Brien Lee

Making Video Work For You: The VideoStory Seminars

Want to make videos for a living? Want to make videos (real videos) as your hobby?

The digital explosion we are immersed in offers many opportunities for the video enthusiast and entrepreneurial risk-taker. Would you like to start a new business? Would you like additional income? Read on, and we'll give you some tips-- based on 30 years experience-- about why NOW is the time to jump in the video storytelling game.

First, let's talk about your situation. Do you like to shoot video? Have you tried to use your computer to make video slide-shows or short videos? Do you love the sound of applause? Yes? Then read on.

Do you like stories? Do you like telling stories? Do you like seeing stories—on TV, film, even the web? If so, read on.

Are you comfortable financially, or perhaps retired? Are you looking for a second career or income? Or (if you're like I was) would you like to veer off the road most-taken and make storytelling via electronic methods your FIRST career? Then once again-- read on.

The Video Explosion

Video is everywhere. All over the web, on TV, cable, portable DVD players, even iPods, cellphones and PDA’s. Compare this with just twenty years ago when most people watched TV through a rabbit ear antennas and VHS (or Betamax) tape. Quality video in the form of Digital video camcorders and high-quality DVD burners and players have meant that we can make and see video anywhere. One video show can now be distributed on cable, DVD, on the web, on video projectors in your living room—well you get the idea.

This means more audiences, and more opportunities. Not all video need be for broadcast TV, or even for business-to-business use. The web has shown us that video can be for fun (and some fun videos have jump started some careers!) There are opportunities for local documentaries, family histories, tributes to key people in your life, local political persuasion, or even just a more animated and entertaining version of Uncle Al’s slide show.

Tech versus Touch

Anyone can buy a camcorder, a software program, and a DVD burner and claim to be a video producer. But the fact is that the technical aspects of video storytelling are not what will separate you from Uncle Al’s last vacation footage snoozer. To paraphrase Ray Kroc of McDonald’s, “It’s the Story, Stupid.”

Yes, there are important technical considerations. You will need a certain level of camcorder, computer, and software, plus a few other accessories and add-ons. Let’s not minimize that.

But anyone can do that. What most people can’t do is tell a story. Storytelling is something we stress in our seminars. There are “story secrets” that will make your next video or web-based flash video many cuts above the rest. Here are a few:

• A good video story will have a theme, or a hook. It is the place of departure for the audience, and the place to which they must return. They need a touchstone, and the hook provides it.
• A good story has a beginning, middle, and end. Audiences understand chronology. Never throw an audience a curveball that stops them from thinking about your main story. You can’t turn off the DVD player or web-stream and offer them time to ponder a point. You are providing an experience—a beginning, middle, and end.
• No matter how pretty the pictures, sound are your secret weapon. Sound tells the audience how to feel. Music carries emotion; real sound from the locations you shot at provides realism.
• Long shot, medium shot, close-up, cutaway. Signage, details. That’s film school in nine words.
• Never wear out your welcome. If they love your show, let them watch it twice, but never make the show longer than they can handle. Listen for coughing, the sound of seats squeaking, the trips to the bathroom. Can you hear those things? Uh-oh.