Creating Video Content That is Impactful
We love video content. It combines moving images with sound and together it creates a synergy that communicates a message, emotion or idea. Everybody knows the proverb that a picture says more than a thousand words. And one second of film contains 25 images. Can you imagine how many words could fill up one second of video? This makes video an extremely rich medium to engage, inform and tease an audience.
So when you’re planning to use video, make sure to use it to it’s full potential. Providing context is key in this. A pioneer in the power of context was Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. He conducted an experiment that clearly showed that viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.
In his experiment, he showed the audience a clip with an actor followed by three different contextual shots: a coffin, a bowl of soup and a woman lying on a sofa. The scene with the actor was the same in all clips but the three different contextual scenes changed the way in which the audience perceived the actor. With the actor and coffin combination, the audience perceived the actor as sad, while the bowl of soup made the actor look hungry. The edit with the woman on the sofa let the audience to think that there was lust in the eyes of the actor.
When we create videos for our clients, we too look for the right contextual footage that will give us a bit more control over the way the audience perceives the message we’re trying to convey. If you, for instance, sell tomatoes, you do not only want to show yourself talking about the tomatoes. Instead, the audience needs to see these gorgeous tomatoes and people who are actually eating and enjoying them.
Pre-production
Understanding the psychology behind the way the audience perceives the imagery is the first step in creating the perfect cinematic trailer for your business. In the early stages of a video project, we’re not thinking about shots, scenes or angels. We’re all about the story and the context. Only when we understand your business and the way your clients interact with your product or service, we can start to think about how we can put the Kuleshov effect to use for you.