp an idea of what the ad will look like eventually so we can plan to launch it on social sites or your website. We also plan out SEO for descriptions and tags, and usually have meetings with our client to discuss the demographics we are directing towards with Google Ads and Meta.

Make sure to ask about what types of videos they have created in the past and be sure to watch a little bit of their work. Check a marketing firm’s website as well, they usually have more examples of their work up there. Inquire about graphics and animations in their videos and what their capabilities are in those regards. Voice acting is cool, but creating a script can be arduous, make sure whoever you choose has a decent record of editing and revising scripts maybe a little too many times.

As always, if you have questions on video production here in Cleveland you can always reach out to our team. We are happy to help, and happy to talk shop.