Here is an example of an interactive video I did recently as a promotion for this blog.

Interactivity is really catching on and lots of people are talking about it. My favorite SEO expert, Nick Stamoulis, had an article on his blog today wondering whether links inside video will create more spam.  Interesting question.  As someone who has used a lot of interactivity in my videos, I told him I had not noticed any increase in spam at all.

Now I know they can get pretty sophisticated with this stuff, but the email address is actually buried fairly deep inside the interactivity so it might be difficult for spammers to extract.  When I add my email address inside of a video, it is only one of about six different bits of info inside the single interactive spot.

Even if links inside video does result in a bit more spam, the benefits derived in terms of increased sales and conversions makes it worth it.  Research shows that on average, interactive spots inside of a video result in a 24% click through rate.  That’s the average.   One guy got an unbelievable 63%.

The service I use for interactivity and online video management is Veeple.  They offer not only the best and most comprehensive video interactivity, but somehow they manage to do it for a smaller fee than any other online video management system.

Veeple is constantly improving their service.  Today they are doing a major upgrade and adding all these features.

• Veeple’s interPlay API – Now get all of Veeple’s interactivity an analytic capabilities in your own player or content management system.
• 3rd- Party CDN Hosting – Use any Content Deliver Network with Veeple by simply pointing to where the video content is already stored on your CDN. No re-uploading to your CDN.
• Interactive Spot Scaling – You now can edit your spots once and deploy your video at any size and the interactive spots will automatically re-size. Great for editing and embedding.
• Upgraded Veeple Media Bin – We have improved the look of our icons, added new ones, and made them all vector-based so they will scale to any size without any loss of quality – Beautiful!
• Native Customer Image Upload – All uploaded customer images now come in at their native size with no loss of quality. You can also upload any image without limitation on size – Great for full screen slates and post-video call-to actions.
• Unlimited Information Panel Text – Enter as much text as you wish into the Interactive Information Panels and extend your messaging as deeply as you wish. Prefect for sharing additional information with your viewers without having to send them to another website link or download additional information, it’s all in the panel.

Every single one of these new features is a fantastic addition, but probably the best is the first one listed, the interPlay API.  This allows you to use Veeple’s interactivity even if you do not use the rest of their video management system.  The best part is they are giving interPlay away for FREE.  Now there is absolutely no reason to not add interactivity to all your online videos.  Ain’t life grand?

If you would like to watch a video giving some real world examples of how to use video interactivity, check out this interview I did with Scott Broomfield, the company CEO.

Thanks for reading video Production Tips.

Lorraine Grula

Making video is not only fun, but can be profitable too.  Here at Video Production Tips, we have all the information you need.  For FREE.   There is no need for you to spend a lot of money learning how to make your own videos.   This website has hundreds of free tutorials and information tips.  Whether you need information on video cameras and other equipment, video editing or storytelling techniques, you can find it here.

Browse through the site and you’ll discover everything you need to know.  The video on this page gives an overview on the information here and introduces you to Lorraine Grula, longtime video pro.   As you watch the video, look out for the interactive icons that you can click on to visit other relevant websites.

As much FREE information as we have here, there is often no substitute for personalized help.  So we also offer one-on-one personal consulting.  Video production is definitely not a cookie-cutter affair.  Every video is unique, involving different circumstances.  It can help whole lot to speak directly with someone who can answer your specific questions.    So don’t waste any more time, contact us for personalized, direct help.

Thanks for visiting Video Production Tips.

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

There’s no doubt that interesting visuals make for an interesting final video.  Unique and unusual camera angles are a large part of that.

A reader asked me the other day how one comes up with great angles and here is what I said.

First, unless you are doing something off-the-wall, remember that most of your video will actually be comprised of standard angles.  Standard height, normal perspective.  The unusual angles should be like spices in a stew, used for a dash of flavor not an overload.

When I shoot video, I concentrate on the standard stuff first.  Wide shots, medium shots and close ups from logical and natural looking angles. THEN, I go for some unusual angles.  Sit on the floor and shoot from there.   Get up on a table and shoot from there.  Looking up at somebody makes them look huge and powerful and looking down on someone makes them look small and weak.  How extreme of an angle you choose depends on how much you want this affect.  Just a touch of a high angle will make someone look thinner, but taping them from twenty feet above their head can make them look utterly powerless.

Some of the most interesting camera angles come when you tuck the camera inside some place a person could never go.  Is your character checking the mail?  Stick the camera inside the mailbox.  A character opening up the fridge?  Stick the camera in the middle of a pile of leftovers.  Got a kid reaching into his backpack?  Put the camera in the backpack.

Look around for cool-looking things to place in the foreground of your shot.  Try to find something that adds meaning.  Can you put some pretty flowers in the foreground of your wide side shot of the lady gardening?  That will help emphasize what she is doing.

Unusual camera angles are a lot of fun.  Study award winning still pictures to get a good sense of what makes an interesting shot.   Studying great still photography is sometimes the best way to learn this aspect of video production because a still picture is just that…still.  That makes it easier to evaluate.

I hope this helps you.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment or send me an email and I will do my best to answer.

Lorraine Grula

Creative Uses for Video Interactivity

Choose a Different Ending is a popular video on You Tube that uses interactivity as an integral element.  The interactivity gives the viewer the ability to control the plot and create whatever story they want to see.

If you watch the video, you’ll see that at critical points in the story, the viewer gets to choose what the main character does.  Does he take the knife or not? Does he join the argument or not? To control the story, the viewer clicks one of several interactive links sitting on top of the video, hypervideo links if you will.

Depending on what the viewer chooses, the story jumps to another page and another video on You Tube that continues along that plot line.  Each segment ends with interactive links coming up that give the viewer a choice.  Clicking the link immediately takes you to that segment on You Tube.  I didn’t want to take the time to count every one, but there were probably about twenty-five segments total.  The video makers created a scenario for each possible viewer selection and hyperlinked them with clickable links right inside the video.

The video was done in a point-of-view (POV) shot with the camera operator actually being the main character.  The POV shot is a technique commonly used to make the viewer feel like he is inside the movie.  The POV shot and the interactivity work well together.

I went through the entire story line twice, once choosing the most aggressive action and the second time choosing the tamest action.  I indeed got very different endings.  The first story had me doomed to a life in prison; the second time I was left happy and free.

What’s the Point?

It might seem like this was all done for fun and games to give an online video viewer something new to play with.  Now that’s not a bad idea, but in this particular case, the video producers were trying to simulate an experience in conflict escalation and how personal choice can lead to either getting in trouble or staying clean.

Chose a Different Ending was produced by the Metropolitan Police Service in London and advertised on their companion website, Drop the Weapons.  The storyline of a young teenager getting involved in a knife fight is their way of reaching out to an at-risk population who might very well face the exact same circumstances as the POV character in the video.

This is an extremely creative use of video interactivity and no doubt the technique will become more common.  Videos games and other more-controlled video environments have also used interactivity to give the viewer more choice and control over the storyline.

Buy This Subservient Chicken Sandwich

One of the most commercially successful applications of interactive video online was Burger King and their “Subservient Chicken” video, which amounted to an advertisement but Burger King manage to make viewers feel like it was a fun game to share with friends.

Subservient chicken is really clever and this video became highly viral. The viewer could type in any activity and the chicken would do it.  No doubt the producers had tons of fun trying to anticipate what people would ask of the chicken.

Creative uses of video interactivity will continue to lead all video producers (and their viewers) down an exciting road of possibilities.  Incorporating interactivity opens up such a wide range of creative possibilities to engage viewers.  Think of how popular Jim Jab’s video are where viewers can submit their own still image and it automatically gets inserted into a video.  They even added interactivity to the extremely popular Evolution of Dance, which yours truly had some fun with.

For my own personal interactivity needs, I use the Veeple service.  They are more geared toward people like me, online business owners who want something affordable and easy to use.

I upload my finished videos to Veeple and add the interactive hot spots using their simple editor.  The video stays there, Veeple hosts it with full analytics on their Amazon S3 based servers.

If you are interested in having me help you create you own interactive video, please contact me for personal instruction and consulting.

If you want to read more on this subject, here is an article on future of interactive tv from the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

This video is an example of what I have begun calling an “Enhanced Talking Head.” If you learn nothing else about video production, learn to make one of these. 

What is an Enhanced Talking Head?

It’s a one-shot video of someone speaking directly into the camera enhanced with interactive clickable links and embedded documents.

In the two years I’ve been operating this blog, I’ve come to believe the most practical way for Average Joe Business to take advantage of online video marketing is to produce an Enhanced Talking Head video of themselves.

That’s exactly why I made this particular video, which is now on the the sales page for Jim’s List, an extensive list of service providers for local real estate transactions.

See, I practice what I preach!

How Did I Make this Video?

I wrote up the script ahead of time and read it off a piece of paper scotch taped to the bottom of my camera.  We’ll call that my cheap and very portable teleprompter.

I set up very basic lighting using household fixtures.  You can read this post for detailed instructions on how to produce a professional-quality talking head video.  To sum it up, make sure the light is falling on your face, not behind you.  Make sure the room is as quiet as possible when you record the sound.

For the Jim’s List sales page video, I used the interactivity to introduce both this blog and my membership site to Jim’s customers.   I also gave them three interactive buttons for specific posts I knew would be beneficial for them.

In other words, I invited them inside my entire online world AND gave them a niche-specific product.  All in a two-minute video with seven interactive buttons. You could never pack that much into a standard video without interactivity. 

Honestly, I think an Enhanced Talking Head is the perfect marriage between video and online marketing for the highest number of people.

On a practical level, it’s basic and easy to do which means it is more likely to get done.

It is affordable.

Even better, this style of video has proven to be remarkably effective.    You can read this post about how one guy got a remarkable 63% CTR using an interactive video.  He is the highest I’ve heard to date.  The average CTR for interactive video is 24%,  significantly higher than pre-roll video which averages 2-4%.

I use Veeple for my interactive services.  It’s fairly easy and more affordable than a lot of online video management, even those without interactive feastures.  (Personally, I do not think I will ever do an online video again that doesn’t have at least SOME interactivity. )

To add the interactivity, I upload a finished video to my Veeple account.  It takes about thirty minutes to add all the hot spots.  It is a simple matter of knowing exactly what kind of spot I want to add and when and where I want to put it.

Veeple offers a free 30 day trial if you think online video interactivity is something you want to explore.

If you’d like you can get your own interactive talking head video like this with most of the work done for you, then check out my membership site, the Video Marketing Express.  All of the videos on Video Marketing Express feature interactivity.

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips

Considerably higher than the 10-20% I often hear internet marketers claim with pride. Compared to banner ads, (the absolutely lowest form at a paltry .2%) 63% is astronomical.

Sales pages always brag about fantastic conversions rates, of course. I’ve seen off-the-chart claims that I refuse to believe.  One of the best rules of journalism is consider the source.  In this case, the internet, where crazy schemes and cheap Viagra both get too much attention IMHO.

But I am close enough to this particular claim to know it’s true. Besides, this isn’t a sales letter!

Dave Lakhani, president of Bold Approach a PR and marketing firm got a 63% CTR when he emailed his list a short, simple talking-head video with interactivity. The interactivity was a clickable image of the book he sells. Viewers who click on the book go directly to the sales page.

63% of the video viewers clicked on the book cover-made-into-a-link. Of those, 100% bought the book.

Seriously.

I know that sounds like what I was complaining about just a second ago but that’s really what the numbers said.

Obviously, these were laser targeted customers who already had a rapport with Dave.   The message of the book, “How to Sell When Nobody is Buying,” is timely for the recession-weary market.

Even with those two factors, I think it also proves the point that a simple talking head video with interactivity is an incredibly powerful marketing weapon.

If you want to see Dave’s video go here.  You’ll see that it’s nothing fancy.  Just a short, talking head video with a distinct call to action and actionable interactivity.

EASY VIDEO PRODUCTION

From a video production standpoint, a talking head is the easiest kind of video to make.  Any kind of camera will do, from a built-in web cam to fancy professional model.

For an extremely long post giving details on how to professionally videotape a talking head video, click that link.

If you watch Dave’s video, you’ll see that the production values are minimal but good enough.  The light is falling on the face and he picked a plain background.  I was not there when he shot it, but it looks like he just held out a Flip cam with one arm, starred straight into it and took 1:36 to sum up his offer in a slightly rehearsed way.  He made mention of the clickable book image twice.  People knew just what to do and they did it.

Dave Lakhani gets his interactivity from Veeple, just like I do. His experience is their single best example to date.  The average CTR across their customer base is 24%, which is incredible as an average.  A pre-roll video played before an online video gets a 2-4% response.   Look at this chart that shows how much more effective interactivity makes video marketing.  The green bar represents video with interactivity and the orange bar represents  plain video.

Interactivity  has many diverse uses.  It works best to weave the interactivity into your script, making it a planned part of your video’s message.

A fully interactive video is so content rich that it can function like a “traveling website.”  If you want to see how to blend your entire online presence into one video as a portable website, here is a post on it.

You can sign up for a 30 day free trial at Veeple or, you can join the Video Marketing Express and have access to Veeple’s services through your account there.

Video Marketing Express is my membership site where I make the video, customize it for you, and then host it at Veeple using their interactive platform.

At VME, you can choose one of my pre-made squeeze page videos or we can make a talking head video for you similar to what Dave did.

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips.

Lorraine Grula

NEW:  USE INTERACTIVITY WITH ANY THIRD PARTY PLAYER

Up until now, to use the interactivity you needed to have your videos hosted on Veeple’s servers and use their complete CMS.

What if you already have all your videos hosted in an Amazon S3 account and don’t want to move them? Problem solved.  Veeple added a new function called Interplay that will allow you to apply their interactivity and analytics to your existing hosting and content management system.

If this interests you, you might want to preregister for the beta version, available November 3.

Interplay will be free if all you use is the interactivity. You get the analytics free for 30 days too, but after the trial period there will be a monthly fee to access the analytics.  They have not yet decided precisely what that fee will be.

Here is a video interview and a review on Vidcompare with Veeple CEO Scott Broomfield.

To use the interactive features, Interplay will let you into the veeple editor to create clickable links or logos, or embed your documents. The company promises the interactivity will remain free.   Serious business people will want the analytics of course but if someone is using interactivity mostly for fun or their business is brand new, they can take advantage of the interactivity without any fees.

Interplay works with most players, like Brightcove or JW player.  It will not work on videos on sharing sites like You Tube, but Veeple says they are working on that.  In the meantime, if you are a standard Veeple member, you can take advantage of their distribution through Tube Mogul which goes to all the top sites including You Tube and carries the interactivity with it.

I have integrated Veeple’s interactivity and analytics into my Video Marketing Express product. At VME, you can select from pre-made squeeze page videos and other marketing videos that I customize using Veeple’s interactivity. You can also order a talking head video with interactivity.

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips.

Lorraine Grula