Would you like to know how to shoot and edit an “Event Highlights Reel” for your next event or speaking engagement? Well, I want to share my process to make this simple.
I recently attended one of my favorite businesses conferences of the year, Funnel Hacking Live (or FHL 2020). FHL is not your typical marketing event. It’s not a boring, stuffy conference, but a learning festival with the most positive digital marketers and entrepreneurs you’ll ever meet.
This was my second year attending FHL and I just loved producing this highlights video of my amazing week in Nashville with the some of the most “awesomest” people on the planet.
To get the most out of this blog post, please watch the video below. It’s short. It’s fun. And my tips will make a LOT more sense if you watch this first, okay? Push the “play button.”
PART ONE: VIDEO PRODUCTION (WITH MY iPHONE):
I’m pulling back the “wizard behind the curtain” to share my basic process on producing an event video (and how I edit the footage into an event highlights video). This method is great for documenting your business events (or life events).
CAMERA EQUIPMENT NEEDED: A smartphone is a great tool for shooting high quality video these days. In fact, you really don’t need a “fancy” camera. I shot the video above entirely on my iPhone 6S Plus (yeah, I know, it’s not the latest model, but that’s sort of the point) and then I edited the video on my iPad. These are the basics and in this two part blog post, I’ll be sharing links to easy and inexpensive tools that I used.
VIDEO PRODUCTION – MY SIX SECRETS OF GETTING GREAT FOOTAGE: When I’m at an event with my iPhone camera, I’m like a kid in a candy shot. I’m constantly seeing cool b-roll shots that will make video magic and here are six of my tips to seeing the event through “my lens.”
1. Capturing establishing shots are key to your video story. When you see a sign, capture it on video. These make great establishing shots and can help tell your story or move it along. Use some fun “fun camera moves” like start wide and move into the sign.
- Don’t stand in front of the sign, but shoot from the left side of it to capture the angle.
- If you do stand in front of it, capture a straight shot of the sign and then tilt the camera up to to the left and then back to the right and back again. You’ll see I see this “camera move” in several shots in my video that I have shared below.
2. Your video b-roll doesn’t need to be long. If it’s only 5 seconds of video, it may be usable. Most of my highlights video b-roll came from shots are not longer than :10-:12 seconds so it’s about capturing magic MOMENTS.
3. Use a selfie-stick tripod when you’re shooting video. This inexpensive ($18-$22) piece of equipment from Fugetek that I got at Amazon Prime is multi-purposeful -you can use it to steady your camera when you’re shooting b-roll, you can use it take selfie videos/photos, and you can use it as a tripod (it extends to over four feet) and shoot stand-up videos or interviews.
Instead of taking a “Selfie Photo” take a “Selfie Video.” When you have your shot set for your selfie, wave for part of the shot and then just POSE like you’d pose for a selfie. You can later capture the POSE as a still shot from the video and you have your selfie photo. You can see I used this tip a lot in my video. This tip is gold.
4. Get a good microphone to capture interviews. People will watch bad video, but they’ll ditch a video with bad audio. You don’t have to spend a fortune either and you can get a Dual Lavalier Microphone for under $40 or invest in a wireless microphone (that’ll set you back around $200). If you’re recording interviews or want to capture good event audio, defintely invest in a lavalier mic to record the best quality sound. Otherwise, your audio will s*ck.
5. Add pizazz with fun video features. When you’re capturing video, don’t forget to use fun features like TIME LAPSE on your video settings. Do be sure you capture at least :03 seconds of footage. That doesn’t mean you count to three, but that you count to 15 s-l-o-w-l-y while you’re rolling so that you have a good piece of video to use. You do this even longer! These are great for crowd shots.
6. It’s okay to add some still photos to your video. You can incorporate still shots in your video like I did but use an edit “move” or transition when you use them. Most simple edit programs have this feature but don’t make the “Homer Simpson Method” mistake of using on “Star Wipe” & “Star Wipe” Transitions. I address editing techniques in Part Two: Editing Your Video.
So it all starts with production and capturing great video and b-roll shots to tell your story. You can always make a plan before the event, but sometimes, you just need to show up, point your camera, and record.
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